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diff --git a/.gitattributes b/.gitattributes new file mode 100644 index 0000000..6833f05 --- /dev/null +++ b/.gitattributes @@ -0,0 +1,3 @@ +* text=auto +*.txt text +*.md text diff --git a/36895-0.txt b/36895-0.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..46100fe --- /dev/null +++ b/36895-0.txt @@ -0,0 +1,5945 @@ +The Project Gutenberg eBook, William the Third, by H. D. Traill + + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + + + + +Title: William the Third + + +Author: H. D. Traill + + + +Release Date: July 29, 2011 [eBook #36895] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: UTF-8 + + +***START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK WILLIAM THE THIRD*** + + +E-text prepared by Delphine Lettau, Barbara Kosker, and the Online +Distributed Proofreading Team (http://www.pgdp.net) + + + ++------------------------------------------------------+ +| | +| Transcriber's note: | +| | +| Text enclosed between equal signs is in bold face | +| (=bold=). | +| | ++------------------------------------------------------+ + + + + + +Twelve English Statesmen + +WILLIAM THE THIRD + +[Publisher's logotype] + +WILLIAM THE THIRD + +by + +H. D. TRAILL + + + + + + + +London +Macmillan and Co., Limited +New York: The Macmillan Company +1906 + +All rights reserved + +First Edition, May 1888 +Reprinted August 1888, 1892, 1897, 1902, 1906 + + + + +CONTENTS + + + CHAPTER I + + 1650-1672 + + Birth, ancestry, and early years--State of Dutch parties-- + William's boyhood--His character and ambitions--Hostility of + De Witt and his partisans--Visit to England--Outbreak of the + War of 1672 Page 1 + + + CHAPTER II + + 1672-1678 + + William elected Stadtholder of Holland--Murder of the De Witts-- + Campaign of 1672-3--Successes of the Prince--Declared hereditary + Stadtholder--Progress of the French arms--Marriage with Mary-- + Negotiations of Nimeguen--Conclusion of the Peace--Battle of St. + Denis 9 + + + CHAPTER III + + 1678-1688 + + An interval of repose--Revival of continental troubles--Death of + Charles II.--Expedition of Monmouth--Mission of Dykvelt--James's + growing unpopularity--Invitation to William--Attempted intervention + by France--William's declaration--He sets sail, and is driven back + by storm--Second expedition and landing 17 + + + CHAPTER IV + + 1688 + + Advance to Exeter--Measures of James--Council of the Lords--Their + proposals--The King goes to Salisbury--Defection of Churchill-- + James returns to London--Negotiation--Attempted flight of James-- + His arrest--Advance of William--Entry of Dutch troops into London + --Actual flight of James 30 + + + CHAPTER V + + 1688-1689 + + Characteristics of the English Revolution--Views of the various + parties--The Convention--Proposal to declare the throne vacant-- + The Regency question--The resolution of the Commons--Amendment of + the Lords--The crisis--Attitude of Mary--Announcement of William + --Resolution passed--Declaration of Right--Tender of the Crown 39 + + + CHAPTER VI + + 1689 + + William's part in the Revolution--Convention declared a Parliament + --Oath of Allegiance--Settlement of Civil List--Appropriation + Clause--Toleration and Comprehension--Address of the Commons + inviting the King to declare war 56 + + + CHAPTER VII + + 1689-1690 + + Invasion of Ireland--Campaign of 1689--Parliamentary strife--The + conduct of the war--The Oates Case--The Succession Bill--Attempts + to pass an Indemnity Bill--Rancour of the Whigs--Their factious + opposition to William's Irish plans--Dissolution of Parliament 67 + + + CHAPTER VIII + + 1690-1691 + + Parliament of 1690--Tory majority--Settlement of the royal income + --Case of the Princess Anne--The "Act of Grace"--Detection of + Preston's conspiracy--William's departure for Ireland--Battle of + the Boyne--Battle off Beachy Head--Marlborough's Irish campaign-- + William's departure for the Hague 79 + + + CHAPTER IX + + 1691-1692 + + Campaign of 1691 in the Netherlands--Fall of Mons--Disaffection of + William's councillors--Conclusion of year's campaign--Disgrace and + dismissal of Marlborough--Massacre of Glencoe 93 + + + CHAPTER X + + 1692-1693 + + Gloomy European prospects--Campaign of 1692 in the Netherlands-- + Defeat of Steinkirk--Attempt of Grandval--Session of 1692--Place + Bill and Triennial Bill--Campaign of 1693--William outwitted by + Luxembourg--Defeat of Landen--Session of 1693-94--Louis's + overtures of peace 104 + + + CHAPTER XI + + 1693-1694 + + Formation of the first party Ministry--Reintroduction of the + Triennial Bill and its defeat--Of the Place Bill and its veto + --Causes of the disallowance--Macaulay's account examined-- + Campaign of 1694--Death of Mary 119 + + + CHAPTER XII + + 1695-1697 + + Campaign of 1695--Capture of Namur by the allies--Dissolution of + Parliament--William's "progress"--The elections--New Parliament + --Grants to Portland--The Assassination Plot--Campaign of 1696-- + Fenwick's conspiracy--Negotiations with France--Peace of Ryswick 135 + + + CHAPTER XIII + + 1698-1699 + + Portland's embassy--His life in Paris--The question of the Spanish + Succession--The First Partition Treaty--General election and + meeting of the new Parliament--Its temper--Opposition to William's + military policy--Reduction of the army 156 + + + CHAPTER XIV + + 1699-1700 + + Death of the Electoral Prince of Bavaria--Renewed negotiations-- + Second Partition Treaty--The Irish forfeitures--The Resumption + Bill--Will and death of the King of Spain 171 + + + CHAPTER XV + + 1701-1702 + + English indifference on the Spanish Question--Death of James II. + and Louis's recognition of the Pretender--Reaction in England-- + Dissolution of Parliament--Support of William's policy by its + successor--The Treaties--Accident to William--His illness and + death--Character--The Whig legend examined--His great qualities + as man and ruler--Our debt to him 189 + + + + +CHAPTER I + +1650-1672 + + Birth, ancestry, and early years--State of Dutch parties-- + William's boyhood--His character and ambitions--Hostility + of De Witt and his partisans--Visit to England--Outbreak + of the War of 1672. + + +William Henry, Prince of Orange and Count of Nassau, a ruler destined to +play a greater part in shaping the destinies of modern England than any +of her native sovereigns, was born at the Hague on the 4th of November +1650. By blood and ancestral tradition he was well fitted for the work +to which he was to be called. The descendant of a line of statesmen and +warriors, the scion of a house which more than a century before had been +associated with the most heroic struggle for national freedom that +history records, he could hardly have added stronger hereditary to the +great personal qualifications for the enterprises reserved for him. His +family was one of the most ancient in Europe--reaching back, indeed, for +its origin into the regions of fable. "I will not take upon me," says an +English biographer, writing shortly after his hero's death, "to extend +the Antiquity of the House of Nassau as far as the time of Julius +Cæsar, though that Emperor in his first book of Commentaries, _De Bello +Gallico_, says that one Nassau, with his brother Cimberius, led a body +of Germans out of Suabia and settled upon the banks of the Rhine near +Treves, which is the more observable by reason of the Affinity of the +Words, which differ only in the Transposition of one Letter; but I doubt +'tis rather Presumption than Truth for any one to affirm that there is +an Estate upon that very Spot of Ground mentioned by Cæsar which belongs +to the Nassovian Family to this Day." Without insisting on so very +ancient and remote an origin as this, we may take it as certain that the +House of Nassau had been established in Europe for some thousand years +at the birth of William. As early as in the thirteenth century it was +honoured with the imperial dignity in the person of Adolph of Nassau. +The title and domains of Orange were added to the family in the +sixteenth century by the marriage of Claude de Chalons, sister and +heiress of the then Prince of Orange, with Henry of Nassau, from whose +son Réné the principality passed by testamentary bequest to the great +Stadtholder of Holland, William, surnamed the Silent, the illustrious +liberator of the United Provinces from the yoke of Spain. The +acquisition of this petty principality--only twelve miles in length by +nine in breadth--was by no means the matter of trivial importance which +its territorial dimensions might imply. Its situation in the very heart +of the dominions of France, the incidents attaching to that situation +and the consequences flowing from it, contributed in their degree to +that complex system of forces by which the course of history is +determined. To William I. succeeded his son Maurice, the bearer of a +name also memorable in the history of the States, a greater soldier and +a statesman of scarcely less ability than his father, though of a far +more chequered fame. Under Maurice the power of the Stadtholder or +Governor was, in spite of the jealousy with which it was regarded by the +burgher party, considerably advanced, and he was not without reason +suspected of the design of making himself an absolute ruler. Dying +without issue, he was succeeded by his brother Frederick Henry, another +renowned captain, under whom the long struggle with Spain was at last +brought to a close by the renunciation, in the Treaty of Westphalia, of +the Spanish claim upon the United Provinces. William II., the son of +Frederick Henry, was born in 1626, and succeeded his father at the age +of twenty-one. Endowed with all the restless activity and ambition of +his uncle, he attempted, in prosecution of the same monarchical designs +as that prince, to seize the city of Amsterdam by a _coup de main_. The +project, however, was defeated, and William, after a troubled reign of +only four years, was fatally attacked by the smallpox, and died on the +27th of October 1650, leaving no issue. Eight days after his death, +however, his widow, Mary, daughter of Charles I., gave premature birth +to the son whose career it is in these pages proposed to trace. + +Seldom has a new-born child been the object of such diverse emotions, +the centre of so many conflicting hopes and fears among its countrymen +as was this infant Prince. To the partisans of the House of Orange he +appeared as the God-sent heir--an earlier _enfant du miracle_ vouchsafed +by Providence to save the great race of William the Silent from +extinction in the male line. To the party of the municipal oligarchy he +presented himself as the probable inheritor rather of the ambitions of +his father and his father's uncle, than of the virtues of his +great-grandfather. The latter party, who for the moment had the upper +hand, were fully resolved that the young Prince should never wield as +much power as that which Prince Frederick Henry had sought during his +four years' reign to abuse. The party of the infant Prince, on the other +hand, a party headed by the Princess Dowager and her mother, made up as +far as possible for the lack of direct and political power by incessant +and indefatigable intrigue; and to their efforts it was that the +Pensionary De Witt, the representative of the municipal party, ascribed, +and not without reason, the war which broke out between the States and +the Rump Parliament in 1651. Its effect, however, was temporarily +disastrous to their ambitions; for, the United Provinces being compelled +to solicit peace from Cromwell, the Lord Protector, who was naturally +opposed to the elevation of a family allied by marriage to the exiled +Stuarts, compelled the States of Holland and West Friesland, as a +condition of his ratifying the articles of peace, to pass a decree that +"they would never elect the Prince or any of his lineage Stadtholder of +their province, nor consent that he or any of his family should be +Captain-General of the forces of the United Provinces." + +Reared from his very cradle amid the animosities of contending factions, +the young Prince learned early those four lessons of statecraft,--to +conceal his designs, to watch his opportunities, to choose his +instruments, and to bide his time. His education, other than that which +he was receiving daily in the stern school of circumstances, he owed to +his mother alone. Under her care he acquired a good knowledge of +mathematics and military science, and learned to speak English, French, +and German almost as fluently as his native tongue. The chiefs of the +municipal party, who became his official guardians, would have willingly +stinted his instruction, if by so doing they might have checked his +aspirations; but the ambition to emulate the fame of his great +predecessors, and to secure the power which they had wielded, took root +within him from his boyish years, and grew steadily with his growth. +Weak and ailing from his childhood, for he shared the too common lot of +those infants who are brought into the world before the appointed months +are run, he took no pleasure, as he possessed no skill, in the ordinary +pastimes of the boy; and, with a mind thus turned inward upon itself, +from an age at which other children have no care or thought but for the +thousand novel interests and attractions of the world without them, he +acquired habits of reserve and thoughtfulness beyond his years. The +religious faith in which he was nurtured was a Calvinism of the +strictest sort. His firm hold of the grim doctrine of predestination +stood him in much the same stead as Napoleon's belief in his destiny, +and long before he arrived at man's estate he had in all probability +convinced himself that the inscrutable counsels of Providence had +designed him for great things. + +Humanly speaking, however, his prospects did not appear to brighten +before him as years went on. At the age of ten he lost his mother, who +had gone to England to visit her brother, just restored to the throne, +and was there carried off by an attack of smallpox. In the same year he +saw his principality of Orange forcibly seized by Louis, who, after +demolishing its fortifications, held possession of it for five years, +surrendering it only in 1665. Then came the war of that year between +England and the Dutch Provinces, a conflict which his party temporarily +conceived the hope of turning to their own profit, but which left them +ultimately in a worse plight than before; for no provisions in the +Prince's interests were insisted on by his uncle, Charles II., in the +Treaty of Peace, and, under the instigation of De Witt, the States of +Holland and West Friesland subsequently passed a perpetual edict +suppressing the office of Stadtholder. A faint effort was made by +Charles II. through Sir William Temple to vindicate the rights of his +nephew, but the efforts of the ambassador were coldly received by the +Pensionary, and the matter dropped. De Witt now pushed his hostility yet +further, and the States resorted to the ignoble and ungrateful measure +of calling upon the young Prince to quit the house at the Hague which, +though technically the property of the States, had been for many years +the official residence of his family. To the Pensionary, who was charged +with the communication of this order, William replied by a spirited +refusal, directing his visitor to inform the States that he would not +quit the house unless removed by force; upon which his persecutors, +apprehensive no doubt of the odium which such a step would excite among +the common people, who were many of them well affected to his historic +family, allowed their demand to lapse. William, now eighteen years of +age, determined to make a counter-move on his own part, and presenting +himself before the assembly of the States of the province of Zealand, +he proposed to them to elect him first noble of that province, a +dignity which they had been wont to confer upon his ancestors at his +then age. The Zealanders complied readily with the request, though they +did not proceed, as had been expected, to elect him to the higher office +of Stadtholder of the province; and except by entitling him to a seat in +the States General as representative of the nobility of Zealand, the +minor honours procured him nothing but the increased jealousy and +suspicions of the party of De Witt. Sir William Temple, then ambassador +at the Hague, with whom the Prince came into contact at this time, +characteristically reports of him in his Letters as a "young Man of more +Parts than ordinary and of the better Sort; that is, not lying in that +kind of Wit which is neither of use to one's self nor to anybody else, +but in good plain Sense which showed Application if he had business that +deserved it; and this with extreme good and agreeable Humour and +Dispositions without any Vice; that he was asleep in bed always at Ten +o'clock; loved Hunting as much as he hated Swearing, and preferred +Cock-ale before any Wine." In the year 1670 he managed after some +diplomatic difficulties to pay a visit to London, where he received the +attentions of a civic banquet, and of an honorary degree at Oxford, and +where too he acquired a very shrewd perception of the King's leanings +towards the religion of Rome. + +But his day was now fast approaching. At the close of the year 1671 was +concluded the ever-infamous Treaty of Dover. Charles transformed +himself, with more than the celerity of the nimblest modern rat, from +the champion of the Protestant faith in Europe into the ally of its +deadliest enemy. Sir William Temple was recalled from the Hague, and the +Triple League between England, the States, and Sweden, which that +skilful envoy had taken so much pains to cement, was broken up. Early in +1672 war was declared by England against the Dutch, and the armies of +Louis, pouring into the United Provinces, became masters of all their +chief strongholds "in as little time," to quote the vigorous comparison +of one of William's biographers, "as travellers usually employ to view +them." The Prince's opportunity had come. + + + + +CHAPTER II + +1672-1678 + + William elected Stadtholder of Holland--Murder of the De Witts + --Campaign of 1672-3--Successes of the Prince--Declared + hereditary Stadtholder--Progress of the French arms--Marriage + with Mary--Negotiations of Nimeguen--Conclusion of the Peace + --Battle of St. Denis. + + +Louis XIV., like other military malefactors before and since, was +himself the creator of the enemy by whom his power was to be shaken to +its foundations. His invasion of the United Provinces, an enterprise +commenced with that contempt of public right in which no other potentate +has ever equalled him, and prosecuted with that barbarity in which only +Oriental conquerors have ever surpassed him, was the means of raising to +power the one European foe by whom he was destined to be successfully +withstood. The municipal party, unduly absorbed in the task of +safeguarding the liberties of their country against the supposed +ambitions of a single fellow-countryman, had wholly neglected the +protection of its very existence against the known ambitions of a +foreign aggressor. Most of their veteran troops had been disbanded; the +greatest posts in their armies were in the hands of unskilled civilians; +cities garrisoned with considerable forces of soldiery opened their +gates and surrendered without firing a gun. Popular indignation rose +high. Upon William, always a favourite among the commonalty, and the +inheritor of a name ennobled not only by civil wisdom but by military +exploits, all eyes were turned. An insurrection in his favour took place +at Dort, and the magistrates of that city, intimidated by the clamour of +the people, passed an ordinance repealing the perpetual edict, and made +him Stadtholder. Other cities followed their example, and the +States-General of the provinces confirmed their decrees. The two De +Witts, John and his brother Cornelius, now the objects of popular +suspicion and hatred, were assassinated in a street riot; and the +people, as if inspired with new courage by the restoration of a Prince +of Orange to a position from which princes of that name had so often led +them to victory, turned fiercely upon their French invaders. Five +thousand of Louis's troops were repulsed before Ardenburg by the bravery +of no more than two hundred burghers, assisted by the women and children +of the town, and one hundred garrison soldiers. The citizens of +Groningen, aided by the spirited students of its university, defended +themselves with equal vigour and good fortune against the warlike Bishop +of Munster, at the head of 30,000 soldiers, compelling him to raise the +siege. It was evident that a Dutch conquest was going to be no mere +military promenade, as had first appeared to promise, and Louis thought +it advisable to negotiate. To the chief of a state so desperately bested +as were the United Provinces at that moment, the terms offered to +William by the French monarch,--no less than the sovereignty of his +country under the protection of England and France,--might well have +appeared tempting. William rejected them with scorn. He would never, he +said, "betray the trust of his country that his ancestors had so long +defended." Solicitations addressed to him in the same sense by England +met with the same reply. To Buckingham, who had pressed them upon him, +and warned him that "if he persisted in his present humour he must +unavoidably see the final ruin of his cause," he made the Spartan answer +that he "had one way still left not to see that ruin completed, which +was to die in the last dyke." + +The winter of 1672-3 had stopped the progress of the French for the +time, but William was unwilling to allow it to arrest his own action. He +laid siege to the town of Woerden, and, though forced by the Duke of +Luxembourg to retreat from it, inflicted heavy losses upon the enemy. +Then, having invested Tongres, captured Walcheren, and demolished Binch, +he himself retired reluctantly into winter quarters. In the following +spring he besieged and took Naerden, and later on in the year achieved a +still more important triumph in the capture of Bonn, which had been put +into the hands of France at the beginning of the war. New honours now +began to be contemplated by his grateful countrymen for their stout +defender. The Stadtholdership of Holland and West Friesland was not only +confirmed to him for life, but was settled upon his heirs male; and on +the same day the like dignity was conferred on him by the States of +Zealand--an example shortly afterwards followed by those of Utrecht. Nor +were his successes without effect upon his enemies. Charles, with whose +subjects the war had never been popular, concluded a peace with him +after these two summers of fighting, and offered his mediation between +the powers still at war, an offer which was accepted by France. Four +years, however, were to elapse, and many souls of brave men to be sent +to Hades, before this mediation took effect in a concluded peace. In the +summer of 1674 was fought the fiercest engagement of the whole war--the +bloody and indecisive battle of Seneff, in which William was pitted +against the renowned Prince of Condé. The young Prince had too much to +gain in reputation not to be eager to provoke a battle, and the old +soldier too much to lose to be willing to accept one if it could be +avoided; but William succeeded in his object. Condé was at first +victorious in an encounter between a portion of the two armies, but he +imprudently brought on a general battle, which, after raging furiously +for a whole day, left both parties to claim the victory--"the allies +because they were last upon the field, and the French on the strength of +the great number of prisoners and standards they had carried off." "But +whoever had the honour," adds Sir William Temple, "both had the loss." +It was on this occasion that Condé paid his famous compliment to the +Prince by describing him as having acted like an old general throughout +the action in every respect save that of having "exposed himself like a +young recruit." + +For yet another four years, as has been said, this struggle continued to +rage, and, as it raged, to store up in his heart that exhaustless fund +of resentment against Louis which underwent hardly any depletion till +the day of his death. Several times were attempts made to detach William +from his Spanish allies and to induce him to conclude a separate peace, +but he remained firm against all such solicitations of betrayal. In vain +did Arlington, specially commissioned for that purpose, endeavour to +tempt him to the desertion of his allies by the offer of an English +matrimonial alliance. William simply replied that his fortunes were not +in a condition for him to think of a wife. Louis, however, was extremely +desirous of peace on any honourable terms, and William, to meet him +half-way, put forward a counter-proposal of a marriage between the King +of Spain and the eldest daughter of the Duke of Orleans, to whom France +should give in dowry the late conquered places in Flanders. This +ingenious proposal for reconciling the vindication of Spanish and Dutch +interests on the Flemish frontier with the maintenance of French +military honour, can scarcely have been made with any other purpose than +that of putting France in the wrong. William knew probably that it would +not square with Louis's existing hopes and pretensions, and that whether +Charles pressed it upon his cousin or not, it was pretty certain that no +more would be heard of it. For the present, moreover, he was under no +pressure to make a peace at all. The United Provinces had recovered +their confidence and hopefulness, and were full of admiration for and +attachment to their young leader. He had been actually offered the +sovereignty of Guelderland, and though his politic moderation induced +him to refuse it, opinion among the other provinces was divided as to +the propriety of his rejecting the offer. Nothing, however, could have +more strikingly illustrated the commanding position which he had +attained among his countrymen than the complete paralysis which +overcame them in 1675, during the fortunately brief period of the +Prince's suffering from a dangerous attack of smallpox. From this +disease, so fatal to his race, he recovered with apparent promptitude, +but it is only too probable that it left deep traces behind it on his +congenitally feeble frame. + +After much dispute the scene of the peace negotiations had been fixed at +Nimeguen, and the Congress met there in the month of July 1676. But the +diplomatists there were still to deliberate for two years while armies +were fighting; and if William could have prevented it, the peace would +not have been made even as soon as it was. The next two years, however, +were on the whole years of success for France and of defeat for the +allies; and early in 1677 William, of his own accord, revived a project +to which, when previously broached to him, he had refused to listen. The +terms submitted to him during the deliberations at Nimeguen were +intolerable, and yet, though he obstinately refused to accept them, town +after town was falling before the French arms, and his country was at +last beginning to weary of the struggle. If he must at last be forced to +assent to distasteful conditions, why not, as the price of his assent, +obtain for himself a matrimonial alliance which, besides bringing him a +step nearer to the English throne, would immensely strengthen his +position as a representative of the Protestant cause in Europe. A year +before he had sounded Temple as to a proposal for the hand of his cousin +Mary, the Duke of York's eldest daughter; and had been encouraged by +that ambassador to hope for success in his suit. He now more formally +pressed it, selecting the moment with considerable astuteness. Neither +Charles nor James had any liking for the match, but the King was in the +midst of a struggle with his Parliament; his subserviency to Louis was +inflaming popular resentment against him, and a marriage of his niece to +William, more especially if it could be made the means of bringing about +a peace, appeared to promise the only means of extricating himself from +his difficulties. Danby, his minister, moreover, was just at that moment +trembling for his head, and was prepared to exert himself to the utmost +to save it by the only means available--the detachment of his master +from the French alliance. William was reluctantly invited to England, +and it is clear, in the whole history of the affair, that he felt +himself from the moment of his arrival to be _dominus contractûs_. With +respect to the question whether the business of the marriage should be +arranged before that of the peace or _vice versâ_, William insisted upon +his own order of procedure, and procured its adoption. Charles consented +to the marriage, and compelled the assent of his brother. The +States-General, communicated with by express, immediately signified +their approval; and William, who had fortunately found the person and +manners of his cousin highly attractive to him, was married hurriedly +and privately at eleven o'clock on the night of the 4th of November +1677, the anniversary of his birth. The King of England did his best to +reconcile his brother of France to a match, the news of which, our +ambassador at the French Court told Danby, he received "as he would have +done the loss of an army," by representing it as an important step +towards a peace; but William returned home with his bride, pledged only +to his uncle to accept a basis of peace which was to a large extent, if +not entirely, of his own formulation, and far more liberal to the allies +than anything which France had proposed. Louis, however, was to get his +own way after all. The United Provinces were now heartily sick of the +war, and were, moreover, not uninfluenced by a party hostile to William, +who felt or feigned apprehension of his designs upon the liberties of +the Republic. The States-General accepted the articles of France, and +having by their constitution the absolute power of peace and war, they +were able, on the 11th of August, to conclude a treaty over William's +head. Three days after the Prince, unaware, officially at least, that +the signatures had been actually affixed to the treaty, made a dash upon +the army of Luxembourg, then besieging Mons, and after a desperate +encounter secured one of the most brilliant successes of the war. The +next morning, however, advices arrived from the Hague of the conclusion +of the peace, and William had the mortification of feeling that the +fruits of a victory which had opened a way for the allies into the +country of their enemy were to remain ungathered. + + + + +CHAPTER III + +1678-1688 + + An interval of repose--Revival of continental troubles--Death + of Charles II.--Expedition of Monmouth--Mission of Dykvelt + --James's growing unpopularity--Invitation to William-- + Attempted intervention by France--William's declaration--He + sets sail, and is driven back by storm--Second expedition + and landing. + + +For the next six or seven years the life of the Prince of Orange was to +be unmarked by any striking external incidents. He was occupied with all +his wonted patience in the reparation of the mischiefs of the Treaty of +Nimeguen, and in the laborious construction of that great European +league by means of which he was afterwards destined to arrest the course +of French aggression. In this undertaking, and in watching and +retaliating upon the encroachments which Louis XIV., almost on the +morrow of the treaty, began making upon its provisions, William was +sufficiently employed. In 1684 these encroachments became intolerable. +Louis having vainly demanded of the Spaniards certain towns in Flanders, +on the pretext of their being rightful dependencies on places ceded to +him by the Treaty of Nimeguen, seized Strasbourg and besieged Luxembourg +in physical enforcement of his claim. Spain declared war, and William, +though thwarted by the States (mainly through the instrumentality of +the city of Amsterdam, which was always ill-disposed towards him), and +denied the levy of 16,000 men which he had asked for, took the field +notwithstanding in support of his Spanish ally. The united forces, +however, were too weak to effect much. Luxembourg speedily surrendered, +and as the result a twenty years' truce, on terms not very favourable +for William, was concluded with France. + +During this period, as always, affairs in England no doubt demanded +general vigilance; but it was not till 1685 that they showed signs of +becoming critical. The death of Charles, and the known designs of +Monmouth, placed William in a very delicate position. During Charles's +life-time he had extended his protection to the exiled Duke, and had +even insisted so punctiliously on proper respect being shown to him, +that a difference had arisen between William and the English Court with +reference to the Duke's receiving salutes from the English troops, and +was actually unadjusted at Charles's death. Upon James's accession, +however, either to clear himself of all suspicion of abetting a +pretender to the throne, or, as some have asserted, to thwart the new +king's design of having his nephew seized and sent a prisoner to +England, William procured his departure from Dutch territory. Monmouth +retired to Brussels, but at the instance of James, who wrote a letter to +the Governor of the Spanish Netherlands charging him with high treason, +he was ordered by that functionary to quit the King of Spain's +dominions, and returned to Holland. Then followed his ill-fated +enterprise, throughout the brief course of which William maintained an +attitude of strict loyalty towards his father-in-law. He not only +despatched the six English and Scotch regiments in the Dutch service to +assist in suppressing the insurrection, but he offered, if James wished, +to take command of the royal troops in person. The offer was declined, +very likely from motives of suspicion by the King, but it is impossible +to suggest any plausible reason for questioning its _bona fides_. The +idle story that it was prompted by William's disgust at Monmouth's +proclaiming himself king, in breach of a promise to raise William +himself to the throne, bears absurdity on its face. The Princess stood +next in succession to the throne as it was; and if the Prince had +conceived a project of anticipating his wife's inheritance, he certainly +would not have entrusted the execution of that project to the feeble +hands and flighty brain of Monmouth. + +But two years had scarcely passed before it really became necessary for +him to look after the interests of her reversion. As early as the spring +of 1687 it was beginning to be suspected by men of foresight, both in +England and in Holland, that James II.'s position was precarious. No +one, indeed, who was capable of forming a correct estimate of his +character and capacities could find in them any guarantees of prolonged +rule. He was as obstinate and insincere as his father, as selfish and +unscrupulous as his brother, while he was destitute alike of the +former's power of enlisting the devotion of individuals, and of the +latter's easy popularity with the common people. It would be unjust to +him not to admit that many of his gravest difficulties were prepared for +him in his brother's time, if not by his brother's means; but it cannot +be denied that he had made astonishing haste to convert these grave +difficulties into the most formidable dangers. In little more than two +years from his accession in February 1685, his nephew found it expedient +to send over an emissary to England for the purpose of sounding English +political leaders, not as yet, indeed, with any definitely-formed design +of intervening by force in English affairs, but rather probably that, in +the event of the King rendering himself "impossible," the people might +know where to look for a substitute, and might understand that the +heiress-presumptive and her consort were not only the most natural, but, +as a matter of fact, the most eligible choice for the people to make in +the circumstances. Dykvelt, a judicious diplomatist, made the best use +of his time, and while continuing to give no just ground of remonstrance +to James, to whom he was of course nominally accredited, he managed to +bring back information and assurances of much value from many English +politicians of eminence. + +Meantime, and while James was still industriously undermining his +throne, his relations with his destined successor were becoming more +strained. A dispute arose between them with reference to the six English +regiments lent to the States under treaty. The King made a demand that +these regiments should be officered by Catholics--a claim put forward +either with the object of insuring their fidelity to him in case of +future rupture with Holland, or else merely to invite refusal and create +a pretext for insisting on their recall. At any rate the refusal came, +and on James's demanding the return of the troops, the States refused +this also, appealing to the terms of the treaty as only authorising the +King of England to require restitution of these forces in the event of +his being actually engaged in warfare with a foreign foe. An acrimonious +correspondence ensued between the two governments; but James failed to +move the States from their firm attitude. Equally unsuccessful was he in +an attempt to inveigle the Prince into an approval of that policy of +pretended toleration by which he was seeking to further the interests of +the Catholic at the expense of those of the Protestant religion in +England. A Scots lawyer named Stuart, who had taken refuge in Holland +from the religious persecution during the late reign, having made, or +been bribed to make, his submission to the royal authority, was procured +to open a correspondence with the Grand Pensionary Fagel, in which he +pressed the latter to advise the Prince of Orange to support his uncle's +policy, declaring that James would not repeal the penal laws unless the +tests were repealed also. Fagel for some time returned no answer, but at +last, finding the rumour in circulation that the Prince had associated +himself with the King's measures, he wrote a reply, which had no doubt +been drafted by William, to the refugee's request. In this remarkably +politic document the Prince contrived to hold the balance equally +between the English Protestants, with whom he was particularly anxious +to stand well, and the Catholic continental sovereigns, whom in his +struggle with France he could not afford to offend. While maintaining +his former attitude with regard to the tests, William declared that he +would gladly see all other grievances on the part of the English +Catholics removed. He would have no man subjected to punishment for his +opinions, but--and on this point he instanced the practice of the +States-General themselves with respect to Roman Catholics--he was not +prepared to remove all official disabilities founded on religious +opinion. This letter was forwarded by Stuart to the King, and was by him +considered in council. Burnet declares that all the lay papists of +England who were not engaged in the intrigues of the priests earnestly +pressed him to accept the Prince's terms as being what would render them +safe and easy for the future; but the King as usual was obstinate, and +no resolution was taken on the matter. + +During most of the remainder of this year the King was filling up the +measure of his political offences. From March till October the dispute +with Magdalen College had raged, and the breach between James and the +once devoted Church of England proportionately widened. But at the end +of the year 1687 a momentous announcement was made to the Court. The +Queen was pronounced to be pregnant, and in July of the following year +she was delivered of a male child. That an infant brought into the world +at so opportune a moment should have been loudly alleged to be +supposititious by the inflamed political partisans of the time was +naturally to be expected. A word or two more will be said on that point +hereafter; it is here only necessary to remark that whether William +shared the suspicions of his partisans or not his outward behaviour on +the occasion was irreproachable. He congratulated his father-in-law on +the auspicious event; and the infant prince was duly prayed for in his +private chapel at the Hague, until the protest hereafter to be referred +to was made against the ceremony by his English partisans. Meanwhile the +events of the eventful year 1688 had been ripening fast to their +destined issue. The end of April had witnessed the second promulgation +of the Declaration of Indulgence, and the ferment occasioned by that new +assertion of the dispensing power. In July, in almost exact coincidence +of time with the Queen's accouchement, came the memorable trial of the +Seven Bishops, which gave the first demonstration of the full force of +that popular animosity which James's rule had provoked. Some months +before,[1] however, Edward Russell, nephew of the Earl of Bedford and +cousin of Algernon Sidney's fellow-victim, had sought the Hague with +proposals to William to make an armed descent upon England, as +vindication of English liberties and the Protestant religion.[2] William +had cautiously required a signed invitation from at least a few +representative statesmen before committing himself to such an +enterprise, and on the day of the acquittal of the Seven Bishops a +paper, signed in cipher by Lords Shrewsbury, Devonshire, Danby, and +Lumley, by Compton, Bishop of Northampton, by Edward Russell, and by +Henry Sidney, brother of Algernon, was conveyed by Admiral Herbert to +the Hague. William was now furnished with the required security for +English assistance in the projected undertaking, but the task before him +was still one of extreme difficulty. He had to allay the natural +disquietudes of the Catholic supporters of his continental policy +without alarming his Protestant friends in England; to win over the +States-General, not by any means universally favourable either to his +designs against James or to his attitude towards Louis (Amsterdam, for +instance, had sided with the former monarch in his dispute with William +about the return of the English regiments); and, above all, he had to +make his naval and military preparations for a descent upon England +without exciting suspicions, or provoking an anticipatory attack. That +he managed matters with much address is evident from the result, but it +is no less clear that luck was on his side. A quarrel of the French king +with the Pope, on a question of diplomatic extra-territorial rights in +the papal city, and his arrogant interference in the election of the +Elector of Cologne, had arrayed against Louis the spiritual and temporal +forces of Catholicism, represented respectively by the Papacy and the +Empire; his ill-timed persecutions of Protestants, and certain +prohibitive measures adopted by him against Dutch trade, had the effect +of alienating his partisans in the States-General. In the meanwhile the +combined blindness and obstinacy of James permitted William to prosecute +his military preparations unmolested, if not unsuspected. These +preparations were very extensive and conspicuous, and seem to have had +their commencement at an earlier date than is consistent with Burnet's +theory referred to in the note on a previous page. It was not, however, +till the summer was beginning to give place to autumn that they began to +excite any very distinct suspicions as to their object. The Cologne +quarrel formed a plausible excuse enough for them; for if Louis, as +events seemed to threaten, were to occupy the Rhine provinces with an +army, it would be obviously necessary for Holland to stand on guard. By +the middle of August the French king had become uneasy, and despatched a +special envoy in the person of M. Bonrepos to awaken James to a sense of +his danger. He had authority, according to Burnet (whom, however, +Macaulay, who mostly follows him, on this point contradicts[3]), to +offer James not only naval but military assistance to repel the invasion +with which he believed him to be threatened. Bonrepos was directed by +his master to promise the King of England that ten or fifteen thousand +(others, according to Ralph, say thirty thousand) men should be landed +at Portsmouth if required, and asked that that place should be put into +his hands to keep the communication between the two kingdoms. +Sunderland, acting perhaps _bona fide_, but more probably not, most +earnestly counselled James to reject the offer, and it was rejected +accordingly, the King's characteristic imbecility of judgment being +never more characteristically shown than in his unwillingness to offend +the patriotic prejudices of his subjects by accepting an offer which, +had he been aware of their true feelings towards him, he would have +recognised as his last chance of saving his crown and kingdom. At this +juncture Ronquillo, the Spanish ambassador, went out of his way to +assure James of what he probably knew to be false, and certainly had no +reason to believe true--namely, that no descent upon England was in +contemplation on the part of William. On an early day in September, +however, Albeville was despatched to the Hague with instructions to +present a memorandum of complaint on the subject of the Dutch +preparations; and the day following d'Avaux delivered, on the part of +Louis, a threatening note to the States, in which he warned them to +desist from their designs upon a monarch to whom he was bound by "such +ties of friendship and alliance" as would oblige him, if James were +attacked, to come to his assistance. That Louis's motive in taking this +step was to commit his brother of England to the alliance which he +pretended to exist it is almost impossible to doubt; but James, more and +more bent upon repudiating the assistance of France the more necessary +it became to him, did his utmost to assure the States that there was +nothing in the nature of an alliance between himself and Louis. William, +however, and his partisans in the States-General, asked nothing better +than this excuse for continuing their preparations, and the Dutch +armament was actively pushed forward. In October the final alienation of +the Dutch friends of France was brought about by Louis's despatching an +army under the Dauphin to besiege Philipsburg, and simultaneously +issuing manifestos against the Emperor and the Pope. Avignon had been +seized by him the day before the siege of Philipsburg was opened; and +the attack on the latter place was followed by the rapid seizure of most +of the important towns of the Palatinate. + +On the 10th of October, matters now being ripe for such a step, William, +in conjunction with some of his English advisers, put forth his famous +declaration. Starting with a preamble to the effect that the observance +of laws is necessary to the happiness of states, the instrument proceeds +to enumerate fifteen particulars in which the laws of England had been +set at naught. The most important of these were--(1) the exercise of the +dispensing power; (2) the corruption, coercion, and packing of the +judicial bench; (3) the violation of the test laws by the appointment of +papists to offices (particularly judicial and military offices, and the +administration of Ireland), and generally the arbitrary and illegal +measures resorted to by James for the propagation of the Catholic +religion; (4) the establishment and action of the Court of High +Commission; (5) the infringement of some municipal charters, and the +procuring of the surrender of others; (6) interference with elections by +turning out of all employment such as refused to vote as they were +required; and (7) the grave suspicion which had arisen that the Prince +of Wales was not born of the Queen, which as yet nothing had been done +to remove. Having set forth these grievances, the Prince's manifesto +went on to recite the close interest which he and his consort had in +this matter as next in succession to the crown, and the earnest +solicitations which had been made to him by many lords spiritual and +temporal, and other English subjects of all ranks, to interpose, and +concluded by affirming in a very distinct and solemn manner that the +sole object of the expedition then preparing was to obtain the +assembling of a free and lawful Parliament, to which the Prince pledged +himself to refer all questions concerning the due execution of the laws, +and the maintenance of the Protestant religion, and the conclusion of an +agreement between the Church of England and the Dissenters, as also the +inquiry into the birth of the "pretended Prince of Wales"; and that this +object being attained, the Prince would, as soon as the state of the +nation should permit of it, send home his foreign forces. + +About a week after, on the 16th of October, all things being now in +readiness, the Prince took solemn leave of the States-General, thanked +them for their past kindness to him, called them to witness that the +motives of his enterprise were solely those set forth in his +declaration, namely, the vindication of the liberties of England, and +the defence of the Protestant religion, and commended his wife to their +care. The scene was an affecting one, and many among the assembly were +melted to tears; only the Prince himself, says Burnet, "continued firm +in his usual gravity and phlegm." Two days later the States came to a +formal resolution to assist the Prince of Orange with ships and forces +on his expedition to England, having heard his explanations thereof and +found them satisfactory; and authorised their ministers at the various +European Courts to make use of this resolution in whatever way they +might find most convenient. + +On the 19th William and his armament set sail from Helvoetsluys, but was +met on the following day by a violent storm which forced him to put back +on the 21st.[4] On the 1st of November the fleet put to sea a second +time, and for the first twelve hours held its course towards the +north-west. It was calculated that thus the scouting vessels sent out by +Dartmouth would carry back word that the landing might be expected to +take place on the Yorkshire coast; and, this ruse successfully effected, +the fleet tacked and sailed southward for the Channel. William was +naturally most desirous to avoid a conflict with the English fleet, and +the heavy weather which prevented Dartmouth from leaving the Thames +enabled him to attain his object. His fleet passed the Straits of Dover +at midday of the 3d of November, and made for Torbay, where it had been +determined to land. In the haze, however, of the morning of the 5th of +November the pilot overshot the mark, and took the fleet some miles to +the west. Its situation became critical. Plymouth was the next port, and +of Lord Bath, who there commanded the King's forces, William was by no +means sure. From the east the royal fleet under Dartmouth was believed +to be approaching. Russell, who had told Burnet that "all was over," and +that he might "go to prayers," was just upon taking boat for the +Prince's ship when the "Protestant wind," as the long prayed-for +easterly gale had hitherto been called, having now by force of +circumstances become a breeze of a distinctly Catholic tendency, was, as +all good Protestants of that day believed, providentially lulled. A wind +of the right direction and denomination sprang up shortly after, and in +four hours' time, by noon of the 5th of November, the Prince's fleet was +wafted safely into Torbay. + +FOOTNOTES: + +[1] In April or May. Macaulay (after Burnet) says May; and the point is +of some importance, because if, as Ralph maintains and proves by +reference to the date of the Elector of Brandenburg's death (an event +referred to by Burnet as still prospective at the date of the conference +with Russell), this interview really took place in April, it does prove, +as Ralph says, that "measures were forming in England against the King +and embraced in Holland before the second Declaration of Indulgence was +published, or the Order in Council which was founded thereon, or the +Prosecution of the Bishops was thought of; which his lordship (Burnet) +holds of such weight for the justification of those measures." Ralph i. +998. + +[2] One of Russell's arguments for immediate action was that James's +soldiers, "though _bad Englishmen_ and _worse Christians_, were as yet +such _good Protestants_ that neither were they attached to His Majesty, +nor could His Majesty depend upon them."--Burnet _ap._ Ralph, _Hist._ i. +997. + +[3] It is difficult to see why. Sunderland, in his _Apology_, distinctly +says, "I opposed to death the acceptance of them (the ships) as well as +any assistance of men, and I can most truly say that I was the principal +means of hindering both." Sunderland, no doubt, was not the most +veracious of men; but one does not see his precise motive for lying on +this matter. + +[4] To make some capital out of the mischance the Haarlem and Amsterdam +Gazettes were ordered (Ralph declares) "to set forth a lamentable +relation of the losses occasioned by it," losses which, it seems, +included "nine men of war, a thousand horses, and Dr. Burnet." + + + + +CHAPTER IV + +1688 + + Advance to Exeter--Measures of James--Council of the Lords-- + Their proposals--The King goes to Salisbury--Defection of + Churchill--James returns to London--Negotiation--Attempted + flight of James--His arrest--Advance of William--Entry of + Dutch troops into London--Actual flight of James. + + +The spot was in one respect well, in another ill chosen for a descent. +Nowhere, indeed, was James's tyranny more detested than in that quarter +of England in which William now found himself, but nowhere also was it +more feared. It was the country of the men who had risen for Monmouth +and fought at Sedgemoor, but it was the country too of the men who had +trembled before Jeffreys, and whose blood had given its name to his +terrible Assize. The reception which William met with was in fact +determined by a balance of these considerations. He was welcomed with +abundance of popular sympathy, but with little overt popular support. +The gentry and peasantry rejoiced at the sight of his standard, but were +slow in gathering to it. His march to Exeter was something like a +triumph, but it seemed at first, and indeed for some days after he had +fixed his quarters there, that he was to get nothing from the people but +their good wishes. That this delay in supporting him gave much +disappointment and even some anxiety to William is certain. He was too +politic to make any public manifestation of feelings, the disclosure of +which might only have served to aggravate their cause; but in private he +complained indignantly of the slackness of his promised adherents, and +even talked--though here we may permit ourselves to doubt his +seriousness--of abandoning his enterprise and returning to Holland. At +the end of a week, however, important partisans of his cause began to +make their appearance. Lord Colchester, a friend of Monmouth's, was the +first to join him; Edward Russell, a son of the Earl of Bedford, +followed; Lord Abingdon, a recruit from the other side of politics, was +the next to give his adhesion to William; and almost at the same moment +the cause of James sustained the most significant repudiation it had yet +undergone in the desertion of Lord Cornbury, the eldest son of Lord +Clarendon, who, after an unsuccessful attempt to bring over with him the +three regiments of which he was the commander, deserted them with a few +followers and made his way to William's quarters. + +In London, ever since the news of the Prince's landing, considerable +agitation had prevailed, and some actual rioting taken place. But the +royal authority was still upheld, and it was evident that the action of +the capital, reversing the order of revolutionary proceedings to which +France has now accustomed us, would await the course of events in the +provinces. As for the King, he was, characteristically enough, as much +reassured by a week's respite from bad news as he had been disturbed by +the tidings of his nephew's landing; but the intelligence of Cornbury's +defection threw him into a state of genuine alarm. Having convoked and +addressed the principal officers then in London, from whom he received +the most earnest professions of loyalty, he prepared to set out to meet +the invader at Salisbury, when he was waited upon by a deputation of the +Lords, praying him to call a Parliament and to open a negotiation with +the Prince of Orange. James, however, to whom no measure ever presented +itself as advisable at the proper moment for adopting it, rejected their +advice. His reason was an excellent one--for any king in a totally +different position from his. He said, and with much truth, that no +Parliament could be freely chosen for a country with an invading army +encamped on its soil; but the question which a clearer-sighted sovereign +would have asked himself was not whether the parliamentary elector would +be a free agent, but whether he himself was. It was eminently probable +that the convocation of a Parliament would not save his throne, but it +was quite certain that nothing else would. Nor had James the excuse of +pride for rejecting the Peers' advice; he was to show in a very short +time that no such account of his conduct could be sustained. Some +monarchs might have preferred to lose a crown rather than be forced into +political concession under coercion of an invading army. James was quite +willing to pay that or any other price to save his crown, only he was +impenetrable to the proof that it was necessary at that moment. He set +out for his destined headquarters, and reached them on the 19th of +November; but by the time he established himself at Salisbury the real +royal court had collected itself at Exeter. William was haranguing the +"friends and fellow Protestants" who had gathered to his banner, and +continually receiving fresh adhesions, among which that of Lord Bath, +the commander of the royal forces at Plymouth, was the most important. +Meanwhile, the northern population of the kingdom, among whom William +had been expected to present himself first, were up in arms. York and +Nottingham were the chief centres of insurrection, and to one or the +other of them many of the great peers and landowners of the north were +already making their way. Placed thus between two fires, it was evident +that immediate action was necessary on James's part to prevent their +meeting and engulfing him. As it was no less evidently to William's +interest to defer a conflict as long as possible, he succeeded in +avoiding anything save mere skirmishes between outposts, until the +occurrence of an event for which he was probably prepared, and which he +had good reason to hope would insure the triumph of his cause without +any serious fighting at all. This was no less an event than the +desertion of Churchill, who, if, as is likely enough, he had been up to +this point doubting to which side his interests pointed--the only form +of indecision he was liable to--had by this time satisfied himself that +James's cause was lost. Alarmed by rumours of disaffection in his army, +James's eagerness for an encounter with William had now entirely +disappeared. He talked of retreating, but Churchill strongly urged an +advance. Whether, if his counsels had prevailed, he would have taken +over the troops under his command to William, or whether he would have +awaited the issue of battle in order to obtain still clearer light on +the only question that interested him, must for ever remain uncertain. +James resolved to fall back, and Churchill resolved not to accompany +him. He quitted the royal camp that night, leaving behind him a letter, +in which he declared it impossible for him to fight against the cause of +the Protestant religion, and presented himself next day at the quarters +of the Prince of Orange. His flight threw James into extreme +consternation. A precipitate retreat was ordered, and the royal +standard, now losing more and more followers every day, was soon being +hurried back to London. Prince George of Denmark, who lives in history +as _Est-il possible?_ abandoned his father-in-law at Andover, and James +returned to Whitehall to find that his younger daughter had followed her +husband's example. "God help me!" the wretched King exclaimed; "my own +children have forsaken me." A man so accustomed to subordinate all the +kindlier instincts of human nature to the precepts of his religion might +have recollected that Anne had only to identify the interests of +Anglican Protestantism with the cause of Christ in order to find +excellent Scriptural authority for turning her back upon her father. + +It being now too late to hope for an accommodation with his people and +their invited champion, James began to think of arranging one. He +summoned a council of the Lords spiritual and temporal then in London, +and signified his willingness to "agree with his adversary" slowly, +and when no longer "in the way with him." He was ready now to +take the advice which had been tendered him before he started for +Salisbury--namely, to summon a Parliament and open negotiations with +William. It was now, however, pointed out to him that, his position +having become worse by delay, he must make an advance on his original +offers by dismissing all Catholics from office, breaking off his +relations with France, and promising an amnesty to all political +opponents; but as this or some similar enlargement of the original terms +of concession submitted to him unmistakably recommended itself to common +sense, the King would not hear of it. He would summon a Parliament, and +at once did so by directing Jeffreys to issue writs convoking that body +for the 13th of January. He would negotiate with William, and he named +Nottingham, Halifax, and Godolphin as his commissioners for that +purpose. But more than this he at first declined to do. On further +reflection, however, it occurred to him that the pang of giving these +distasteful pledges might be much mitigated by a secret resolve to break +them. He therefore issued a proclamation granting a free pardon to all +who were in rebellion against him, and declaring them eligible as +members of the forthcoming Parliament. At the same time he gave an +earnest of his willingness to conform to the law excluding papists from +office by removing the Catholic Lieutenant of the Tower. Again, at the +same time, and as the reverse of an "earnest" of anything, he informed +the French Ambassador that the negotiation with William was "a mere +feint," and that all he wanted was to gain time "to ship off his wife +and the Prince of Wales." There was undoubtedly a good deal of his royal +and unfortunate father about James II. He seems, indeed, to have +inherited almost all Charles's moral qualities except his courage. These +he "threw back" to his grandfather--not a fortunate illustration of the +biological principle of atavism. + +Infected with the duplicity and unredeemed by the bravery of Charles I., +the close of his reign is naturally less romantic than his father's. +Kings who fail in business undoubtedly owe it to their historical +reputation to perish on the scaffold or the battlefield. A royal martyr +is a much more impressive object than a royal levanter. It is better to +"ascend to Heaven" as "the son of St. Louis" than to take ship for Dover +as "Mr. Smith." The last three weeks of James's reign are weeks of +painful ignominy. His plan of spiriting away the infant Prince of Wales +was defeated by Dartmouth, the admiral on whom he had relied to execute +it, but who steadfastly refused to lend a hand to the project. William's +army advanced from Exeter to Salisbury, and from Salisbury to +Hungerford, where it had been arranged that the royal commissioners +should meet the Prince. The result of the negotiation was favourable +beyond anything James had a right to expect. The Prince accepted his +father-in-law's offer to refer all questions in dispute to the +Parliament about to be assembled, stipulating only that the capital +should be relieved from military pressure on either side; that James +should, as a security against his inviting French aid, place Portsmouth +under the command of an officer in whom both sides had confidence; and +that, while London was denuded of troops, the Tower--as also Tilbury +Fort--should be garrisoned by the city of London. It is by no means +impossible that James might have saved a crown, however shorn of its +prerogatives, had he accepted these terms. But he was bent on attempting +to regain by foreign arms that full despotic authority which he could +not retain by his own. He contrived, with the assistance of the +chivalrous and eccentric Frenchman Lauzun, to get the Queen and Prince +of Wales conveyed safely to France; and twenty-four hours afterwards, +on the night of the 11th of December, he endeavoured to follow them, but +he was recognised at the Isle of Sheppey, whence he was about to embark, +and his flight arrested. In London, where the royal forces had, in +obedience to James's parting orders, been disbanded by their +commander-in-chief, some forty-eight hours of very dangerous panic +ensued upon the King's departure; but a provisional government was +hastily formed by a committee of temporal and spiritual peers, and +measures promptly taken by them for the maintenance of order. On hearing +of the capture of James, they immediately despatched Feversham with a +troop of Life Guards to escort him back to London. Here he was received +with some marks of popular commiseration, which he mistook for reviving +popular favour, and, regaining confidence, he sent Feversham to Windsor +as the bearer of a letter to the Prince of Orange, expressing a desire +for a personal conference with him at St. James's Palace, which he +offered to fit up for the Prince's accommodation. William, however, as +one may now see plainly, was bent on creating a vacancy of the throne. +He no doubt keenly regretted the officiousness of the sailors who had +defeated James's first attempt at flight, and resolved to do all in his +power short of downright physical coercion to induce him to repeat the +attempt. He arrested Feversham for want of a military safe conduct, and +replied to James's letter by declining the conference, and desiring him +to remain at Rochester. The King had by this time reached Whitehall; +but, disquieted by the sternness of William's message, and by the arrest +of his officer, his nerve began once more to fail him. On the night of +the 18th three or four battalions of William's infantry and a squadron +of horse marched down to Whitehall, and, the English Guards being +withdrawn by the King's orders and to the great regret of their stout +old commander, Lord Craven, took practical possession of the palace. In +the small hours of the morning Halifax and two other lords arrived from +Windsor with a recommendation to James to retire to Ham. Ostensibly +delivered in the name of his own Peers, James felt satisfied that it was +really a hint from William. He proposed to substitute Rochester for Ham, +and the substitution was accepted by William with a readiness which +significantly showed his desire to facilitate his uncle's flight. Early +the next morning James, accompanied by Lords Aylesbury, Lichfield, +Arran, and Dumbarton--peers whose names deserve if only as a matter of +curiosity to be recorded,[5]--set out for Rochester; and four days +afterwards, with motives which have been variously estimated, but in +which fear for his life or liberty and hopes of foreign assistance +towards the recovery of his kingdom played perhaps about an equal part, +he again resolved to quit the kingdom. A letter from his +Queen--intercepted indeed, but which William took care to have conveyed +to him--confirmed his resolution. Between two and three o'clock on the +morning of the 23d he embarked on board a frigate on the Medway, and, +finding the wind favourable, landed after a speedy voyage at Ambleteuse, +whence he proceeded to St. Germains. + +FOOTNOTE: + +[5] It is true that a large number of courtiers quitted Whitehall at the +same time, making the palace, as Ralph says, "like a Desart." But the +large majority of them got no further than St. James's. + + + + +CHAPTER V + +1688-1689 + + Characteristics of the English Revolution--Views of the + various parties--The Convention--Proposal to declare the + throne vacant--The Regency question--The resolution of the + Commons--Amendment of the Lords--The crisis--Attitude of + Mary--Announcement of William--Resolution passed--Declaration + of Right--Tender of the crown. + + +It is significant of the peaceful and, so to speak, constitutional +character of our English Revolution that by far its most momentous +scenes were enacted within the four walls of the meeting-places of +deliberative assemblies, and find their chronicle in the dry record of +votes and resolutions. We have no "days," in the French sense of the +word, or hardly any, to commemorate. The gradual accomplishment of the +political work of 1688-89 is not marked and emphasised like that of +1789-92 at every stage by some out-door event of the picturesque, the +stirring, or the terrible kind--such for instance as those by which the +14th of July, the 6th of October, the 10th of August, and in a darker +order of memories, the 2d of September, have been made landmarks in the +revolutionary history of France. On every one of the days thus singled +out for glorious or for shameful remembrance, some irrevocable step was +taken--some new position gained by the advancing forces of French +democracy from which there was no retreat. We in England have no +anniversaries of the kind. We may remember, though we have ceased to +celebrate in our churches, the day in which William first set foot on +our shores; but we feel that after all it was not an "event" in the +sense of that other great Protestant deliverance with which in +month-date it so fortunately coincided, and for which the Anglican +liturgy economically set apart a common form of thanksgiving. The +discovery of the Gunpowder Plot was an incident having results of the +most permanent and unalterable character. It made all the difference +between the safety and the destruction of the Sovereign and the three +Estates of the Realm. Again, the execution of Charles I. determined +something, by committing the country to the military autocracy of +Cromwell and the powerful reaction of the Restoration. But this cannot +be said of the landing of the Prince of Orange at Torbay--the mere +opening of a drama which might have had any one of half a dozen +_dénoûments_; it can hardly even be said of the second and definitive +flight of James. The 23d of December 1688 was in one sense no more of an +"epoch-making" day than the 5th of November in the same year. It is true +that the sovereign's abandonment of his throne and country became +something more than a striking dramatic event; it was elevated into an +act of profound political import. It had or was invested with inward and +most momentous legal significance, in addition to its outward historical +prominence. But for all that it determined nothing at the moment of its +occurrence but the future of a single man. It is quite conceivable that +the mere flight of James II. should have settled no more than his own +incapacitation--that it should not even have brought about the exclusion +of his son from the succession, still less have led to the formal +recognition of a new principle in the English Constitution. True it is +that all these consequences were deducible from it as matter of +argument, and flowed from it in fact. True it is that, when James stole +down the Medway in the early morning of the 23d of December, he was +taking a step which was capable of being turned by the friends of +liberty and good government, or his own enemies,--and it was difficult +to be one without being the other,--to the disherison of his son, and +the far-reaching substitution of a statutory for a common-law monarchy. +But no less true is it that these results were very far from being +necessary or automatic in their character; that, on the contrary, they +hung for some critical days in the balance, and that the active +co-operation of human qualities in its very conspicuous and not too +common forms of courage, foresight, and political dexterity, was needed +in the last resort to secure them. It is for this reason that our +"days," our anniversaries of such merely external incidents as William's +landing or James's departure are, comparatively speaking, so +unimportant. No such incident either made or insured the making of our +existing English Constitution. The events which really made it passed, +as I have said, within the walls of two deliberative assemblies, between +January 23 and February 13, 1689, and its making was not actually +assured until this period was well-nigh expired. + +How important was the political work compressed within these three +weeks will be at once apparent if now, having noted how little was +settled by the mere flight of James II., we go on to consider how great +was the variety of its possible results. James had ceased to be king _de +facto_, that was all; and the English people were pretty unanimous in +their determination that he should never be king _de facto_ again. But +was he still king _de jure_? If not, if he was not legally sovereign, +was any one? And if so, who? Upon each of these last three questions +there was room for difference of opinion, and upon at least two of them +opinion was in fact divided. A considerable section of the Tory party +were of opinion that James, although he had _de facto_ ceased to reign, +was still the only lawful king of England, in whose name, at any rate, +all royal authority should be exercised, and all royal acts of state +performed. To these men, therefore, the only legal and constitutional +solution of the problem appeared to be the creation of a Regency. They +were for raising William to the position of Regent, and empowering him +to preside over the actual government of the country in this capacity +during the life of his father-in-law. + +A second section of the Tory party held, on the other hand, that James +having by his own act ceased to govern, had also ceased to reign. By +deliberately laying aside the sceptre he had brought about a demise of +the crown. It had simply devolved upon the person next in succession, +and that person was, they declared, the Princess Mary. There was no need +therefore for the creation of a Regent, and still less for the more +extreme and wholly unprecedented step of appointing a new sovereign. All +that was necessary was a mere formal recognition by the country of the +bare legal facts of the case. According to this party the Princess Mary +was in truth at that moment the lawful Queen of England, and nothing +more was needed than a national acknowledgment of her title. + +To both of these doctrines the Whig party were equally opposed. They +held in opposition to the former, that James had ceased to reign, and in +opposition to the latter, that the crown had been not demised but simply +forfeited. The King's destruction of his own right could not have, and +had not had, the effect of transmitting them to any one else whomsoever. +They resided at that moment, whatever constitutional fictions might aver +to the contrary, in no one; and a special expression of the national +will, a special exertion of the national power, would be required in +favour of some designated successors to these rights before anybody +could be regarded, whether in fact or law, as invested with them. + +Apart from all political prepossessions there can, I think, be no +serious dispute as to which was the most logical and tenable contention +of the three; and that this was distinctly that of the Whigs. The Tories +who contended that James had lost his right to the personal exercise of +the royal authority, while yet retaining so much of that authority that +any one who exercised it in his stead must be supposed to do so as his +deputy, were involved in a hopeless contradiction. In assuming to +appoint such deputy to act for a person whom they still persisted in +regarding as king _de jure_, they were themselves obviously usurping a +portion of that very _jus_ which they professed to respect. True, they +attempted to get over this objection by urging that James had placed +himself under a disability to exercise his royal authority, but they +could point to nothing in the facts of the case to support their +contention. Disability to exercise royal authority could, in the view of +the Constitution, arise from one cause alone, the same cause from which +in the view of the common law arises the disability to exercise civil +rights. The disabled King, like the disabled subject, must have become +mentally incapacitated; and James's incapacitation for the work of +government was purely moral. Setting aside the deposition and execution +of his father, which even the Whigs did not endeavour to elevate into a +regular precedent, there was no constitutional sanction for the +withdrawal of the reins of state from the hands of the monarch, on any +ground save that of insanity. Once extend this, and admit that a king +who is merely bad may be treated as though he were mad, and the Whig +doctrine is thereby absolutely conceded. As to the practical +inconveniences of a Regency exercised in the name of an actively hostile +sovereign--a sovereign who would have been sometimes in arms against his +own nominal authority, and always plotting its overthrow--they would of +course have been both grave and numerous. But it is less surprising that +the Regency party of that day should have ignored them than that they +should have been so indifferent to the complete surrender of their +political principles which was involved in the proposal to which they +committed themselves. + +More logical in form, but equally untenable in fact, was the position +assumed by the other section of the Tory party. There was perhaps +nothing altogether irreconcilable with their principles in the theory +that a voluntary abandonment of the throne might operate as a demise of +the crown; but coolly to assert a right to pass over the infant Prince +of Wales on the strength of the mere idle story that he was a +supposititious child[6] was a pretension which, especially as put +forward by men who were such sticklers for constitutional fictions as to +insist that there must at any given moment be some one person or other +entitled to wear the English crown, appears little short of +preposterous. + +The Whig theory of the situation rejected the fictions of both branches +of the Tory party with equal decision. There was no need, according to +the Whigs, for the country to bewilder itself in efforts to distinguish +between _de jure_ and _de facto_ sovereignty, still less to resort to +the far-fetched expedient of assuming a demise of the crown in order to +prevent the former kind of sovereignty from undergoing interruption. A +king, they held, might lose his title to the crown by a voluntary +abandonment of the throne; and he might lose that title without anybody +succeeding to it. Indeed, since the English crown devolved according to +the ordinary English laws of succession, it was impossible that anybody +should succeed to it by mere _operation of law_ during its former +wearer's life-time. If it was a principle of constitutional law that at +any given moment there must be some lawful king or queen of England in +existence, it was no less a principle of the common law that _nemo est +hæres viventis_. James, therefore, had according to the Whig theory +ceased to be sovereign, and no one else had become sovereign in his +stead: the throne was vacant. Being vacant it was for the Convention to +fill it, and the members of that body were both entitled and bound to +select the fittest successor to it, unconstrained, though not +necessarily uninfluenced, by the claims of successorship which would +have vested in this, that, or the other person under an ordinary demise +of the crown. + +That this was the most logical and self-consistent view of the situation +appears to me undeniable; but it is a singular illustration of the +manner in which events may transpose the relative proportions of +principles that this Whig corollary from the abdication of James +appeared to the statesmen of the time, and even it should seem to +Macaulay, a century and a half after them, to be a more pregnant +assertion of democratic doctrine, and a bolder step in its application, +than that expressed in the earlier proposition that James had ceased to +reign. Nowadays the difference between the Tories who contended that the +crown had been demised, and the Whigs who insisted that the throne was +vacant, hardly arrests the student for an instant. He is disposed to +brush the Tory fiction aside as alike irrational and unnecessary. The +real passage of the Rubicon took place in his view of the matter when it +was declared that James had ceased to be _de jure_ king, and no +subsequent assertion of popular rights in the choice of a successor +could possibly be stronger or more important than that declaration +itself. Yet whereas the Convention accepted the first of these +propositions _nemine contradicente_, the second was only adopted after +having been once actually rejected, and was in fact the subject of so +sharp a conflict of opinion as to threaten irreconcilable deadlock +between the two branches of the constituent body.[7] + +The Convention met on the 22d of January, when Halifax was chosen +president in the Lords; Powle, Speaker of the Commons. A letter from +William, read in both Houses, informed their members that he had +endeavoured to the best of his power to discharge the trust reposed in +him, and that it now rested with the Convention to lay the foundation of +a firm security for their religion, laws, and liberties. The Prince then +went on to refer to the dangerous condition of the Protestants in +Ireland and the present state of things abroad, which obliged him to +tell them that next to the danger of unreasonable divisions among +themselves, nothing could be so fatal as too great a delay in their +consultations. And he further intimated that as England was already +bound by treaty to help the Dutch in such exigencies as, deprived of the +troops which he had brought over, and threatened with war by Louis XIV., +they might easily be reduced to, so he felt confident that the cheerful +concurrence of the Dutch in preserving this kingdom would meet with all +the returns of friendship from Protestants and Englishmen whenever their +own condition should require assistance. To this the two Houses replied +with an address thanking the Prince for his great care in the +administration of the affairs of the kingdom to this time, and formally +continuing to him the same commission,[8] recommending to his particular +care the present state of Ireland. William's answer to this address was +characteristic both of his temperament and his preoccupation. "My lords +and gentlemen," he said, "I am glad that what I have done hath pleased +you; and since you desire me to continue the administration of affairs, +I am willing to accept it. I must recommend to you the consideration of +affairs abroad which makes it fit for you to expedite your business, not +only for making a settlement at home on a good foundation, but for the +safety of Europe." On the 28th the Commons resolved themselves into a +committee of the whole House, and Richard Hampden, son of the great +John, was voted into the chair. The honour of having been the first to +speak the word which was on everybody's lips belongs to Gilbert Dolben, +son of a late Archbishop of York, who "made a long speech tending to +prove that the King's deserting his kingdom without appointing any +person to administer the government amounted in reason and judgment of +law to a demise." Sir Robert Howard, one of the members for Castle +Rising, went a step further, and asserted that the throne, was vacant. +The extreme Tories made a vain effort to procure an adjournment, but the +combination against them of Whigs and their own moderates was too strong +for them, and after a long and stormy debate the House resolved "That +King James II., having endeavoured to subvert the constitution by +breaking the original contract between the King and people, and by the +advice of Jesuits and other wicked persons having violated the +fundamental laws and withdrawn himself out of the kingdom, has abdicated +the government, and that the throne is thereby vacant." + +This resolution was at once sent up to the Lords. Before, however, they +could proceed to consider it, another message arrived from the Commons +to the effect that they had just voted it inconsistent with the safety +and welfare of this Protestant nation to be governed by a Popish king. +To this resolution the Peers assented with a readiness which showed in +advance that James had no party in the Upper House, and that the utmost +length to which the Tories in that body were prepared to go was to +support the proposal of a Regency. The first resolution of the Commons +was then put aside in order that this proposal might be discussed. It +was Archbishop Sancroft's plan, who, however, did not make his +appearance to advocate it, and in his absence it was supported by +Rochester and Nottingham, while Halifax and Danby led the opposition to +it. After a day's debate it was lost by the narrow majority of two, +forty-nine peers declaring in its favour, and fifty-one against it. The +Lords then went into Committee on the Commons' resolution, and at once +proceeded, as was natural enough, to dispute the clause in its preamble +which referred to the original contract between the King and the people. +No Tory of course could really have subscribed to the doctrine implied +in these words; but it was doubtless as hard in those days as in these +to interest an assembly of English politicians in affirmations of +abstract political principle, and some Tories probably thought it not +worth while to multiply causes of dissent with the Lower House by +attacking a purely academic recital of their resolution. Anyhow, the +numbers of the minority slightly fell off, only forty-six peers +objecting to the phrase, while fifty-three voted that it should stand. +The word "deserted" was then substituted without a division for the word +"abdicated," and the hour being late, the Lords adjourned. + +The real battle, of course, was now at hand, and to any one who assents +to the foregoing criticisms it will be evident that it was far less of a +conflict on a point of constitutional principle, and far more of a +struggle between the parties of two distinct--one cannot call them +rival--claimants to the throne than high-flying Whig writers are +accustomed to represent it. It would of course, be too much to say that +the Whigs insisted on declaring the vacancy of the throne, _only_ +because they wished to place William on it, and that the Tories +contended for a demise of the crown, _only_ because they wished an +English princess to succeed to the throne rather than a Dutch prince. +Still, it is pretty certain that, but for this conflict of preferences, +the two political parties, who had made so little difficulty of agreeing +in the declaration that James had ceased to reign, would never have +found it so hard to concur in its almost necessary sequence that the +throne was vacant. The debate on the last clause of the resolution +began, and it soon became apparent that the Whigs were outnumbered. The +forty-nine peers who had supported the proposal of a Regency, which +implied that the royal title was still in James, were bound, of course, +to oppose the proposition that the throne was vacant; and they were +reinforced by several peers who held that that title had already +devolved upon Mary. An attempt to compromise the dispute by omitting the +words pronouncing the throne vacant, and inserting words which merely +proclaimed the Prince and Princess of Orange King and Queen, was +rejected by fifty-two votes to forty-seven[9]; and the original clause +was then put and negatived by fifty-five votes to forty-one. + +Thus amended by the substitution of "deserted" for "abdicated," and the +omission of the words "and that the throne is thereby vacant," the +resolution was sent back to the Commons, who instantly and without a +division disagreed with the amendments. The situation was now becoming +critical. The prospect of a deadlock between the two branches of the +Convention threw London into a ferment; crowds assembled in Palace Yard; +petitions were presented in that tumultuous fashion which converts +supplication into menace. To their common credit, however, both parties +united in resistance to these attempts at popular coercion; and William +himself interposed to enjoin a stricter police of the capital. On +Monday, the 4th of February, the Lords resolved to insist on their +amendments; on the following day the Commons reaffirmed their +disagreement with them by 282 votes to 151. A free Conference between +the two Houses was then arranged, and met on the following day. + +But the dispute, like many another in our political history, had +meanwhile been settled out of court. Between the date of the Peers' vote +and the Conference Mary had communicated to Danby her high displeasure +at the conduct of those who were setting up her claims in opposition to +those of her husband; and William, who had previously maintained an +unbroken silence, now made, unsolicited, a declaration of a most +important, and indeed of a conclusive kind. If the Convention, he said, +chose to adopt the plan of a Regency, he had nothing to say against it, +only they must look out for some other person to fill the office, for he +himself would not consent to do so. As to the alternative proposal of +putting Mary on the throne and allowing him to reign by her courtesy, +"No man," he said, "can esteem a woman more than I do the Princess; but +I am so made that I cannot think of holding anything by apron-strings; +nor can I think it reasonable to have any share in the government unless +it be put in my own person, and that for the term of my life. If you +think fit to settle it otherwise I will not oppose you, but will go back +to Holland and meddle no more in your affairs." These few sentences of +plain speaking swept away the clouds of intrigue and pedantry as by a +wholesome gust of wind. Both political parties at once perceived that +there was but one possible issue from the situation. The Conference was +duly held, and the constitutional question was, with great display of +now unnecessary learning, solemnly debated; but the managers for the two +Houses met only to register a foregone conclusion. The word "abdicated" +was restored; the vacancy of the throne was voted by sixty-two votes to +forty-seven; and it was immediately proposed and carried without a +division that the Prince and Princess of Orange should be declared King +and Queen of England. + +It now only remained to give formal effect to this resolution, and in so +doing to settle the conditions whereon the crown, which the Convention +had now distinctly recognised itself as conferring upon the Prince and +Princess, should be conferred. A Committee appointed by the Commons to +consider what safeguards should be taken against the aggressions of +future sovereigns had made a report in which they recommended not only a +solemn enunciation of ancient constitutional principles, but the +enactment of new laws. The Commons, however, having regard to the +importance of prompt action, judiciously resolved on carrying out only +the first part of the programme. They determined to preface their tender +of the crown to William and Mary by a recital of the royal encroachments +of the past reigns, and a formal assertion of the constitutional +principles against which such encroachments had offended. This document, +drafted by a Committee of which the celebrated Somers, then a +scarcely-known young advocate, was the chairman, was the famous +DECLARATION OF RIGHT. + +The grievances which it recapitulated in its earlier portion, fourteen +in number, were as follows:--(1) the royal pretension to dispense with +and suspend laws without consent of Parliament; (2) the punishment of +subjects, as in the Seven Bishops' case, for petitioning the Crown; (3) +the establishment of the illegal Court of High Commission for +ecclesiastical affairs; (4) the levy of taxes without the consent of +Parliament; (5) the maintenance of a standing army in time of peace +without the same consent; (6) the disarmament of Protestants while +Papists were both armed and employed contrary to law; (7) the violation +of the freedom of election; (8) the prosecution in the King's Bench of +suits only cognisable in Parliament; (9) the return of partial and +corrupt juries; (10) the requisition of excessive bail; (11) the +imposition of excessive fines; (12) the infliction of illegal and cruel +punishments; (13) the grants of the estates of accused persons before +conviction. Then, after solemnly reaffirming the popular rights from +which these abuses of the prerogative derogated, the Declaration goes on +to recite that, having an "entire confidence" William would "preserve +them from the violation of the rights which they have here asserted, the +Three Estates do resolve that William and Mary, Prince and Princess of +Orange, be and be declared King and Queen ... to hold the Crown and +Royal Dignity ... to them the said Prince and Princess during their +Lives and the Life of the Survivor of them; and the sole and full +exercise of the Royal Power be only in and exercised by the said Prince +of Orange, in the Names of the said Prince and Princess during their +Lives, and after their Deceases, the said Crown and Royal Dignity of the +said Kingdoms and Dominions to the Heirs of the Body of the said +Princess; and, for default of such Issue, to the Princess Anne of +Denmark and the Heirs of her Body; and, for default of such Issue, to +the Issue of the said Prince of Orange." Then followed an alteration +required by the scrupulous conscience of Nottingham in the terms of the +Oath of Allegiance. + +On the 12th of February Mary arrived from Holland. On the following day, +in the Banqueting House at Whitehall, the Prince and Princess of Orange +were waited on by both Houses of Convention in a body. The Declaration +was read by the Clerk of the Crown; the sovereignty solemnly tendered to +them by Halifax, in the name of the Estates; and on the same day they +were proclaimed King and Queen in the usual places in the cities of +London and Westminster. + +FOOTNOTES: + +[6] _How_ idle this story was may best be judged by studying the +so-called evidence in its favour, as set forth in the pages of that +writer who, more perhaps than any other chronicler of the events of that +period, would have liked to establish its truth. No one, I think, can +read Burnet's account of the Queen's accouchement, so completely +demonstrating as it does the _impossibility_ of the alleged fraud, +without wondering at the strength of the partisanship and popular +prejudice which could for a moment have believed in its perpetration. + +[7] The fact that the _practical_ cause of this sharp conflict was the +rivalry between the partisans of William and those of Mary is only a +partial explanation of the phenomenon referred to in the text. It is a +reason for the Convention having debated the Whig corollary so much, but +not for their debating the Whig-Tory original proposition so little. Of +course the _practical_ explanation is the simple one, that James had +made himself impossible. Both parties concurred so readily in that +opinion that they applied it without either of them pausing to consider +its scope as a precedent, and that, quite apart from all controversies +as to regency, demise of the crown, vacancy of the throne, or what not, +the first instance in which a people pronounced _any_ king +impossible--such king being of sound mind, and still asserting his +sovereignty--let in the whole modern democratic theory. + +[8] It is somewhat singular that Macaulay should have taken no notice of +an address which really constituted William's sole legal, or quasi legal +title to the administration of affairs between the assembling of the +Convention (which necessarily revoked his original commission) and the +conclusion of its king-making labours. + +[9] The offer and rejection of this compromise appears to me to be +additional proof of the proposition advanced in the text--viz. that both +Whigs and Tories were far more solicitous for the success of their +candidate than for the triumph of their principles. Macaulay, it is +true, contends, as from his point of view he was bound to do, that the +Whigs made no concession of principle in proposing their compromise; for +if, he argues, the Convention could elect William and Mary there must +have been a vacancy of the throne. But surely the resolution as amended +might have been treated as merely _declaratory_ of Mary's title, and +elective only so far as it associated William with her on a throne which +had become his wife's by succession, and so would never have been +vacated at all. No; it was a genuine and not a fictitious surrender of +Whig principle; and while it proved that the Whigs were prepared to +offer any such concession as would make William King, its rejection +proved that the Tories cared for no such concession as did not leave +Mary sole Queen. The gain of votes which the Whigs secured by the +compromise probably represents the proportion of peers who really cared +for the abstract principle apart from the concrete facts. + + + + +CHAPTER VI + +1689 + + William's part in the Revolution--Convention declared a + Parliament--Oath of Allegiance--Settlement of Civil List + --Appropriation Clause--Toleration and Comprehension-- + Address of the Commons inviting the King to declare war. + + +Thus prudently and calmly was effected our great English Revolution. +Both as an event and as an achievement we have equal cause to review its +history with pleasure; for if in some aspects it testifies to the good +fortune of our nation, it reflects credit in others on the good +qualities of our people. I have endeavoured in the last chapter to point +out that the modern Whig view of the Revolution as a great conflict +between two opposing schools of constitutional doctors, resulting in the +victory of the more liberal one, is largely legendary; that the struggle +between Whigs and Tories resolved itself almost entirely into a dispute +of preferences as between two alternative candidates for the throne; and +that both parties showed themselves alike prepared to waive the +principles which they severally held on condition of attaining their +practical end--the success of their favoured candidate. But this does +not in any way detract either from the value of the Revolution or from +the merits of its authors; while it otherwise only serves to conform it +to the normal type of English political work. All our great +constitutional precedents are the parents of principle rather than its +offspring; we deduce our theories from accomplished facts of our own +creation, the creation of such accomplished facts being itself +determined by no theoretical considerations, but by certain practical +exigencies of the moment. Few Englishmen will think any worse of the +Whig because, although firmly wedded to the principle of national +sovereignty, he would have been willing to lose the opportunity of +expressly affirming it so long as he could by any means place William of +Orange, with full regal power, on the throne. Nor will they be any more +disposed to condemn the Tory in that when he found himself compelled to +give way on the practical point of the succession, he did not think it +worth while to quarrel with the assertions or implications of Whig +principle contained in the resolution by which the transfer was +effected. On the contrary, the temper and habits of mind thus jointly +illustrated are national characteristics on which we especially and not +unreasonably pride ourselves. + +For the purposes of a precedent, too, the transaction could hardly have +come more happily off. Even a Tory of to-day will admit that it was good +for the future development of our constitutional life that the Whig +principles of "national sovereignty," "original contract between king +and people," and all the rest of it, should then and there receive +unmistakable recognition and irrevocable ratification; and this beyond +question they did receive. No hair-splittings about desertion or +abdication[10] could obscure the two plain facts, that the nation +_deposed_ James II., and by a distinct assertion of inherent, or +assumption of new, authority--it matters not which--_made_ a new king +out of a man who, but for such assertion or assumption of authority, +could never have become more than the consort of a queen. + +As regards the new King himself, his behaviour at this great crisis in +his own fortunes and the destiny of two nations deserves, at any rate, +the credit of honesty and straightforwardness. We shall not really add +to that honour by seeking any more showy motives than those which lie on +the face of his conduct. The mere masculine repugnance of the man of +action to lower the spear before the distaff would in any case probably +have induced him to reject the proposal of the Tory lords. But apart +from this, his shrewd knowledge of men and clear insight into politics +assured him that he had only to refuse the false position in order to +compel the offer of the true one. He might have been all else that he +was--the devoted son of Holland; the true, if unimpassioned, friend of +England; the implacable enemy of the French king and his designs; the +ardent champion of Protestantism and the liberties of Europe;--and yet +only been the more tempted in every one of these by a place on the steps +of a powerful throne, and an influence which even from that situation he +might have wielded to the attainment of many great ends. He was saved +from accepting it solely by his pride, his ambition, and his +perspicacity. He resented the thought of holding power as his wife's +lieutenant, and he saw that he had only to refuse that post in order to +make himself a necessity as king. + +The first act of the new sovereign was to summon and swear a Privy +Council, and to nominate a Ministry. In the then infancy of our modern +Constitution it was not, as it now is, incumbent upon the sovereign to +select the Ministers from one particular party. It was competent to him, +and William deemed it expedient for him, to tender office to the +representatives of both political connections. Danby, a Tory by +principle, though he had sided with the Whigs in opposing the Regency +scheme, and only broke away from them on the question of declaring the +throne vacant, was made President of the Council. Halifax, a Trimmer +indeed, but of closer affinities with Whiggery than with Toryism, and +the chief upholder of the Whig doctrine on the question of the +succession, became Lord Privy Seal. Nottingham, a Tory up to almost any +point short of passive obedience, received the seals of one +Secretaryship of State; upon Shrewsbury, a Whig, were bestowed those of +the other. The Treasury and the Admiralty were committed to the +Administration of Boards--the former under the presidency of Admiral +Herbert, the latter under that of Charles Mordaunt, afterwards the +famous and eccentric Earl of Peterborough. By an exercise of the royal +authority, willingly acquiesced in at the time by the nation, but +destined to entail more momentous national consequences than any of his +subjects foresaw, King William retained in his own hands the exclusive +direction of foreign affairs. The Great Seal was placed in commission. + +The first question propounded to the Privy Council was whether the +Convention should be declared a lawful Parliament, or dissolved and a +fresh Parliament summoned in the regular manner by royal writ. The +Council advised the former course, and a Bill declaring the Convention a +Parliament was at once introduced and passed through the House of Lords. +It was opposed in the Commons by the Tories, who hoped that a general +election might strengthen their numbers; but the resistance--founded as +it was upon mere technical considerations, and with historical precedent +against it--was never very formidable; and the Bill passed the Lower +House in a few days, and became law. Among its clauses was one providing +that no one should, after the 1st of March then next ensuing, sit or +vote in either House of Parliament without taking the oaths of +allegiance to the new King and Queen, and the Jacobites and ultra-Tories +conceived the hope that many peers, bishops, and commoners would find it +impossible to reconcile their consciences to this test. As a matter of +fact the non-jurors, except among the Episcopal body, to whom Archbishop +Sancroft set the example of recusancy, were comparatively few. Even +later, when the oath was tendered to the clergy at large, the number of +those who found themselves conscientiously unable to take it was but +one-twentieth of the whole body.[11] + +In the interval, however, between the passing of the Act and the day +fixed for submission to the test, the great question of the royal +revenues was taken up and decided. Certain proceeds of taxation were in +those days granted to the Crown either for a fixed term of years or for +life. The former, being on the face of them annexed to the regal office, +were of course transferable without much difficulty or dispute to the +new incumbent of that office; but doubts naturally arose as to the exact +legal status of the latter kind of imposts. Some were for interpreting +the word "life" as virtually meaning reign, upon which construction the +right to exact these taxes had lapsed by the deposition of the sovereign +to whom they were granted. Others insisted on an interpretation stricter +in one sense and laxer in another, and argued that though William had +become entitled to these revenues as King he could only enjoy them +during the life of James. In other words, in order to avoid taking +liberties with the word "life," they were prepared to behave with far +more unbridled license to the word "king." The practical inconvenience +of settling revenues on William during the life of James may or may not +have weighed more with the Parliament than the theoretical anomaly of +treating the former as sovereign for one purpose and the latter as such +for another; but anyhow it was tacitly agreed to treat the grant to +James as annulled by his so-called abdication. The Commons then voted +the sum of £1,200,000 for the current year, one half to be appropriated +to the civil list, the other half to the defences of the +country--mainly, of course, in other words, to the prosecution of the +impending war in Ireland. At the first sitting of Parliament, after the +prorogation, which took place some months afterwards, the Royal Speech +from the Throne contained an announcement to the Commons that in order +that they might be satisfied how the money had been laid out which they +had already given, his Majesty had directed the accounts to be laid +before them whenever they should think fit to call for them. The +privilege thus practically acknowledged may no doubt be, as some +constitutional lawyers have contended, coeval with the constitution; but +it had been so intermittently respected that its unvarying recognition +from this time forward is justly reckoned as one of the chief gains +which accrued to our parliamentary system from the Revolution. It seems, +however, to have been only in the Stat., 9 and 10 Will. III. c. 44, that +there appears an appropriation clause of the modern type apportioning +all the supplies of the session to the services for which they were +provided. + +But while these delicate matters of royal rights and official income +were being disposed of, the King was commendably anxious to show himself +at once in some other light than that of an applicant for parliamentary +aids. As early as the 1st of March he sent a special message to the +Commons calling their attention to the "grievous burden" of the +unpopular hearth-tax, and signifying that assent either "to the +regulation of it, or to the taking of it wholly away," not doubting but +the Commons would take care of his revenue in some other way. This +judicious proposal gave great satisfaction. The Commons replied in +terms of warm acknowledgment, and the city of London presented to him an +address of thanks. He interposed, however, with less success and perhaps +with less judgment in the religious disputes by which the country was +divided. The traditions, alike of his nation and his house, may well +have encouraged him to aspire to the great office of moderator and +mediator between contending sects; but it is doubtful whether such a +post could under any circumstances have been within the reach of a Dutch +Calvinist. For the imperfect and illogically-regulated relief accorded +by the Toleration Act to most of the dissenting denominations the +country was prepared; but neither the occasion nor the idea of the +Comprehension Bill--a measure for widening the entrance to the Church of +England at the very moment when those who had chosen to remain outside +were being encouraged by a relieving Act to remain there--was in itself +a happy one. Churchmen were, from their own point of view, entitled to +argue that the two measures proceeded upon two opposite and conflicting +theories of state policy; that toleration, properly understood and +applied, would render comprehension superfluous, and had indeed been +accepted by the Church with that very object; and that it was but a poor +return for her surrender of her ancient claim to compel schismatics into +her fold, that she should be required unduly to extend its limits for +the purpose of embracing them. It is probable enough that William's eye +for an ecclesiastical scruple was not quite as keen as his insight into +the principles of civil government and the workings of European policy, +for he seems to have been surprised and disappointed at finding that +Churchmen and Dissenters, though the Toleration Act was accepted by the +former without serious difficulty and by the latter with hearty +rejoicings, would neither of them so much as look at his scheme of +comprehension. He evidently understood neither the "dissidence of +dissent" nor the Anglicanism of the Anglican Communion. The +Comprehension Bill had a troubled time of it even in the House of Lords, +where it was first introduced, and after some debate in the House of +Commons it was shelved. As vainly did William attempt to compose the +feud between the Whig and Tory Churchman and Nonconformist by offering, +so to speak, a bribe to each of them to tolerate the other. The new oath +of allegiance, framed by Parliament for itself, required to be extended +to all those classes of persons who had been compelled to take one. +Legislation was commenced for that purpose concurrently with the debates +over the Comprehension Bill, and the King, according to Burnet, saw +here, as he thought, an opportunity of bringing the disputants to a +mutually beneficial compromise. In his speech to the Commons on the 16th +of March, he signified his wish that in the pending legislation "they +would leave room for the admission of all Protestants that were willing +and able to serve"--a suggestion which, of course, was directly aimed at +the tests then excluding Dissenters from office. And while he pressed +this measure of relief upon the Tories, he at the same time invited the +Whigs to make a concession to their adversaries by absolving, as he was +willing to do, the existing beneficed clergy from the necessity of +taking the new oath of allegiance. He begged of the one party not to +compel the Nonconformist to choose between offence against conscience +and exclusion from civil office, and of the other party not to compel a +clergyman to choose between offence against conscience and expulsion +from ecclesiastical office; and he imagined that each would find their +account in consenting. But no. The Whig was determined to force the oath +upon the parson; the Tory was resolved to force the test upon the +dissenter. No provision of relief for Nonconformists was introduced into +the Comprehension Bill, and the measure itself was shortly afterwards +dropped. The Oaths Bill passed in a form which compelled every beneficed +clergyman to swear allegiance to the new King and Queen by the 1st of +August 1689, on pain of suspension, to be followed on the 1st of +February 1690, in the event of the non-juror remaining contumacious, by +deprivation. + +History has done justice to these well-meaning efforts of William; but +the political virtue which for the moment was its own reward, must, one +imagines, have been felt by him as painfully unremunerative. He could +not have expected to be personally popular, and he was not, though +Macaulay, in his desire for strong pictorial effect, has surely +exaggerated his unpopularity. But he, no doubt, counted upon wielding a +greater civil influence at the outset of his career than he in fact +discovered to be his, and must have learned, with some chagrin, that he +had failed to realise the vehemence of those English party conflicts in +which not even the ablest and best intentioned of mediators can +interpose without disappointment until he has mastered all the secrets +of their intensity. On the whole, one can easily understand the feeling +of satisfaction with which he hailed the coming of the hour when he, +with whom the instincts of the European statesman and soldier were +always dominant over these of the domestic administrator, was once more +summoned to activity in one of the two arts in which he shone. On the +19th of April the Commons presented an address to the Crown, in which, +after reciting the various acts of hostility committed by Louis XIV. +against their country, "particularly the present invasion of Ireland," +they assured William that when he "should think fit to enter into a war +against the French king, they would give him such assistance in a +parliamentary way as to enable him to support and go through with the +same." To this invitation from his Parliament William returned an answer +of ready acquiescence, while to those about him he exclaimed, with +unwonted animation, "This is the first day of my reign." + +FOOTNOTES: + +[10] There are but two ways in which a sovereign can, while alive, and +_compos mentis_, become divested of his regal attributes and +authority--by abdication and by deposition; and it is impossible to +define abdication satisfactorily by any form of words which does not +involve the idea of a _voluntary_ act. Even if a voluntary abandonment +or "desertion of the Government" amounted to abdication, it would not +help the case. James's flight from England in 1688 was no more voluntary +than the flight of his brother, then king _de jure_, after Worcester in +1651. Both flights were taken under what was or was conceived to be +_force majeure_. + +[11] This, however, it should be conceded, was really, of the two, a +more respectable proportion; for the clergy had a sterner alternative +before them than the bishops, peers, or members of the Lower House. The +latter had only status at stake--the former, in most cases, their means +of subsistence. + + + + +CHAPTER VII + +1689-1690 + + Invasion of Ireland--Campaign of 1689--Parliamentary strife + --The conduct of the war--The Oates Case--The Succession Bill + --Attempts to pass an Indemnity Bill--Rancour of the Whigs-- + Their factious opposition to William's Irish plans-- + Dissolution of Parliament. + + +An address from Parliament praying the sovereign to declare war against +a foreign state is far from a common incident in our history; and even +in this instance the initiative then taken by the Commons was one of +form rather than of fact. The descent of James upon Ireland, under the +convoy of a French fleet of fifteen sail of the line, and accompanied by +a force of 2500 French soldiers, amounted to an act of war on the part +of France, if ever such an act was committed by one nation upon another; +and it was not till more than a month after the perpetration of this +outrage that the address referred to in the last chapter was presented +to the King. James landed at Kinsale on the 12th of March; the address +to the King is dated, as has been said, on the 19th of April. England, +moreover, was not the first of the coalition of Powers which the patient +diplomacy of William had formed against Louis to take action against the +common enemy. The declaration of the German Diet had appeared in +February, and that of the States-General in March. + +On the 24th of March James entered Dublin, which, in common with all the +other cities of the three southern provinces of Ireland, had declared +for his cause; but after only three weeks' stay in the capital it was +decided, against the advice of his chief French counsellor, d'Avaux, who +with the Lord Deputy Tyrconnel, and the Irish Catholic party in general, +were for keeping him among the Celtic population of the island, that he +should go northward and take command of the royal army in Ulster. He +accordingly set out on the 14th of April, and after some further +hesitations caused by conflicting reports as to the results of a +skirmish between the Protestants and a body of his own men at Strabane, +arrived a few days later among his troops, who were quartered a few +miles south of Londonderry, a city which, with Inniskillen, had formed +the rallying point for the Protestant minority when the outbreak of the +Revolution, awakening the hopes of the Catholic population, appeared to +threaten the "English garrison" with a repetition of the horrors of +1641. Here it had been fully expected by James's more sanguine +counsellors that he would be, if not loyally, at any rate submissively +received. The appearance of their lawful sovereign before their walls +would at any rate, it was thought, confirm the wavering allegiance of +the military under the command of the Governor, Colonel Lundy. As a +matter of fact, it only served to arouse a spirit of determined +resistance in the townsmen, to unite the soldiery in the same cause, and +to precipitate the flight of the Jacobite governor. James and his +retinue, on approaching the gate, were fired on from the nearest +bastion; a subsequent demand for surrender was contemptuously rejected, +and after a few days' delay before the town its rejected sovereign set +off in chagrin and disappointment to return to Dublin, leaving +Londonderry to prepare for that heroic defence of three months against +the combined forces of war, disease, and famine, which has made her name +famous among the cities of the world. James's first act on his return to +the capital was to summon a Parliament, and a Parliament, of a sort, +responded to the summons. That is to say, out of a hundred temporal +peers then in Ireland, fourteen, of whom ten were Catholics, obeyed the +summons, while the fidelity at any rate of the faithful Commons was +guaranteed by the fact that only six out of the total number of two +hundred and fifty were Protestants. Having assembled, they promptly +proceeded to attest this virtue by the wholesale confiscation of the +lands of Protestants, and the proscription of their heads. Ulster, +however, was still unreduced, and while that was so, denunciatory and +spoliatory decrees might well turn out to be mere waste paper. The +dashing Inniskilleners--the cavalry, so to speak, of that Protestant +army in which Londonderry played the part of the immovable square of +infantry--had actually meditated, though they never carried out, an +attempt to relieve their beleaguered sister city, and at Newtown Butler +they were able to render signal service to their cause by the defeat of +General Macarthy and 6000 Irish. By the end of July Londonderry had been +relieved; early in August Marshal Schomberg, then one of the most +renowned of European generals, landed at Carrickfergus with 16,000 men, +and it became evident even to the most hopeful of James's adherents +that the northern province was lost to him irretrievably. + +William meanwhile still remained in London busied with the task, at once +delicate and laborious, of administering the government of a distrustful +and almost unfriendly people through the agency of two bitterly divided +factions. The parliamentary session had become more prolific of quarrels +and more barren of counsel as it proceeded. The two Houses and the two +parties had agreed with little difficulty to do justice to some of the +admitted victims of the oppression practised under the last two +sovereigns. The attainders of Sidney, Russell, and others were reversed +without recorded dissent, but the case of Oates gave rise to acute +conflict between the Lords and Commons--a conflict in which, though the +conduct of the former assembly was undoubtedly arbitrary, the temper, +or, at any rate, the motives of the latter appear by no means worthy of +the unqualified praise bestowed upon them by the great Whig historian. +Undoubtedly the Peers were without justification in refusing to reverse +a sentence which the judges had solemnly pronounced illegal; but it is +ridiculous to represent the Commons, as a body of judicially minded +legislators, doing violence to their natural sentiments in their +determination to obtain justice for Oates. Such a theory is at once +refuted by the fact that, after his release under royal pardon, his +personal adherents in the Commons proved numerous enough to disgrace +their party and their country by procuring a pension of three hundred a +year for perhaps the most infamous wretch who ever disgraced human +nature. The dispute is of importance because it has been suggested that +to the bitterness of feeling engendered by it was due the subsequent +quarrel between the two Houses over the succession clauses in the Bill +of Rights. At the end of this famous enactment--the statutory +affirmation of the claims formulated by the Convention in the +Declaration of Right--it had been proposed at William's suggestion that +to the several enumerated reversions of the British Crown a further +remainder should be added. In the Declaration, as will be remembered, +the crown was settled, after the death of the King or Queen, upon the +survivor, and after the death of such survivor upon the heirs of Mary, +failing whom upon Anne and her heirs, failing whom upon the issue of +William by any other wife than Mary. It appearing by no means +improbable, having regard to the fact that the King and Queen were +childless, and that Anne had repeatedly failed to rear the children to +whom she had given birth, that there might be a failure of all the named +reversioners, and that the otherwise legal right of some Catholic prince +might thereupon come into conflict with the statutory exclusion of +Catholic sovereigns, William proposed to entail the crown after the last +mentioned limitation upon an undoubted Protestant, Sophia of Hanover, +granddaughter of James I., and her issue, being Protestants. That the +proposal was a well-conceived one is evidenced by the fact that it was +actually adopted by Parliament in the succeeding reign; but though the +Lords to whom it was submitted by Burnet accepted it unanimously, the +Commons would have none of it. The irritation left by the Oates quarrel +may in part have accounted for this, but Macaulay attributes too +childish a temper to the Lower House in implying as he does that +ill-humour is the sole explanation of their resistance. They in fact +alleged several grounds of objection of unequal weight, but of which one +at least has every appearance of _bona fides_, viz. that the mentioning +of the House of Hanover would give an opportunity to foreigners of +intermeddling too far in the affairs of the nation. But whatever the +excuse, we can readily imagine that William regarded the action of the +Commons as purely factious, and although the birth at this juncture of +another son and heir to the Princess Anne deprived the succession +dispute of its urgency, the cool-headed Dutchman can hardly but have +been impressed with the keenness of that political strife which could +keep the two branches of the legislature asunder when the cost of their +dissension was the postponement of the greatest statutory assertion of +their liberties since Magna Charta. For as a consequence of the +irreconcilable dispute on the succession clause, the Bill of Rights had +of course to be dropped; and between this date and the 20th of August, +when Parliament was prorogued, the breach between William and the Whigs +was still further widened by the rancour with which they pursued their +political enemies, and resisted the attempts of the King to procure a +statutory amnesty for past political offences. Impartiality was easier +of course for him than them, but William's natural affinities of mind +and politics cannot but have been rather with the Whigs than the Tories, +and the steadiness of purpose with which he persisted in his patriotic +though hopeless attempt at combining representatives of both political +parties in his councils is, upon any view of the matter, highly +honourable to him. It was the Whigs who from the first made the +experiment hopeless, and who finally determined its failure. We owe them +the English Constitution, but we owe them also, at any rate in the rigid +inflexible shape which it has since assumed, that _genius vultu +mutabilis albus et ater_, the English party-system. + +Parliament met again after a two months' recess on the 19th of October, +and seemed at first disposed to act with somewhat more of unity in +support of the Executive. They unanimously affirmed their determination +to assist the King in the reconquest of Ireland, and in a vigorous +prosecution of the war with France, for which purposes they voted an +extraordinary supply of two millions, a portion of which it was at first +proposed, on principles which the enactors of the Bill of Rights (passed +this session without William's suggested amendment) had inherited in a +slightly modified form from the signatory of Magna Charta, to raise by a +special tax upon Jews. Supplies voted, however, disunion recommenced. +The Whigs had come back from their short holiday more bloodthirsty than +ever. Beginning with a legitimate cause of complaint against the +administration in respect of the mismanagement of the war in Ireland, +where the whole organisation of the commissariat seems to have been +almost of a Crimean inefficiency, they easily converted this just +grievance into a general protest against the presence of Tories in the +Government. An attempt was made to induce William to say by whose advice +he had employed Henry Shales, the knavish Commissary-General, to whom +the scandal was mainly if not wholly due--the object of course being to +found an accusation against some one or other of the Tory officials to +whom Shales's retention in his post was assumed to be due. It would +have been enough for William to reply that he found the man Commissary +on his accession, and simply continued him in office. He refused to +gratify the malicious curiosity of the address presented to him on the +subject, though he assented very readily to another for the appointment +of a commission to examine into the state of affairs in Ireland. + +The Tories were next destined to cross the sorely-troubled king by the +resistance which they offered to him on a delicate question connected +with the provision for his sister-in-law. On the vote of the Civil List, +and the question arising under it as to the establishment of the +Princess Anne, it had been originally proposed by William that he +himself should undertake this charge out of his own revenues; but +through the instrumentality of the Churchills a strong party was formed +among the Tories to insist upon Anne having a settlement independent of +the Crown. Seventy thousand a year was the (for those days) extravagant +sum which they demanded, and which proved too much even for an indulgent +House of Commons to grant. The vote was reduced to £50,000, and though +William's dislike to the idea of a parliamentary settlement upon his +sister-in-law induced him to raise his own original offer of £30,000 to +£50,000 Anne still held out, and a yearly income of the amount last +mentioned was accordingly secured to her for life by Act of Parliament. +In none of the parts played by the various actors in this little +political drama (the sequel to which was the permanent estrangement of +the Queen and King from the Princess) is it easy to discern the +promptings of any public principle, or indeed of any decorously +avowable motive whatever. The Tories would seem to have been wholly +swayed either by party and ecclesiastical prepossessions, or by personal +interests of a lower kind--either by sentimental sympathy with a High +Churchwoman, or by a practical eye to the Marlborough gold. As to +William it was eminently natural that he should wish to retain at least +_one_ string of this puppet of the Churchills in his own hands; as +natural as that the Churchills themselves should wish to deprive him of +it, and that the puppet herself should respond to the vigorous pulling +of the strings which they already held. Neither of the two latter +parties would probably have cared to allege any public motive for their +behaviour in the transaction. It is to be presumed, however, that +William would have done so if he could; and it is at least noteworthy +that the only objection which he seems to have taken to Anne's +parliamentary settlement affords no logical support to his own +alternative proposal. That Anne should have her income settled on her +for life, while his was only voted to him annually, was doubtless a just +ground of complaint; but the proper redress of the anomaly would have +been to subject his sister-in-law's income like his own to the annual +revision of the House of Commons. The fact that the King was dependent +upon Parliament could be no reason for making the Princess dependent not +upon Parliament, but upon the King. + +Meanwhile the session wore on, and William's cherished project of an Act +of Indemnity was no nearer realisation. He had earnestly recommended it +to Parliament in the Speech from the Throne, but nothing was further +from the hearts of the dominant party in the Commons than the idea of +amnesty. They seemed bent on assuring themselves the tranquil exit of +Marshal Narvaez, who died in peace with all mankind by dint of leaving +himself no enemies to forgive. An Indemnity Bill was for form's sake +brought in at the beginning of November, but no progress was made with +it. Proscription took the place of purgation. Lords Salisbury and +Peterborough, Sir Edward Hales, and others, were marked out for +impeachment and summoned according to their status to the bar of one or +the other House. The Lords appointed a committee to inquire into the +judicial murders of Russell and Sidney, and Sir Dudley North and Lord +Halifax were cited before this body to answer for their shares, real or +alleged, in these dark transactions. John Hampden, a grandson of the +greater John, was conspicuous for the violence of his hostility to the +official Tories, and by his instrumentality a committee was appointed to +prepare an address to the King to remove the authors of the late +failures and to appoint "unsuspected persons" to the management of +affairs. The address, however, presented by Hampden was sharply +criticised for the violence of its language, and the House of Commons +ultimately laid it aside. So plainly, indeed, was the Whig party now +losing ground in that House, and so grave had become their apprehensions +of declining popularity in the country, that with a view of at least +recovering their position at the polling-booths they resolved upon one +of the boldest and most unscrupulous strokes of party tactics which our +history records. Into a Bill then before the House for restoring the +charters to these corporations which had surrendered them to the Crown, +they introduced a clause excluding from municipal office all persons who +had been implicated in the surrenders of such charters--or, in other +words, all Tories, thus designing to fill the municipalities with Whig +office-bearers and to secure the control of the elections to the Whig +party. Smuggled into the Bill in a House half depleted of its members by +the approach of Christmas, it needed a vigorous whip of the Tories to +procure the rejection of this clause by a narrow majority; and William's +disgust at this manœuvre was further intensified by the attachment to +his much-desired Indemnity Bill of a bill of pains and penalties against +political delinquents. So acute at this moment became his chagrin and +disappointment at the condition of English politics that he was strongly +tempted to wash his hands of the whole distasteful and thankless +business, and he was with difficulty prevailed upon by his ministers to +abandon his design of bidding adieu to the country which he had come to +deliver and retiring to his native land. Dissuaded from this, he +resolved that he would at least reduce Ireland to submission if he had +failed to compose the quarrels of his Parliament; and he let it be known +that he was about to quit the capital for the headquarters of his army +in Ulster. But against this, too, the Whigs vehemently protested. An +address deprecatory of the project was said to be preparing; and +William, his patience exhausted by this last sally of faction, +determined to appeal to the good sense and patriotism of the country. + +Accordingly, on the 27th of January, after having in a speech from the +throne announced his resolve to go to Ireland in person, "and with the +blessing of God Almighty endeavour to reduce that kingdom, that it may +no longer be a charge to this," the King, to the high satisfaction of +the Tories and the proportional discomfiture of the Whigs, proceeded to +prorogue Parliament with a view to its early dissolution. + + + + +CHAPTER VIII + +1690-1691 + + Parliament of 1690--Tory majority--Settlement of the royal + income--Case of the Princess Anne--The "Act of Grace"-- + Detection of Preston's conspiracy--William's departure + for Ireland--Battle of the Boyne--Battle of Beachy Head-- + Marlborough's Irish campaign--Session of 1690. + + +The elections were contested with the utmost energy of party spirit. +Both Whigs and Tories strove their hardest for the victory, but the +policy of the King's appeal to the country was justified by the success +of the latter. A Tory majority was returned to the House of Commons, and +William felt that there was now at last a fair prospect of his +effectually mediating between factions. To have replaced a party to whom +he owed everything by a party who owed everything to him was undoubtedly +a great step towards the attainment of his ends. He had at least secured +a majority who could affect no right to dictate his policy, and had +reduced those who could and did advance this pretension to a minority. +His first act was to remodel his Ministry. Halifax resigned the Privy +Seal, which was placed in commission; Danby, who had been raised at the +distribution of honours accompanying the coronation to the Marquisate of +Caermarthen, became Lord President; Sir John Lowther, First Lord of the +Treasury--not then, as now, the chief office in the Administration. +Whigs and Tories were still mingled in the Government, but no longer in +the old proportions. + +On the 20th of March the new Parliament met, and the King addressed it +in a speech in which he announced his intention of proceeding to Ireland +as soon as might be, and recommended to the prompt attention of the two +Houses the question of the settlement of the royal revenue and of the +enactment of an amnesty. In the former of these matters their action was +more conformable to sound constitutional principle than agreeable to the +King. In addition to the hereditary revenues which had passed with the +crown to William and Mary, the Commons would only agree to settle +absolutely upon the King and Queen about one third of the fiscal +revenues which had been assured to the last two sovereigns for the term +of their lives. That portion of the excise, estimated at £300,000, which +had been settled upon James II. for life, was now settled upon William +and Mary for their joint and separate lives. But, on the other hand, the +customs duties, amounting to £600,000, which had been settled for life +on Charles and James successively, were granted to the Crown for a term +of only four years. This restriction, in which Whigs and Tories +concurred, was not unnaturally displeasing to a sovereign who justly +valued himself on the ability, integrity, and thrift which made him, as +he conceived, at once the most efficient and the most trustworthy +steward of the national resources; but that he should have resented the +action of Parliament in this matter not merely as a limitation upon the +free play of his policy, but as a personal slight to himself, +instructively illustrates the very limited extent to which the +principles of the British Constitution, as we now know it, had +established themselves in the joint recognition of the sovereign and the +legislature. If there was one principle more inevitably implied in the +Revolution that William had headed than another, it was that no personal +claims of any individual sovereign could be allowed either to suspend or +in any degree to qualify the general rule of parliamentary control. Had +William contended, whether reasonably or unreasonably, that the +restraint placed on him by Parliament was more severe than needed to be +imposed upon _any_ sovereign, his position would have been a defensible +one; but his complaint, as Burnet testifies, was that the Commons were +showing an undue and ungenerous jealousy of their particular sovereign +for the time being. His claim to enjoy the same amount of freedom as his +predecessor had abused was founded simply on the fact that James was +James and that he was William; and that was obviously one of these +circumstances of which the administrators of a general rule, intended to +apply to any number of future Jameses and Williams, could not possibly +take into account. Had this general rule been recognised with anything +approaching to its acceptance in these days, it is impossible to suppose +that so clear and fair an intelligence as William's could have missed +its application to himself. + +No doubt it may have caused him some irritation to observe with what +rapidity the coalition of Whigs and Tories, which had formed for the +purpose of limiting his independence, dissolved again when that work +was done. In a few weeks the two parties were as fiercely at odds as +ever upon a Whig Abjuration Bill, the main object of which, though in +one quite indefensible clause it went far beyond this, was to impose a +test which the official Tories could not swallow, and so to drive them +from office. It was not enough that a man should have sworn allegiance +to King William; he must also expressly abjure allegiance to King James. +Who knew but that he might have taken the former oath in some +non-natural sense or with some mental reservations? And though the +answer seemed obvious that he might take the latter in the same sense +and with the same reservations, the Bill was prosecuted to its rejection +in the House of Commons by a majority of thirty-three. An Abjuration +Bill of a somewhat less stringent kind was then introduced into the +House of Lords, the debate upon which William personally attended. He +had let it be known, however, that he was opposed to the former measure, +and it is probable that he had no great liking for the latter. Anyhow, +it underwent so much mutilation in committee that its authors did not +care to persevere with it. + +The Tory majority, however, was soon after employed to an even more +useful purpose in the final accomplishment of William's policy of +pacification. Resolved that on this occasion the measure of indemnity +should not be defeated by delay, the King submitted it personally to the +Upper House in the form of an Act of Grace for political offences--a +proceeding which, according to constitutional practice, abridged its +deliberative stages in each House of Parliament to a single reading. +Introduced under such auspices, and assured of the support of a party +always dominant in the Upper House, and now possessing a majority in the +Lower, it passed without any opposition into law, and is undoubtedly +entitled to take its place among the most honourable and statesmanlike +acts of William's career. Its value as a political precedent was +scarcely capable of exaggeration even by Macaulay; and if he somewhat +inordinately applauds the enlightened clemency which it was as easy for +any brave and dispassionate foreigner to recommend as it was difficult +for English parties embittered by the mutual wrongs of a generation of +conflict to accept, it would be falling into the converse error to +insist on any serious qualification of the historian's praises. +William's great qualities were his own; they must at least divide the +credit of his high-minded and sagacious policy with the accident of his +antecedents in his own country and of his position in ours; nor would it +be gracious to attempt too nice an apportionment of the shares. + +Impatience to proceed to Ireland had probably something to do with the +expeditious form of procedure adopted by the King in the case of the +Indemnity Act. On the 20th of May it became law. On the same day William +informed the Houses that his departure for the seat of war could be +delayed no longer; and after having given his assent to an Act +empowering the Queen to administer the government during his absence, he +prorogued Parliament until the 14th of July. Then, having appointed from +the list of Privy Councillors a small interior Council of Nine to advise +the Queen, and having delayed no longer than was necessary to place in +their hands the threads of a newly-discovered conspiracy,[12] William +took a tender farewell of his wife, and set forth on the strange errand +of defeating the army, if not destroying the life, of his wife's father. +"God send," he exclaimed, "that no harm may come to him." His anxiety on +this score for the Queen's sake was painful; but otherwise, though he +belonged to that order of brave men whose spirits are fortified rather +than exhilarated by danger, he was cheered by the approach of the hour +of action. Ireland in the hands of a hostile army, the shores of England +threatened by a hostile fleet, a dangerous conspiracy only detected on +the eve of success, a formidable insurrection imminent in the country he +was leaving behind him, he could still say to Burnet--"As for me, but +for one thing I should enjoy the prospect of being on horseback and +under canvas again. For I am sure that I am fitter to direct a campaign +than to manage your Houses of Lords and Commons." + +On the 14th of June he landed at Carrickfergus, and immediately set out +for Belfast to take over the command from Schomberg. All Ulster rose +with enthusiasm to receive him, and the soldiers, whom treachery and +incompetency had been sacrificing by the hundred to the ravages of +disease and privation, took heart once more. After ten days spent in +concentrating his forces at Loughbrickland, William started southward +at the head of 36,000 men. Two days after his nephew's landing James had +left Dublin to lead his troops to Dundalk with the view either of giving +battle at that point, or merely, as has been suggested, of eating up the +country between the capital and the invading army, so as to impede its +advance by difficulties of supply. But if the former were the original +object of the movement it was soon abandoned. When William's army +approached Dundalk James fell back upon Ardee; and the former still +pressing southwards, the latter still continued his retreat, until the +pursuer was brought to a halt on the morning of the 30th of June by the +halt of the pursued, and the English and Irish armies at last looked +each other in the face across the now historic waters of the Boyne. +Lauzun, who had succeeded De Rosen in the command of James's forces, was +a courtier rather than a general, but the position he had here taken up, +behind entrenchments and with a river in front, was strategically a +strong one--so strong indeed that the veteran Schomberg doubted his +master's wisdom in resolving upon an immediate attack. But William, as +he had told the Ulster men, had not come to Ireland to "let the grass +grow under his feet." He had the advantage in numbers; the advantage in +generalship; above all, the advantage in the quality of his troops, who, +if but few of them were as good as the trained French soldiers of his +adversary, were none of them so bad as the rapparee Irish levies who +formed the bulk of James's forces. The day passed in an exchange of +shots across the river, from one of which William had well-nigh lost his +life. Having sat down to breakfast somewhat close to the brink of the +Boyne, he attracted the attention of the Irish sentries on the opposite +shore. Two field-pieces were planted opposite to him, and, on his rising +and remounting his horse, were discharged at the group of which he was +the centre. The first shot killed a man and two horses at some distance +from him; the second, better aimed, struck the river bank and grazed the +King's shoulder in its ricochet, inflicting a slight flesh wound. His +staff thronged anxiously about him, but William, in his usual dry and +stoical fashion, relieved their fears. He was unharmed, he told them, +but "there was no need for any bullet to come nearer." His wound was +dressed, and he remained in the saddle till nightfall. At nine o'clock +he held a council of war, and, against the advice of Schomberg, declared +his determination of effecting a passage of the river on the following +day. Unable to dissuade his master from the rash project, as he deemed +it, the veteran general urged that at least a portion of the army should +be sent up the stream at midnight to Slane Bridge, and crossing it at +that point, should be in readiness either to assist them in the event of +their attack being unsuccessful, by a diversion in the rear of James's +army, or, in case the river should have been carried, to cut off the +retreat of the Irish by the pass of Duleek. This plan, which, if +adopted, would probably, as one of William's biographers points out, +have ended the campaign at a stroke, was rejected: why, does not very +clearly appear. The tactics were such as might have been thought likely +to commend themselves to William, and he could apparently have well +spared the men to execute them. It is said by the biographer above +referred to that the plan was opposed "by the Dutch generals"; but it +is not impossible that the objection may have really come from the King +himself, and have been founded not on strategical but on political +considerations. William, as we know, was especially solicitous about his +father-in-law's life, and not perhaps suspecting how well it would be +cared for by its owner, whom he must have remembered to have once been +brave, he may have rejected Schomberg's scheme for its very +completeness, and because he not unnaturally assumed that in cutting off +the retreat of James's army he would be cutting off the retreat of James +himself. The too complimentary assumption that the royal general would +be last rather than first in the flight had yet to be rebutted by +events. But whatever the reason, the Marshal's plan was rejected; he +retired, chagrined and hurt, from the council, and the last night of the +old soldier's life was spent, it is melancholy to think, in displeasure +with the master whom he had so long and faithfully served. + +The morning of the 1st of July broke fair, and a little after sunrise +the English army advanced in three divisions to the attack. The right +under the younger Schomberg, assisted by the Earl of Portland and James +Douglas, was detailed for the same operation which the Marshal would +have had executed four hours earlier, and by a surprise. Having marched +a few miles up the river to Slane Bridge, and finding there but one +regiment of Irish dragoons, they easily beat them back, crossed the +bridge, and made good their footing on the southern bank of the Boyne. +Lauzun, apprehensive for his command of the pass of Duleek, had detached +the best of his troops--his own countrymen--to resist the further +advance of the English right; and the centre and left of William's army +were opposed at the lower fords by the Irish Catholics alone. Between +them and the Dutch Guards, the French Huguenots, the men of Londonderry +and Inniskillen, it was _impar congressus_ indeed.[13] Schomberg in +command of the centre took the water at the ford of Old Bridge. William +at the head of the left wing, consisting entirely of cavalry, made for a +more difficult and dangerous crossing lower down. At one point only does +the passage of the river appear to have been for more than a moment +doubtful. The Danes and Huguenots under Cambon and Caillemot were set +upon in the act of landing by the Irish cavalry under Richard Hamilton; +the former were driven back again into the water, and the latter, +unarmed with pikes, began to give ground. The conflict raged hotly for a +short space at the southern exit of the ford; Caillemot fell mortally +wounded; the whole brigade was wavering; when old Schomberg, who had +been watching the action from the northern bank, dashed impetuously into +the river. "_Allons, Messieurs!_" he cried to the Huguenots, as he +pointed to the French Catholics in James's ranks, "_voila vos +persécuteurs!_" As he uttered the words a small band of Irish horsemen +came galloping in upon the main body, the Huguenots, mistaking them for +friends, having allowed them to pass. In the confused melée which +followed the Marshal was surrounded; he received two sabre cuts on his +head, and a musket shot, said in one account to have been fired in a +fatal mistake "by one of his own men," laid him dead upon the ground. +The arrival of William, who had with difficulty forced his way across +through the strongly flowing tide, at once decided the doubtful +struggle. "Men of Inniskillen, what will you do for me?" was his +inspiriting question to the sorely pressed Protestants of Ulster; and +drawing his sword with an arm yet stiff from the wound of the previous +morning, he led his Dutch Guards and Inniskilleners against the still +unbroken Irish centre. Ulstermen and Hollanders vied with each other in +steadiness and valour; Schomberg's cavalry came opportunely to their +support; De Ginkell's horse effected as timely a diversion on the +enemy's left. Hamilton and his riders being thus driven back, the heart +of the defence was broken, and after one more brief stand at Plottin +Castle, where the Inniskilleners were temporarily checked and had again +to be rallied, and where Hamilton was wounded and made prisoner, the +defeat of the Irish army became a rout, and their retreat a flight. +James, who had watched the battle from the hill of Donore till it went +against him, had already hurried through the pass of Duleek, and was +making the best of his way to Dublin. His army, now a broken and +confused mass of fugitives, struggled after him through the defile. The +battle of the Boyne was won. + +The victory, though not so immediately decisive as it might have been if +Schomberg's plan had been adopted, was practically fatal to the Jacobite +cause. Drogheda surrendered the next day. James, who had reached Dublin +on the evening of the battle, quitted it the day after for ever. On the +3d of July he reached Waterford, whence he embarked on board a French +frigate and sailed for Brest. Lauzun and Tyrconnel collected their +straggling forces as best they could, and, evacuating the Irish capital +immediately after James's flight, marched westward with the design of +reorganising resistance at such still remaining strongholds of the +deposed monarch as Limerick and Athlone. + +William fixed his headquarters at Finglas, near Dublin, but enjoyed no +long period of unmixed satisfaction with his victory. The day before the +two armies closed upon the Boyne, the French fleet, under De Tourville, +had encountered what should have been the combined fleets of England and +the States off Beachy Head, but by the supineness or treachery of the +English Admiral the Dutch had been left to bear the brunt of the battle +alone. After hours of hard fighting they drew off with the worst of the +encounter, and Admiral Herbert, destroying some of the Dutch ships, and +taking the rest in tow, sailed up the Thames, leaving the enemy in +undisputed possession of the Channel. The news of this defeat, and of +the alarm for our unprotected coasts which it had occasioned in London, +reached William on the 27th of July at Carrick-on-Suir, where he was +encamped, after having reduced Waterford. He immediately hurried to +Dublin with the intention of embarking to England; but, reassured by +later advices informing him that the French attempt at a descent on the +Devonshire coast had proved a failure, he returned to headquarters, and +hastened to prosecute the campaign. The glory of the Boyne, however, was +destined to be somewhat dimmed before many weeks were past. At Limerick +the Celtic Irish showed, with the variability of their unstable race, +that they could fight bravely when "i' th' humour." Sarsfield, left in +command by the departure in disgust of Lauzun and Tyrconnel, approved +himself a leader of vigour and resource. He intercepted and destroyed +William's heavier battering-train before it could reach him. The +besieged of Limerick, fighting with a desperate courage, which even +their women imitated, beat back an assault of the English forces with +much bloodshed, and on the 30th of August, fearing the ravages of +disease with the approach of the autumnal rains, William raised the +siege of the city and returned to England. The campaign thus left +undecided was to be taken in hand by a greater commander than himself. +Landing in Ireland some three weeks later, the Earl of Marlborough gave +promise of his future military prowess in the remarkable speed and +success of his operations. In five weeks after leaving Portsmouth he had +taken Cork and Kinsale, and had not his fast sickening army constrained +his retirement, would probably have settled the whole Irish business out +of hand. He returned to London to receive from William, who, besides +being incapable of jealousy, was in the habit of underrating his own +generalship, the graceful compliment that "no officer living who has +seen so little service as my Lord Marlborough is so fit for great +commands." + +On the 2d of November the King once more met his Parliament, and under +more favourable auspices than ever before during his reign. The imminent +dangers to which the nation had been exposed had brought about a +temporary truce between parties; the skill, energy, and valour with +which the King had borne his part in averting them had, moreover, united +them in a common sentiment of admiration and gratitude. Thanks were +voted both to William, and separately to Mary, who had indeed well +merited them by the spirit and vigour which she had displayed during the +critical days that followed the defeat of Beachy Head. Supplies of +unusual magnitude were voted with unusual readiness, and the short +session, marked only by an abortive bill for confiscating the property +of Jacobites, passed tranquilly away. On the 5th of January William +thanked the Houses for their supplies, and assuring them, in words on +which later events were to place an awkward commentary, that he would +not grant away any of the forfeited property in Ireland till they had +had an opportunity of declaring their wishes in that matter, he +adjourned Parliament, and on the following day he quitted London to +return for the first time in two years to his native country. + +FOOTNOTES: + +[12] The conspiracy known as Preston's--a plan of inviting the French +king to land troops in England, and offering to second his efforts by an +insurrection, and, if possible, the treacherous surrender of the whole +or a part of the British fleet. Clarendon and Dartmouth, with other more +or less eminent personages, were implicated in it, including, at least +as was suspected, the Quaker, William Penn. The conspirators were +betrayed by an accomplice, and some of them sent to the Tower. Lord +Preston, a Scotch peer, a ringleader of the conspiracy, was tried and +convicted for high treason, but subsequently pardoned. + +[13] James's ungenerous reproaches of his defeated troops, and the many +French complaints quoted by Macaulay might not in themselves prove +conclusively that the Irish showed greater _natural_ cowardice, as +distinguished from mere military unsteadiness, than other undisciplined +levies. But the mere fact that with all their advantages of position, +commanding a river which their adversaries had to cross, they made, with +the exception of Hamilton's horse, so miserable an exhibition of +themselves, is a clear enough indication of personal deficiencies. It is +only fair to remember, however, that the generalship of James's army was +beneath contempt. To leave a bridge a few miles above their position +unprotected by artillery, and indeed with only a single regiment of +cavalry available for resisting its being crossed by a hostile army, is +surely the last word of tactical ineptitude. + + + + +CHAPTER IX + +1691-1692 + + Campaign of 1691 in the Netherlands--Fall of Mons--Disaffection + of William's councillors--Conclusion of year's campaign-- + Disgrace and dismissal of Marlborough--Massacre of Glencoe. + + +The night of William's arrival off the coast of Holland was wild and +stormy; but impatient to be ashore, he quitted the ship which had +carried him for an open boat, and after a night of extreme danger and +hardship, which he passed through with his usual fearlessness and +stoicism, effected a landing. His welcome among his people was +enthusiastic, and his reception by the assembled notables--electors, +princes, dukes, and ministers-plenipotentiary then assembled in +Congress--at the Hague was signally respectful. Those among them in whom +the statesman was strongest were no doubt chiefly impressed by his +successful elevation of himself to a powerful throne; while to the high +aristocratic and monarchical party among them it was sufficient that he +filled it by a title at least good enough to relieve him of the reproach +of mere high-handed usurpation. Each, after his manner, did homage to +the qualities of character, or the accidents of birth, which are +respectively implied in the two meanings of the word "succeed"; over +both alike, however, the ascendency of William was now in all +probability much more firmly established. As wielding the power of +England he was in a material sense, though not perhaps in any very +imposing degree, stronger than he had been; but the accession to his +moral prestige from his remarkable achievements, in the field and in the +council, of the two previous years was doubtless very great. The banded +enemies of the French monarch looked undoubtedly with new feelings upon +the head of their coalition. + +William addressed the Congress at its opening in a stirring speech in +which he impressed on them the necessity of union in counsel and +promptitude in action; and with such effect that the Congress resolved +to oppose Louis with an army of 220,000 men, to which William, acting as +his own war minister--a function which he assumed as constantly as that +of the conduct of foreign affairs--engaged to contribute a contingent of +20,000. While the Congress, however, were talking their enemy was +acting. A heavy blow was dealt at the confederacy by the capture of +Mons, which surrendered to the vigorous siege of the French, commanded +by the King in person, within a few weeks of the separation of the +Congress. On the news of its danger William collected a force with all +speed for its relief, but he was too late to save it; and the short +period of suspension of hostilities which followed upon this disaster he +took advantage of to return to England. His presence there was really +more needed than he at the time imagined, for it is probable that at no +time during the early years of his reign had he so much reason to +distrust the fidelity of so many of his most highly placed servants. To +review the intrigues with the exiled monarch, in which men like +Marlborough, Russell, Godolphin, and Shrewsbury were at this moment +either voluntarily engaged, or being successfully pressed to join, is +altogether beyond the scope of this volume. But it may be worth while to +interpose one observation here on what appears to me to be a common, +and, in a certain sense, a mitigating feature of all these duplicities. +They differ no doubt to a certain extent in depth of moral turpitude one +from another, just as the moral characters and motives of those who +committed them so differed. The devouring ambition which actuated +Marlborough, the disappointed Whiggism which was the dominant impulse +with Russell, gave place in a man like Godolphin to mere distrust of the +future, and anxiety to provide against the incalculable. But it is only +fair to recollect that this last, and for statesmen of that age, most +venial motive of action, most probably played a considerable part in all +their double-dealing. None of them considered William's position +assured. All perceived that he had so far failed, and all doubted +whether he would ever succeed, in winning the affection of the people. +Whether he would succeed in the experiment of governing by his factious +and deeply-divided Parliament was, to say the least of it, a question of +the gravest uncertainty; and they governed their conduct accordingly. It +is not necessary to suppose that because an individual statesman in +William's service maintained communication with James's agents with more +or less vague promises of assistance he contemplated any downright +betrayal of William's cause. In most cases his deceit was rather of that +negative sort which seeks to make to itself friends betimes of the +mammon of unrighteousness. The deceiver was anxious in the event of a +counter-revolution to stand well with the restored monarch, and +intended no further treachery to his existing master than is necessarily +involved in the attempt to serve two masters at once. + +In May 1691 William returned to Flanders taking Marlborough with him. +The day of that great soldier had not yet come, but though invested with +no military command, it should seem that he attended councils of war +where his great abilities as a general attracted the notice and +admiration of experts. In June the business of campaigning was +recommenced in the leisurely and ceremonious manner peculiar to the age, +and with that strict attention to the limits of the "season" which in +our own day is only bestowed upon the gaieties of London and the sports +of the country. From early in June until the arrival of what may be +called the "close-time," towards the end of September, the armies of +France and of the allies continued to perform their stately military +minuet to the high satisfaction of their commanders, but without +suffering or inflicting on one another any serious blows. + +On the 19th of October William arrived in England, and three days later +he opened Parliament. The circumstances under which he met the Houses +were on the whole favourable, and the mood of the Sovereign and +Legislature was one of mutual good humour. It is true that the campaign +in the Netherlands had been ineffectual, but its failure was more than +balanced by successes nearer home. Ireland had been subdued and +pacified, the navy of England had recovered its ascendency in the +Channel. The King's speech to the two Houses elicited a warm reply, and +the large supplies which he had still to demand for the prosecution of +continental warfare was granted to him without demur. Nor was the +session in other respects one of much difficulty for the King. The House +of Commons indeed renewed its complaints of the magnitude of official +salaries and fees, but, showing little or no capacity to discriminate +between legitimate remuneration for public services and mere corrupt +abuses, they naturally failed to agree upon any measure of reform. The +Bill for regulating trials for high treason--a measure destined to be a +subject of long contention between the two Houses--was introduced for +the first time this session, and, passing the Commons, underwent in the +House of Lords an amendment to which the Lower House refused to assent. +On the merits of the case it ought undoubtedly to have been adopted, but +it happened to touch the royal prerogative, and the Commons made this +the excuse for gratifying their not unreasonable jealousy of the +exclusive privileges in the matter of justiciability which were +possessed by the Peers. They showed no hesitation a little later on in +making a distinct encroachment on the royal rights by imposing the +salaries of the judges as a permanent charge upon the hereditary +revenues of the Crown without the sovereign's consent. On this Bill +William exercised for the first time his right of veto. That such first +employment of it should have been on a matter touching his own +interests, and at the same time affecting the independence of the +judicial bench, was unfortunate; but it is impossible to complain of his +exerting his constitutional authority in this case to arrest a measure +of such a kind as would not, even in our more advanced days, be +introduced without the express assent of the Crown. The "event" of the +year 1691 was undoubtedly the political intrigue, the discovery of which +led to the dismissal and disgrace of Marlborough. That indefatigable +plotter, who was still holding active communication with St. Germains, +undertook to move an address in the House of Lords requesting that all +foreigners might be dismissed from the service of the Crown. It was said +and believed that his object in doing this was to inflame the national +and professional jealousies of the country and the army against the +Dutch officers in William's service, so that in the event of William +declining to act upon the advice of his Parliament, he would find both +the people and the soldiery prepared to support him in an ulterior +design of deposing the King and placing Anne upon the throne, with +himself as mayor of the palace. The plot, however, if plot there was, +fell through; and assuming it to have been really conceived, the natural +resentment with which it inspired William would of course sufficiently +account for the disgrace and dismissal of Marlborough which followed +immediately afterwards.[14] The attempt of the half-lunatic, +half-villain Fuller to repeat the exploits of Oates, with a trumped-up +and promptly disproved charge of conspiracy against many prominent +personages, inspired doubts in the public mind as to whether there had +ever been any Scotch plot at all. + +Here, too,--that is, among the record of the events of the winter of +1691 and the spring of 1692,--seems the most fitting place to take +notice of a strange and terrible incident, which, though of little +importance from the historical point of view, could on no account be +omitted from a biography of William III. On the 13th of February 1692, +at five o'clock in the morning, was perpetrated, under circumstances of +signal perfidy and barbarity, the crime known as the Massacre of +Glencoe--the surprise and slaughter of the chief and thirty-eight men of +the Macdonalds by two companies of soldiers, who had been quartered upon +the clan for the preconcerted purpose of their extirpation, under the +command of Captain Campbell of Glenlyon. It is not necessary, and would +here be impossible, to give more than a highly condensed account of the +intrigues, amounting almost to conspiracy, among various enemies of the +ill-fated clan, which preceded the massacre. Suffice it to say that +private revenge combined with public policy to suggest the act. It was +the joint work of the Earls of Breadalbane and Argyle--hereditary foes +of the Macdonalds--and of the Secretary of State for Scotland, Sir John +Dalrymple, Master of Stair; but the order upon which this official +assumed to act was signed and countersigned by the King himself. It was +in these words: "As for MacIan of Glencoe and that tribe, if they can be +distinguished from the other Highlanders, it will be proper for the +vindication of public justice to extirpate that set of thieves." The +"other Highlanders" from whom they were to be distinguished had, in +accordance with a proclamation issued in the autumn of the previous +year, made formal submission to the Government and taken the oath of +allegiance to the sovereign before the 1st of January 1692. This, by an +accident, MacIan had failed to do. He had presented himself on the 31st +of December 1691 to the officer in command at Fort William; but, being +informed by him that he had no power to administer the oaths, the old +chief was obliged to betake himself to Inverary, to be there sworn by +the Sheriff of Argyleshire, Sir Colin Campbell of Ardkinglass, who, +although the submitted Highlander did not arrive there till the 6th of +January, consented, after some demur, to administer to him the oaths. A +certificate setting forth the circumstances was transmitted to the +Council at Edinburgh, but was there cancelled for irregularity; and the +fact of MacIan's tardy submission does not appear to have been--indeed, +we may affirm with confidence that it never was--brought to the +knowledge of the King. Acting, however, on the pretended authority of +the royal order, the Master of Stair gave directions to the military +authorities that "the thieving tribe of Glencoe be rooted out to +purpose"; adding in a later despatch to the commander of Fort William: +"Pray, when the thing concerning Glencoe is resolved let it be secret +and sudden; better not meddle with them than not to purpose;" and again, +in a still later communication: "I hope the soldiers will not trouble +the Government with prisoners." Acting on these sinister injunctions, +Captain Campbell of Glenlyon marched his men to Glencoe, and, pretending +that he came as a friend and not as an enemy, quartered them upon the +Macdonalds, by whom they were cordially received and hospitably +entertained. After a twelve days' sojourn among the clan, Glenlyon +received orders from his superior officer to proceed to his bloody work, +and at five in the morning of the 13th of February the soldiers fell +upon their unsuspecting hosts in their sleep. The massacre, however, was +less skilfully executed than it had been cunningly planned. The greater +portion of the Macdonalds, including the sons of the chief, effected +their escape; but MacIan himself, with his wife and thirty-eight of his +clansmen, including some women and children, were ruthlessly murdered. +As many more, in all probability, fell victims to the rigours of a +Highland winter in their attempted flight. In those days of slow +communication it was long before the story of the savage deed became +known, or at least before it was recognised as possessing a more +trustworthy character than the ordinary Jacobite fables of the day; and +it was eagerly caught up, of course, by the political enemies of the +King and the Government. History has acquitted William of all complicity +with the crime in the precise form in which it was committed, as indeed +it would only be reasonable to acquit any ruler possessing, we will not +say common humanity, but the common instincts of the soldier. But +Burnet's attempt to exonerate his master on the plea of having signed +the order of "extirpation" through inadvertence, and Macaulay's +half-suggestion that it was his general incuriousness in Scotch affairs +which made him Stair's unquestioning instrument in the matter, must be +alike dismissed. It was not William's practice to affix his signature to +public documents of which he knew not the purport; and the mere fact +that the Macdonalds of Glencoe were excepted by name from the submitted +clans, and with the careful proviso that the proposed measure should +only be taken against them "if they could well be separated from the +rest," seems to afford sufficient proof that to this particular matter +of Scotch administration, at any rate, his attention was specially +called. + +There is, in short, no good reason to doubt that when William signed the +order for the "extirpation" of the Macdonalds he meant them to be +extirpated. He treated his act as equivalent to the issue of one of +those "letters of fire and sword" which in those wild days of Highland +history formed a recognised instrument of police. He would undoubtedly +have been quite prepared to hear that a regiment had been marched into +the valley of Glencoe, had put the contumacious clansmen (as he believed +them to be) to the sword, and left their village a heap of smoking +ruins. As undoubtedly he was _not_ prepared to hear that a body of +soldiers had quartered themselves on the clan under pretence of amity, +and had treacherously slaughtered them at unawares. But though it is +likely enough that when he did hear of this he was disgusted with the +unsoldierly cowardice of the proceeding, we should mistake both the man +and the time in supposing that he viewed it with the horror and +detestation which in our own days it excites. He regarded it, so far as +one can judge, as a mere blundering excess of duty and nothing more. +Four years later, when an inquiry was instituted into the matter by the +Scotch Parliament, he showed no disposition to press it forward;[15] and +later on, when a commission reported that the affair of Glencoe was a +murder for which the Master of Stair was primarily responsible, he +steadily declined to inflict any further penalty on the chief culprit +than he had already suffered in his dismissal from office. Burnet's +excuse for William that he was alarmed at finding how many men it would +be necessary for him to punish for the massacre is, as Macaulay rightly +says, no justification for his screening the one criminal whose case was +so easily distinguishable from the others, and whose guilt was so much +more heinous than theirs. It is idle, in short, to deny that in the +matter of the Glencoe Massacre William incurred something of the +responsibility of an accessory after the fact. + +FOOTNOTES: + +[14] The whole affair is still surrounded with obscurity. At least half +a dozen conflicting explanations of Marlborough's fall are in existence, +and from the same hand--that of Burnet. It cannot be said that the +conspiracy theory, which Macaulay of course adopts, is in itself at all +improbable. + +[15] Macaulay, in that injudicious spirit of special pleading which is +often so damaging to his hero, says that the King, "who knew little and +cared little" about Scotland, "_forgot_ to urge the commissioners." As +if a king would be likely to "forget" an inquiry as to whether one of +his secretaries of state had or had not been guilty of murder. + + + + +CHAPTER X + +1692-1693 + + Gloomy European prospects--Campaign of 1692 in the + Netherlands--Defeat of Steinkirk--Attempt of Grandval + --Session of 1692--Place Bill and Triennial Bill-- + Campaign of 1693--William outwitted by Luxembourg-- + Defeat of Landen--Session of 1693-94--Louis's + overtures of peace. + + +Never perhaps in the whole course of his unresting life were the +energies of William more severely taxed, and never did his great moral +and intellectual qualities shine forth with a brighter lustre, than in +the years 1692-93. The great victory of La Hogue and the destruction of +the flower of the French fleet did, it is true, relieve England of any +immediate dread either of insurrection or invasion, and so far the +prospect before him acquired a slight improvement towards the summer of +1692. But this was the only gleam of light in the horizon; elsewhere the +darkness gathered more thickly than ever as the months rolled on. The +years 1692 and 1693 were years of diplomatic difficulties and military +reverses--the one encountered with unerring sagacity and untiring +patience, the other sustained with a noble fortitude. The great +coalition of Powers which he had succeeded in forming to resist the +ambition of Louis was never nearer dissolution than in the spring of +1692. The Scandinavian states, who had held aloof from it from the +first, were now rapidly changing the benevolence of their neutrality +into something not easily distinguishable from its reverse. The new Pope +Innocent XII. showed himself far less amicably disposed towards William +than his two predecessors. The decrepitude of Spain and the arrogant +self-will of Austria were displaying themselves more conspicuously than +ever. Savoy was ruled by a duke who was more than half suspected of +being a traitor. Out of materials so rotten and so ill-assorted as these +had the one statesman of the whole group to build up and maintain the +barrier which he was bent on erecting against the inroads of France. By +what incessant toil and unfailing tact, with what insistences here and +concessions there, with what appeals to the vanity of this potentate, +the bigotry of that, the cupidity of the third, and the apprehensions of +all, he succeeded in keeping them side by side and with their faces to +the common enemy it would be impossible to describe, in a manner at all +worthy of the subject, within the space at my command. Suffice it to say +that William did succeed in saving the league from dissolution, and in +getting their armies once more into the field. But not, unfortunately, +to any purpose. The campaign of the present year was destined to repeat +the errors of the last, and these errors were to be paid for at a +heavier cost. Mons had fallen in 1691, through the delays and +mismanagement of the allied armies; and in 1692 a greater fortress than +Mons was to share its fate. The French king was bent upon the capture of +the great stronghold of Namur, and the enemy, as in the case of Mons, +were too slow in their movements and too ineffective in their +dispositions to prevent it. Marching to the assault of the doomed city, +with a magnificence of courtly pageantry which had never before been +witnessed in warfare, Louis sat down before Namur, and in eight days its +faint-hearted governor, the nominee of the Spanish viceroy of the +Netherlands, surrendered at discretion. Having accomplished, or rather +having graciously condescended to witness the accomplishment of this +feat of arms, Louis returned to Versailles, leaving his army under the +command of Luxembourg. The fall of Namur was a severe blow to the hopes +of William, but yet worse disasters were in store for him. He was now +pitted against one who enjoyed the reputation of the greatest general of +the age, and William, a fair but by no means brilliant strategist, was +unequal to the contest with his accomplished adversary. Luxembourg lay +at Steinkirk, and William approaching him from a place named Lambeque, +opened his attack upon him by a well-conceived surprise which promised +at first to throw the French army into complete disorder. Luxembourg's +resource and energy, however, were equal to the emergency. He rallied +and steadied his troops with astonishing speed, and the nature of the +ground preventing the allies from advancing as rapidly as they had +expected, they found the enemy in a posture to receive them. The British +forces were in the front, commanded by Count Solmes, the division of +Mackay, a name now honourable for many generations in the annals of +continental, no less than of Scottish warfare, leading the way. These +heroes, for so, though as yet untried soldiers, they approved +themselves, were to have been supported by Count Solmes with a strong +body of cavalry and infantry, but at the critical moment he failed them +miserably, and his failure decided the fortunes of the day. After a +desperate struggle, in which they long sustained the attack of the +French household troops, the flower of Louis's army, Mackay's division +began to give way. But no effective help arrived from Solmes. His +cavalry could not act from the nature of the ground, and he refused to +devote his infantry to what he declared was useless slaughter. The +division was practically annihilated. Its five regiments, "Cutts's, +Mackay's, Angus's, Graham's, and Leven's, all," as Corporal Trim relates +pathetically, "cut to pieces, and so had the English Life-guards been +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." Bitter was +the resentment in the English army at the desertion of these gallant +troops by Count de Solmes, and William gave vent to one of his rare +outbursts of anger at the sight. We have it indeed on the authority +above quoted--unimpeachable as first-hand tradition, for Sterne had +heard the story of these wars at the knees of an eye-witness of and +actor in them--that the King "would not suffer the Count to come into +his presence for many months after." The destruction of Mackay's +division had indeed decided the issue of the struggle. Luxembourg's army +was being rapidly strengthened by reinforcements from that of Boufflers, +and there was nothing for it but retreat. The loss on both sides had +been great, but the moral effect of the victory was still greater. +William's reputation for generalship, perhaps unduly raised by his +recent exploits in Ireland, underwent a serious decline. The French were +exultant at the demonstration of his inferiority to Luxembourg, and the +victory of Steinkirk inflamed the national pride to an overweening +degree. + +William's popularity with his own army and people, however, was at this +time about to receive one of those friendly "lifts" which his more +unscrupulous enemies were continually giving it throughout his life. +Grandval, a French officer, undertook, at the instigation it is said of +Barbesieux, the French Minister, and with the connivance of James II., +to assassinate him, and set out with that purpose, accompanied by two +accomplices, for the camp of the allies. Both of these men, however, +appear, with an originality and independence of initiative not often +found among traitors, to have played him false simultaneously, yet +without any collusion with each other. Grandval had not been long in the +Netherlands before he was arrested, brought to trial before a +court-martial, and, on his own confession, sentenced to death. His +statement, attested by the officers constituting the court-martial, was +published immediately after his execution, and the world then learnt +that the dying man's meditated crime was, according to his solemn +asseveration, suggested to him by a minister then, and after the +exposure still retained, in the service of Louis XIV.; and that James +had signified to him at an interview at St. Germains that he had been +informed of the "business" on which he was setting out, and that if +Grandval and his companions rendered him that service "they should never +want." Neither the French king nor his Minister ever made any reply to +Grandval's confession; but James, though he put forth no public +disclaimer, denied on this as on other occasions that he had ever +participated in any of the schemes for killing William. Probably the +projectors of such schemes were careful never to mention the ugly word +assassination in the royal ears, so that it might always be possible for +his ex-Majesty to assume that nothing was contemplated but William's +"taking-off" in a less serious than the Shakspearean sense. Plots to +kidnap the "usurper" were almost as commonly broached as plots to +assassinate him; and it was convenient that exalted personages should be +able to persuade others, if not themselves, that they were thinking only +of seizing William's person when their humbler instruments were in +reality bent upon taking his life. + +Towards the end of October William arrived in England, and was received +with an amount of popular acclamation to which the crime of Grandval had +contributed more than his own military prowess. In a few days Parliament +met, and the King addressed the two Houses in a judicious speech, in +which he congratulated them on their great naval victory, condoled with +them on their military reverses, referred with concern to the distress +occasioned by the failure of the last harvest, and informed them in +effect that yet more money would be required for the effective +prosecution of the war. The address in reply was amiable enough, but the +Parliament, as the event soon proved, was in no very manageable mood. +The confusion of parties caused by William's perseverance in his +well-meant attempt at mixed government was now at its height, and the +state of things created was undoubtedly not favourable either to +executive or legislative efficiency. An assembly divided as was the then +House of Commons by two intersecting lines of cleavage, with its Whig +and Tory demarcation, traversed by a cross division into "court party" +and "country party," was obviously not a body likely to display much +unity and vigour. Jealousy of officialism forbade ministers to reckon on +the consentaneous support even of members of their own way of political +thinking, while on the other hand party differences prevented the +formation of a strong opposition. + +The session of 1692 was, however, fruitful both in legislative +achievement and in successful legislative effort. In this year was made +that valuation for the land-tax, which subsisted until the tax itself +was made perpetual and redeemable more than a century afterwards in +1798; and the first loan of one million sterling, contracted by the +Government in the name of a National Debt, which has now increased to +almost a thousand times that amount. But the measures with which the +biographer of William is more directly concerned were the Place Bill and +the Triennial Bill. Of both of these legislative projects I shall have +more to say hereafter. Here let it be enough to note that the former was +lost in the House of Lords by a majority of three votes; and that the +latter after passing both Houses was held in suspense by William until +just the eve of the prorogation, and then vetoed. The occasion is one of +special interest to English literature, as it was in reference to this +Bill that the King consulted Sir William Temple, whose strong advice to +his master to assent to the Bill was conveyed through the medium of his +young secretary Jonathan Swift. After making several ministerial +changes, including as the most important the elevation of Lord Somers to +the Chancellorship, William prorogued Parliament, and once more, in the +perpetual succession of the toils of war to the labours of Government, +betook himself to the Netherlands. The outlook of the continental +struggle had not improved; and the task before him, both diplomatic and +military, was as formidable as ever. He had as usual petty quarrels to +compose among the allied Powers, and wounded vanities to soothe, to +animate the energies of the lagging, and to keep an eye on the movements +of the false. The effort in which he was the least successful was the +last mentioned but one; he was unable with all his efforts to collect a +force equal to that of Luxembourg. He managed, however, to take the +field in greater strength than he had mustered on some previous years, +and as Louis had now again put himself, with the usual elaboration of +gorgeous ceremony, at the head of his army, William promised himself the +satisfaction of looking his lifelong enemy once more in the face upon a +battlefield. Louis, however, whether from personal cowardice or from +having really contracted under the influence of perpetual adulation a +sort of religious reverence for his own life, had none of William's +military ardour. He liked directing sieges, but had no taste for +commanding in pitched battles. In other words, he preferred those +operations of war in which the most adventurous of generals must +necessarily remain in the rear to those in which the most cautious of +generals may find himself imperatively called upon to go to the front. +He had hoped that the more agreeable form of warfare would be provided +for him, and that he would have an opportunity of taking Liege or +Brussels as he had taken Ghent. When, however, he found William posted +in his path with a considerable if numerically inferior army, his +martial ardour underwent a rapid reduction of temperature, and he at +once signified his intention of returning to Versailles. The +disappointment of Luxembourg, who had assured him of certain victory +over William, was aggravated by the fact that the King insisted on +detaching Boufflers with a portion of the army of the Netherlands to +reinforce the troops in the Palatinate; which movement having been +effected, he went home to Madame de Maintenon. + +Luxembourg, however, though reduced in strength, had still the advantage +over William in point of numbers, and he succeeded in further increasing +the disparity by a feint in the direction of Liege, which deceived +William into despatching more than twenty thousand men of his army to +protect that city from attack. He was thus left with only fifty thousand +men to oppose a force exceeding his own by more than half. His position, +however, on the bank of the Gette was a naturally strong one, and by +extraordinary efforts with the spade he succeeded in adding most +formidably to its strength. On the morning of the 19th of July the men +of Luxembourg's army found themselves confronted by a powerful line of +earthworks manned by a brave and steady foe. Relying, however, upon a +numerical superiority which he rightly regarded as more than +counterbalancing William's advantages of position, Luxembourg at an +early hour of the morning gave orders for the attack, and the two armies +closed in a struggle more bloody and obstinate than that of Steinkirk. +For eight hours the battle raged fiercely along the whole line, but most +fiercely round the village of Neerwinden on the English right. This, the +position of most strategic importance on the field, was disputed with +extraordinary fury. Twice did the French troops succeed in making +themselves masters of it, and twice were they driven out by the allies, +leaving their dead in heaps behind them. At last the household troops, +who had done such service at Steinkirk, were sent against this village; +it was captured a third time, and this time it was held. William +weakened his centre and left in desperate attempts to retake it, but in +vain; and at last, as the day was wearing towards the evening, the line +of the allies gave way. The French troops poured into and over the +entrenchments; the position was captured; nothing remained for the +commander of the beaten army but to arrest disorganisation and save +retreat from becoming flight. To the moral appeal of the situation +William's great nature might be trusted to respond, and it seems to have +equally stimulated his strategic capacities. The praise of his famous +opponent is sufficient testimony to his skilful conduct of the military +operation; the memory of his fiery valour was perpetuated in the +traditions of the English army. No doubt it was from some old messmate +of Roger Sterne's that the future author of _Tristram Shandy_ gathered +the materials of that vivid picture of the retreat across the bridge of +Neerspeeken which he has put into the mouth of My Uncle Toby. "The +King," Trim reminds his master, "was pressed hard, as your honour knows, +on every side of him." "Gallant mortal," cried my Uncle Toby, caught up +with enthusiasm, "this moment, now that all is lost, I see him galloping +across me, corporal, to the left, to bring up the remains of the English +horse along with him to support the right and tear the laurel from +Luxembourg's brows if yet 'tis possible. I see him with the knot of his +scarf just shot off, infusing fresh spirits into poor Galway's regiment, +riding along the line, then wheeling about and charging Conti at the +head of it. Brave! brave! by heaven! He deserves a crown!" + +With Galway's regiments, we learn from the same tradition, were those of +"Wyndham and Lumley." Talmash "brought off the foot with great prudence; +but the number of wounded was prodigious, and no one had time to think +of anything but his own safety." It is indeed pretty evident that only +William's cool heroism saved his army from annihilation. Solmes, the +_fainéant_ of Steinkirk, was left dead on the field. Galway himself, the +refugee Ravigny, was taken prisoner; Sarsfield on the other side +received a mortal wound. It was by far the deadliest battle of the whole +war, and it is difficult to understand why a blow so crushing should +have been so slackly followed up. One cannot help thinking what a French +army and a French general would have made of such a defeat inflicted +upon the troops of a continental coalition on such a battlefield some +hundred years later. But the terrible rapidity of those movements with +which, as with hammerstrokes, Napoleon was wont to drive home the nail +of victory was then unknown to warfare. Town upon town would probably +have fallen after Landen had the fruits of the victory been seized, as +they would have been at a later day. But, either through the indolence +of Luxembourg or the comparative immobility of a seventeenth-century +army, William obtained a priceless respite. He was rejoined by the +troops whom the enemy had so fatally decoyed to Liege; and three weeks +after his defeat he was once more at the head of an army stronger than +he had commanded at Landen. The danger to the allied cause was past. +Luxembourg besieged and took Charleroi for sole trophy of his great +victory, and the campaign closed for the year. + +On the 31st of October William landed in England, and prepared for a +meeting with his Parliament, to which he could hardly have looked +forward with much pleasure. He had a bad account to give and receive. +Over the whole Continent, in Spain, Germany, and Italy, as well as +Flanders, the allies had met with adverse fortune; at sea the vast +"Smyrna fleet" of merchantmen, four hundred strong, had, through the +incapacity of our naval commanders, been surprised in the Bay of Lagos +by the combined Brest and Toulouse fleets of France, and, its +imprudently reduced convoy of twenty English and Dutch sail having been +easily mastered, nearly three-fourths of it suffered capture or +destruction. His Parliament, however, met him as a matter of fact in a +commendably patriotic mood. William made no attempt to ignore the +serious losses which the nation had incurred by land and sea, though of +the former he said (not perhaps with perfect impartiality towards his +own tactical errors) that "they were only occasioned by the great +numbers of our enemies, which exceeded ours in all places"; while the +latter he described as "having brought great disgrace upon the nation." +And, admitting that the charges of the war had already been very great, +"I am yet persuaded," he added, "that the experience of the summer is +sufficient to convince us all that to arrive at a good end of it there +will be a necessity of increasing our forces both by sea and land." The +reply of the Commons was cordial, and manifested no hesitation as to +granting the increased supplies; and their patriotic spirit encouraged +William to hold his ground on a question in which the minds of the +allies were just now about to be exercised. Louis XIV., insatiable in +war as he had hitherto been, was beginning to feel that he, and still +more that France, had had enough of the struggle. Five years of +hostilities carried on in half a dozen quarters of Europe, with a +failure of the French harvest and the vintage, had almost prostrated the +country. Distress was rife in the provinces; even that most patient of +people showed signs of disaffection. Louis made private overtures to the +States-General with the intention, of course, of his proposals being +brought to the ear of William. Through the neutral King of Denmark he +signified his willingness to restore all the conquests he had made +during the present war, to renounce his pretensions to the Low +Countries, and to agree that the Elector of Bavaria should have the +Spanish Netherlands in case of the death of the King of Spain, and that +the commercial arrangements of Europe should be put on their old +footing. The great _crux_ of the negotiations, and of all negotiations +with a similar object, was, and was known to be, the question of the +recognition or non-recognition of the _de facto_ King and Queen of +England. On this question, so far as we can now judge, the mouth-pieces +of Louis gave forth an uncertain sound. The King of Denmark told the +allies that he was making efforts to induce the King of France to waive +the demand for the restoration of James; the French Ambassador hinted at +a compromise. This, it has been suggested, was that "James should waive +his rights, and that the Prince of Wales should be sent to England, be +bred a Protestant, and, being adopted by William and Mary, be declared +his heir." To such an arrangement Macaulay thinks that William would +probably have had no objection, but that he "neither would nor could +have made it a condition of peace with France, since the question who +should reign in England was to be decided by England alone." Undoubtedly +William "could" not have independently assented to a condition which, to +acquire the least validity, would have necessitated the statutory +revision of the succession settlement, as effected by the Convention and +ratified by the Convention Parliament; but there does not seem to be +much evidence that he would have assented to the condition if he could. +There is no trace of any endeavour on his part to sound the chiefs of +his parliamentary parties on the subject, and I cannot but think it far +more likely that neither in this nor in any other matter of foreign +policy was William at all disposed to share any of his discretionary +powers in his capacity of virtual Foreign Minister with his Parliament, +so long as he could obtain what he wanted from that body without +admitting it any more fully to his confidence. His rejection of Louis's +overtures, including this offer of compromise, if it was made, was +probably not dictated by any high constitutional considerations at all. +He thought, and rightly, that pacific advances made by so haughty an +enemy indicated greater exhaustion than had been suspected, and +reckoning justly that another year or two of fighting would get him +better terms still, he decided that another year or two of fighting +there should be. The supplies had been cheerfully voted him, and that +was enough. That the Parliament which had voted them had any paramount +right to decide whether they would go on voting money or accept Louis's +terms almost certainly never entered his mind. To suppose that it did is +to attribute to him a theory of the constitution anachronistic by fully +fifty years. That such a theory is more or less designedly attributed to +him in the above-quoted passage from Macaulay appears unquestionable; +and the Whig historian's anticipation of history in this respect is of a +piece with his exaggeration of the permanent significance of the +constitutional changes which fall to be treated of in the next chapter. + + + + +CHAPTER XI + +1693-1694 + + Formation of the first party Ministry--Reintroduction of + the Triennial Bill and its defeat--Of the Place Bill and + its veto--Causes of the disallowance--Macaulay's account + examined--Campaign of 1694--Death of Mary. + + +I am now to speak of one of the most important, as it is sometimes +regarded, of all the steps made under William's auspices in the +development of our parliamentary polity--a step represented as even more +influential in fixing and determining that system of strict party +government under which the nation is thriving or declining at the +present era than even the Revolution itself--the formation of the first +Ministry of the modern type. "No writer," says Macaulay in speaking of +it, "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 chance and +partly of wisdom--not however of that highest wisdom that 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 +everybody 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 these 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 these leaders, and had learned +to move like one man at the word of command." + +There are perhaps not many passages of the famous history in which its +author's love of dramatic antithesis has displayed itself in a statement +more likely to mislead the student. Because the change which took place +in the relation of Ministers of the Crown between 1693 and 1696 was a +striking one Macaulay cannot resist the temptation of describing it as +though it were a final one. In 1693 Ministers in disagreement with each +other, in 1696 Ministers in accord with each other--the suggestion of +course being that they "lived happily ever afterwards." Certainly no one +previously unacquainted with the facts would suppose from this account +of them that the first politically homogeneous Ministry was a purely +experimental one, and that the experiment was not repeated by William, +and never even attempted by his successor, under whom the old system +prevailed, though with gradual modification, throughout her reign; that +on many later occasions in our history the men in the chief offices of +the Government were to be found "caballing" and sometimes even +"haranguing" against each other; and, in short, that it was not till far +on in the next century that the idea of Ministers being men of like +political opinions "bound together by public and private ties," and +supported by a majority "arrayed in good order under them, and moving +like one man at the word of command," became uniformly and permanently +associated with the constitution. Yet this is in fact the case. The +"lower political wisdom meeting daily exigencies by daily expedients" +did not devise an arrangement calculated to endure for all time; and no +one ought to have been more surprised than Macaulay if it had. It met a +particular exigency by a particular expedient, and as that particular +exigency did not uniformly recur, the particular expedient naturally did +not at once stereotype itself in our parliamentary polity. The pure Whig +Government of 1696 attained the object of its formation, namely, to +carry out his war policy, and passed away. William's later ministries +were of a mixed character; the ministries of Anne were partly Whig and +partly Tory; and the political unity which prevailed in the Walpole +Administration was succeeded by a return to the old practice under +Pulteney. It was not, as has been said, until well on in the century +that it became an admitted political axiom that Cabinets should be +constructed upon some bases of political union agreed upon by the +members composing the same when they accept office together. + +But though it is delusive to represent a mere political experiment as +the consummation of a great constitutional change, yet an experiment by +which such change was foreshadowed cannot of course be otherwise than +deeply interesting. And such undoubtedly is the character of the +ministerial reconstruction which took place in 1693. The particular +exigency which the expedient was designed to meet is almost patent on +the face of the European situation, as it must have presented itself to +a statesman of William's views and with William's policy at heart. The +one fact that the Whigs were in favour of a vigorous prosecution of the +war with Louis on its continental theatre, while the Tories favoured the +husbanding of English military resources and the maintenance of a +defensive attitude behind our "silver streak," and under the protection +of our navy, would undoubtedly have sufficed of itself to determine +William's choice of the former party. In all other respects he probably +regarded both English parties at this as at all other times of his life +with equal indifference--if indeed one should not say with equal +aversion. He could have no love for men who, like the Whigs, regarded +him as a king of their own making, or who, like the Tories, considered +him no king, in the full sense of the word, at all. Whichever of the two +English parties were more willing to assist his efforts for a country +which he loved far better than England was virtually assured of his +favour; and though no doubt he believed honestly enough that the +interests not only of continental Europe, but of insular England, were +identified with those of the United Provinces--though no doubt he +honestly regarded Holland as only the vanguard of European and English +liberties, menaced by the insatiable ambition of Louis--yet it is +impossible to credit him, or any other mortal man in the same situation, +with the capacity of impartial judgment on any point at which the +interests of England and those of Holland might have diverged. Nor is +it, I think, unjust to add that even when the balance of English +advantage might have appeared to William himself to incline somewhat +against any contemplated course of conduct, he would perhaps have held +himself justified in proceeding from contemplation to action. He was in +all probability firmly, and one cannot say unreasonably, possessed with +the idea that England was largely his debtor and the debtor of his +country; and that she should, at least within reason, make sacrifices +for the protection of that nation, who and whose Prince had rendered +such services to her. Whichever English party showed most disposition, +or rather least reluctance, to make common cause with the United +Provinces in the defence of Dutch (and therefore of English and +European) liberties, became thereby the party of William's choice. No +doubt his gradual construction of a pure Whig Ministry was in part +dictated by a desire to secure greater stability of counsel and unity of +action in the House of Commons. No doubt his laudable experiment of +governing by means of both parties had had results with which he could +hardly have been satisfied. But he had borne for five years with the +parliamentary factiousness which that experiment had undoubtedly tended +to aggravate, and there is no visible reason, save that which I have +indicated, for his putting an end to the experiment at this particular +moment and in this particular way. He had made shift to do without a +homogeneous Ministry ever since his accession. If now he needed a +Ministry which should be not only homogeneous, but homogeneously Whig, +we must look to the exigencies of his continental policy for the cause. + +The process, however, of replacing the Tories of the Administration by +Whigs was a very gradual one, and it was not of course until it was +complete that the Whig party in the House of Commons could be trusted to +support the Administration, "right or wrong," as, without much suspicion +of satire, we may say to have now become the accepted constitutional +practice. Nottingham and the Tory Naval administrators were the first to +go, their retirement having been in the one case consequentially, and in +the other directly necessitated by the narrow escape of the latter from +parliamentary censure in respect of the late naval miscarriages. Russell +became First Lord of the Admiralty, and with him Nottingham, who, as +Secretary of State, was then responsible for the military service, was +of course unable to serve. His place, however, was not immediately +filled up, nor was it till the end of the session that any further +ministerial changes were made. And this session itself was one of +peculiar constitutional interest on other grounds. In the first place +the Triennial Bill, vetoed by William in the previous session, was +reintroduced, and met with a most unexpected fate. It was brought in +this time in the House of Commons, and passed through all its stages up +to the final one without a division. But the motion that "the Bill do +now pass" was rejected by a majority of ten. The whole affair is +involved in much obscurity, and the cause or causes of the unlooked-for +rejection of the measure must always remain matter of conjecture. +Macaulay declares its defeat to have been brought about by the +instrumentality of the expert parliamentary intriguer Seymour; and as no +House of Commons that ever lived is likely to have relished the idea of +putting a term to its own existence, it is not difficult to guess the +kind of sentiment to which Seymour might have appealed. But one point +not unworthy of notice in the matter is that the numbers voting in the +division, 146 Noes and 136 Ayes, did not together compose a very full +House. They fell short by thirty-two of the numbers who voted in the +division by which the second edition of the Triennial Bill, introduced +in, and passed through, the House of Lords, and sent down to the House +of Commons, was rejected a fortnight afterwards. In this case, of +course, the adverse majority of 197 were able to allege that they were +not opposing the limitation of Parliament, but merely resisting a +usurpation of constitutional jurisdiction on the part of the Peers. But +it should be observed that this argument does not appear to have +produced many defections from the party of the Ayes. They number 127, or +only nine short of their original strength; and assuming that these nine +votes were transferred to the Noes, it will still leave some forty new +votes to be accounted for. It looks rather as if these were the votes of +members who would have divided against the Bill if they had dared (and +as they did so soon as they got a plausible pretext for doing so), but +not daring, consented to assist in compassing its rejection by absenting +themselves from the division. + +The Place Bill, another abortive measure of this session, had a quite +different history. It was introduced in much the same shape as in the +previous year, and passed the Lower House substantially unchanged. In +the Lords, however, it underwent a material amendment. As originally +drawn it provided that no member of the House of Commons elected after +the 1st 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, while maintaining the provision +for the forfeiture of the seat, introduced words qualifying the acceptor +of office to sit in the same Parliament if again chosen as a +representative. This amendment the Commons adopted, and the Bill thus +modified, having passed both Houses, was, somewhat to the surprise of +everybody and to the disgust of many people, vetoed by the King. This +exercise of the prerogative was received with far less patience than on +the two former occasions, and for a few days a serious conflict between +the Legislature and the Crown appeared to be imminent. An address of +remonstrance was presented to William, who replied in conciliatory +language, but without holding out any hopes that his veto would be +withdrawn. Another debate of a somewhat excited character followed, but +calmer counsels than had at first found favour with the House of Commons +ultimately prevailed. A motion to prepare a new representation or +remonstrance was rejected by a very large majority, and the Place Bill +dropped. The great Whig historian's account of the matter is that the +amendment "deprived the Bill of all efficacy both for good and evil"; +but that the Commons "so little understood what they were about that, +after framing a law, in one view most mischievous"--namely, in respect +of its tending to keep the chief Ministers of the Crown out of the +House of Commons, "and in another view most beneficial"--namely, as +tending to keep subordinate officials out of the House of Commons, they +were perfectly willing that it should be "transformed into a law quite +harmless and almost useless"; and that William went out of the way to +veto this quite harmless and almost useless law, because he "understood +the question as little as the Commons themselves." + +This is not a very plausible theory; nor does one well see why Macaulay +should describe that proviso of a right to re-election--which was +afterwards adopted, and which is an essential feature of our still +subsisting Act of Anne--as depriving the Bill of nine-tenths of its +power both for good and for evil. Surely both King and Parliament might +have been credited with knowing their own business a little better than +that. It seems reasonable rather to ask ourselves whether the amendment +was such as to militate in any serious degree against the legislative +object of the Commons, or in any similar degree to disarm the objections +which William entertained to the measure. If it did neither of these +things, there was nothing paradoxical either in the Commons accepting or +the King pronouncing his veto upon the Place Bill; and it seems to me to +be clear that the amendment did neither of these things in fact. No +doubt it was desirable, from the point of view of the majority, that +office-holders should cease to sit in Parliament and become +incapacitated for re-election; and this on the abstract and general +ground that such persons were not sufficiently independent to be able to +discharge the functions of legislators with advantage to the country. +So far, then, as the general principle relating to office-holders was +concerned, the amendment was opposed to the real wishes of the Commons, +and had no reason therefore to provoke the hostility of the King. But +there was a specific ground on which the House had cause to dislike +office-holders, and a specific class of appointments to which this +ground applied; and the Bill, even as modified by the Lords' proviso, +would have limited the royal influence in respect of these appointments +to an extent quite sufficient to account both for the Commons adopting +the amendment of the Upper House, and for the King refusing his assent +to the Bill. It would obviously have dealt a heavy, though not, of +course, a final, blow to the employment of the patronage of the Crown +for the purpose of "managing" the Legislature. It would have made it a +far more difficult thing for the Court or the Government to maintain +their majority in the House of Commons by what would now be called a +corrupt use of its patronage, but what was then regarded, or getting to +be regarded--at any rate by the party in power,--as one of the +legitimate arts of rule. For whenever the Sovereign or his Ministers +endeavoured to convert a hostile into a friendly vote by the bestowal of +office upon its possessor, he or they would always have to reckon with +the possibility that the constituents of the bought member might not +care to have their interests sold along with their parliamentary +representative. They might, and on a question which strongly moved them +they very probably would, have expressed their disapproval of his +conduct by refusing to re-elect him; in which case the Government would, +of course, have found themselves at the end of the transaction with one +piece of patronage the less, but not with one vote the more. In a word, +the Place Bill, as amended by the Lords, though it would have left +untouched the power of the Crown to bring office-holders into +Parliament, would materially have impaired its power of turning members +of Parliament into office-holders; and apparently it was only because +Macaulay viewed the Bill too exclusively in its relation to the former +power, and took no account of its bearing on the latter, that he could +have regarded it as a measure in which William had no real concern, and +which he only vetoed through some vague dislike of it as affecting his +prerogative he hardly knew how. So far from this, it seems to me that +his objection may well have been a very definite one, and that he +perfectly understood, and was not at all disposed to undervalue, the +particular exercise of his prerogative which it threatened. For whatever +may have been his original or even his persistent repugnance to the acts +of parliamentary management by means of parliamentary corruption, he had +probably come by this time to regard it as among the inevitable if +disagreeable necessities of royal and ministerial policy under the +English system of party government. + +The close of this session witnessed the virtual completion of the work +of ministerial reconstruction on a purely Whig basis. Shrewsbury, who +had been offered the Secretaryship of State left vacant by the +retirement of Nottingham, after some months of hesitation accepted the +office. Trenchard, the other Secretary of State, was also a member of +the Whig party. The rising Whig financier, Charles Montague, who had +during this session devised and carried out the legislative measure for +the establishment of the Bank of England, was for this service elevated +to the post of Chancellor of the Exchequer. The Keeper of the Seal was +the Whig Somers. The Whig Russell was First Lord of the Admiralty. All +the important offices of the State were now in fact in the hands of the +Whig party, and William, now fairly embarked upon the experiment +recommended by Sunderland, made one last concession to his old policy of +balancing one party against the other by a liberal distribution of +honours among the displaced Tories. + +The military and naval operations of 1694 were marked by none of these +successes which catch the public eye, but the year was really one of +more moment to the history of the struggle with Louis than at first +sight appears. Mismanagement and treachery brought disaster on the +expedition against Brest, and the disgrace was certainly not redeemed by +the subsequent bombardment and destruction of Dieppe and Havre. But the +despatch of Russell's fleet to the Mediterranean yielded solid gains +which more than compensated for our losses in the Channel. Russell +relieved Barcelona, blockaded Toulon, brought the hostile Italian States +to reason, and compelled them, for the first time, to acknowledge +William's titles, reanimated the Duke of Savoy, who had begun to think +of a separate peace with France, and, indeed, practically brought the +Mediterranean under English maritime control. As a consequence, our +commerce, which had been declining ever since the Revolution, began +rapidly to revive. + +The land campaign, though equally undistinguished by any striking +triumph, was no less fruitful in matter for solid satisfaction. An +attempt of William to carry the war into the enemy's country was foiled, +it is true, by the skill of Luxembourg, who repulsed the advance of the +Elector of Bavaria upon French Flanders, and this check was, of course, +more important on one side than William's capture of the inconsiderable +fortress of Huy was on the other. But in Spain, where Russell's +appearance before Barcelona had compelled De Noailles to retreat; on the +Rhine, where the Prince of Baden drove back Delorges, and established +himself for the summer in Alsace; and in Piedmont, where, in spite of +the vacillations of the Duke of Savoy, the French gained no material +advantage--the course of events, particularly as contrasted with those +of the three previous years, gave ample justification for the words with +which William met his Parliament on the 9th of November. "With respect," +he said, "to the war by land, I think I may say that this year has put a +stop to the progress of the French arms." Loyal addresses were returned, +and supplies to the amount of five millions were readily voted; but, +along with the Supply Bill, the Triennial Bill was again introduced. It +was probably intimated to Parliament, through some of the private +channels of communication with the Court, that William was not prepared +to veto it a second time. The Bill was brought in on the first day of +the session, and, together with a Bill settling the Customs on the +Crown, received the royal assent on the 22d of December. November of +1696 was fixed as the limit of the life of the existing Parliament. The +Place Bill, vetoed by the King in the previous session, was again +introduced, and with exactly the same results as had followed the second +attempt to pass the Triennial Bill. This measure, it will be +remembered, after failing to obtain the royal assent in the session of +1692-3, was defeated in the Commons in 1693-4, and so also it happened +with the Place Bill. The inference which I think suggests itself in both +cases is that the exercise of the royal veto, though unpopular with the +country, was not by any means equally so with the House of Commons; that +there were many Tories who were not particularly keen on purging +Parliament of office-holders, and not a few Whigs whose zeal for the +limitation of its constitutional life was somewhat lukewarm; and that +both Whigs and Tories of this order were not sorry to be able to evade +their party obligations to vote for these measures by pleading their +unwillingness to force the King's hand, and perhaps provoke a +constitutional crisis. + +The day on which William gave his assent to the Triennial Bill was to +him a day of grave anxiety; and a year fairly prosperous abroad and +peaceful at home was to bring him ere its close the heaviest calamity of +his life. The illness of the Queen, who had been for two or three days +confined to her bed, was on the evening of the 21st of December +recognised by her physician as smallpox. A week afterwards, at one in +the morning of the 28th of December, she died. William's grief at her +loss was uncontrollable, and to all but those, and they were few, who +had penetrated the stoicism beneath which he was accustomed to conceal +deep feelings, it must have been a strange and moving sight. He remained +for days at her bedside scarcely taking food or sleep. He broke out in +the presence of Burnet into passionate outcries upon his agony at the +thought of losing her, and into fervent praises of her love and +virtues. "He cried out," says the Bishop, "that there was no hope, and +that from being the happiest he was now going to be the miserablest +creature on earth. He said that during the whole course of their +marriage he had never known one single fault in her; there was a worth +in her which nobody knew besides himself.... The King's affection was +greater than those who knew him best thought his temper capable of; he +went beyond all bounds in it; during her sickness he was in an agony +that amazed us all, fainting often and breaking out into most violent +lamentations; when she died his spirits sank so low that there was great +reason to apprehend that he was following her; for some weeks after he +was so little master of himself that he was not capable of minding +business or of seeing company." + +The depth of this affection, moreover, was not disproportioned, as is +sometimes the case in examples of conjugal devotion, to the worthiness +of the object. Even Evelyn, who was shocked as a Tory and legitimate +king's-man by the levity of Mary's behaviour (for which, however, an +explanation has been suggested) on her arrival at Whitehall after +James's flight, affirms of her that "she was such an admirable woman, +abating for taking the crown without a due apology, as does, if +possible, outdo the renowned Queen Elizabeth." The comparison, +extravagant as it may appear at first sight, is not without some +justification in the spirited behaviour of Mary on the great national +crisis which occurred during her husband's absence in the Irish +campaign. It would be absurd of course to credit Mary with Elizabeth's +gifts of statecraft, or with her intellectual capacity in general, but +in courage and composure in the presence of danger she was no unworthy +successor of that great queen. In William's passionate declarations of +his debt to her there was no extravagance at all. To him she had been +the most affectionate, dutiful, and forbearing of wives, and if her +influence over him fell short of retaining his marital constancy, she +endeared herself more closely to him on the side of the purer emotions +by her magnanimous forgiveness of his errors. It cannot but soften the +harsher outlines of our conception of William, and help to supply that +human and homely element which is too much wanting in his character, to +know that he was capable both of inspiring and reciprocating so true an +affection as this. + + + + +CHAPTER XII + +1695-1697 + + Campaign of 1695--Capture of Namur by the allies--Dissolution + of Parliament--William's "progress"--The elections--New + Parliament--Grants to Portland--The Assassination Plot-- + Campaign of 1696--Fenwick's conspiracy--Negotiations with + France--Peace of Ryswick. + + +For some weeks after the death of Mary William's grief for her loss +disabled him from the discharge of public duties. He desisted from the +personal delivery of his answers to addresses from the two Houses, and +though important domestic events--such as the disgrace and dismissal of +Sir John Trevor, the Speaker of the House of Commons, for corruption, +and the proceedings preliminary to the contemplated impeachment of +Danby, now Duke of Leeds, for the same offence--took place before the +prorogation, the King does not appear to have actively interested +himself in them, either on one side or the other. Leeds, though he +escaped the impeachment with which he was threatened, stood morally +convicted of the charges preferred against him; but William still +allowed this useful and experienced, if unscrupulous public servant to +remain at the head of the Council. The only mark of royal displeasure +with which he was visited was his exclusion from the list of +lords-justices appointed according to custom to execute the royal +authority during the King's absence on the Continent. + +On the 3d of May Parliament was prorogued, and on the 12th of the same +month William set out for Flanders to take command of the allied army +for what was destined to be the most successful of his campaigns. +Luxembourg was dead, and the command of the French army in the +Netherlands had devolved on a far inferior general in the person of +Marshal Villeroy. William was now matched against a general to whom he +was as much superior as Luxembourg had been to him, and this reversal of +conditions told speedily and signally on the fortunes of the year's +campaign. The prime object of William's operations was the retrieval of +the disastrous loss which the allies had suffered in 1692 by the fall of +Namur. On the recapture of this important fortress he now bent his whole +energies. His first movement, however, was an unsuccessful one. Athlone, +who had been detached with a large force to invest the city, was unable +to prevent Boufflers from throwing himself into it with a strong +reinforcement. The garrison now numbered 14,000 or 15,000 men, and as +its works had been planned by Vauban, the greatest military engineer of +his age, its defenders reckoned it impregnable. Leaving the main body of +his army under the Prince of Vaudemont, who, when pressed by Villeroy, +succeeded in skilfully retiring to Ghent, William, at the head of a +division, effected a junction with the forces of the Elector of Bavaria +and the Brandenburg contingent, and marching to Namur proceeded rapidly +to invest it. Its siege was then vigorously prosecuted. Cohorn, the +pupil of Vauban, and next to him in scientific reputation, was the +engineer of the allies, and, thus pitted against his master, had every +incitement to the exertion of his utmost skill. The trenches were opened +on the 2d of July, and on the 8th the outworks of one side of the city +were attacked and carried by an English force. This was the occasion on +which William is reported to have exclaimed, laying his hand on the +shoulder of the Elector of Bavaria, "Look, look at my brave English!" +The soldier in him was far nearer to them than the statesman, and amid +the smoke and tumult of that Flemish battlefield he was doubtless +stirred by emotions towards his subjects which at Kensington or +Westminster he had never known. On the 17th of the month, after a fierce +conflict in which the attacking forces were thrice beaten back and +thrice returned to the assault, the first counterscarp of the town was +carried. On the 20th the Bavarians and Brandenburgers captured another +portion of the outworks, and a few days later the English and Dutch made +themselves masters of the second line of fortifications. Before, +however, a general assault could be ordered, Boufflers, who did not +consider himself strong enough to defend the town, surrendered it on +terms of being allowed to retire into the citadel, for the possession of +which, in its turn, an obstinate struggle began. Villeroy, now before +Brussels, endeavoured in vain by a furious and destructive bombardment +of that city to compel the allies to raise the siege of the Namur +citadel, and Boufflers, in his last stronghold, soon found himself +exposed to so terrible a fire from one hundred and sixty cannon and +sixty mortars that, unless relief reached him, he felt that capitulation +could only be a question of days. At this desperate juncture Villeroy +advanced to his assistance, and on the 15th of August his army, 80,000 +strong, was sighted by the defenders of Namur. The siege of the citadel +was not for a moment intermitted; the allies stood between the fortress +they were seeking to capture and the host which was marching to relieve +it, equally prepared to strike at both. For three days the two armies +confronted each other--three days of such anxiety as Europe had not +known since the beginning of the war. Everything seemed to portend a +conflict between the two great hosts--as decisive and even epoch-making +a struggle as that which, after the lapse of a century and a quarter, +was to be fought out on that now historic plain which the French general +had skirted on his way from Brussels. But the event surprised every one +and disappointed many. On the night of the 18th Villeroy unaccountably +withdrew his army, and the fate of the fortress was sealed. Portland was +sent to demand its surrender, but Boufflers, oppressed by the tradition +that no French marshal had ever capitulated, refused to do so, and the +next day, after the bloodiest assault which the history of that time +records, the allies succeeded in capturing about a mile of the +prodigious outworks of the citadel. Boufflers requested a truce of +forty-eight hours to bury his dead, which was allowed him; and before +the expiration of the time he signified his willingness to capitulate +within ten days. He was informed by the Elector of Bavaria on behalf of +the allies that he must surrender immediately or prepare for an +immediate renewal of the attack; and thus resolutely met he yielded. On +the 26th of August the garrison marched out with the honours of war, and +the greatest humiliation inflicted upon the French king since the +commencement of his career of conquest was with much pomp and +circumstance consummated. Villeroy and his useless army had already +retired to Mons. + +The capture of Namur was the greatest event of the year, and indeed of +the campaign. It marked the turn of the tide in Louis's fortunes. From +1690 onwards it had set steadily in its favour, and reached full flood +on the day of Landen, in 1693. The following year may be fairly taken as +representing the half-hour of slack water before the ebb begins; but in +1695 it was plain to every one that the tide was running out. No other +victory was needed to demonstrate it after that of Namur, and none in +fact was won. In the autumn hostilities as usual ceased, and on the 10th +of October William, leaving his army in winter quarters, returned to +England to be received with a too rare warmth of welcome by his people. +He seized the opportunity of this burst of popular sunshine to dissolve +Parliament, which had still under the Triennial Act another year of life +to run. It has been suggested that he did so to put a stop to the +impeachment of Leeds, but though the proceeding against the Minister to +whom he owed not only his marriage with Mary, but in a great measure his +elevation to the English throne, must doubtless have given him +uneasiness, he had reason enough apart from this for determining the +life of the Legislature. "The happy state the nation was in," says +Burnet, "put all men except the merchants in a good temper; none could +be sure we should be in so good a state next year; so that now probably +elections would fall on men who were well affected to the Government. A +Parliament that saw itself in its last session might affect to be +froward, the members by such a behaviour hoping to recommend themselves +at the next election." And though Burnet only glances at the State +prosecutions as one among the causes which decided William's action, it +was with no special reference to the case of Leeds. "Besides," are his +words, "if the same Parliament had been continued probably the inquiries +into corruption would have been carried on which might divert them from +more pressing affairs, and kindle greater heats, all which might be more +decently dropped by a new Parliament than suffered to lie asleep by the +old one." + +A proclamation was accordingly issued dissolving the existing +Parliament, and summoning a new one for the 22d of November. The +interval was employed by William in an unwonted effort to conciliate the +goodwill of the electors. For the first and only time in his reign he +set out upon a royal progress through the eastern and northern parts of +his kingdom, visiting many great houses, not only of Whig, but in some +cases of Tory magnates. At each of his stopping-places the rural +population of all degrees from squire to peasant thronged to see him, +and it seems evident that he made almost pathetic efforts to please. +"The King," says Burnet, who is always an outspoken critic of his royal +master, "studied to constrain himself to a little more openness and +affability than was natural to him; but his cold and dry way had too +deep a root not to return too oft upon him." Neither at Cambridge in his +journey northward, nor at Oxford, which he took on his return, was his +visit a success. The chiefs of the younger University invited him to no +entertainment; he declined that which was offered him by the +authorities of the elder. People murmured, too, at his visit to Althorp, +and some remarked, no doubt with less truth than ill-nature, that the +only place in which he really succeeded in making himself agreeable was +at the seat of the highly unpopular Sunderland. Nevertheless, and +however little these conciliatory efforts may have contributed to the +result, the elections went generally in William's favour. In many +constituencies Tories lost their seats, and were replaced by Whigs. The +city of London, which had returned four of the former party, now sent to +Parliament four of the latter. Members were in some places expressly +instructed by their constituents to support the King, and to vote +whatever supplies might be necessary for the vigorous prosecution of the +war. The new Parliament contained about one hundred and sixty members, +of whom the greater number were known to be well disposed towards the +King. William had triumphantly performed a feat which, as attempted by +the advisers of the sovereign, has perhaps more often been attended with +disaster than with success. + +On the 22d of November, the day appointed, the new Parliament met. The +Commons again chose Foley for their Speaker, and the King made a long +speech from the throne. The demand for supplies was still very high, but +William said that as he had engaged in the present war by the advice of +his first Parliament, who thought it necessary for the defence of the +Protestant religion and the preservation of the liberties of Europe, and +as the last Parliament had with great cheerfulness assisted him to carry +on the war, so he could not doubt but that the present Parliament would +be unanimously zealous in the prosecution of it, particularly since the +advantages gained that year afforded a reasonable hope of future +success. The Commons voted an address of thanks and congratulation upon +the success of his Majesty's arms abroad, and pledged themselves to the +prosecution of the war. William returned a short but suitable answer, +and the business of the session began. The Legislature set to work to +effect a much-needed purification of the coinage, and as the Lords had +made a concession to the Commons in respect of the measure which became +necessary for this purpose, the Lower House now assented to the often +rejected amendment introduced by the Upper House in the Bill for +regulating trials in cases of high treason, which now at last became +law. But the session was not to proceed far without giving birth to an +unfortunate difference between Parliament and the King. William, with +that ill-judged profuseness of liberality towards his Dutch adherents, +by which he compromised not only contemporary popularity but posthumous +reputation, proposed to grant to Portland a magnificent estate +consisting of five very extensive manors in Denbighshire. The people of +the county forthwith set up the cry that the King intended to make this +foreigner Prince of Wales, so far at least as he could do so by +bestowing on him all that the Crown had to give in the principality. The +local gentry petitioned against the grant, and an address was voted +requesting the King to stop it. "Portland," says Macaulay, "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." It would have been better, however, if the +historian had in this place added that William forthwith made a fresh +grant to the Earl of Portland of the manors of Grantham, Dracklow, +Pevensey, and East Greenwich, in the counties of Lincoln, Cheshire, +Sussex, and Kent, together with the honour of Penrith in the county of +Cumberland, and other manors in Norfolk, York, and the Duchy of +Lancaster. As these ancient crown-lands were far apart it could not now +be said that the King was creating a principality for the favourite, but +it removed no other of the serious objections to the grant. + +Again, however, and as before, at a moment when the seldom very bright +sky of William's popularity threatened to become seriously overcast, the +sympathies of his people were revived by his enemies. The most +formidable of the conspiracies against the King's life, that known _par +excellence_ as the Assassination Plot, was set on foot, or rather +revived, as the renewal of a project which had been frustrated several +months earlier by the departure of William for the Continent--in the +autumn of 1695; and by the spring of the following year was ripe for +execution. Its leading spirit was one Sir George Barclay, a Scotchman, +who came over from St. Germains with a special commission from James, +which if it did not actually contemplate, or at least expressly sanction +assassination, was, to say the least, of a dangerously elastic +character. Among those whom he enlisted in the conspiracy were one +Charnock, an ex-fellow of Magdalen College, who had been a tool of James +II. in his high-handed violation of the statutes and liberties of that +society, Sir John Fenwick, a man of good family and connections and a +noted Jacobite agitator, and Sir William Parkyns, a Tory. The plan of +the conspirators was to lie in wait for William at a ferry on the +Thames, which he was in the habit of crossing every Saturday on his way +from Kensington to hunt in Richmond Park. To overpower the royal guards +it was necessary to raise the number of the conspirators to forty, among +whom it was tolerably certain that there would be at least one traitor. +As a matter of fact there were three. The secret was communicated by one +of these to Portland; the King, at first disposed to make light of it, +consented at last to abandon his hunting expedition on the Saturday +fixed for the assassination, and again on the same day in the following +week; and the principal conspirators were arrested. Barclay escaped to +France, and the Duke of Berwick, who had at the same time been vainly +attempting to prepare the way for a French invasion by a Jacobite +insurrection, also fled the country. William, in a speech from the +throne, made a formal announcement to the two Houses of the detection of +the conspiracy and his providential escape; and shortly afterwards +several of the conspirators, including Charnock and Parkyns, were tried +and executed. + +That the discovery of the Assassination Plot tended, as Macaulay holds, +to revive the popularity of William may perhaps have been the case; it +is at any rate certain that on the occasion of the next difference +between the King and the Legislature he proved to be fully master of the +situation. The growing jealousy entertained by the landed interest +towards the wealthy traders, who were now in ever-increasing numbers +disputing the representation of the counties and provincial boroughs +with the squirearchy, gave birth during the present session to a project +of legislation of a highly reactionary kind. A Bill was brought in for +excluding from the House of Commons every one not possessed of a certain +estate in land. For a county member this property qualification was +fixed at five hundred a year, for a borough member at two hundred. Early +in February the Bill was read a second time, and referred to a select +committee, whose deliberations are rendered memorable by the fact that +an attempt was made in the course of them to antedate an existing +provision of an electoral system by about a century and a quarter. It +was proposed to add a clause enacting that votes should be taken by +ballot, but the proposition was rejected without a division. Duly +revised by the committee the Bill was returned to the House, and it then +became apparent that the pretensions of the landed interest were to meet +with resistance from an unexpected quarter. The Universities of Oxford +and Cambridge raised their voices against a restriction which struck at +individual ability no less than at personal property, and in deference +to their protest a motion was made to except the Universities from the +operation of the Bill. This, however, was rejected by 151 votes to 143, +and a motion subsequently made to except the city of London was not +pressed to a division. The Lords, from disinclination, let us charitably +hope, to embroil themselves with the elective House on a matter of +electoral legislation, passed the Bill without any amendment, and it +came up in due course for the royal assent. It was perhaps the least +invidious of all the opportunities ever offered to William for the +exercise of the veto, and he very wisely resolved to stop the Bill. In +spite, however, of the obviously disinterested character of the +step--the measure being one which touched no royal prerogative +whatever, and which he could have no reason for vetoing save that he +believed its provisions to be opposed to the true interests of the +country--his action did not escape challenge. An attempt was made by a +section of the Tory party to carry a vote of censure upon whatever +Minister had advised him to refuse assent to the Bill. The proposal, +however, was not taken up by the more moderate members of the +Opposition, and was ultimately rejected by the very large majority of +219 to 70--a sufficiently emphatic affirmation of the legitimate +character of at least this exercise of the prerogative of disallowance. +It is of course not impossible, as has been already admitted, that the +recent revulsion of goodwill towards the King may have contributed to +the completeness of this victory, but it seems scarcely necessary to +ascribe much to the operation of any such sentiment. It is pretty clear +that the Bill for the Regulation of Elections was very doubtfully +regarded in many quarters of the House; and it is indeed rather +surprising that in a Parliament such as that returned in 1695, with Whig +influence in a distinct ascendency, it should have been possible to +carry the Bill at all. It must, moreover, be remembered that even if +there had been a more pronounced liking for it in Parliament itself, the +measure was essentially one of that character for which a shrewd member +will not venture to vote except with one eye on his constituents. +Natural as it was for a country gentleman of that day to object to a +Londoner coming down with a valise full of guineas to contest with him +his native county or his ancestral borough, it is not to be supposed +that his objection would be shared by the free and independent electors +of either constituency. To them it might appear by no means undesirable +that "local interest" should be stimulated to judicious liberality by +the competition of the open-handed outsider. + +On the 27th of April the first session of the new Parliament came to an +end, and a fortnight after the prorogation William landed in Holland, +whence he immediately set out to resume the command of the allied forces +in Flanders. His presence, however, was needed rather for purposes of +counsel than command; for, in truth, the long and desperate struggle +with Louis had now reached a stage when even the most enterprising of +captains might well be of opinion that Q. Fabius was the only general +whose tactics were worth studying. At one time it had almost become a +question which of the combatants would be the first to swoon from +exhaustion; but before William's arrival the skilful surprise and +destruction by Athlone and Cohorn of a vast magazine of ammunition and +stores, collected by the French at Groet, had virtually decided that +question against France. England, then in the throes of a monetary +crisis, was sufficiently hard put to it to support the continued strain +of the campaign; but upon France, with three armies afoot in three +hostile countries at once, the demand was far more terrible. She was +virtually too weak to attack in the Netherlands, and William probably +saw no advantage to himself in forcing an engagement. The summer passed +away in marches and counter-marches, and not a blow was exchanged +between Villeroy and the strategist who had plucked Namur out of his +grasp the year before. On the Rhine operations were equally bloodless +and indecisive. In Catalonia there had been some hard fighting, and +Vendome, who had succeeded Noailles, won a dearly-bought victory over +the Spaniards. Throughout the year, indeed, the pen was more busy than +the sword, and the straits in which Louis found himself may be measured +by the energy of his efforts to detach the allies from each other. The +wavering Duke of Savoy was at last definitively won over, his seduction, +it is said, being finally effected by assurances secretly transmitted to +Turin from the Court of Versailles to the effect that James would +inevitably be restored to his throne in consequence of the extraordinary +measures then being concerted for that purpose. The Duke, upon this, +went on pretence of pilgrimage to Loretto, and there signed a secret +treaty with France. Suspicion of his fidelity, however, soon gained +ground, and in the course of the summer he threw off the mask and +declared his intention, in accordance with a clause in the secret +treaty, of establishing a neutrality over all Italy. To this, of course, +the Emperor and the Kings of Spain and England refused to assent; but +the Duke compelled them to submission by an invasion of Milan, and all +Italian resistance to the French power was brought to an end. Louis at +the same time made separate overtures of peace to the Dutch, and with +such success that the States-General formally resolved that the +concessions of France afforded good ground for a treaty. The terms were +communicated to the other members of the confederacy, by some of the +weaker of whom they were accepted, although the Emperor and the King of +Spain united in rejecting them. + +While matters were in this condition William returned to England for the +parliamentary session, and in his speech on the 20th of October to the +two Houses he informed them that overtures of peace had been made by the +enemy. But the language in which he referred to them left no doubt of +his own views. "I am sure," he said, "we shall agree in opinion that the +only way of treating with France is with our swords in our hands." This +is not a method of treating with foreign Powers which finds equal favour +in our own day; but in 1696 there was no great difference among English +parties as to the proper mode of negotiating, at any rate with Louis +XIV. The House of Commons was as sternly distrustful of the French king +as was William himself. Protracted and burdensome as had been the +struggle, they were in no more hurry to catch at Louis's overtures than +he. In their address of reply the Commons recalled the fact that this +was the eighth year that they had assisted his Majesty with large +supplies for carrying on a just and necessary war, and that this war had +cost the nation much blood as well as treasure; but they added that the +benefits procured to religion and liberty were not dearly purchased at +this price, and they pledged themselves to provide not only the +necessary supplies for continuing the war with vigour, but also for the +payment of the public debt, which had been gradually accumulating in +consequence of the deficiencies of revenue. The close of this session +was marked by vehement debates in both Houses on the Bill for the +attainder of Sir John Fenwick. Fenwick, who had been arrested in the +previous summer, and was now lying in the Tower, endeavoured to save his +life by making a confession incriminating Marlborough, Godolphin, +Russell, Shrewsbury, and other Lords, whom he indicated as holding +communications with the exiled king. William, however, who had long been +well aware of the treason of most of these accused servants of his, +declined to notice the charges, and the accuser only sealed his own doom +by making them. A Bill of Attainder was brought in against him by the +Whigs, and, the insufficient evidence in support of it having by a +straining of the law of treason been voted sufficient, passed both +Houses after a series of hot debates in which neither political party +showed to great advantage, and Fenwick was executed. + +Early in 1697 the long struggle between France and the allies showed +signs of drawing to a close. Louis had expressed his willingness to +surrender the conquests made in the war, to restore Lorraine and +Luxembourg to their lawful owners, and to recognise William as King of +England. To these terms William and the States-General were ready enough +to assent; Spain, however, and the Emperor, raised objections; the +latter, as is suggested, on account of his desire to keep up the war +until the death of the ailing Spanish king, so that his own pretensions +to the crown of Spain might have the support of the allied army against +those of the French rival in the succession. Difficulties were +accordingly raised to delay the meeting by a Congress. The Emperor +proposed Aix-la-Chapelle as its place of meeting, and objected to the +French alternative proposal of the Hague. It was, however, finally +agreed that the representation of the allies should assemble at the +Hague, while those of France took up their quarters at Delft, a few +miles off; and that meetings between the two sets of negotiators should +take place at Ryswick, an intermediate village, in a palace belonging +to the Princes of Orange. Here accordingly they met on the 9th of May +1697, England being represented by Pembroke and Villiers, with the poet +Matthew Prior as their secretary, and France by Messieurs Harley, Crecy, +and Caillieres. Kaunitz and De Quiros were the respective +plenipotentiaries of the Empire and Spain. A Swedish minister acted as +mediator. Like other famous Congresses before and since, however, the +Congress of Ryswick made little progress; and after it had been many +weeks in session with no visible result, William resolved to open +negotiations directly with Louis through one of his generals commanding +in the Netherlands. He selected Boufflers as the most eligible for his +purpose, and Portland was directed to solicit a short interview. Leave +to comply with this request was immediately asked and obtained from the +French king, and several conferences took place between the two, +resulting, in less time than the Congress had taken to exchange powers +and settle formalities of precedence and procedure, in the settlement of +the basis of a treaty. Portland's commission was couched in highly +authoritative terms, and Marshal Boufflers's report of them shows most +strikingly how commanding an influence William then exercised in Europe, +and what lofty language one of the least assuming of men regarded it as +entitling him to use. In the French Marshal's account of his first +interview with Portland he recites an assurance conveyed to him by the +latter on the part of England, "that if satisfaction be given him on +points which concern him (the Prince of Orange) personally, he will +oblige the Emperor and the Spaniards to make peace; being satisfied for +himself, as well as the States-General, with the offers which your +Majesty has made in the preliminaries, and that if the Emperor and the +Spaniards persist in refusing to make peace, he will conclude it without +them together with the Dutch."[16] + +The required satisfaction, however, was not obtained without some +difficulty. On William's side two stipulations were made, to which Louis +hesitated to assent; and neither these nor the two counter demands +advanced by the French king were ultimately assented to in the form in +which they were originally proposed. William required first that in the +peace which was to be concluded, and by which Louis was to consent to +recognise him King of England, the French king should "promise and +engage not to favour, directly or indirectly, King James against him." +The French plenipotentiaries at the Hague had already assented to their +master engaging himself not to favour directly or indirectly "the +enemies of the Prince of Orange, acknowledged King of England." William, +however, desired that James should be designated by name. "It is +absolutely necessary," writes Boufflers, reporting Portland's words to +Louis, "for the security of the Prince of Orange, that your Majesty +should engage _expressly_ not to favour directly or indirectly King +James _nominatim_; and" (this was the second point of contention) "that +he shall go and reside at Rome or elsewhere out of France, provided he +be not near enough to keep up any party in England." Boufflers added +that though the first demand might be waived if Louis had any reluctance +to mention James by name, and that "other equivalent terms" might be +found to give the Prince of Orange the securities he desires, yet that +it was indispensable in order to remove all suspicion that the exiled +king should reside out of France. + +To both of these stipulations Louis demurred. It was inconsistent, he +held, with his honour as a sovereign, and with his duties as a host and +kinsman, to name "the King of England" in the treaty and to engage to +cause him to quit France; but he offered to agree "not to assist +directly or indirectly the enemies of the Prince of Orange without any +exception"; and Boufflers was directed to point out that the last three +words would exclude all suspicion of a restriction in favour of any +person whatsoever, and in fact amount to a virtual designation of James. +Upon this a further clause was engrafted by William, engaging Louis "not +to favour in any manner whatsoever the cabals, secret intrigues, +factions, and rebellions which might occur in England, nor any person or +persons who should excite or foment them," and to this Louis, after +modifying the expression "person or persons" which he regarded +apparently as the equivalent of "James or James's adherents," consented. +An attempt was made by William to obtain an assurance that after peace +was concluded James would be "induced to resolve of his own accord" to +live out of France; but Louis declined to yield even thus far, and the +point was waived. William perhaps believed that he could the better +afford to do so, as he proposed to make his acceptance of one of Louis's +two stipulations dependent upon his obtaining practical satisfaction on +this head. To the demand for the pension of £50,000, to which Mary of +Modena was alleged to be entitled, William had signified his +willingness to allow her any sum to which she could show lawful claim, +but it seems pretty clear that he had resolved to qualify this promise +by the condition that she and her husband should quit St. Germains. The +other demand of Louis--too arrogant to have been seriously urged, and in +all probability only put forward in formal fulfilment of a promise--was +that a general amnesty should be granted to all those who had followed +the fortunes of James, and further, that they should be restored to +their forfeited estates. To this last modest request William replied +that it was not in his power to grant it since the reversal of attainder +was a matter of statute and not of prerogative; to the former he replied +with proper spirit that "as for the general amnesty, besides that his +honour and glory demand that he shall not be forced to it by a treaty of +peace, the safety of his own person requires him not to recall +individuals to England whom he knows to be his personal enemies; but +that as soon as he shall be acknowledged King of England, and in +undisturbed possession by the treaty of peace, he will readily, of his +own free will, pardon those who seem to him disposed to return with good +faith and to live in quietness, behaving as good and loyal subjects." +The demand was of course immediately waived, and the two Powers being +now in accord, it now only remained to bring the rest of the allies into +the agreement. This, however, was not to be done in a moment. Both +Austria and Spain held back, and while they were hesitating new +successes of the French arms brought about an enhancement of the French +terms. Barcelona fell before one of Louis's armies, and the South +American Cartagena before a squadron of his fleet. Upon this his +plenipotentiaries were instructed to announce that he intended to keep +Strasburg, and that unless his terms, thus modified, were accepted by +the 10th of September he should hold himself at liberty to modify them +yet further. The combined influence of the reverse and the menace, +assisted by the steady pressure of William's determination, at length +produced the desired effect. At daybreak on the 11th of September +(1697), after a night spent in debate as to the order of procedure, the +Treaty of Ryswick was at last signed as between France and Spain, France +and the United Provinces, and France and England--the Emperor being +allowed till the 1st of November to signify his adhesion. Two days later +the news was known in England, and was there received with universal +rejoicings. William, however, regarded it with no unmixed satisfaction. +"I received last night," he writes to the Pensionary, Heinsius, "your +letter of the preceding day, and your letter of yesterday has been +delivered to me to-day by Lord Villiers. May God be pleased to bless the +peace which has just been concluded, and long continue it by His grace. +Yet I confess that the manner in which it has been concluded inspires me +with some apprehensions for the future." + +FOOTNOTE: + +[16] Grimblot's _Letters of William III._, etc., i. 8. + + + + +CHAPTER XIII + +1698-1699 + + Portland's embassy--His life in Paris--The question of the + Spanish Succession--The First Partition Treaty--General + election and meeting of the new Parliament--Its temper-- + Opposition to William's military policy--Reduction of the + army. + + +One of William's first steps after the conclusion of the peace was to +appoint a strong ambassador to Versailles. Portland was selected, +partly, as it is said, in consequence of his jealousy of the growing +ascendency of his youthful rival Keppel in the favour of William, but +much more, one may suppose, because of his force of character and +intimate acquaintance with European politics. The Ambassador +Extraordinary was intended, as he understood his mission, to hold his +head high at the Court of Louis, and he undoubtedly did so. His retinue +and equipage was of remarkable splendour, and his bearing, especially +towards those who showed any sign of disputing his just pretensions, was +marked by an unflinching dignity.[17] He protested bluntly against the +presence of the would-be assassins of William at a Court at which he +was William's representative. He pressed for the removal of James and +his adherents from St. Germains; and on both these matters Louis, while +firmly maintaining the position which he had taken up at the Brabant +negotiation, showed, nevertheless, unmistakable anxiety to conciliate +the resolute ambassador. It was not, however, to deal with points of +this kind that Portland had been sent to Versailles. Another matter of +the greatest European moment was beginning to press, and it was to +endeavour to effect an adjustment of the various conflicting interests +involved in it that William had despatched his carefully-selected +emissary to the French Court. Charles II., King of Spain and the Indies, +and last of the male line of the Emperor Charles V., was known to be +near his end, and at his death the whole of his vast empire in the two +hemispheres would pass to one or other of two powerful reigning Houses, +to neither of which its transfer would be regarded with indifference by +Europe at large. The rightful heir of Charles II., if blood alone had +had to be considered, was the Dauphin of France, the son of his sister, +who had married Louis XIV. With the consent of her husband she had at +the time of her marriage renounced for herself and her posterity all +pretensions to the Spanish crown, and her renunciation was duly recorded +in a European Treaty. Failing this line it would be necessary to go back +another generation, and the Emperor Leopold, as the son of Charles's +aunt, stood next in succession. His claim was barred by no renunciation; +but it was no more likely that Louis would quietly allow him to succeed +than that he would submit to the succession of a Bourbon. It was not to +the interests of Europe that either House should acquire such an +enormous accession of territory and power. To William it appeared at any +rate intolerable that the House of Bourbon should do so, and in order to +avert this calamity, as he regarded it, he took one of the most keenly +canvassed steps of his political life in the negotiation and conclusion +of the famous Partition Treaty. There is no likelihood that posterity +will ever arrive at accord upon the policy of this famous transaction, +but before even attempting to consider the unfavourable criticisms +passed upon it, it is absolutely necessary to note one cardinal +characteristic of its nature. To William it was avowedly and essentially +an expedient adopted, to use Aristotle's expression, κατὰ τὸν δεύτερον +πλοῦν. It was never regarded or represented by him as more than the +"second-best" thing to be done in a case where the actual best had been +rendered impracticable by circumstances beyond his own control. He knew +that Louis's moderation in the settlement of the terms of Ryswick had +been merely politic; that its main object was to put an end to the war, +and so to break up the forces of a coalition which both he and his rival +knew that it would be a hard matter to get together again; and that the +peace once concluded, Louis would have it in his power to recruit his +military strength, and prepare to take advantage of the almost daily +expected death of Charles II. of Spain to carry out his long cherished +design upon that kingdom. There were two ways of dealing with this +situation, and two only. Either England must be kept under arms, or the +King of England must "transact" with the King of France. The former of +these two courses was denied him by the jealousy of his English +subjects, and he was accordingly forced upon the latter. In writing to +the Pensionary Heinsius he deplores the fact that he cannot "remain +armed," and declares that little reliance as could be placed upon +engagement with France, it was absolutely necessary that such should be +concluded; since otherwise, he writes, "I do not see a possibility of +preventing France from putting herself in immediate possession of the +monarchy of Spain in case the King should happen to die soon." +Obviously, therefore, it would be unfair to judge of the First Partition +Treaty as though the arrangement of it had been deliberately selected by +William from a variety of more or less eligible expedients. The only +mode in which it can be logically or reasonably attacked is by +contending either that the object of the Treaty, the exclusion of the +grandson of Louis from the throne of Spain, was not a political end of +such importance as to be worth bargaining for at all, or else that the +particular bargain to which William agreed was in itself an improvident +one. + +So much premised, let us proceed to examine the provisions of this +memorable instrument. Roughly speaking they would have effected a +division of the heritage of the Spanish king between the Electoral +Prince of Bavaria and the Dauphin of France. The former was to have the +kingdom of Spain, the Spanish Netherlands, and the Spanish possessions +in the New World; to the latter were to pass the two Sicilies and +Sardinia, certain places on and off the coast of Tuscany, and the +Cis-Pyrenæan portion of the Province of Guipuzcoa. Milan was to go to +the Archduke Charles, the second son of the Emperor Leopold. Such was +the arrangement, and whether its terms were to be deemed good or bad for +England, it is at least certain that they were only obtained from the +French king after long and obstinate diplomatic haggling, first between +Portland, William's Ambassador-Extraordinary at Versailles, and the +French Ministers, and afterwards between the Count de Tallard, Louis +XIV.'s ambassador to England, and William himself. The French king was +extremely anxious to secure the Spanish kingdom for his grandson Philip, +Duke of Anjou, and was ready to undertake that the Dauphin and Philip's +elder brother should waive their rights, so as to guard against the +possibility of the French and Spanish monarchies being united under one +sceptre. As to the danger lest a Bourbon, once established at Madrid, +might hand over the Spanish Netherlands to the head of the family, Louis +was willing to protect England and Holland against that danger by +consenting that those provinces should be ceded to the Elector of +Bavaria. William met this proposal, not by a direct negative, but by +raising his terms of assent to it. Not only, he insisted, must the +Spanish Netherlands pass to the Elector of Bavaria, but Louis must give +up some fortified towns on his Flemish frontier, for the better +self-protection of the United Provinces, while England was "compensated" +on the Mediterranean and the Gulf of Mexico. Louis protested on his own +behalf against the former of these proposals, and declared that the +Spaniards would never consent to the latter. At last, unable to obtain +his way with regard to the elevation of one of his grandsons to the +Spanish throne, he assented to the only alternative arrangement which +would prevent Spain from passing to his rival the Emperor, and signified +his willingness to accept the Electoral Prince of Bavaria as the heir to +the Peninsula. The obstinacy with which the points of this treaty were +contested may be measured by the fact that the first interview between +Pomponne and Portland, in which the matter of the Spanish succession was +broached, took place on the 15th of March, and it was not till the 4th +of September that the treaty was signed. It cannot therefore be +contended that William spared pains to obtain what he considered the +best terms from Louis, and having regard to the fact that the King of +Spain was not expected to live out the year, it is plain enough that on +one assumption--that, namely, of the paramount necessity of preventing +the accession of a grandson of Louis to the Spanish throne--the +negotiations could not with safety have been protracted much longer. The +latter, in short, of the two questions which were propounded at the +outset of the examination may be said to depend for its answer upon the +former. Supposing that the exclusion of the Duke of Anjou or the Duke of +Berry from the throne of Spain was a political object worth bargaining +for at all, William cannot, I think, be charged with having paid an +improvident price for it. Nor does it appear to me reasonably arguable +that the object in question was not worth bargaining to obtain. It has +been urged by some critics of this transaction that the apprehensions +roused in those days at the prospect of a Bourbon prince succeeding to +the throne of Charles were exaggerated; that experience has shown the +fallacy of supposing that ties of kindred count for much in determining +the policy of monarchs, and that it would certainly have been better +that the Spanish throne should pass to the descendant of a French king +than that the two Sicilies and other points of vantage on the +Mediterranean should pass to a future French king himself. But those who +so argue rely too much upon general principles and pay too little +attention to the facts of the particular case. One might readily admit +that ties of kindred count for little in determining the policy of +monarchs, and at the same time retain the full conviction that the +subsistence of the relation of grandfather and grandson between the then +King of France--the man and the circumstances being what they were--and +the King of Spain would have been fraught with the most disastrous +consequences for all Europe. There could be no serious doubt that the +Duke of Anjou or the Duke of Berry would be a mere puppet with his +strings pulled from beyond the Pyrenees, and that the whole resources of +his kingdom would at once have been drawn upon by Louis to enable him to +resume the war. Had the French crown rested upon another head, or even +had there been any probability that the new occupant of the Spanish +throne would have time allowed him to outgrow the _regni novitas_ and +strike out a policy of his own, the case would have been different. But +we must judge of the situation by the light of the facts as they were. +It is beside the point to argue that because a grandson of Louis after +all succeeded the Spanish king, and after a desolating war for his +dethronement continued to reign over Spain, and his children after him, +without Europe being "a penny the worse"--it is beside the point, I say, +to argue that an arrangement which operated not amiss for Europe from +1712 onwards would have been tolerable in 1698. Philip V. was well +enough as a king of Spain, after his grandfather's power had been +brought low by a dozen more years of European war, but Philip of Anjou, +the nominee and instrument of Louis XIV., at the close of the previous +century, would have been a weapon pointed at the breast of free and +Protestant Europe. You cannot judge of the strength or keenness of a +dagger by merely estimating its power in the grasp of a failing hand. + +Doubtless, however, the complaints both contemporary and subsequent of +the provisions of the Partition Treaty were to some extent stimulated by +the circumstances of its arrangement. It is well known that William, +acting as his own Foreign Minister, carried his official independence so +far as to conduct the whole of the negotiations with Louis from +beginning to end without any reference to, or at least any effective +consultation of, a single English Minister. Somers, it is true, had been +told before the King's departure for Loo that Lord Portland had been +sounded by Louis with reference to an agreement with England concerning +the Spanish succession; but it was not till the terms were actually +arranged that William wrote to Somers for his opinion upon them, +"leaving it to his judgment to whom else he might think it proper to +impart them," and adding "if it be fit that this negotiation be carried +on there is no time to be lost, and you will send me the full powers +under the Great Seal, with the names in blank, to treat with Count +Tallard." Portland at the same time communicated directly with Vernon, +the then Secretary of State, whose consent was necessary to the imprint +of the Great Seal; and Somers himself confided the affair to several +other Ministers. But it is clear, not only from Somers's own reply to +William, but generally on the face of the whole transaction, that even +if the King's English Ministers had been competent to revise the +agreement, their suggestions would have come too late. Somers's +criticisms, though sensible in themselves, were of the most tentative +character; he excuses himself indeed that his thoughts were so ill put +together, and pleaded the known effect of the waters at Tunbridge Wells, +where he then was, in "discomposing and disturbing the head so as almost +totally to disable one from writing"; but in fact he writes with the +extreme diffidence natural to the "layman" conscious of his incapacity +to advise the expert. The commission of plenipotentiaries was then drawn +out by Secretary Vernon with the names left in blank, and the Chancellor +requested the Secretary for his warrant before affixing the Great Seal. +This, however, Vernon refused to give, and Somers thereupon sealed the +powers with his own hand, taking care, however, to keep the King's +letter as a justification or an excuse for the act. That the whole +proceeding was unconstitutional, according to the fully developed theory +of the constitution, is of course obvious, and it is only a partial and +not a complete defence of William's share in it that the theory in +question was nothing like so fully developed or so firmly established as +it is at the present day. It is all very well to say that "William was +his own Foreign Minister,"--a statement which is repeated by Whig +writers, as though it sufficed to explain any conceivable +irregularity,--but the mere fact of his being unable to complete the +legal execution of a treaty without calling in the assistance of a +Minister (or rather, as it really should have been, if the Chancellor +had not taken upon him to dispense with the Secretary's co-operation, of +two Ministers), must have been a sufficient indication to the King of +the even _then_ constitutional limits of his prerogative. The _form_, in +short, was eloquent of the _fact_. It would have been plainly irrational +to suppose that the royal treaty-making power would have been made +exercisable only under the authority of an instrument validated by an +act which none but a Minister or Ministers could perform, unless it were +intended that such Minister or Ministers should be as fully responsible +for the doings of the executive in foreign as in domestic affairs. And +assuredly it cannot be regarded as more than a colourable recognition of +this responsibility to procure the merely mechanical assent of Ministers +to the results of an international agreement, in the negotiations for +which they have not been permitted to take any part. It seems difficult +therefore to contend that William was not in this matter _knowingly_ +over-riding constitutional restrictions, under the conviction probably +that the pressing nature of the emergency, and the danger of delaying +the Spanish settlement by deliberations with the English Ministers, +sufficiently justified the irregularity. + +There was that, too, in Somers's letter which would have confirmed him +in the belief that he had done well in agreeing betimes with his +adversary. The Chancellor spoke of the "deadness and want of spirit" +universally prevailing in the nation. None, he said, were disposed to +the thought of entering on a new war; but all seemed to be tired out +with taxes, to a degree beyond what was discerned till it appeared upon +the occasion of the late elections. And, indeed, the lesson of these +elections was too significant to be missed. A great change had passed +over the mind of the country since the return of the Parliament of 1695, +and the overthrow of the Tory ascendency by an electorate thoroughly +roused to a sense of the duty of prosecuting the war, and to that end +supporting the war party. In 1698, although the Tory ranks were not very +largely recruited, nor those of the non-Ministerial Whigs materially +reduced, it is certain that many candidates on both sides had been +compelled to pledge themselves to a policy of peace and retrenchment. +The new Parliament was opened by the King on the 6th of December, and +the temper of the House of Commons was not long in declaring itself. The +Ministerial party succeeded in carrying the election of their Speaker, +Sir Thomas Littleton, but they were utterly powerless to sustain their +master's military policy against the mass of opposition which it had to +encounter. A resolution was adopted cutting down the army to 7000 men, +"and these to consist of his Majesty's natural-born subjects." To +William, whose Ministers had held out hopes to him that a force of at +least 10,000 men would be sanctioned by Parliament, and who personally +held that anything less than double that number would be insufficient, a +resolution which would not only have inexcusably weakened, in his +opinion, the defences of England, but have deprived him even of the +services of those Dutch Guards who had fought with such signal bravery +for the liberties of that country, caused natural and bitter chagrin. He +gave the royal assent to the Bill founded upon this resolution, but he +gave it in a speech through the dignified composure of which his grave +concern and disappointment perceptibly struggle. A later attempt to save +his Dutch Guards, almost pathetic in its character,[18] proved +unsuccessful; and, when, in reply to this appeal, the Commons reminded +him that he had promised in 1688 to "send all foreign troops that came +over with him back again," so narrow and ungenerous an insistence on the +strict letter of his pledge must no doubt have added to his +mortification. + +The occasion of this second attempt was an event to be shortly noticed, +which might have been thought likely to dispose the Parliament to a more +liberal view of military necessities; and William has been censured by +his greatest admirer for not having applied to the House for an increase +of the English establishment instead of striving to retain a force of +his countrymen. It is not a matter for regret, however, that this +mistake, if mistake it was, should have been committed; for it enables +us pretty accurately to measure the respective proportions of reason and +prejudice in the conduct of Parliament. So far as the motive of the +House of Commons in these military retrenchments was a purely economical +one--so far even as it implied blindness to those European +considerations which our insular position no more absolved us from +regarding in 1698 than it does to-day--this motive was, if mistaken, +respectable. Even that exaggerated dread of a standing army, which, no +doubt, had more to do with the decision of the parliamentary majority +than any theory, good, bad, or indifferent, of the probable course of +European affairs, would not deserve to be severely judged. But it is +difficult to attribute the refusal of the House of Commons to sanction +William's retention of his body-guard to any worthier motive than mere +jealousy of the foreigner. It was a step as unwise from the political +point of view, and in its bearing on the relations of sovereign and +subject, as on the moral side it was ungracious. One can well understand +that the personal affront involved in it may have been harder for the +King to bear than even the rejection of his general military demands. +Anyhow there seems no doubt that upon learning the decision of the House +in the matter of the army William did seriously contemplate retirement +to Holland, after abdicating in favour of the Princess Anne, and that +nothing but the firmness of Somers prevented him from carrying his +resolution into effect. So at least Somers himself believed; and +Somers's knowledge of the royal mind, as well as of the royal character, +was distinctly superior to that of Burnet, who treated the threat of +withdrawal as not seriously meant. And when, having schooled himself to +submit with dignity and grace to this rebuff, he found himself +churlishly denied the slight personal favour which he subsequently +requested, his bitterness of feeling was, we may well believe, +extreme.[19] The whole incident is one which no Englishman of the +present day, whatever his politics, can look back upon without a sense +of shame. + +William, it may be imagined, was not sorry to put an end to a +parliamentary session so fraught with unpleasant incidents. Nor, after +the settlement of the military question, was there much more business to +be done. Its despatch, however, was attended by one occurrence which +deserves notice here as having prepared the way for one of the gravest +political conflicts of the reign. Defeated by the manœuvre above +referred to in their attack upon the Crown grants, the country party +brought their forces to bear upon a position at once more limited and +more assailable. They demanded a commission of inquiry into the disposal +of the Irish forfeitures, and to insure the accomplishment of their +object they resorted to the questionable expedient of "tacking" to a +money Bill which they were sending to the Upper House a clause +authorising the appointment of seven commissioners to carry out the +proposed investigation. To this virtual "ouster" of their jurisdiction +over the question the Lords very naturally objected. They could not +reject the Land Tax Bill, the measure to which this clause had been +tacked, without creating national confusion; and rejection without +amendment was their only constitutional alternative to accepting +it--commissioners' clause, and all. They demurred, but ultimately +yielded, under protest; and William, not as it seems without foreboding +of future trouble, assented to the Bill with its irrelevant rider. + +It was now the month of May, and the Houses, having held uninterrupted +session ever since the 1st of January, had fairly earned their recess. +On the 4th of the month the King came down to Westminster and bade his +Parliament a cold adieu. + +FOOTNOTES: + +[17] It is with a mixture of amusement and admiration that one reads in +Grimblot (i. 220) the account he gives of one of his diplomatic +receptions: "The King had sent the Duke d'Aumont, his first gentleman of +the bedchamber, to compliment me. After this the Duchess of Burgundy +sent the Marquis de Villacerf. They then began to make new pretensions, +requiring me to go and meet him half-way down the steps, as I had done +the former nobleman, and I refused to receive him except at the door of +the antechamber, which is at the top of the stairs. This gave rise to a +lengthened dispute, during which he was standing half-way up the steps, +and I at the top, while messengers passed backwards and forwards between +us. At length I sent him word that, if this did not content him, it +would be best for each of us to go our own way, without my having the +honour of seeing him, for that undoubtedly I should do no more, after +which he came up." Upon this grandee's leaving another difficulty arose. +Portland, although he conducted him back to his carriage, did not wait +to "see him depart," on which the "conductor of ambassadors" made great +complaints. The dispute as to the proper ceremony of reception was +renewed by the next arrival, when the conductor of ambassadors behaved +impertinently in public, "obliging me," says Portland, "to treat him as +became a person who has the honour to represent your Majesty," whereat +the conductor of ambassadors was "confounded and irritated." + +[18] The message from the King runs thus: "His Majesty is pleased to let +the House know that the necessary preparations are made for transporting +the Guards who came with him into England, and that he intends to send +them away immediately, unless out of consideration for him the House be +disposed to find a way for continuing them longer in his service, which +his Majesty would take very kindly." + +[19] He writes in a letter to Lord Galway, Jan. 27, 1699: "It is not +possible to be more sensibly touched than I am at my not being able to +do more for the poor refugee officers who have served me with so much +zeal and fidelity. I am afraid the good God will punish the ingratitude +of this nation. Assuredly on all sides my patience is put to the +trial." + + + + +CHAPTER XIV + +1699-1700 + + Death of the Electoral Prince of Bavaria--Renewed negotiations + --Second Partition Treaty--The Irish forfeitures--The + Resumption Bill--Will and death of the King of Spain. + + +The political event on which William had founded hopes of re-opening the +army question has been indirectly referred to in the last chapter. This +event, as has been said, was one which might reasonably have been +thought likely to dispose the English Parliament to a more liberal view +of the military necessities of the country by bringing once more into +prominence a European danger which diplomacy had been hitherto believed +to have averted. In the early days of 1699 the Electoral Prince of +Bavaria--the youthful heir-designate of the Spanish monarchy--took his +departure from a troubled world whose confusions were to be formidably +increased by his quitting it. The English Parliament, as we have seen, +refused to allow the Prince's death to modify their policy. But William +could not afford to overlook it; for it, of course, reopened at once the +whole question which had been closed by the First Partition Treaty, and +rendered it necessary to nominate a new successor to the Spanish +kingdom and its possessions in the New World. Louis XIV. was the first +to move in the matter. He instructed De Tallard to sound William as to a +new Treaty, and, after one or two candidates had been mentioned and +rejected, it was finally agreed between the French and English +sovereigns that the Archduke Charles, the son of the Emperor Leopold, +should be the future King of Spain and the Indies, and that the +Milanese, which had been allotted to him under the First Treaty, should +go to Louis, by whom it was to be bartered for Lorraine. The arrangement +was complete in all respects except that of having received the sanction +of the Emperor by the summer or early autumn of 1699; but the rumour of +it caused a violent outbreak of indignation in Spain. The Marquis of +Canales, Spanish Ambassador at the English Court, was instructed to +protest, which he did in terms so insolently imperious that William, on +being informed at Loo of the language used by him, at once directed that +the Marquis's passports should be handed to him, and at the same time +recalled our own ambassador at Madrid. By whose means the provisions of +the new Treaty were communicated to the Spanish Court and people is not +certainly known; but considering that one of the parties to whom it had +been submitted rejected it (for the Emperor at the eleventh hour refused +to sign), and, moreover, that another party--the French king--had never, +in all probability, sincerely assented to it, there is no need for much +speculation on this point. Leopold had known and obvious motives for +disclosing it to the unhappy Charles, and Louis is more than suspected +of having private motives for doing so. But whichever of the two was the +medium of communication, Louis was indisputably the gainer. The news +aroused a powerful anti-Austrian feeling in the minds of the Spanish +people, of which the French King, who was far better served at the Court +of Madrid than the Emperor, was not slow to take advantage. From the +autumn of 1699 till the 1st of November 1700, when the few and miserable +days of Charles II. came to an end, the agents of France worked +persistently, and in the end successfully, to overcome the Austrian +leanings of the dying monarch, and to convince him that on grounds of +patriotism, no less than of legal and moral obligation, he was bound to +devise his dominions to his lawful French heir, and away from the Prince +to whom Louis had solemnly agreed with William that they should pass. + +The final consummation of these intrigues, however, was still a year +distant, and meanwhile an incident of extreme interest, and at the time +of exceeding gravity, in English politics, has to be recorded. On the +19th of November Parliament met again, and in a mood which boded ill for +the relations between the sovereign and the third estate of his realm. +The session began with one of the numerous abortive attacks made upon +Somers in the course of his distinguished career, and an equally +unsuccessful attempt was made to procure the disgrace of that perpetual +bugbear of the Tories, Bishop Burnet. But these were merely in the +nature of preliminary skirmishes; it was not long before hostilities +were opened upon William and his Ministers in a more serious way. It +will be remembered that at the close of the last session the Commons +tacked to the Land Tax Bill a clause appointing seven commissioners to +inquire into the Irish forfeitures, and that the Lords, after some +demur to the manner in which the proposal was being forced upon them, +passed the measure. The report of these commissioners, who had been +pursuing their inquiries in Ireland during the recess, was now ready, +and early in the session it was presented to Parliament, signed by four +of the commissioners, the other three dissenting. Disfigured by many +exaggerations and some wilful misstatements, this important document +contained, nevertheless, an amount of discreditable truth sufficient not +only to excite considerable popular feeling against William at the time, +but to inflict some permanent injury on his historical reputation. + +The four commissioners reported that all the lands in the several +counties in Ireland belonging to the forfeited persons amounted, as far +as they could reckon, to 1,060,762 acres, worth £211,623 per annum, and +computed therefrom to be of the capital value of £2,685,138. That some +of these lands had been restored to the old proprietors by virtue of the +Articles of Limerick and Galway, or by his Majesty's favour through +reversal of outlawries, and royal pardons obtained chiefly by +gratifications to such persons as had abused his Majesty's royal bounty +and compassion; and that besides these restitutions, which they thought +to be corruptly procured, there were seventy-six grants and "custodians" +under the Great Seal of Ireland, of which they made a recital--as, for +instance, to the Lord Romney, three grants now in being, containing +49,517 acres; to the Earl of Albemarle, in two grants, 106,633 acres in +possession and reversion; to William Bentinck, Esq., Lord Woodstock +(Portland's eldest son), 135,820 acres of land; to the Earl of Athlone +in two grants, 26,480 acres; to the Earl of Galway one grant of 36,148 +acres, etc. That the estates so mentioned did not indeed yield so much +to the grantees as they were valued at, because as most of them had +abused his Majesty on the real value of their estates, so their agents +had imposed upon them, and had either sold or let the greatest part of +these lands at an undervalue; but that after all deductions and +allowances there yet remained £1,699,343: 14s. which they laid before +the Commons as the gross value of the estates forfeited since the 13th +day of February 1689, and not restored. The commissioners went on, in +excess, as it should seem, of their attributions,[20] to report that +William had conferred the forfeited Irish estates of the late King +James, estimated at 95,649 acres, worth £25,998 a year, on his mistress, +the Countess of Orkney. Excluding this item, however, the value of the +restorations and royal grants against which the commissioners reported +amounted, it will be seen, to close upon a million sterling. + +It is very probable, indeed it may be said to be certain, that the total +value of these forfeitures was grossly exaggerated by the commissioners; +it is possible that it was to some extent wilfully exaggerated for party +purposes. The lands forfeited in Ireland during the Revolution may have +been worth "nearer half a million sterling than two millions and a +half." It does not seem to me, however, that this is a point of the +importance which Macaulay seems to attach to it. Even if it could be +shown that the proportion of the royal grants to the total forfeitures +was unduly magnified through an over-estimate of the value of the +former, I cannot see that it would affect the merits of the case. The +real gist of the charge against William in respect of these +grants--assuming, that is to say, that he was justified in making them +at all without the sanction of Parliament--is to be sought not in a +comparison of the royal benefactions with the amount of the property at +his disposal, but in an examination of their proportions _inter se_. +Even if it be shown that he distributed property of the value not of a +million sterling, but of only a fifth of that sum, it remains equally +true in either case, that more than one-tenth of his bounty went to a +single favourite who had little or no public services to show for them, +and very nearly an eighth to a young man whose only claim upon him was +that of being an able and faithful servant's eldest son. The grants to +Albemarle and Woodstock are impossible to defend, and the latter almost +impossible to explain. William had already loaded Portland with +benefits, and to the vast estates he had bestowed upon him in England +his eldest son would, in the natural course of events, succeed. On what +ground, either of justice or even of sentiment, it could have been +thought well to enrich the expectant heir of so much English landed +property with 135,820 acres of forfeited Irish land is a mystery which +has never been satisfactorily explained. As to the grant to Albemarle, +it was of even worse example. Woodstock was at least the son of a +counsellor to whom William owed much, and whom he might conceivably +have regarded himself as rewarding in the person of his heir; but what +had Keppel, a mere favourite, a young courtier with no other +recommendations but his youth, his good looks, and his complaisance, a +personality too closely recalling that of a "minion" of Henri Trois, and +which in the Jacobite libels, not wisely to be thus supplied with +colourable pretexts for their calumnies, was openly so described--what, +one cannot but ask, had Keppel done to deserve a grant of 106,633 acres +of the forfeited Irish land? Compare these two largesses, Woodstock's +and Albemarle's, with those bestowed on Lord Romney, an ex-Secretary of +State, and one of the leaders of the movement which brought William to +England; on Lord Athlone, the stout Dutch soldier who, as General +Ginkel, had given and taken many a hard knock in his master's service; +on Lord Galway, that gallant Marquis de Ruvigny who had turned the flank +of the Irish on the bloody day of Aghrim. Albemarle's, the smaller of +the two, is more than twice that of Romney, nearly thrice that of +Galway, more than four times that of Athlone. It was impossible for +William to contend in the face of this evidence that he had simply been +using the forfeited lands of Irish rebels to reward those public +servants who had done most by valour in the field, or wisdom in the +council-chamber, to establish firmly on the throne of England, the +Prince chosen by the nation; and that therefore he was merely +anticipating the national reward which would have been conferred upon +them, and virtually drawing upon one national fund in relief of +prospective charges upon another. He could not even contend, as we have +seen, that this was the _main_ use to which he had put the forfeitures; +for though wisdom and valour had come in for a share of the spoils, +their share was lamentably smaller than that which was won by mere arts +of courtiership. There is, in short, no denying the fact that while +William applied a part of this property to strictly public objects, or, +in other words, to objects to which, but for such application of it, the +public would have to contribute in another shape, he devoted far too +large a portion of it to purposes of purely private benefaction, for +which he would otherwise have had to resort to drafts upon his Civil +List.[21] + +But even this does not exhaust all the disagreeable elements in the +transaction. Had the Irish forfeitures been simply in the nature of +property "within the order and disposition" of the sovereign, and +impressed with only a constructive trust for the benefit of the nation, +the King's dealings with it would have been open to grave reprehension. +As a matter of fact, however, the property in question was the subject +not of a mere constructive trust, but of an express recognition on +William's part of its fiduciary character, and of a distinct promise +that Parliament, as representing the _cestui que trust_, should have an +opportunity of deciding on the proper mode of its application. On the +5th of January 1691 the King had closed the short autumn with a speech, +in which he assured the Houses that he would not "make any grant of the +forfeited lands in England and Ireland till there be another opportunity +of settling that matter in Parliament, in such manner as shall be +thought most expedient." This undertaking had reference to a Bill which +had actually passed the Commons for applying the Irish forfeitures, and +which only failed to become law because William, who was due at the +Congress then about to meet at the Hague, was compelled to prorogue +Parliament before the Lords had had time to consider the measure. It is +vain to contend that this promise was fulfilled, because several +"opportunities" were given to Parliament to deal with the question--in +the sense that several sessions were allowed to pass without Parliament +moving in the matter--before William himself proceeded to grant away the +forfeited lands. William was not entitled, under the circumstances, to +infer any surrender of parliamentary control over the forfeitures from +mere parliamentary inaction. Such an inference would in any case have +been a somewhat questionable one; but this was a case in which the +wishes of one branch of the Legislature had already been recorded in the +form of a distinct legislative project. The King knew, in short, that +the Commons desired to make Irish rebellion as far as possible pay for +its own suppression; he knew that they looked to the value of the +rebels' lands to afford partial relief to the English tax-payer from the +heavy imposts to which he was being subjected; and when, knowing this, +he proceeded to grant away large tracts of these lands, thus affected to +the national service, at his own will and pleasure, and in many cases to +persons whom the nation would never have consented to endow so +munificently out of its own pocket, he was unquestionably dealing with +his Parliament and people after a fashion which, in the case of a +private individual standing in analogous relation to other parties, +would be severely condemned. If he intended to ignore his promise of +January 1691 altogether, his grants were mere high-handed usurpations of +right; if he relied upon the mere "allowance of opportunities" in the +manner above mentioned as being a fulfilment of that promise, then he +was guilty of something which can only be described in modern +phraseology as sharp practice. + +Undoubtedly the House of Commons might have proceeded with more +moderation than they displayed, but the majority in that House felt that +they had a good, and what was still better, a popular case against the +King and his advisers; they knew that the country was sore with the +weight of taxation, and jealous of the amount of royal favour bestowed +upon foreigners; and they felt that they might rely upon the combined +force of these two sentiments to support them in extreme measures. +Having gained their first triumph in the committal to the Tower of Sir +Richard Levinge, one of the dissentient commissioners who had charged +his colleagues with speaking disrespectfully of the sovereign in +connection with these benefactions, they introduced the famous +Resumption Bill, a measure by which all the royal grants were +invalidated, and the whole of the alienated property resumed to the use +of the State. In the Bill sent up to the Lords from the Lower House in +1690 it had been proposed to reserve a third part of the forfeitures to +the King, and William was not without hopes that this reservation, which +would just about have covered his grants to Woodstock, Albemarle, and +the three other peers whose names have been mentioned above, would be +renewed. The imperious majority, however, refused to hear of any such +modification of their demands. They rejected a clause moved by Ministers +for reserving at least some portion of the forfeitures to the King; and +they carried resolutions to the effect that "the advising, procuring, +and passing of the grants in Ireland had been the occasion of +contracting great debts, and laying heavy burdens upon the people; that +the said grants reflected highly upon the King's honour; and that the +officers and instruments concerned in procuring and passing them had +highly failed in the performance of their duty." These resolutions were +presented to William at Kensington by the Speaker and leaders of the +Opposition. William replied that he had thought himself bound to reward +out of the forfeited property those who had served him well, and +especially those who had borne a principal part in the reduction of +Ireland. The war, he said, had undoubtedly left behind it a heavy debt, +and he should be glad to see that debt reduced by just and effectual +means. + +The answer, though undoubtedly weak enough, seems scarcely open to one +of the criticisms which Macaulay pronounces upon it[22]. It would have +been not so much injudicious as absurd on William's part to "hint" that +the Irish forfeitures "could not justly be applied to the discharge of +the public debts." His meaning could only have been that it would not be +just to the grantees to resume their property in order to apply it to +public uses. It would appear, however, that the House of Commons +understood his words in the wider and less defensible sense. The +Resumption Bill was pushed vigorously through the House of Commons, and +in order to paralyze the expected resistance of the Lords, the expedient +of tacking was again resorted to. The Bill was tacked to a Land Tax Bill +for raising two shillings in the pound for the service of the next year, +and then sent to the Upper House. It passed its second reading by a +considerable majority, but in committee and on the third reading several +amendments were carried. It is highly significant, however, that though +William was known to be very solicitous to obtain the confirmation of at +least some of his Irish grants, and though the majority in the Lords in +favour of the amendment may be supposed desirous of doing all that they +reasonably could to gratify him, the Bill as regards his dealings with +the Irish forfeitures was left untouched. The majority contented +themselves with modifying certain arbitrary and inequitable provisions +whereby the Lower House had sought to usurp jurisdiction over property +which had never come to the Crown by forfeiture at all, and to grant +estates and sums of money of their own authority, and without the +constitutional intermediation of the Crown, to certain favoured +individuals. Thus amended, the Bill was sent back to the Lower House, +where it met of course with the very reception which the expedient of +tacking was designed, in the event of its coming back with amendments, +to secure for it. Parties had been much divided as to the policy of +tacking the Resumption Bill to a money Bill; but as to the duty of +resisting an attempt on the part of the Lords to amend a Bill sent up to +them in this fashion parties were united. The amendments were rejected +_nemine dissentiente_, and at the conference which followed the Lords +were informed by the managers of the Commons that the point of +constitutional practice was too well settled to be arguable, and that +the Bill was left in their hands along with the responsibility of all +the serious consequences which must follow its rejection. The Lords +nevertheless for a time stood firm; they resolved by a majority of +thirteen to adhere to their amendments, and on the following day the +Bill was, on a second conference, returned once more to the Commons, by +whom it was once more sent back to the Lords, with an intimation that +the determination of the Lower House was unalterable. This was on the +10th of May, and the whole of that day and night the greatest public +excitement prevailed. The deadlock between the two Houses had reached +such a point that if both refused to give way, and the supplies were +consequently lost, a complete dislocation of the national business, +accompanied in all probability by dangerous popular disturbance, would +have assuredly followed. + +From this peril the country was saved at the critical moment by the good +sense and magnanimity of William. His behaviour was the more creditable +to him because not only was he eager, as has been said, for the +rejection of the Resumption Bill, but he had taken so active a part in +the attempt to bring about that result that surrender must necessarily +subject him to additional humiliation. There can be no doubt from the +account given by Burnet, whose own painful perplexity between the claims +of courtiership and patriotism increases the value of his testimony on +the subject, that William had tried hard to procure the defeat of the +measure. "The King," says the Bishop, "seemed resolved to venture on all +the ill consequences that might follow the losing this Bill, though +these would probably have been fatal. As far as we can judge either +another session of that Parliament or a new one would have banished the +favourites and begun the Bill anew with the addition of obliging the +grantees to refund all the mesne profits. Many in the Lords, that in all +other things were very firm to the King, were for passing the Bill, +notwithstanding the King's earnestness for it, since they apprehended +the ill consequences that were like to follow if it was lost." On the +5th of April he told Portland that if the Bill was not stopped in the +Upper House he should count all lost; and on the same day he declared +that he was resolved not to pass the Bill, and that the only question +was whether he should prorogue the Parliament on that day or on the +following Monday. On or before the 10th of April he had reflected more +maturely on the situation, and with that intuitive recognition of when +to give way, which only strong rulers ever seem to exhibit, and which +the masterful Elizabeth had displayed before him, he saw that the time +had arrived to yield. He took steps to have it conveyed to his adherents +in the Upper House that he desired the Bill to pass; and on the sitting +of the following day, May 11, the Lords withdrew their amendments and +accepted the Bill in its original form. Thus passed away a most perilous +crisis, and William, by the fine temper and moral courage with which he +thus submitted to perhaps the most galling rebuke ever inflicted upon a +monarch by a legislative assembly, must be admitted to have gone far to +atone for the serious error of his previous action. He was, however, and +not unnaturally, of opinion that he had done enough in the cause of the +peace, and the next day, in order to prevent the presentation to him of +an address from the Commons, praying that no person not a native, except +Prince George of Denmark, should be admitted to his Majesty's Councils +in England or Ireland, he came down and prorogued Parliament without a +speech. + +The whole of the year 1700 was destined to abound in fresh troubles for +this sorely-tried and now fast waning life. No sooner had the English +Parliament separated than the Scotch Parliament met; and their first +business was to espouse the cause of their foolish and unlucky +countrymen who had taken part in the famous "Darien expedition," and +were now under detention by the Spanish Government at Carthagena. The +notable scheme in which these men had thus lost their liberty, and so +many thousands of other Scotchmen their property, was originated by an +adventurer of the name of Paterson, and depended for its success on the +double assumption that the territorial owners of the country on which +they proposed to found a trading station for the avowed purpose of +diverting trade from these owners' hands into their own would respect +their occupancy, and that the burning heat and malarious climate of an +equatorial region would spare their lives. Neither of these assumptions +had been realised. The sun and the swamps had thinned the number of the +settlers to a handful, and this remnant had been besieged, forced to +capitulate, and expelled from the isthmus by the forces of Spain. +William promised, in reply to an address from the Edinburgh legislators, +to demand the release of the Carthagena prisoners; but when the Scotch +Parliament proceeded to pass a resolution affirming that the colony in +Darien was a legal and rightful settlement, and that the Parliament +would maintain and support the same, the King thought it high time to +put a check on their proceedings. This he endeavoured to do through the +royal commissioner by means of repeated adjournments carried to such an +extent as to cause riots in Edinburgh, and at last, by dint of +conciliatory replies to their resolutions, and possibly by +gratifications of a more substantial kind, succeeded not only in +pacifying his northern subjects on this matter, but in bringing them, +before the close of the session at the end of the year, into a state of +such loyal complaisance that, unlike their English brethren, the Scotch +legislators voted for keeping on foot the whole of the land forces that +existed in the kingdom when the session began. + +The time was now fast approaching when William's military policy was to +be justified by events. Throughout the whole of this year the struggle +of rival Powers over the fast decaying body of the unhappy Charles had +gone spiritedly forward at the Court of Madrid. The combatants, however, +were unequally matched. On the side of France were enlisted the services +of Cardinal Portocarrero, who soon succeeded in removing the King's +confessor--an Austrian instrument--and substituting another in the +French interests. The terrors of religion were then brought to bear upon +the wretched sovereign in a strength sufficient to overcome his natural +leanings in the matter of the disposition of his crown and kingdom +towards his own Austrian flesh and blood. They persuaded the unhappy +imbecile that he had been bewitched through Austrian agency; they +persuaded the populace of Madrid that the partisans of Austria had +brought about a famine. Having at last succeeded in utterly discrediting +the rival party, and working upon the superstition of Charles until he +believed that if he ousted his Bourbon heir from the succession he would +be inevitably damned, the French faction finally induced him to sign a +will appointing Philip, Duke of Anjou, universal successor to the +Spanish monarchy. A month afterwards this miserable slave of the priest +and the plotter at last obtained his manumission. He died on the 1st of +November 1700, and William then learnt for the first time that the +months of laborious negotiations spent on the successive framing of two +carefully-drawn treaties had been completely thrown away. For a brief +space of time, indeed, he remained in doubt whether Louis really +intended to play him false, but before the middle of the month of +November all uncertainty was at an end. Louis threw over the Partition +Treaty and adopted the will. The Duke of Anjou was despatched into Spain +with the historic exclamation touching the effacement of the +Pyrenees--mountains certainly not in this instance removed by +"faith,"--and William had the intolerable chagrin of discovering not +only that he had been befooled, but that his English subjects had no +sympathy with him or animosity against the royal swindler who had +tricked him. "The blindness of the people here," he writes sadly to the +Pensionary Heinsius, "is incredible. For though the affair is not +public, yet it was no sooner said that the King of Spain's will was in +favour of the Duke of Anjou, than it was the general opinion that it was +better for England that France should accept the will than fulfil the +Treaty of Partition." + +FOOTNOTES: + +[20] It was justly contended by the dissentient commissioners that these +lands had passed to William by his father-in-law's abdication in 1688, +and did not therefore come properly within the purview of an inquiry +limited to forfeitures occurring since February 13, 1689. The majority +of the commission insisted, however, paradoxically enough, that James's +Irish estates were only forfeited on, and by, his invasion of Ireland in +March of the latter year. + +[21] The grants to Lady Orkney, of which so much was made by the country +party at the time, raised a totally different question on another level, +so to speak, of political morality. These grants were made out of +William's inheritance from his predecessor; and though Macaulay is no +doubt abstractedly right in arguing that William should have pensioned +his mistress out of economies effected in his Civil List than by +alienating his hereditary revenue, the remark is from the practical +point of view somewhat of an anachronism. In our day, when the lands of +the Crown are formally vested in commissioners by the sovereign in +consideration of his Civil List at the commencement of each reign, the +quasi-national character of this property is fixed and emphasised. But +no sovereign before William's time had regarded it in this light, or +recognised any implied restraint upon alienation; and William, with +Charles II.'s grants to his numerous mistresses before his eyes, may +well be excused for thinking his gift to Lady Orkney not only +justifiable but laudably moderate. + +[22] The context of the passage, "The Commons murmured, etc., 'His +Majesty tells us,' they said, 'that the debts fall to us, and the +forfeitures to him'" (_Hist. Eng._ v. 271), appears clearly to show that +Macaulay supposed William to be speaking of the whole of the forfeitures +as not justly applicable to the public debt. His own previous words will +just admit (though not in strict grammar) of the construction that the +King was referring only to the "one-fifth part of these estates" which +had passed to deserving grantees; but if this is to be its construction, +Macaulay's favourite boast that he had written no sentence capable of +being misunderstood would have to be abandoned. + + + + +CHAPTER XV + +1701-1702 + + English indifference on the Spanish question--Death of James + II. and Louis's recognition of the Pretender--Reaction in + England--Dissolution of Parliament--Support of William's + policy by its successor--The Treaties--Accident to William + --His illness and death--Character--The Whig legend examined + --His great qualities as man and ruler--Our debt to him. + + + +The insensibility of Englishmen to a danger which weighed heavily on the +mind of William was exactly matched by his own indifference to one which +appeared extremely serious to them. William dreaded the idea of a +Bourbon reigning at Madrid, but he saw no very grave objection, as the +two treaties showed, to Naples and Sicily passing into French hands. +With his English subjects the exact converse was the case. They strongly +deprecated the assignment of the Mediterranean possessions of the +Spaniard to the Dauphin; but they were undisturbed by the sight of the +Duke of Anjou seating himself on the Spanish throne. It has been said +that on their own principles they ought to have disliked the will even +more than the Partition Treaties, because the former document, in +devising _all_ the possessions of Spain to the Duke of Anjou, "gave +precisely the same advantages to France on the Mediterranean" as she +would have obtained under the Treaties. But this argument obviously +begs the whole question against the English view by assigning to the +word "France" a meaning which it was of the essence of that view to +repudiate. The very gist of the English case was that "France" and "the +second son of the French Dauphin barred from the succession to the +French Crown" were not convertible terms. Had Englishmen in general so +regarded them, they would perhaps have been as jealous of the Duke of +Anjou's succession to the Spanish throne as was William himself. They +held, however,--whether rightly or wrongly, and I have already stated my +reason for thinking that at the time and in the circumstances they were +wrong--that the elevation of Louis's grandson to the Spanish throne did +not mean the "solidarity" of France and Spain.[23] But while the Duke of +Anjou, considered as the owner of the two Sicilies, did not in their +opinion stand for "France," the Dauphin, who was to have had them under +the Partition Treaties, undeniably did. The heir to the Crown of France +of course is France, not as a matter of opinion, but as a matter of +fact. The English view therefore, however mistaken on the point of +policy, was unassailable on the ground of logic; and its inherent +plausibility, in addition to the national dissatisfaction with the +manner in which the Treaties had been negotiated, would, in all +probability, have made it impossible for William to carry the country +with him in a war policy directed against France. + +But just as, under a discharge from an electric battery, two repugnant +chemical compounds will sometimes rush into sudden combination, so at +this juncture the King and the nation were instantaneously united by the +shock of a gross affront. The hand that liberated the uniting fluid was +that of the Christian king. On the 16th of September 1701 James II. +breathed his last at St. Germains, and, obedient to one of those +impulses, half-chivalrous, half-arrogant, which so often determined his +policy, Louis XIV. declared his recognition of the Prince of Wales as +_de jure_ King of England. No more timely and effective assistance to +the policy of its _de facto_ king could possibly have been rendered. Its +effect upon English public opinion was instantaneous; and when William +returned from Holland on the 4th of November, he found the country in +the temper in which he could most have wished it to be. Still he +hesitated for a while as to whether or not he should dissolve +Parliament. Sunderland, for whose astuteness and profound knowledge of +English politics William entertained a respect unqualified, as was usual +with that cool and cynical observer of men, by any repugnance he might +have felt for the ex-Minister's political profligacy, had been consulted +by him on this point through Somers both before and since the death of +James; and this sagacious counsellor had urgently recommended a +dissolution, predicting that it would result in a signal triumph of the +Whigs. On the 7th of November William laid the question before his Privy +Council, who were divided in opinion, and, acting on his own judgment, +he then determined to dissolve. On the 11th of the month the royal +proclamation to that effect was issued, and the new Parliament summoned +to meet on the 31st of December. The result did not, indeed, completely +bear out Sunderland's prediction, but it proved that a marked change had +taken place in the opinion of the country; for, though the Tories +managed still to hold their own in the smaller boroughs, the Whigs +carried most of the counties and great towns. Their opponents, however, +were strong enough to re-elect Harley to the Speakership, his nomination +being seconded by his afterwards yet more famous political ally, Henry +St. John, the future Lord Bolingbroke. William addressed the Houses in a +speech of unusual length and earnestness, in which he recalled the "high +indignity" offered to himself and the nation by Louis's recognition of +the pretended Prince of Wales as King of England, and the dangers with +which England and Europe were threatened by the elevation of his +grandson to the Spanish throne. To obviate these dangers he had, he told +them, concluded several alliances, and treaties for the conclusion of +others were still pending. He went on to remind them that the eyes of +all Europe were upon this Parliament, and "all matters at a standstill +until their resolution was known. Therefore," said he, "no time ought to +be lost; you have an opportunity, by God's blessing, to secure to you +and your posterity the quiet enjoyment of your religion and liberties, +if you are not wanting to yourselves, but will exert the ancient vigour +of the English nation; but I tell you plainly my opinion is, if you do +not lay hold on this occasion you have no reason to hope for another." +He concluded with an exhortation, almost passionate for him, to lay +aside "the unhappy fatal animosities" which divided and weakened them. +"Let me conjure you to disappoint the only hopes of our enemies by your +unanimity. I have shown, and will always show, how desirous I am to be +the common father of my people; do you in like manner lay aside parties +and divisions; let there be no other distinction heard of among us in +future but of those who are for the Protestant religion and the present +Establishment, and of those who mean a Popish prince and a French +Government." + +This stirring speech produced its due effect. Opposition in +Parliament--in the country it was already inaudible--was completely +silenced. The two Houses sent up addresses assuring the King of their +firm resolve to defend the succession against the pretended Prince of +Wales and all other pretenders whatsoever. The Commons declared +independently--in those days addresses from the two Houses were not as +now identical in terms--that they would to the utmost of their power +enable his Majesty to make good all such alliances as he had made--an +omission from the address of the Upper House which their Lordships +subsequently supplied. Nor did the goodwill of Parliament expend itself +in words. The Commons accepted without a word of protest the four +treaties constituting the new Grand Alliance, though the inequality of +some of their conditions as regarded England, and the self-seeking +motives which actuated one at least of their continental signatories, +were apparent on the face of them. The votes of supply were passed +unanimously, and ere the Parliament had well completed the first +fortnight of its existence a Bill of Attainder against the Prince of +Wales--in which the Lords endeavoured, but in vain, to include Mary of +Modena--had passed both Houses. But the King's assent to this, as also +to an Abjuration Bill directed to the same object, had to be given by +commission; for William was now already sickening to his death. His +always feeble health had become feebler during the winter; his constant +asthma had told heavily upon the condition of his lungs; his legs had +swollen to an extent which led his doctors, though erroneously it would +seem, to suspect dropsy; he had, in fact, arrived at that state of body +in which any accident might be fatal. On Saturday, the 21st of February, +he set out from Kensington on horseback to hunt, according to his weekly +custom, at Hampton Court. On the road his horse stumbled over a +molehill,[24] and fell with his rider, who fractured his right +collar-bone. William was taken to Hampton Court, where the bone was set, +and the surgeon, finding him feverish, recommended bleeding. This he +declined, and, contrary to advice, insisted on returning that evening to +Kensington, where it appeared that the setting of the bone had been +displaced by the motion of the carriage, and the operation had to be +repeated. William slept well, and for a few days no signs of mischief +appeared. But, as was afterwards shown by the autopsy, the fall from his +horse had violently detached a diseased portion of his lungs from its +adhesion to the walls of the thoracic cavity, and this had set up +pulmonary inflammation. On the 28th of February he found himself unable +to attend Parliament in person, and accordingly conveyed to the Houses +by way of message his last recommendation of a project which, ever +since the beginning of his reign, he had had much at heart--that, +namely, of effecting a legislative union between England and Scotland. +On the next day alarming symptoms appeared. The assent to the Prince of +Wales's Attainder Bill was given by commission, and a week later, on the +7th of March, when it became necessary to issue another commission for a +similar purpose, William was past the power of subscribing the +sign-manual, which had to be affixed by a stamp. "_Je tire vers ma +fin_," he murmured to Albemarle, who had arrived from Holland the same +night; and, as the perversity of fate had willed it, he who had from +boyhood sought death everywhere, had not for years perhaps been so +little prepared to meet it. "Sometimes he would have been glad, he told +Portland, to have been delivered out of all his troubles, but he +confessed now he saw another scene, and could wish to live a little +longer." It was another scene indeed--the whole web of his Spanish +policy unravelled, his great enemy once more powerful for mischief, the +whole work of his life to do again! + +He lived through the night, but that was all. Burnet and Tillotson had +gone to him that morning and did not quit him till he died. The +Archbishop prayed with him some time, but he was then so weak that he +could scarcely articulate. "About five o'clock on Saturday morning he +desired the Sacrament, and went through the office with great appearance +of seriousness, but could not express himself; when this was done he +called for the Earl of Albemarle and gave him a charge to take care of +his papers. He thanked M. Auverquerque for his long and faithful +services. He took leave of the Duke of Ormond, and called for the Earl +of Portland, but before he came his voice quite failed; so he took him +by the hand and carried it to his heart with great tenderness. Between +seven and eight o'clock the rattle began; the commendatory prayer was +said for him, and as it ended he died." + +More than one hundred and eighty years have passed since that morning; +but though the fierce political controversies which raged around the +person and character of the dead man, leaving, perhaps, no quality but +his courage unassailed, have long since subsided, some into utter +silence, others into moderation, it is impossible to say that their +disturbing force is altogether spent. A faint echo from those furious +clamours may still be heard mingling with the voice of History; a ripple +from those distant billows still breaks the mirror of her judgment. It +could hardly be otherwise. The principles of which William was in part +the voluntary and in part the unchoosing champion have triumphed so +completely that they find nowadays no avowed opponent, and scarcely even +any secret enemy; but it was William's destiny to have been identified +in the promotion and defence of them with an English political party +whose many excellent qualities as statesmen and citizens have been +always associated with a moral and intellectual temper which, for a +century and a half, has offered a standing provocation to men of every +other political school. Fate made William of Orange a Whig hero, and in +arranging his preliminary condition ordained also by inevitable sequence +his exposure to some measure of the polemical resentments which his +votaries have never failed to concentrate upon themselves. That the +Whigs of his own day should have behaved as they did, on many occasions +exceedingly ill to him, is no more unnatural than that they should have +unduly exaggerated his virtues after his death. Both their ill-treatment +and their excessive eulogy of him were, in different ways, the +expression of the same modest confidence in their own civil deserts. The +Whigs believed themselves entitled not only to an exclusive interest in +a living Whig-made king, but also to as much capital as could be made +out of his posthumous renown. If they behaved ill to him at times during +his life, it was to assert the just claims of the Whig party; if they +over-praised him when dead, it was by way of just tribute to the Whig +virtues. + +Far be it from me to suggest that William of Orange needs any such +artificial additions to his legitimate glory. They are mentioned merely +to account for and excuse the fact that an impartial review of his +career and character needs to be commenced with what might otherwise +seem words of captious disparagement. It is absolutely necessary to +strip off the draperies of partisanship in order to see the real man +beneath; but that truly heroic figure can well afford it. + +William of Orange, I maintain then, is not to be regarded as altogether +that "patriot king," that "sovereign of the people," which it has +pleased his Whig devotees to discover in him, still less as that sort of +anticipatory and prophetic political philosopher for which he passes in +the legend of some Whig constitutionalists. No doubt he had a distinct +popular fibre in his nature. The great-grandson of his great-grandfather +can hardly have been wanting in sympathy with popular aspirations, or in +belief in the might and virtue of popular forces. But such sentiments +have been the birthright of many a man whose instincts were the very +reverse of democratic; and there is no reason to think that William +either foresaw or would have relished that growth of the democratic +element in English government to which he inevitably contributed so +powerful a stimulus. He was not, it must be remembered, a democrat even +in his own country; on the contrary, his strongest impulses were +essentially of aristocratic origin. It was not his Protestant +enthusiasm, though this was ardent enough, nor his love of his country +and his hatred of foreign dictation, though these passions were strong +and sincere enough, which were the dominant influences in moulding his +youthful character. It was pride of ancestry, the memory of William the +Silent, resentment at the fallen fortunes of his house, and resolution +to restore them. These it was which first inspired him with an ambition +essentially personal in its character, and it was not till this ambition +had been gratified by his elevation to higher dignities even than his +forefathers, that the other impulses of birth or training can be said to +have begun to sway him at all. And until that ambition was gratified he +was not only capable of all the virtues of the ambitious, but an adept +in their vices also. He was but sixteen when he taught his mother the +wisdom of disarming the suspicion of the Pensionary De Witt by pretended +cordiality, and earned the criticism of the shrewd French envoy +d'Estrades that he was "a great dissembler, and omitted nothing to gain +his ends." So, too, one can hardly doubt that it was ambition rather +than zeal for liberty and Protestantism that first inspired him with +that design of intervention in England, which must have just taken shape +in his mind shortly after the return of Dykvelt from his mission of +1687. His succession, or rather his wife's succession, was safe enough +if Mary of Modena bore no male issue to James. But she might and did +bear such issue, in a child whose claims could only be set aside by a +revolution; and even had no heir apparent been born to the throne, the +position of William accepting the English crown conjointly with his wife +in his capacity as liberator of the English people would be something +very different from that of a king-consort, which was all he could +otherwise have hoped to be. It is surely not unjust to a man of +William's antecedents to believe that from the hour that he learned the +strength of his party in England, down to the hour when he was presented +with the crown in the banqueting chamber at Whitehall, he had eyes for +little else than the great European future which would open before him +as King of England; and that any hesitations he may have shown in +accepting the sovereignty were as purely politic as those of Cæsar at +the Lupercal. + +As regards his attitude towards English political institutions in +general, and the _voluntary_ element in his share in developing them, +the Whig legend appears to me more purely mythical still. At no time in +his life did William show the slightest personal predilection for or +even faith in parliamentary institutions, still less in party +government. He looked upon the English Parliament as a clumsy and +irritating instrument, blunt at one part, dangerously double-edged at +another, which he was nevertheless bound to work with and make the best +of. That he was the first to try the system of a party ministry and +party government is, as I have essayed to show, a fact of little +significance. He tried it as he tried other means of managing the +apparently otherwise unmanageable, as he had at first tried dividing +offices of State among the leading men of both parties, and as he had +tried and continued to try the method of corruption for the rank and +file. As to any preference of one English party to another there is no +trace of such a feeling in his mind. From the moral point of view, I +imagine, he regarded most of the leaders of both parties with an equal, +and, it may be, with an equally just, contempt; but with his +intellectual appreciations he never allowed his moral judgment to +interfere. He used the unscrupulous Tory Marlborough and the +unscrupulous Whig Sunderland with an impartial indifference to their +political profligacy. He made trial, in fact, of all English public men +and of all political expedients to serve his European ends, which were +sometimes but not always English ends also; and thus it was that though +he experimentalised with the strict party system in order to secure a +Parliament which would support the war energetically in 1695, yet in the +next Parliament, his immediate object being gained, he showed no +disposition to prosecute that experiment on abstract political grounds. +It is impossible to represent a ruler of this kind, however wise and +moderate, as _consciously_ training our parliamentary institutions upon +the peculiar lines of growth which they subsequently followed. + +Yet after all these deductions there remains to William, both as a +European statesman and as a benefactor to our country, an ample margin +of renown. Of his moral and mental stature as a man it is scarcely +necessary to speak. It must be patent to all but the dullest prejudices +of our day as it was to all but the fiercest passions of his own. It is +the highest praise of his high qualities to say that our impression of +them easily survives the reaction from idolatry, and that after we have +thrown aside the magnifying-glass of Whiggism the objects which it was +used to exaggerate still fill the eye. If William had not all the +virtues which belong to the patriot and philosopher, he had all that go +to the making of the hero. Even Macaulay, who has over painted both his +king-craft and his statesmanship, has not laid on the colours of his +heroism with too bold a hand. Sagacious as he undoubtedly was in +counsel, dexterous as he was in the management of men, keen as was his +outlook on European politics, and resourceful as he was in meeting its +exigencies, it is possible to contend that his Whig eulogist has +credited him with far more than the keenness and sagacity, the dexterity +and resource, which he possessed. But such eulogy does not, for it could +not, materially exaggerate his great features as a man--his patience of +delay and disappointment, his fortitude under disaster, his +imperturbable composure in moments of crisis, his lofty magnanimity, +which from its high place seemed literally to overlook rather than to +forgive injuries, his haughty courage, which thought it equal shame to +glance aside at the lurking assassin and to turn away from the open foe. +His character was stern, forbidding, unamiable, contemptuously generous, +as little fitted to attract love as it was assured of commanding +respect; but it bears in every lineament the unmistakable stamp of +greatness. And his achievements were as great as his character. His +record as a ruler pure and simple, as a mere expert in the art of +governing, has never been surpassed, perhaps never equalled, in history. +The showy administrative exploits of a Napoleon with vast armies at his +back, and the pen of a despotism in his hand, appear to me to sink into +insignificance when compared with those of this ruler of four nations--a +constitutional sovereign in England and Scotland, the chief of a +republic in Holland, and a military autocrat, governing by the sword +alone, in Ireland,--who for eleven years successfully directed the +affairs of these alien and often mutually hostile communities, and who +throughout all that time held in one hand the threads of a vast network +of European diplomacy, and in the other the sword which kept the most +formidable of European monarchs at bay. Nor should we omit from the +comparison that he did all this under moral restraints and physical +disadvantages to which Napoleon was a total stranger, impeded by +obligations to law, municipal and international, which Napoleon set +cynically at defiance, and distressed throughout his life by bodily +ailments which never troubled the Corsican's iron frame. + +Nor in what has been written in criticism of the Whig legend would I for +a moment be suspected of undervaluing the debt which Englishmen owe to +William of Orange. It is not necessary to exalt him into a divinely +inspired progenitor of the British Constitution in order to recognise +fully the greatness of the services which he rendered to it. He was not +"Father of the Constitution" in the sense in which the poet is the +father of his poem, or the philosopher of his theory; but assuredly he +was so in the sense in which we say that a child has found a "second +father" in an upright guardian, who, while not, it may be, comprehending +his character, or in sympathy with his spirit, or foreseeing his future, +has yet been his vigilant protector through the perils of childhood, and +has accounted for his patrimony to the uttermost farthing. That William +stood in this relation to our modern English polity throughout his too +short reign, and that he loyally discharged its obligations, is +indisputable. The virtues which enabled him to do so were mainly three, +which are essential to all good and faithful guardianship, whether of +children or constitutions--the virtues of good sense, self-restraint, +and honesty. And the greatest of these three is honesty. William's +practical wisdom always told him the moment when to yield in a struggle +with his Parliament; and when that moment arrived his naturally +passionate temper never failed to answer to the rein. But even at those +moments there would often have been an evil alternative open to him, +from which the fundamental integrity of his nature always turned aside. +He scrupled not to use all the arts of political "management" which were +sanctioned by the lax morality of his day; he exerted his prerogative +freely to gain his ends; but he knew that the compact between him and +his people was that in the last resort the will of the people should +prevail, and this compact he never attempted either to violate or to +evade. Here he was as emphatically a _Rè Galantuomo_, a "King +Honest-man," as was Victor Emmanuel himself. + + "Hos ante effigies majorum pone tuorum, + Præcedant ipsas illi, te consule, virgas." + +Rulers who have earned this name may justly rank it, if only for its +rarity, above every other title of honour--even though, themselves the +creators or regenerators of nations, they can look back upon the +splendid achievements of the Counts of Nassau, or the long ancestral +glories of the House of Savoy. + +FOOTNOTES: + +[23] That Louis intended it to mean this is pretty obvious from his +remark about the effacement of the Pyrenees. + +[24] The nature of the impediment lives for history in the Jacobite +toast which so grimly reflects the brutal passions of the time--"To the +little gentleman in black velvet that works underground." + + +THE END + +_Printed by_ R. & R. CLARK, LIMITED, _Edinburgh_. + + + + +Twelve English Statesmen + +Crown 8vo. _2s. 6d._ each + +*** _A Series of Short Biographies, not designed to be a complete roll +of famous Statesmen, but to present in historic order the lives and work +of those leading actors in our affairs who by their direct influence +have left an abiding mark on the policy, the institutions, and the +position of Great Britain among States._ + + + =WILLIAM THE CONQUEROR.= By EDWARD A. FREEMAN, D.C.L., + LL.D., late Regius Professor of Modern History in the + University of Oxford. + + =HENRY II.= By Mrs. J. R. GREEN. + + =EDWARD I.= By T. F. TOUT, M.A., Professor of History, The + Owens College, Manchester. + + =HENRY VII.= By JAMES GAIRDNER. + + =CARDINAL WOLSEY.= By Bishop CREIGHTON, D.D., late Dixie + Professor of Ecclesiastical History in the University of + Cambridge. + + =ELIZABETH.= By E. S. BEESLY, M.A., Professor of Modern + History, University College, London. + + =OLIVER CROMWELL.= By FREDERIC HARRISON. + + =WILLIAM III.= By H. D. TRAILL. + + =WALPOLE.= By JOHN MORLEY. + + =CHATHAM.= By FREDERIC HARRISON. + + =PITT.= By Lord ROSEBERY. + + =PEEL.= By J. R. THURSFIELD, M.A., late Fellow of Jesus + College, Oxford. + + +English Men of Action Series + +Crown 8vo. Cloth. With Portraits. _2s. 6d._ each + + =CAMPBELL (COLIN).= By ARCHIBALD FORBES. + + =CLIVE.= By Sir CHARLES WILSON. + + =COOK (Captain).= By Sir WALTER BESANT. + =DAMPIER.= By W. CLARK RUSSELL. + + =DRAKE.= By JULIAN CORBETT. + + =DUNDONALD.= By the Hon. J. W. FORTESCUE. + + =GORDON (General).= By Sir W. BUTLER. + + =HASTINGS (Warren).= By Sir A. LYALL. + + =HAVELOCK (Sir Henry).= By A. FORBES. + + =HENRY V.= By the Rev. A. J. CHURCH. + + =LAWRENCE (Lord).= By Sir RICHARD TEMPLE. + + =LIVINGSTONE.= By THOMAS HUGHES. + + =MONK.= By JULIAN CORBETT. + + =MONTROSE.= By MOWBRAY MORRIS. + + =NAPIER (Sir Charles).= By Sir W. BUTLER. + + =NELSON.= By Prof. J. K LAUGHTON. + + =PETERBOROUGH.= By W. STEBBING. + + =RALEIGH (Sir Walter).= By Sir RENNELL RODD. + + =RODNEY.= By DAVID HANNAY. + =SMITH (Captain John).= By A. G. BRADLEY. + + =STRAFFORD.= By H. D. TRAILL. + + =WARWICK, the King-Maker=. By C. W. OMAN. + + =WELLINGTON.= By GEORGE HOOPER. + + =WOLFE.= By A. G. BRADLEY. + +MACMILLAN AND CO., LTD., LONDON + + +Foreign Statesmen Series + +Edited by J. B. BURY, M.A., Regius Professor of Modern History +at Cambridge. + +Crown 8vo. _2s. 6d._ each + + =CHARLES THE GREAT.= By THOMAS HODGKIN, D.C.L., + Author of _Italy and Her Invaders_, &c. _Ready_ + + =PHILIP AUGUSTUS.= By Rev. W. H. HUTTON, Fellow and + Tutor of St. John's College, Oxford. _Ready_ + + =WILLIAM THE SILENT.= By FREDERIC HARRISON. _Ready_ + + =PHILIP THE SECOND OF SPAIN.= By Major MARTIN HUME. + _Ready_ + + =RICHELIEU.= By R. LODGE, Professor of History in + the University of Edinburgh. _Ready_ + + =MARIA THERESA.= By Dr. J. FRANCK BRIGHT, D.D. + _Ready_ + + =JOSEPH II.= By Dr. J. FRANCK BRIGHT, D.D. _Ready_ + + =MIRABEAU.= By P. F. WILLERT, Fellow of Exeter + College, Oxford. _Ready_ + + =COSIMO DE MEDICI.= By Miss K. D. EWART. _Ready_ + + =CAVOUR.= By the Countess MARTINENGO CESARESCO. + _Ready_ + + =MAZARIN.= By ARTHUR HASSALL, Student and Tutor of + Christ Church, Oxford. _Ready_ + + =CATHERINE II.= By J. B. BURY, Regius Professor of + Modern History in the University of Cambridge. + +MACMILLAN AND CO., LTD., LONDON + + + + + +-------------------------------------------------------+ + | Transcriber's Note: | + | | + | Inconsistent hyphenation and spelling in the original | + | document have been preserved. | + | | + | Typographical errors corrected in the text: | + | | + | Page 2 Nassua changed to Nassau | + | Page 17 Strasburg changed to Strasbourg | + | Page 69 renowed changed to renowned | + | Page 151 Harlay changed to Harley | + +-------------------------------------------------------+ + + + +***END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK WILLIAM THE THIRD*** + + +******* This file should be named 36895-0.txt or 36895-0.zip ******* + + +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: +http://www.gutenberg.org/dirs/3/6/8/9/36895 + + + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed. + +Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. 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You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + + + + +Title: William the Third + + +Author: H. D. Traill + + + +Release Date: July 29, 2011 [eBook #36895] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1 + + +***START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK WILLIAM THE THIRD*** + + +E-text prepared by Delphine Lettau, Barbara Kosker, and the Online +Distributed Proofreading Team (http://www.pgdp.net) + + + ++------------------------------------------------------+ +| | +| Transcriber's note: | +| | +| Greek words are transliterated and enclosed between | +| plus signs (+like so+). | +| | +| Text enclosed between equal signs is in bold face | +| (=bold=). | +| | ++------------------------------------------------------+ + + + + + +Twelve English Statesmen + +WILLIAM THE THIRD + +[Publisher's logotype] + +WILLIAM THE THIRD + +by + +H. D. TRAILL + + + + + + + +London +Macmillan and Co., Limited +New York: The Macmillan Company +1906 + +All rights reserved + +First Edition, May 1888 +Reprinted August 1888, 1892, 1897, 1902, 1906 + + + + +CONTENTS + + + CHAPTER I + + 1650-1672 + + Birth, ancestry, and early years--State of Dutch parties-- + William's boyhood--His character and ambitions--Hostility of + De Witt and his partisans--Visit to England--Outbreak of the + War of 1672 Page 1 + + + CHAPTER II + + 1672-1678 + + William elected Stadtholder of Holland--Murder of the De Witts-- + Campaign of 1672-3--Successes of the Prince--Declared hereditary + Stadtholder--Progress of the French arms--Marriage with Mary-- + Negotiations of Nimeguen--Conclusion of the Peace--Battle of St. + Denis 9 + + + CHAPTER III + + 1678-1688 + + An interval of repose--Revival of continental troubles--Death of + Charles II.--Expedition of Monmouth--Mission of Dykvelt--James's + growing unpopularity--Invitation to William--Attempted intervention + by France--William's declaration--He sets sail, and is driven back + by storm--Second expedition and landing 17 + + + CHAPTER IV + + 1688 + + Advance to Exeter--Measures of James--Council of the Lords--Their + proposals--The King goes to Salisbury--Defection of Churchill-- + James returns to London--Negotiation--Attempted flight of James-- + His arrest--Advance of William--Entry of Dutch troops into London + --Actual flight of James 30 + + + CHAPTER V + + 1688-1689 + + Characteristics of the English Revolution--Views of the various + parties--The Convention--Proposal to declare the throne vacant-- + The Regency question--The resolution of the Commons--Amendment of + the Lords--The crisis--Attitude of Mary--Announcement of William + --Resolution passed--Declaration of Right--Tender of the Crown 39 + + + CHAPTER VI + + 1689 + + William's part in the Revolution--Convention declared a Parliament + --Oath of Allegiance--Settlement of Civil List--Appropriation + Clause--Toleration and Comprehension--Address of the Commons + inviting the King to declare war 56 + + + CHAPTER VII + + 1689-1690 + + Invasion of Ireland--Campaign of 1689--Parliamentary strife--The + conduct of the war--The Oates Case--The Succession Bill--Attempts + to pass an Indemnity Bill--Rancour of the Whigs--Their factious + opposition to William's Irish plans--Dissolution of Parliament 67 + + + CHAPTER VIII + + 1690-1691 + + Parliament of 1690--Tory majority--Settlement of the royal income + --Case of the Princess Anne--The "Act of Grace"--Detection of + Preston's conspiracy--William's departure for Ireland--Battle of + the Boyne--Battle off Beachy Head--Marlborough's Irish campaign-- + William's departure for the Hague 79 + + + CHAPTER IX + + 1691-1692 + + Campaign of 1691 in the Netherlands--Fall of Mons--Disaffection of + William's councillors--Conclusion of year's campaign--Disgrace and + dismissal of Marlborough--Massacre of Glencoe 93 + + + CHAPTER X + + 1692-1693 + + Gloomy European prospects--Campaign of 1692 in the Netherlands-- + Defeat of Steinkirk--Attempt of Grandval--Session of 1692--Place + Bill and Triennial Bill--Campaign of 1693--William outwitted by + Luxembourg--Defeat of Landen--Session of 1693-94--Louis's + overtures of peace 104 + + + CHAPTER XI + + 1693-1694 + + Formation of the first party Ministry--Reintroduction of the + Triennial Bill and its defeat--Of the Place Bill and its veto + --Causes of the disallowance--Macaulay's account examined-- + Campaign of 1694--Death of Mary 119 + + + CHAPTER XII + + 1695-1697 + + Campaign of 1695--Capture of Namur by the allies--Dissolution of + Parliament--William's "progress"--The elections--New Parliament + --Grants to Portland--The Assassination Plot--Campaign of 1696-- + Fenwick's conspiracy--Negotiations with France--Peace of Ryswick 135 + + + CHAPTER XIII + + 1698-1699 + + Portland's embassy--His life in Paris--The question of the Spanish + Succession--The First Partition Treaty--General election and + meeting of the new Parliament--Its temper--Opposition to William's + military policy--Reduction of the army 156 + + + CHAPTER XIV + + 1699-1700 + + Death of the Electoral Prince of Bavaria--Renewed negotiations-- + Second Partition Treaty--The Irish forfeitures--The Resumption + Bill--Will and death of the King of Spain 171 + + + CHAPTER XV + + 1701-1702 + + English indifference on the Spanish Question--Death of James II. + and Louis's recognition of the Pretender--Reaction in England-- + Dissolution of Parliament--Support of William's policy by its + successor--The Treaties--Accident to William--His illness and + death--Character--The Whig legend examined--His great qualities + as man and ruler--Our debt to him 189 + + + + +CHAPTER I + +1650-1672 + + Birth, ancestry, and early years--State of Dutch parties-- + William's boyhood--His character and ambitions--Hostility + of De Witt and his partisans--Visit to England--Outbreak + of the War of 1672. + + +William Henry, Prince of Orange and Count of Nassau, a ruler destined to +play a greater part in shaping the destinies of modern England than any +of her native sovereigns, was born at the Hague on the 4th of November +1650. By blood and ancestral tradition he was well fitted for the work +to which he was to be called. The descendant of a line of statesmen and +warriors, the scion of a house which more than a century before had been +associated with the most heroic struggle for national freedom that +history records, he could hardly have added stronger hereditary to the +great personal qualifications for the enterprises reserved for him. His +family was one of the most ancient in Europe--reaching back, indeed, for +its origin into the regions of fable. "I will not take upon me," says an +English biographer, writing shortly after his hero's death, "to extend +the Antiquity of the House of Nassau as far as the time of Julius +Csar, though that Emperor in his first book of Commentaries, _De Bello +Gallico_, says that one Nassau, with his brother Cimberius, led a body +of Germans out of Suabia and settled upon the banks of the Rhine near +Treves, which is the more observable by reason of the Affinity of the +Words, which differ only in the Transposition of one Letter; but I doubt +'tis rather Presumption than Truth for any one to affirm that there is +an Estate upon that very Spot of Ground mentioned by Csar which belongs +to the Nassovian Family to this Day." Without insisting on so very +ancient and remote an origin as this, we may take it as certain that the +House of Nassau had been established in Europe for some thousand years +at the birth of William. As early as in the thirteenth century it was +honoured with the imperial dignity in the person of Adolph of Nassau. +The title and domains of Orange were added to the family in the +sixteenth century by the marriage of Claude de Chalons, sister and +heiress of the then Prince of Orange, with Henry of Nassau, from whose +son Rn the principality passed by testamentary bequest to the great +Stadtholder of Holland, William, surnamed the Silent, the illustrious +liberator of the United Provinces from the yoke of Spain. The +acquisition of this petty principality--only twelve miles in length by +nine in breadth--was by no means the matter of trivial importance which +its territorial dimensions might imply. Its situation in the very heart +of the dominions of France, the incidents attaching to that situation +and the consequences flowing from it, contributed in their degree to +that complex system of forces by which the course of history is +determined. To William I. succeeded his son Maurice, the bearer of a +name also memorable in the history of the States, a greater soldier and +a statesman of scarcely less ability than his father, though of a far +more chequered fame. Under Maurice the power of the Stadtholder or +Governor was, in spite of the jealousy with which it was regarded by the +burgher party, considerably advanced, and he was not without reason +suspected of the design of making himself an absolute ruler. Dying +without issue, he was succeeded by his brother Frederick Henry, another +renowned captain, under whom the long struggle with Spain was at last +brought to a close by the renunciation, in the Treaty of Westphalia, of +the Spanish claim upon the United Provinces. William II., the son of +Frederick Henry, was born in 1626, and succeeded his father at the age +of twenty-one. Endowed with all the restless activity and ambition of +his uncle, he attempted, in prosecution of the same monarchical designs +as that prince, to seize the city of Amsterdam by a _coup de main_. The +project, however, was defeated, and William, after a troubled reign of +only four years, was fatally attacked by the smallpox, and died on the +27th of October 1650, leaving no issue. Eight days after his death, +however, his widow, Mary, daughter of Charles I., gave premature birth +to the son whose career it is in these pages proposed to trace. + +Seldom has a new-born child been the object of such diverse emotions, +the centre of so many conflicting hopes and fears among its countrymen +as was this infant Prince. To the partisans of the House of Orange he +appeared as the God-sent heir--an earlier _enfant du miracle_ vouchsafed +by Providence to save the great race of William the Silent from +extinction in the male line. To the party of the municipal oligarchy he +presented himself as the probable inheritor rather of the ambitions of +his father and his father's uncle, than of the virtues of his +great-grandfather. The latter party, who for the moment had the upper +hand, were fully resolved that the young Prince should never wield as +much power as that which Prince Frederick Henry had sought during his +four years' reign to abuse. The party of the infant Prince, on the other +hand, a party headed by the Princess Dowager and her mother, made up as +far as possible for the lack of direct and political power by incessant +and indefatigable intrigue; and to their efforts it was that the +Pensionary De Witt, the representative of the municipal party, ascribed, +and not without reason, the war which broke out between the States and +the Rump Parliament in 1651. Its effect, however, was temporarily +disastrous to their ambitions; for, the United Provinces being compelled +to solicit peace from Cromwell, the Lord Protector, who was naturally +opposed to the elevation of a family allied by marriage to the exiled +Stuarts, compelled the States of Holland and West Friesland, as a +condition of his ratifying the articles of peace, to pass a decree that +"they would never elect the Prince or any of his lineage Stadtholder of +their province, nor consent that he or any of his family should be +Captain-General of the forces of the United Provinces." + +Reared from his very cradle amid the animosities of contending factions, +the young Prince learned early those four lessons of statecraft,--to +conceal his designs, to watch his opportunities, to choose his +instruments, and to bide his time. His education, other than that which +he was receiving daily in the stern school of circumstances, he owed to +his mother alone. Under her care he acquired a good knowledge of +mathematics and military science, and learned to speak English, French, +and German almost as fluently as his native tongue. The chiefs of the +municipal party, who became his official guardians, would have willingly +stinted his instruction, if by so doing they might have checked his +aspirations; but the ambition to emulate the fame of his great +predecessors, and to secure the power which they had wielded, took root +within him from his boyish years, and grew steadily with his growth. +Weak and ailing from his childhood, for he shared the too common lot of +those infants who are brought into the world before the appointed months +are run, he took no pleasure, as he possessed no skill, in the ordinary +pastimes of the boy; and, with a mind thus turned inward upon itself, +from an age at which other children have no care or thought but for the +thousand novel interests and attractions of the world without them, he +acquired habits of reserve and thoughtfulness beyond his years. The +religious faith in which he was nurtured was a Calvinism of the +strictest sort. His firm hold of the grim doctrine of predestination +stood him in much the same stead as Napoleon's belief in his destiny, +and long before he arrived at man's estate he had in all probability +convinced himself that the inscrutable counsels of Providence had +designed him for great things. + +Humanly speaking, however, his prospects did not appear to brighten +before him as years went on. At the age of ten he lost his mother, who +had gone to England to visit her brother, just restored to the throne, +and was there carried off by an attack of smallpox. In the same year he +saw his principality of Orange forcibly seized by Louis, who, after +demolishing its fortifications, held possession of it for five years, +surrendering it only in 1665. Then came the war of that year between +England and the Dutch Provinces, a conflict which his party temporarily +conceived the hope of turning to their own profit, but which left them +ultimately in a worse plight than before; for no provisions in the +Prince's interests were insisted on by his uncle, Charles II., in the +Treaty of Peace, and, under the instigation of De Witt, the States of +Holland and West Friesland subsequently passed a perpetual edict +suppressing the office of Stadtholder. A faint effort was made by +Charles II. through Sir William Temple to vindicate the rights of his +nephew, but the efforts of the ambassador were coldly received by the +Pensionary, and the matter dropped. De Witt now pushed his hostility yet +further, and the States resorted to the ignoble and ungrateful measure +of calling upon the young Prince to quit the house at the Hague which, +though technically the property of the States, had been for many years +the official residence of his family. To the Pensionary, who was charged +with the communication of this order, William replied by a spirited +refusal, directing his visitor to inform the States that he would not +quit the house unless removed by force; upon which his persecutors, +apprehensive no doubt of the odium which such a step would excite among +the common people, who were many of them well affected to his historic +family, allowed their demand to lapse. William, now eighteen years of +age, determined to make a counter-move on his own part, and presenting +himself before the assembly of the States of the province of Zealand, +he proposed to them to elect him first noble of that province, a +dignity which they had been wont to confer upon his ancestors at his +then age. The Zealanders complied readily with the request, though they +did not proceed, as had been expected, to elect him to the higher office +of Stadtholder of the province; and except by entitling him to a seat in +the States General as representative of the nobility of Zealand, the +minor honours procured him nothing but the increased jealousy and +suspicions of the party of De Witt. Sir William Temple, then ambassador +at the Hague, with whom the Prince came into contact at this time, +characteristically reports of him in his Letters as a "young Man of more +Parts than ordinary and of the better Sort; that is, not lying in that +kind of Wit which is neither of use to one's self nor to anybody else, +but in good plain Sense which showed Application if he had business that +deserved it; and this with extreme good and agreeable Humour and +Dispositions without any Vice; that he was asleep in bed always at Ten +o'clock; loved Hunting as much as he hated Swearing, and preferred +Cock-ale before any Wine." In the year 1670 he managed after some +diplomatic difficulties to pay a visit to London, where he received the +attentions of a civic banquet, and of an honorary degree at Oxford, and +where too he acquired a very shrewd perception of the King's leanings +towards the religion of Rome. + +But his day was now fast approaching. At the close of the year 1671 was +concluded the ever-infamous Treaty of Dover. Charles transformed +himself, with more than the celerity of the nimblest modern rat, from +the champion of the Protestant faith in Europe into the ally of its +deadliest enemy. Sir William Temple was recalled from the Hague, and the +Triple League between England, the States, and Sweden, which that +skilful envoy had taken so much pains to cement, was broken up. Early in +1672 war was declared by England against the Dutch, and the armies of +Louis, pouring into the United Provinces, became masters of all their +chief strongholds "in as little time," to quote the vigorous comparison +of one of William's biographers, "as travellers usually employ to view +them." The Prince's opportunity had come. + + + + +CHAPTER II + +1672-1678 + + William elected Stadtholder of Holland--Murder of the De Witts + --Campaign of 1672-3--Successes of the Prince--Declared + hereditary Stadtholder--Progress of the French arms--Marriage + with Mary--Negotiations of Nimeguen--Conclusion of the Peace + --Battle of St. Denis. + + +Louis XIV., like other military malefactors before and since, was +himself the creator of the enemy by whom his power was to be shaken to +its foundations. His invasion of the United Provinces, an enterprise +commenced with that contempt of public right in which no other potentate +has ever equalled him, and prosecuted with that barbarity in which only +Oriental conquerors have ever surpassed him, was the means of raising to +power the one European foe by whom he was destined to be successfully +withstood. The municipal party, unduly absorbed in the task of +safeguarding the liberties of their country against the supposed +ambitions of a single fellow-countryman, had wholly neglected the +protection of its very existence against the known ambitions of a +foreign aggressor. Most of their veteran troops had been disbanded; the +greatest posts in their armies were in the hands of unskilled civilians; +cities garrisoned with considerable forces of soldiery opened their +gates and surrendered without firing a gun. Popular indignation rose +high. Upon William, always a favourite among the commonalty, and the +inheritor of a name ennobled not only by civil wisdom but by military +exploits, all eyes were turned. An insurrection in his favour took place +at Dort, and the magistrates of that city, intimidated by the clamour of +the people, passed an ordinance repealing the perpetual edict, and made +him Stadtholder. Other cities followed their example, and the +States-General of the provinces confirmed their decrees. The two De +Witts, John and his brother Cornelius, now the objects of popular +suspicion and hatred, were assassinated in a street riot; and the +people, as if inspired with new courage by the restoration of a Prince +of Orange to a position from which princes of that name had so often led +them to victory, turned fiercely upon their French invaders. Five +thousand of Louis's troops were repulsed before Ardenburg by the bravery +of no more than two hundred burghers, assisted by the women and children +of the town, and one hundred garrison soldiers. The citizens of +Groningen, aided by the spirited students of its university, defended +themselves with equal vigour and good fortune against the warlike Bishop +of Munster, at the head of 30,000 soldiers, compelling him to raise the +siege. It was evident that a Dutch conquest was going to be no mere +military promenade, as had first appeared to promise, and Louis thought +it advisable to negotiate. To the chief of a state so desperately bested +as were the United Provinces at that moment, the terms offered to +William by the French monarch,--no less than the sovereignty of his +country under the protection of England and France,--might well have +appeared tempting. William rejected them with scorn. He would never, he +said, "betray the trust of his country that his ancestors had so long +defended." Solicitations addressed to him in the same sense by England +met with the same reply. To Buckingham, who had pressed them upon him, +and warned him that "if he persisted in his present humour he must +unavoidably see the final ruin of his cause," he made the Spartan answer +that he "had one way still left not to see that ruin completed, which +was to die in the last dyke." + +The winter of 1672-3 had stopped the progress of the French for the +time, but William was unwilling to allow it to arrest his own action. He +laid siege to the town of Woerden, and, though forced by the Duke of +Luxembourg to retreat from it, inflicted heavy losses upon the enemy. +Then, having invested Tongres, captured Walcheren, and demolished Binch, +he himself retired reluctantly into winter quarters. In the following +spring he besieged and took Naerden, and later on in the year achieved a +still more important triumph in the capture of Bonn, which had been put +into the hands of France at the beginning of the war. New honours now +began to be contemplated by his grateful countrymen for their stout +defender. The Stadtholdership of Holland and West Friesland was not only +confirmed to him for life, but was settled upon his heirs male; and on +the same day the like dignity was conferred on him by the States of +Zealand--an example shortly afterwards followed by those of Utrecht. Nor +were his successes without effect upon his enemies. Charles, with whose +subjects the war had never been popular, concluded a peace with him +after these two summers of fighting, and offered his mediation between +the powers still at war, an offer which was accepted by France. Four +years, however, were to elapse, and many souls of brave men to be sent +to Hades, before this mediation took effect in a concluded peace. In the +summer of 1674 was fought the fiercest engagement of the whole war--the +bloody and indecisive battle of Seneff, in which William was pitted +against the renowned Prince of Cond. The young Prince had too much to +gain in reputation not to be eager to provoke a battle, and the old +soldier too much to lose to be willing to accept one if it could be +avoided; but William succeeded in his object. Cond was at first +victorious in an encounter between a portion of the two armies, but he +imprudently brought on a general battle, which, after raging furiously +for a whole day, left both parties to claim the victory--"the allies +because they were last upon the field, and the French on the strength of +the great number of prisoners and standards they had carried off." "But +whoever had the honour," adds Sir William Temple, "both had the loss." +It was on this occasion that Cond paid his famous compliment to the +Prince by describing him as having acted like an old general throughout +the action in every respect save that of having "exposed himself like a +young recruit." + +For yet another four years, as has been said, this struggle continued to +rage, and, as it raged, to store up in his heart that exhaustless fund +of resentment against Louis which underwent hardly any depletion till +the day of his death. Several times were attempts made to detach William +from his Spanish allies and to induce him to conclude a separate peace, +but he remained firm against all such solicitations of betrayal. In vain +did Arlington, specially commissioned for that purpose, endeavour to +tempt him to the desertion of his allies by the offer of an English +matrimonial alliance. William simply replied that his fortunes were not +in a condition for him to think of a wife. Louis, however, was extremely +desirous of peace on any honourable terms, and William, to meet him +half-way, put forward a counter-proposal of a marriage between the King +of Spain and the eldest daughter of the Duke of Orleans, to whom France +should give in dowry the late conquered places in Flanders. This +ingenious proposal for reconciling the vindication of Spanish and Dutch +interests on the Flemish frontier with the maintenance of French +military honour, can scarcely have been made with any other purpose than +that of putting France in the wrong. William knew probably that it would +not square with Louis's existing hopes and pretensions, and that whether +Charles pressed it upon his cousin or not, it was pretty certain that no +more would be heard of it. For the present, moreover, he was under no +pressure to make a peace at all. The United Provinces had recovered +their confidence and hopefulness, and were full of admiration for and +attachment to their young leader. He had been actually offered the +sovereignty of Guelderland, and though his politic moderation induced +him to refuse it, opinion among the other provinces was divided as to +the propriety of his rejecting the offer. Nothing, however, could have +more strikingly illustrated the commanding position which he had +attained among his countrymen than the complete paralysis which +overcame them in 1675, during the fortunately brief period of the +Prince's suffering from a dangerous attack of smallpox. From this +disease, so fatal to his race, he recovered with apparent promptitude, +but it is only too probable that it left deep traces behind it on his +congenitally feeble frame. + +After much dispute the scene of the peace negotiations had been fixed at +Nimeguen, and the Congress met there in the month of July 1676. But the +diplomatists there were still to deliberate for two years while armies +were fighting; and if William could have prevented it, the peace would +not have been made even as soon as it was. The next two years, however, +were on the whole years of success for France and of defeat for the +allies; and early in 1677 William, of his own accord, revived a project +to which, when previously broached to him, he had refused to listen. The +terms submitted to him during the deliberations at Nimeguen were +intolerable, and yet, though he obstinately refused to accept them, town +after town was falling before the French arms, and his country was at +last beginning to weary of the struggle. If he must at last be forced to +assent to distasteful conditions, why not, as the price of his assent, +obtain for himself a matrimonial alliance which, besides bringing him a +step nearer to the English throne, would immensely strengthen his +position as a representative of the Protestant cause in Europe. A year +before he had sounded Temple as to a proposal for the hand of his cousin +Mary, the Duke of York's eldest daughter; and had been encouraged by +that ambassador to hope for success in his suit. He now more formally +pressed it, selecting the moment with considerable astuteness. Neither +Charles nor James had any liking for the match, but the King was in the +midst of a struggle with his Parliament; his subserviency to Louis was +inflaming popular resentment against him, and a marriage of his niece to +William, more especially if it could be made the means of bringing about +a peace, appeared to promise the only means of extricating himself from +his difficulties. Danby, his minister, moreover, was just at that moment +trembling for his head, and was prepared to exert himself to the utmost +to save it by the only means available--the detachment of his master +from the French alliance. William was reluctantly invited to England, +and it is clear, in the whole history of the affair, that he felt +himself from the moment of his arrival to be _dominus contracts_. With +respect to the question whether the business of the marriage should be +arranged before that of the peace or _vice vers_, William insisted upon +his own order of procedure, and procured its adoption. Charles consented +to the marriage, and compelled the assent of his brother. The +States-General, communicated with by express, immediately signified +their approval; and William, who had fortunately found the person and +manners of his cousin highly attractive to him, was married hurriedly +and privately at eleven o'clock on the night of the 4th of November +1677, the anniversary of his birth. The King of England did his best to +reconcile his brother of France to a match, the news of which, our +ambassador at the French Court told Danby, he received "as he would have +done the loss of an army," by representing it as an important step +towards a peace; but William returned home with his bride, pledged only +to his uncle to accept a basis of peace which was to a large extent, if +not entirely, of his own formulation, and far more liberal to the allies +than anything which France had proposed. Louis, however, was to get his +own way after all. The United Provinces were now heartily sick of the +war, and were, moreover, not uninfluenced by a party hostile to William, +who felt or feigned apprehension of his designs upon the liberties of +the Republic. The States-General accepted the articles of France, and +having by their constitution the absolute power of peace and war, they +were able, on the 11th of August, to conclude a treaty over William's +head. Three days after the Prince, unaware, officially at least, that +the signatures had been actually affixed to the treaty, made a dash upon +the army of Luxembourg, then besieging Mons, and after a desperate +encounter secured one of the most brilliant successes of the war. The +next morning, however, advices arrived from the Hague of the conclusion +of the peace, and William had the mortification of feeling that the +fruits of a victory which had opened a way for the allies into the +country of their enemy were to remain ungathered. + + + + +CHAPTER III + +1678-1688 + + An interval of repose--Revival of continental troubles--Death + of Charles II.--Expedition of Monmouth--Mission of Dykvelt + --James's growing unpopularity--Invitation to William-- + Attempted intervention by France--William's declaration--He + sets sail, and is driven back by storm--Second expedition + and landing. + + +For the next six or seven years the life of the Prince of Orange was to +be unmarked by any striking external incidents. He was occupied with all +his wonted patience in the reparation of the mischiefs of the Treaty of +Nimeguen, and in the laborious construction of that great European +league by means of which he was afterwards destined to arrest the course +of French aggression. In this undertaking, and in watching and +retaliating upon the encroachments which Louis XIV., almost on the +morrow of the treaty, began making upon its provisions, William was +sufficiently employed. In 1684 these encroachments became intolerable. +Louis having vainly demanded of the Spaniards certain towns in Flanders, +on the pretext of their being rightful dependencies on places ceded to +him by the Treaty of Nimeguen, seized Strasbourg and besieged Luxembourg +in physical enforcement of his claim. Spain declared war, and William, +though thwarted by the States (mainly through the instrumentality of +the city of Amsterdam, which was always ill-disposed towards him), and +denied the levy of 16,000 men which he had asked for, took the field +notwithstanding in support of his Spanish ally. The united forces, +however, were too weak to effect much. Luxembourg speedily surrendered, +and as the result a twenty years' truce, on terms not very favourable +for William, was concluded with France. + +During this period, as always, affairs in England no doubt demanded +general vigilance; but it was not till 1685 that they showed signs of +becoming critical. The death of Charles, and the known designs of +Monmouth, placed William in a very delicate position. During Charles's +life-time he had extended his protection to the exiled Duke, and had +even insisted so punctiliously on proper respect being shown to him, +that a difference had arisen between William and the English Court with +reference to the Duke's receiving salutes from the English troops, and +was actually unadjusted at Charles's death. Upon James's accession, +however, either to clear himself of all suspicion of abetting a +pretender to the throne, or, as some have asserted, to thwart the new +king's design of having his nephew seized and sent a prisoner to +England, William procured his departure from Dutch territory. Monmouth +retired to Brussels, but at the instance of James, who wrote a letter to +the Governor of the Spanish Netherlands charging him with high treason, +he was ordered by that functionary to quit the King of Spain's +dominions, and returned to Holland. Then followed his ill-fated +enterprise, throughout the brief course of which William maintained an +attitude of strict loyalty towards his father-in-law. He not only +despatched the six English and Scotch regiments in the Dutch service to +assist in suppressing the insurrection, but he offered, if James wished, +to take command of the royal troops in person. The offer was declined, +very likely from motives of suspicion by the King, but it is impossible +to suggest any plausible reason for questioning its _bona fides_. The +idle story that it was prompted by William's disgust at Monmouth's +proclaiming himself king, in breach of a promise to raise William +himself to the throne, bears absurdity on its face. The Princess stood +next in succession to the throne as it was; and if the Prince had +conceived a project of anticipating his wife's inheritance, he certainly +would not have entrusted the execution of that project to the feeble +hands and flighty brain of Monmouth. + +But two years had scarcely passed before it really became necessary for +him to look after the interests of her reversion. As early as the spring +of 1687 it was beginning to be suspected by men of foresight, both in +England and in Holland, that James II.'s position was precarious. No +one, indeed, who was capable of forming a correct estimate of his +character and capacities could find in them any guarantees of prolonged +rule. He was as obstinate and insincere as his father, as selfish and +unscrupulous as his brother, while he was destitute alike of the +former's power of enlisting the devotion of individuals, and of the +latter's easy popularity with the common people. It would be unjust to +him not to admit that many of his gravest difficulties were prepared for +him in his brother's time, if not by his brother's means; but it cannot +be denied that he had made astonishing haste to convert these grave +difficulties into the most formidable dangers. In little more than two +years from his accession in February 1685, his nephew found it expedient +to send over an emissary to England for the purpose of sounding English +political leaders, not as yet, indeed, with any definitely-formed design +of intervening by force in English affairs, but rather probably that, in +the event of the King rendering himself "impossible," the people might +know where to look for a substitute, and might understand that the +heiress-presumptive and her consort were not only the most natural, but, +as a matter of fact, the most eligible choice for the people to make in +the circumstances. Dykvelt, a judicious diplomatist, made the best use +of his time, and while continuing to give no just ground of remonstrance +to James, to whom he was of course nominally accredited, he managed to +bring back information and assurances of much value from many English +politicians of eminence. + +Meantime, and while James was still industriously undermining his +throne, his relations with his destined successor were becoming more +strained. A dispute arose between them with reference to the six English +regiments lent to the States under treaty. The King made a demand that +these regiments should be officered by Catholics--a claim put forward +either with the object of insuring their fidelity to him in case of +future rupture with Holland, or else merely to invite refusal and create +a pretext for insisting on their recall. At any rate the refusal came, +and on James's demanding the return of the troops, the States refused +this also, appealing to the terms of the treaty as only authorising the +King of England to require restitution of these forces in the event of +his being actually engaged in warfare with a foreign foe. An acrimonious +correspondence ensued between the two governments; but James failed to +move the States from their firm attitude. Equally unsuccessful was he in +an attempt to inveigle the Prince into an approval of that policy of +pretended toleration by which he was seeking to further the interests of +the Catholic at the expense of those of the Protestant religion in +England. A Scots lawyer named Stuart, who had taken refuge in Holland +from the religious persecution during the late reign, having made, or +been bribed to make, his submission to the royal authority, was procured +to open a correspondence with the Grand Pensionary Fagel, in which he +pressed the latter to advise the Prince of Orange to support his uncle's +policy, declaring that James would not repeal the penal laws unless the +tests were repealed also. Fagel for some time returned no answer, but at +last, finding the rumour in circulation that the Prince had associated +himself with the King's measures, he wrote a reply, which had no doubt +been drafted by William, to the refugee's request. In this remarkably +politic document the Prince contrived to hold the balance equally +between the English Protestants, with whom he was particularly anxious +to stand well, and the Catholic continental sovereigns, whom in his +struggle with France he could not afford to offend. While maintaining +his former attitude with regard to the tests, William declared that he +would gladly see all other grievances on the part of the English +Catholics removed. He would have no man subjected to punishment for his +opinions, but--and on this point he instanced the practice of the +States-General themselves with respect to Roman Catholics--he was not +prepared to remove all official disabilities founded on religious +opinion. This letter was forwarded by Stuart to the King, and was by him +considered in council. Burnet declares that all the lay papists of +England who were not engaged in the intrigues of the priests earnestly +pressed him to accept the Prince's terms as being what would render them +safe and easy for the future; but the King as usual was obstinate, and +no resolution was taken on the matter. + +During most of the remainder of this year the King was filling up the +measure of his political offences. From March till October the dispute +with Magdalen College had raged, and the breach between James and the +once devoted Church of England proportionately widened. But at the end +of the year 1687 a momentous announcement was made to the Court. The +Queen was pronounced to be pregnant, and in July of the following year +she was delivered of a male child. That an infant brought into the world +at so opportune a moment should have been loudly alleged to be +supposititious by the inflamed political partisans of the time was +naturally to be expected. A word or two more will be said on that point +hereafter; it is here only necessary to remark that whether William +shared the suspicions of his partisans or not his outward behaviour on +the occasion was irreproachable. He congratulated his father-in-law on +the auspicious event; and the infant prince was duly prayed for in his +private chapel at the Hague, until the protest hereafter to be referred +to was made against the ceremony by his English partisans. Meanwhile the +events of the eventful year 1688 had been ripening fast to their +destined issue. The end of April had witnessed the second promulgation +of the Declaration of Indulgence, and the ferment occasioned by that new +assertion of the dispensing power. In July, in almost exact coincidence +of time with the Queen's accouchement, came the memorable trial of the +Seven Bishops, which gave the first demonstration of the full force of +that popular animosity which James's rule had provoked. Some months +before,[1] however, Edward Russell, nephew of the Earl of Bedford and +cousin of Algernon Sidney's fellow-victim, had sought the Hague with +proposals to William to make an armed descent upon England, as +vindication of English liberties and the Protestant religion.[2] William +had cautiously required a signed invitation from at least a few +representative statesmen before committing himself to such an +enterprise, and on the day of the acquittal of the Seven Bishops a +paper, signed in cipher by Lords Shrewsbury, Devonshire, Danby, and +Lumley, by Compton, Bishop of Northampton, by Edward Russell, and by +Henry Sidney, brother of Algernon, was conveyed by Admiral Herbert to +the Hague. William was now furnished with the required security for +English assistance in the projected undertaking, but the task before him +was still one of extreme difficulty. He had to allay the natural +disquietudes of the Catholic supporters of his continental policy +without alarming his Protestant friends in England; to win over the +States-General, not by any means universally favourable either to his +designs against James or to his attitude towards Louis (Amsterdam, for +instance, had sided with the former monarch in his dispute with William +about the return of the English regiments); and, above all, he had to +make his naval and military preparations for a descent upon England +without exciting suspicions, or provoking an anticipatory attack. That +he managed matters with much address is evident from the result, but it +is no less clear that luck was on his side. A quarrel of the French king +with the Pope, on a question of diplomatic extra-territorial rights in +the papal city, and his arrogant interference in the election of the +Elector of Cologne, had arrayed against Louis the spiritual and temporal +forces of Catholicism, represented respectively by the Papacy and the +Empire; his ill-timed persecutions of Protestants, and certain +prohibitive measures adopted by him against Dutch trade, had the effect +of alienating his partisans in the States-General. In the meanwhile the +combined blindness and obstinacy of James permitted William to prosecute +his military preparations unmolested, if not unsuspected. These +preparations were very extensive and conspicuous, and seem to have had +their commencement at an earlier date than is consistent with Burnet's +theory referred to in the note on a previous page. It was not, however, +till the summer was beginning to give place to autumn that they began to +excite any very distinct suspicions as to their object. The Cologne +quarrel formed a plausible excuse enough for them; for if Louis, as +events seemed to threaten, were to occupy the Rhine provinces with an +army, it would be obviously necessary for Holland to stand on guard. By +the middle of August the French king had become uneasy, and despatched a +special envoy in the person of M. Bonrepos to awaken James to a sense of +his danger. He had authority, according to Burnet (whom, however, +Macaulay, who mostly follows him, on this point contradicts[3]), to +offer James not only naval but military assistance to repel the invasion +with which he believed him to be threatened. Bonrepos was directed by +his master to promise the King of England that ten or fifteen thousand +(others, according to Ralph, say thirty thousand) men should be landed +at Portsmouth if required, and asked that that place should be put into +his hands to keep the communication between the two kingdoms. +Sunderland, acting perhaps _bona fide_, but more probably not, most +earnestly counselled James to reject the offer, and it was rejected +accordingly, the King's characteristic imbecility of judgment being +never more characteristically shown than in his unwillingness to offend +the patriotic prejudices of his subjects by accepting an offer which, +had he been aware of their true feelings towards him, he would have +recognised as his last chance of saving his crown and kingdom. At this +juncture Ronquillo, the Spanish ambassador, went out of his way to +assure James of what he probably knew to be false, and certainly had no +reason to believe true--namely, that no descent upon England was in +contemplation on the part of William. On an early day in September, +however, Albeville was despatched to the Hague with instructions to +present a memorandum of complaint on the subject of the Dutch +preparations; and the day following d'Avaux delivered, on the part of +Louis, a threatening note to the States, in which he warned them to +desist from their designs upon a monarch to whom he was bound by "such +ties of friendship and alliance" as would oblige him, if James were +attacked, to come to his assistance. That Louis's motive in taking this +step was to commit his brother of England to the alliance which he +pretended to exist it is almost impossible to doubt; but James, more and +more bent upon repudiating the assistance of France the more necessary +it became to him, did his utmost to assure the States that there was +nothing in the nature of an alliance between himself and Louis. William, +however, and his partisans in the States-General, asked nothing better +than this excuse for continuing their preparations, and the Dutch +armament was actively pushed forward. In October the final alienation of +the Dutch friends of France was brought about by Louis's despatching an +army under the Dauphin to besiege Philipsburg, and simultaneously +issuing manifestos against the Emperor and the Pope. Avignon had been +seized by him the day before the siege of Philipsburg was opened; and +the attack on the latter place was followed by the rapid seizure of most +of the important towns of the Palatinate. + +On the 10th of October, matters now being ripe for such a step, William, +in conjunction with some of his English advisers, put forth his famous +declaration. Starting with a preamble to the effect that the observance +of laws is necessary to the happiness of states, the instrument proceeds +to enumerate fifteen particulars in which the laws of England had been +set at naught. The most important of these were--(1) the exercise of the +dispensing power; (2) the corruption, coercion, and packing of the +judicial bench; (3) the violation of the test laws by the appointment of +papists to offices (particularly judicial and military offices, and the +administration of Ireland), and generally the arbitrary and illegal +measures resorted to by James for the propagation of the Catholic +religion; (4) the establishment and action of the Court of High +Commission; (5) the infringement of some municipal charters, and the +procuring of the surrender of others; (6) interference with elections by +turning out of all employment such as refused to vote as they were +required; and (7) the grave suspicion which had arisen that the Prince +of Wales was not born of the Queen, which as yet nothing had been done +to remove. Having set forth these grievances, the Prince's manifesto +went on to recite the close interest which he and his consort had in +this matter as next in succession to the crown, and the earnest +solicitations which had been made to him by many lords spiritual and +temporal, and other English subjects of all ranks, to interpose, and +concluded by affirming in a very distinct and solemn manner that the +sole object of the expedition then preparing was to obtain the +assembling of a free and lawful Parliament, to which the Prince pledged +himself to refer all questions concerning the due execution of the laws, +and the maintenance of the Protestant religion, and the conclusion of an +agreement between the Church of England and the Dissenters, as also the +inquiry into the birth of the "pretended Prince of Wales"; and that this +object being attained, the Prince would, as soon as the state of the +nation should permit of it, send home his foreign forces. + +About a week after, on the 16th of October, all things being now in +readiness, the Prince took solemn leave of the States-General, thanked +them for their past kindness to him, called them to witness that the +motives of his enterprise were solely those set forth in his +declaration, namely, the vindication of the liberties of England, and +the defence of the Protestant religion, and commended his wife to their +care. The scene was an affecting one, and many among the assembly were +melted to tears; only the Prince himself, says Burnet, "continued firm +in his usual gravity and phlegm." Two days later the States came to a +formal resolution to assist the Prince of Orange with ships and forces +on his expedition to England, having heard his explanations thereof and +found them satisfactory; and authorised their ministers at the various +European Courts to make use of this resolution in whatever way they +might find most convenient. + +On the 19th William and his armament set sail from Helvoetsluys, but was +met on the following day by a violent storm which forced him to put back +on the 21st.[4] On the 1st of November the fleet put to sea a second +time, and for the first twelve hours held its course towards the +north-west. It was calculated that thus the scouting vessels sent out by +Dartmouth would carry back word that the landing might be expected to +take place on the Yorkshire coast; and, this ruse successfully effected, +the fleet tacked and sailed southward for the Channel. William was +naturally most desirous to avoid a conflict with the English fleet, and +the heavy weather which prevented Dartmouth from leaving the Thames +enabled him to attain his object. His fleet passed the Straits of Dover +at midday of the 3d of November, and made for Torbay, where it had been +determined to land. In the haze, however, of the morning of the 5th of +November the pilot overshot the mark, and took the fleet some miles to +the west. Its situation became critical. Plymouth was the next port, and +of Lord Bath, who there commanded the King's forces, William was by no +means sure. From the east the royal fleet under Dartmouth was believed +to be approaching. Russell, who had told Burnet that "all was over," and +that he might "go to prayers," was just upon taking boat for the +Prince's ship when the "Protestant wind," as the long prayed-for +easterly gale had hitherto been called, having now by force of +circumstances become a breeze of a distinctly Catholic tendency, was, as +all good Protestants of that day believed, providentially lulled. A wind +of the right direction and denomination sprang up shortly after, and in +four hours' time, by noon of the 5th of November, the Prince's fleet was +wafted safely into Torbay. + +FOOTNOTES: + +[1] In April or May. Macaulay (after Burnet) says May; and the point is +of some importance, because if, as Ralph maintains and proves by +reference to the date of the Elector of Brandenburg's death (an event +referred to by Burnet as still prospective at the date of the conference +with Russell), this interview really took place in April, it does prove, +as Ralph says, that "measures were forming in England against the King +and embraced in Holland before the second Declaration of Indulgence was +published, or the Order in Council which was founded thereon, or the +Prosecution of the Bishops was thought of; which his lordship (Burnet) +holds of such weight for the justification of those measures." Ralph i. +998. + +[2] One of Russell's arguments for immediate action was that James's +soldiers, "though _bad Englishmen_ and _worse Christians_, were as yet +such _good Protestants_ that neither were they attached to His Majesty, +nor could His Majesty depend upon them."--Burnet _ap._ Ralph, _Hist._ i. +997. + +[3] It is difficult to see why. Sunderland, in his _Apology_, distinctly +says, "I opposed to death the acceptance of them (the ships) as well as +any assistance of men, and I can most truly say that I was the principal +means of hindering both." Sunderland, no doubt, was not the most +veracious of men; but one does not see his precise motive for lying on +this matter. + +[4] To make some capital out of the mischance the Haarlem and Amsterdam +Gazettes were ordered (Ralph declares) "to set forth a lamentable +relation of the losses occasioned by it," losses which, it seems, +included "nine men of war, a thousand horses, and Dr. Burnet." + + + + +CHAPTER IV + +1688 + + Advance to Exeter--Measures of James--Council of the Lords-- + Their proposals--The King goes to Salisbury--Defection of + Churchill--James returns to London--Negotiation--Attempted + flight of James--His arrest--Advance of William--Entry of + Dutch troops into London--Actual flight of James. + + +The spot was in one respect well, in another ill chosen for a descent. +Nowhere, indeed, was James's tyranny more detested than in that quarter +of England in which William now found himself, but nowhere also was it +more feared. It was the country of the men who had risen for Monmouth +and fought at Sedgemoor, but it was the country too of the men who had +trembled before Jeffreys, and whose blood had given its name to his +terrible Assize. The reception which William met with was in fact +determined by a balance of these considerations. He was welcomed with +abundance of popular sympathy, but with little overt popular support. +The gentry and peasantry rejoiced at the sight of his standard, but were +slow in gathering to it. His march to Exeter was something like a +triumph, but it seemed at first, and indeed for some days after he had +fixed his quarters there, that he was to get nothing from the people but +their good wishes. That this delay in supporting him gave much +disappointment and even some anxiety to William is certain. He was too +politic to make any public manifestation of feelings, the disclosure of +which might only have served to aggravate their cause; but in private he +complained indignantly of the slackness of his promised adherents, and +even talked--though here we may permit ourselves to doubt his +seriousness--of abandoning his enterprise and returning to Holland. At +the end of a week, however, important partisans of his cause began to +make their appearance. Lord Colchester, a friend of Monmouth's, was the +first to join him; Edward Russell, a son of the Earl of Bedford, +followed; Lord Abingdon, a recruit from the other side of politics, was +the next to give his adhesion to William; and almost at the same moment +the cause of James sustained the most significant repudiation it had yet +undergone in the desertion of Lord Cornbury, the eldest son of Lord +Clarendon, who, after an unsuccessful attempt to bring over with him the +three regiments of which he was the commander, deserted them with a few +followers and made his way to William's quarters. + +In London, ever since the news of the Prince's landing, considerable +agitation had prevailed, and some actual rioting taken place. But the +royal authority was still upheld, and it was evident that the action of +the capital, reversing the order of revolutionary proceedings to which +France has now accustomed us, would await the course of events in the +provinces. As for the King, he was, characteristically enough, as much +reassured by a week's respite from bad news as he had been disturbed by +the tidings of his nephew's landing; but the intelligence of Cornbury's +defection threw him into a state of genuine alarm. Having convoked and +addressed the principal officers then in London, from whom he received +the most earnest professions of loyalty, he prepared to set out to meet +the invader at Salisbury, when he was waited upon by a deputation of the +Lords, praying him to call a Parliament and to open a negotiation with +the Prince of Orange. James, however, to whom no measure ever presented +itself as advisable at the proper moment for adopting it, rejected their +advice. His reason was an excellent one--for any king in a totally +different position from his. He said, and with much truth, that no +Parliament could be freely chosen for a country with an invading army +encamped on its soil; but the question which a clearer-sighted sovereign +would have asked himself was not whether the parliamentary elector would +be a free agent, but whether he himself was. It was eminently probable +that the convocation of a Parliament would not save his throne, but it +was quite certain that nothing else would. Nor had James the excuse of +pride for rejecting the Peers' advice; he was to show in a very short +time that no such account of his conduct could be sustained. Some +monarchs might have preferred to lose a crown rather than be forced into +political concession under coercion of an invading army. James was quite +willing to pay that or any other price to save his crown, only he was +impenetrable to the proof that it was necessary at that moment. He set +out for his destined headquarters, and reached them on the 19th of +November; but by the time he established himself at Salisbury the real +royal court had collected itself at Exeter. William was haranguing the +"friends and fellow Protestants" who had gathered to his banner, and +continually receiving fresh adhesions, among which that of Lord Bath, +the commander of the royal forces at Plymouth, was the most important. +Meanwhile, the northern population of the kingdom, among whom William +had been expected to present himself first, were up in arms. York and +Nottingham were the chief centres of insurrection, and to one or the +other of them many of the great peers and landowners of the north were +already making their way. Placed thus between two fires, it was evident +that immediate action was necessary on James's part to prevent their +meeting and engulfing him. As it was no less evidently to William's +interest to defer a conflict as long as possible, he succeeded in +avoiding anything save mere skirmishes between outposts, until the +occurrence of an event for which he was probably prepared, and which he +had good reason to hope would insure the triumph of his cause without +any serious fighting at all. This was no less an event than the +desertion of Churchill, who, if, as is likely enough, he had been up to +this point doubting to which side his interests pointed--the only form +of indecision he was liable to--had by this time satisfied himself that +James's cause was lost. Alarmed by rumours of disaffection in his army, +James's eagerness for an encounter with William had now entirely +disappeared. He talked of retreating, but Churchill strongly urged an +advance. Whether, if his counsels had prevailed, he would have taken +over the troops under his command to William, or whether he would have +awaited the issue of battle in order to obtain still clearer light on +the only question that interested him, must for ever remain uncertain. +James resolved to fall back, and Churchill resolved not to accompany +him. He quitted the royal camp that night, leaving behind him a letter, +in which he declared it impossible for him to fight against the cause of +the Protestant religion, and presented himself next day at the quarters +of the Prince of Orange. His flight threw James into extreme +consternation. A precipitate retreat was ordered, and the royal +standard, now losing more and more followers every day, was soon being +hurried back to London. Prince George of Denmark, who lives in history +as _Est-il possible?_ abandoned his father-in-law at Andover, and James +returned to Whitehall to find that his younger daughter had followed her +husband's example. "God help me!" the wretched King exclaimed; "my own +children have forsaken me." A man so accustomed to subordinate all the +kindlier instincts of human nature to the precepts of his religion might +have recollected that Anne had only to identify the interests of +Anglican Protestantism with the cause of Christ in order to find +excellent Scriptural authority for turning her back upon her father. + +It being now too late to hope for an accommodation with his people and +their invited champion, James began to think of arranging one. He +summoned a council of the Lords spiritual and temporal then in London, +and signified his willingness to "agree with his adversary" slowly, +and when no longer "in the way with him." He was ready now to +take the advice which had been tendered him before he started for +Salisbury--namely, to summon a Parliament and open negotiations with +William. It was now, however, pointed out to him that, his position +having become worse by delay, he must make an advance on his original +offers by dismissing all Catholics from office, breaking off his +relations with France, and promising an amnesty to all political +opponents; but as this or some similar enlargement of the original terms +of concession submitted to him unmistakably recommended itself to common +sense, the King would not hear of it. He would summon a Parliament, and +at once did so by directing Jeffreys to issue writs convoking that body +for the 13th of January. He would negotiate with William, and he named +Nottingham, Halifax, and Godolphin as his commissioners for that +purpose. But more than this he at first declined to do. On further +reflection, however, it occurred to him that the pang of giving these +distasteful pledges might be much mitigated by a secret resolve to break +them. He therefore issued a proclamation granting a free pardon to all +who were in rebellion against him, and declaring them eligible as +members of the forthcoming Parliament. At the same time he gave an +earnest of his willingness to conform to the law excluding papists from +office by removing the Catholic Lieutenant of the Tower. Again, at the +same time, and as the reverse of an "earnest" of anything, he informed +the French Ambassador that the negotiation with William was "a mere +feint," and that all he wanted was to gain time "to ship off his wife +and the Prince of Wales." There was undoubtedly a good deal of his royal +and unfortunate father about James II. He seems, indeed, to have +inherited almost all Charles's moral qualities except his courage. These +he "threw back" to his grandfather--not a fortunate illustration of the +biological principle of atavism. + +Infected with the duplicity and unredeemed by the bravery of Charles I., +the close of his reign is naturally less romantic than his father's. +Kings who fail in business undoubtedly owe it to their historical +reputation to perish on the scaffold or the battlefield. A royal martyr +is a much more impressive object than a royal levanter. It is better to +"ascend to Heaven" as "the son of St. Louis" than to take ship for Dover +as "Mr. Smith." The last three weeks of James's reign are weeks of +painful ignominy. His plan of spiriting away the infant Prince of Wales +was defeated by Dartmouth, the admiral on whom he had relied to execute +it, but who steadfastly refused to lend a hand to the project. William's +army advanced from Exeter to Salisbury, and from Salisbury to +Hungerford, where it had been arranged that the royal commissioners +should meet the Prince. The result of the negotiation was favourable +beyond anything James had a right to expect. The Prince accepted his +father-in-law's offer to refer all questions in dispute to the +Parliament about to be assembled, stipulating only that the capital +should be relieved from military pressure on either side; that James +should, as a security against his inviting French aid, place Portsmouth +under the command of an officer in whom both sides had confidence; and +that, while London was denuded of troops, the Tower--as also Tilbury +Fort--should be garrisoned by the city of London. It is by no means +impossible that James might have saved a crown, however shorn of its +prerogatives, had he accepted these terms. But he was bent on attempting +to regain by foreign arms that full despotic authority which he could +not retain by his own. He contrived, with the assistance of the +chivalrous and eccentric Frenchman Lauzun, to get the Queen and Prince +of Wales conveyed safely to France; and twenty-four hours afterwards, +on the night of the 11th of December, he endeavoured to follow them, but +he was recognised at the Isle of Sheppey, whence he was about to embark, +and his flight arrested. In London, where the royal forces had, in +obedience to James's parting orders, been disbanded by their +commander-in-chief, some forty-eight hours of very dangerous panic +ensued upon the King's departure; but a provisional government was +hastily formed by a committee of temporal and spiritual peers, and +measures promptly taken by them for the maintenance of order. On hearing +of the capture of James, they immediately despatched Feversham with a +troop of Life Guards to escort him back to London. Here he was received +with some marks of popular commiseration, which he mistook for reviving +popular favour, and, regaining confidence, he sent Feversham to Windsor +as the bearer of a letter to the Prince of Orange, expressing a desire +for a personal conference with him at St. James's Palace, which he +offered to fit up for the Prince's accommodation. William, however, as +one may now see plainly, was bent on creating a vacancy of the throne. +He no doubt keenly regretted the officiousness of the sailors who had +defeated James's first attempt at flight, and resolved to do all in his +power short of downright physical coercion to induce him to repeat the +attempt. He arrested Feversham for want of a military safe conduct, and +replied to James's letter by declining the conference, and desiring him +to remain at Rochester. The King had by this time reached Whitehall; +but, disquieted by the sternness of William's message, and by the arrest +of his officer, his nerve began once more to fail him. On the night of +the 18th three or four battalions of William's infantry and a squadron +of horse marched down to Whitehall, and, the English Guards being +withdrawn by the King's orders and to the great regret of their stout +old commander, Lord Craven, took practical possession of the palace. In +the small hours of the morning Halifax and two other lords arrived from +Windsor with a recommendation to James to retire to Ham. Ostensibly +delivered in the name of his own Peers, James felt satisfied that it was +really a hint from William. He proposed to substitute Rochester for Ham, +and the substitution was accepted by William with a readiness which +significantly showed his desire to facilitate his uncle's flight. Early +the next morning James, accompanied by Lords Aylesbury, Lichfield, +Arran, and Dumbarton--peers whose names deserve if only as a matter of +curiosity to be recorded,[5]--set out for Rochester; and four days +afterwards, with motives which have been variously estimated, but in +which fear for his life or liberty and hopes of foreign assistance +towards the recovery of his kingdom played perhaps about an equal part, +he again resolved to quit the kingdom. A letter from his +Queen--intercepted indeed, but which William took care to have conveyed +to him--confirmed his resolution. Between two and three o'clock on the +morning of the 23d he embarked on board a frigate on the Medway, and, +finding the wind favourable, landed after a speedy voyage at Ambleteuse, +whence he proceeded to St. Germains. + +FOOTNOTE: + +[5] It is true that a large number of courtiers quitted Whitehall at the +same time, making the palace, as Ralph says, "like a Desart." But the +large majority of them got no further than St. James's. + + + + +CHAPTER V + +1688-1689 + + Characteristics of the English Revolution--Views of the + various parties--The Convention--Proposal to declare the + throne vacant--The Regency question--The resolution of the + Commons--Amendment of the Lords--The crisis--Attitude of + Mary--Announcement of William--Resolution passed--Declaration + of Right--Tender of the crown. + + +It is significant of the peaceful and, so to speak, constitutional +character of our English Revolution that by far its most momentous +scenes were enacted within the four walls of the meeting-places of +deliberative assemblies, and find their chronicle in the dry record of +votes and resolutions. We have no "days," in the French sense of the +word, or hardly any, to commemorate. The gradual accomplishment of the +political work of 1688-89 is not marked and emphasised like that of +1789-92 at every stage by some out-door event of the picturesque, the +stirring, or the terrible kind--such for instance as those by which the +14th of July, the 6th of October, the 10th of August, and in a darker +order of memories, the 2d of September, have been made landmarks in the +revolutionary history of France. On every one of the days thus singled +out for glorious or for shameful remembrance, some irrevocable step was +taken--some new position gained by the advancing forces of French +democracy from which there was no retreat. We in England have no +anniversaries of the kind. We may remember, though we have ceased to +celebrate in our churches, the day in which William first set foot on +our shores; but we feel that after all it was not an "event" in the +sense of that other great Protestant deliverance with which in +month-date it so fortunately coincided, and for which the Anglican +liturgy economically set apart a common form of thanksgiving. The +discovery of the Gunpowder Plot was an incident having results of the +most permanent and unalterable character. It made all the difference +between the safety and the destruction of the Sovereign and the three +Estates of the Realm. Again, the execution of Charles I. determined +something, by committing the country to the military autocracy of +Cromwell and the powerful reaction of the Restoration. But this cannot +be said of the landing of the Prince of Orange at Torbay--the mere +opening of a drama which might have had any one of half a dozen +_dnoments_; it can hardly even be said of the second and definitive +flight of James. The 23d of December 1688 was in one sense no more of an +"epoch-making" day than the 5th of November in the same year. It is true +that the sovereign's abandonment of his throne and country became +something more than a striking dramatic event; it was elevated into an +act of profound political import. It had or was invested with inward and +most momentous legal significance, in addition to its outward historical +prominence. But for all that it determined nothing at the moment of its +occurrence but the future of a single man. It is quite conceivable that +the mere flight of James II. should have settled no more than his own +incapacitation--that it should not even have brought about the exclusion +of his son from the succession, still less have led to the formal +recognition of a new principle in the English Constitution. True it is +that all these consequences were deducible from it as matter of +argument, and flowed from it in fact. True it is that, when James stole +down the Medway in the early morning of the 23d of December, he was +taking a step which was capable of being turned by the friends of +liberty and good government, or his own enemies,--and it was difficult +to be one without being the other,--to the disherison of his son, and +the far-reaching substitution of a statutory for a common-law monarchy. +But no less true is it that these results were very far from being +necessary or automatic in their character; that, on the contrary, they +hung for some critical days in the balance, and that the active +co-operation of human qualities in its very conspicuous and not too +common forms of courage, foresight, and political dexterity, was needed +in the last resort to secure them. It is for this reason that our +"days," our anniversaries of such merely external incidents as William's +landing or James's departure are, comparatively speaking, so +unimportant. No such incident either made or insured the making of our +existing English Constitution. The events which really made it passed, +as I have said, within the walls of two deliberative assemblies, between +January 23 and February 13, 1689, and its making was not actually +assured until this period was well-nigh expired. + +How important was the political work compressed within these three +weeks will be at once apparent if now, having noted how little was +settled by the mere flight of James II., we go on to consider how great +was the variety of its possible results. James had ceased to be king _de +facto_, that was all; and the English people were pretty unanimous in +their determination that he should never be king _de facto_ again. But +was he still king _de jure_? If not, if he was not legally sovereign, +was any one? And if so, who? Upon each of these last three questions +there was room for difference of opinion, and upon at least two of them +opinion was in fact divided. A considerable section of the Tory party +were of opinion that James, although he had _de facto_ ceased to reign, +was still the only lawful king of England, in whose name, at any rate, +all royal authority should be exercised, and all royal acts of state +performed. To these men, therefore, the only legal and constitutional +solution of the problem appeared to be the creation of a Regency. They +were for raising William to the position of Regent, and empowering him +to preside over the actual government of the country in this capacity +during the life of his father-in-law. + +A second section of the Tory party held, on the other hand, that James +having by his own act ceased to govern, had also ceased to reign. By +deliberately laying aside the sceptre he had brought about a demise of +the crown. It had simply devolved upon the person next in succession, +and that person was, they declared, the Princess Mary. There was no need +therefore for the creation of a Regent, and still less for the more +extreme and wholly unprecedented step of appointing a new sovereign. All +that was necessary was a mere formal recognition by the country of the +bare legal facts of the case. According to this party the Princess Mary +was in truth at that moment the lawful Queen of England, and nothing +more was needed than a national acknowledgment of her title. + +To both of these doctrines the Whig party were equally opposed. They +held in opposition to the former, that James had ceased to reign, and in +opposition to the latter, that the crown had been not demised but simply +forfeited. The King's destruction of his own right could not have, and +had not had, the effect of transmitting them to any one else whomsoever. +They resided at that moment, whatever constitutional fictions might aver +to the contrary, in no one; and a special expression of the national +will, a special exertion of the national power, would be required in +favour of some designated successors to these rights before anybody +could be regarded, whether in fact or law, as invested with them. + +Apart from all political prepossessions there can, I think, be no +serious dispute as to which was the most logical and tenable contention +of the three; and that this was distinctly that of the Whigs. The Tories +who contended that James had lost his right to the personal exercise of +the royal authority, while yet retaining so much of that authority that +any one who exercised it in his stead must be supposed to do so as his +deputy, were involved in a hopeless contradiction. In assuming to +appoint such deputy to act for a person whom they still persisted in +regarding as king _de jure_, they were themselves obviously usurping a +portion of that very _jus_ which they professed to respect. True, they +attempted to get over this objection by urging that James had placed +himself under a disability to exercise his royal authority, but they +could point to nothing in the facts of the case to support their +contention. Disability to exercise royal authority could, in the view of +the Constitution, arise from one cause alone, the same cause from which +in the view of the common law arises the disability to exercise civil +rights. The disabled King, like the disabled subject, must have become +mentally incapacitated; and James's incapacitation for the work of +government was purely moral. Setting aside the deposition and execution +of his father, which even the Whigs did not endeavour to elevate into a +regular precedent, there was no constitutional sanction for the +withdrawal of the reins of state from the hands of the monarch, on any +ground save that of insanity. Once extend this, and admit that a king +who is merely bad may be treated as though he were mad, and the Whig +doctrine is thereby absolutely conceded. As to the practical +inconveniences of a Regency exercised in the name of an actively hostile +sovereign--a sovereign who would have been sometimes in arms against his +own nominal authority, and always plotting its overthrow--they would of +course have been both grave and numerous. But it is less surprising that +the Regency party of that day should have ignored them than that they +should have been so indifferent to the complete surrender of their +political principles which was involved in the proposal to which they +committed themselves. + +More logical in form, but equally untenable in fact, was the position +assumed by the other section of the Tory party. There was perhaps +nothing altogether irreconcilable with their principles in the theory +that a voluntary abandonment of the throne might operate as a demise of +the crown; but coolly to assert a right to pass over the infant Prince +of Wales on the strength of the mere idle story that he was a +supposititious child[6] was a pretension which, especially as put +forward by men who were such sticklers for constitutional fictions as to +insist that there must at any given moment be some one person or other +entitled to wear the English crown, appears little short of +preposterous. + +The Whig theory of the situation rejected the fictions of both branches +of the Tory party with equal decision. There was no need, according to +the Whigs, for the country to bewilder itself in efforts to distinguish +between _de jure_ and _de facto_ sovereignty, still less to resort to +the far-fetched expedient of assuming a demise of the crown in order to +prevent the former kind of sovereignty from undergoing interruption. A +king, they held, might lose his title to the crown by a voluntary +abandonment of the throne; and he might lose that title without anybody +succeeding to it. Indeed, since the English crown devolved according to +the ordinary English laws of succession, it was impossible that anybody +should succeed to it by mere _operation of law_ during its former +wearer's life-time. If it was a principle of constitutional law that at +any given moment there must be some lawful king or queen of England in +existence, it was no less a principle of the common law that _nemo est +hres viventis_. James, therefore, had according to the Whig theory +ceased to be sovereign, and no one else had become sovereign in his +stead: the throne was vacant. Being vacant it was for the Convention to +fill it, and the members of that body were both entitled and bound to +select the fittest successor to it, unconstrained, though not +necessarily uninfluenced, by the claims of successorship which would +have vested in this, that, or the other person under an ordinary demise +of the crown. + +That this was the most logical and self-consistent view of the situation +appears to me undeniable; but it is a singular illustration of the +manner in which events may transpose the relative proportions of +principles that this Whig corollary from the abdication of James +appeared to the statesmen of the time, and even it should seem to +Macaulay, a century and a half after them, to be a more pregnant +assertion of democratic doctrine, and a bolder step in its application, +than that expressed in the earlier proposition that James had ceased to +reign. Nowadays the difference between the Tories who contended that the +crown had been demised, and the Whigs who insisted that the throne was +vacant, hardly arrests the student for an instant. He is disposed to +brush the Tory fiction aside as alike irrational and unnecessary. The +real passage of the Rubicon took place in his view of the matter when it +was declared that James had ceased to be _de jure_ king, and no +subsequent assertion of popular rights in the choice of a successor +could possibly be stronger or more important than that declaration +itself. Yet whereas the Convention accepted the first of these +propositions _nemine contradicente_, the second was only adopted after +having been once actually rejected, and was in fact the subject of so +sharp a conflict of opinion as to threaten irreconcilable deadlock +between the two branches of the constituent body.[7] + +The Convention met on the 22d of January, when Halifax was chosen +president in the Lords; Powle, Speaker of the Commons. A letter from +William, read in both Houses, informed their members that he had +endeavoured to the best of his power to discharge the trust reposed in +him, and that it now rested with the Convention to lay the foundation of +a firm security for their religion, laws, and liberties. The Prince then +went on to refer to the dangerous condition of the Protestants in +Ireland and the present state of things abroad, which obliged him to +tell them that next to the danger of unreasonable divisions among +themselves, nothing could be so fatal as too great a delay in their +consultations. And he further intimated that as England was already +bound by treaty to help the Dutch in such exigencies as, deprived of the +troops which he had brought over, and threatened with war by Louis XIV., +they might easily be reduced to, so he felt confident that the cheerful +concurrence of the Dutch in preserving this kingdom would meet with all +the returns of friendship from Protestants and Englishmen whenever their +own condition should require assistance. To this the two Houses replied +with an address thanking the Prince for his great care in the +administration of the affairs of the kingdom to this time, and formally +continuing to him the same commission,[8] recommending to his particular +care the present state of Ireland. William's answer to this address was +characteristic both of his temperament and his preoccupation. "My lords +and gentlemen," he said, "I am glad that what I have done hath pleased +you; and since you desire me to continue the administration of affairs, +I am willing to accept it. I must recommend to you the consideration of +affairs abroad which makes it fit for you to expedite your business, not +only for making a settlement at home on a good foundation, but for the +safety of Europe." On the 28th the Commons resolved themselves into a +committee of the whole House, and Richard Hampden, son of the great +John, was voted into the chair. The honour of having been the first to +speak the word which was on everybody's lips belongs to Gilbert Dolben, +son of a late Archbishop of York, who "made a long speech tending to +prove that the King's deserting his kingdom without appointing any +person to administer the government amounted in reason and judgment of +law to a demise." Sir Robert Howard, one of the members for Castle +Rising, went a step further, and asserted that the throne, was vacant. +The extreme Tories made a vain effort to procure an adjournment, but the +combination against them of Whigs and their own moderates was too strong +for them, and after a long and stormy debate the House resolved "That +King James II., having endeavoured to subvert the constitution by +breaking the original contract between the King and people, and by the +advice of Jesuits and other wicked persons having violated the +fundamental laws and withdrawn himself out of the kingdom, has abdicated +the government, and that the throne is thereby vacant." + +This resolution was at once sent up to the Lords. Before, however, they +could proceed to consider it, another message arrived from the Commons +to the effect that they had just voted it inconsistent with the safety +and welfare of this Protestant nation to be governed by a Popish king. +To this resolution the Peers assented with a readiness which showed in +advance that James had no party in the Upper House, and that the utmost +length to which the Tories in that body were prepared to go was to +support the proposal of a Regency. The first resolution of the Commons +was then put aside in order that this proposal might be discussed. It +was Archbishop Sancroft's plan, who, however, did not make his +appearance to advocate it, and in his absence it was supported by +Rochester and Nottingham, while Halifax and Danby led the opposition to +it. After a day's debate it was lost by the narrow majority of two, +forty-nine peers declaring in its favour, and fifty-one against it. The +Lords then went into Committee on the Commons' resolution, and at once +proceeded, as was natural enough, to dispute the clause in its preamble +which referred to the original contract between the King and the people. +No Tory of course could really have subscribed to the doctrine implied +in these words; but it was doubtless as hard in those days as in these +to interest an assembly of English politicians in affirmations of +abstract political principle, and some Tories probably thought it not +worth while to multiply causes of dissent with the Lower House by +attacking a purely academic recital of their resolution. Anyhow, the +numbers of the minority slightly fell off, only forty-six peers +objecting to the phrase, while fifty-three voted that it should stand. +The word "deserted" was then substituted without a division for the word +"abdicated," and the hour being late, the Lords adjourned. + +The real battle, of course, was now at hand, and to any one who assents +to the foregoing criticisms it will be evident that it was far less of a +conflict on a point of constitutional principle, and far more of a +struggle between the parties of two distinct--one cannot call them +rival--claimants to the throne than high-flying Whig writers are +accustomed to represent it. It would of course, be too much to say that +the Whigs insisted on declaring the vacancy of the throne, _only_ +because they wished to place William on it, and that the Tories +contended for a demise of the crown, _only_ because they wished an +English princess to succeed to the throne rather than a Dutch prince. +Still, it is pretty certain that, but for this conflict of preferences, +the two political parties, who had made so little difficulty of agreeing +in the declaration that James had ceased to reign, would never have +found it so hard to concur in its almost necessary sequence that the +throne was vacant. The debate on the last clause of the resolution +began, and it soon became apparent that the Whigs were outnumbered. The +forty-nine peers who had supported the proposal of a Regency, which +implied that the royal title was still in James, were bound, of course, +to oppose the proposition that the throne was vacant; and they were +reinforced by several peers who held that that title had already +devolved upon Mary. An attempt to compromise the dispute by omitting the +words pronouncing the throne vacant, and inserting words which merely +proclaimed the Prince and Princess of Orange King and Queen, was +rejected by fifty-two votes to forty-seven[9]; and the original clause +was then put and negatived by fifty-five votes to forty-one. + +Thus amended by the substitution of "deserted" for "abdicated," and the +omission of the words "and that the throne is thereby vacant," the +resolution was sent back to the Commons, who instantly and without a +division disagreed with the amendments. The situation was now becoming +critical. The prospect of a deadlock between the two branches of the +Convention threw London into a ferment; crowds assembled in Palace Yard; +petitions were presented in that tumultuous fashion which converts +supplication into menace. To their common credit, however, both parties +united in resistance to these attempts at popular coercion; and William +himself interposed to enjoin a stricter police of the capital. On +Monday, the 4th of February, the Lords resolved to insist on their +amendments; on the following day the Commons reaffirmed their +disagreement with them by 282 votes to 151. A free Conference between +the two Houses was then arranged, and met on the following day. + +But the dispute, like many another in our political history, had +meanwhile been settled out of court. Between the date of the Peers' vote +and the Conference Mary had communicated to Danby her high displeasure +at the conduct of those who were setting up her claims in opposition to +those of her husband; and William, who had previously maintained an +unbroken silence, now made, unsolicited, a declaration of a most +important, and indeed of a conclusive kind. If the Convention, he said, +chose to adopt the plan of a Regency, he had nothing to say against it, +only they must look out for some other person to fill the office, for he +himself would not consent to do so. As to the alternative proposal of +putting Mary on the throne and allowing him to reign by her courtesy, +"No man," he said, "can esteem a woman more than I do the Princess; but +I am so made that I cannot think of holding anything by apron-strings; +nor can I think it reasonable to have any share in the government unless +it be put in my own person, and that for the term of my life. If you +think fit to settle it otherwise I will not oppose you, but will go back +to Holland and meddle no more in your affairs." These few sentences of +plain speaking swept away the clouds of intrigue and pedantry as by a +wholesome gust of wind. Both political parties at once perceived that +there was but one possible issue from the situation. The Conference was +duly held, and the constitutional question was, with great display of +now unnecessary learning, solemnly debated; but the managers for the two +Houses met only to register a foregone conclusion. The word "abdicated" +was restored; the vacancy of the throne was voted by sixty-two votes to +forty-seven; and it was immediately proposed and carried without a +division that the Prince and Princess of Orange should be declared King +and Queen of England. + +It now only remained to give formal effect to this resolution, and in so +doing to settle the conditions whereon the crown, which the Convention +had now distinctly recognised itself as conferring upon the Prince and +Princess, should be conferred. A Committee appointed by the Commons to +consider what safeguards should be taken against the aggressions of +future sovereigns had made a report in which they recommended not only a +solemn enunciation of ancient constitutional principles, but the +enactment of new laws. The Commons, however, having regard to the +importance of prompt action, judiciously resolved on carrying out only +the first part of the programme. They determined to preface their tender +of the crown to William and Mary by a recital of the royal encroachments +of the past reigns, and a formal assertion of the constitutional +principles against which such encroachments had offended. This document, +drafted by a Committee of which the celebrated Somers, then a +scarcely-known young advocate, was the chairman, was the famous +DECLARATION OF RIGHT. + +The grievances which it recapitulated in its earlier portion, fourteen +in number, were as follows:--(1) the royal pretension to dispense with +and suspend laws without consent of Parliament; (2) the punishment of +subjects, as in the Seven Bishops' case, for petitioning the Crown; (3) +the establishment of the illegal Court of High Commission for +ecclesiastical affairs; (4) the levy of taxes without the consent of +Parliament; (5) the maintenance of a standing army in time of peace +without the same consent; (6) the disarmament of Protestants while +Papists were both armed and employed contrary to law; (7) the violation +of the freedom of election; (8) the prosecution in the King's Bench of +suits only cognisable in Parliament; (9) the return of partial and +corrupt juries; (10) the requisition of excessive bail; (11) the +imposition of excessive fines; (12) the infliction of illegal and cruel +punishments; (13) the grants of the estates of accused persons before +conviction. Then, after solemnly reaffirming the popular rights from +which these abuses of the prerogative derogated, the Declaration goes on +to recite that, having an "entire confidence" William would "preserve +them from the violation of the rights which they have here asserted, the +Three Estates do resolve that William and Mary, Prince and Princess of +Orange, be and be declared King and Queen ... to hold the Crown and +Royal Dignity ... to them the said Prince and Princess during their +Lives and the Life of the Survivor of them; and the sole and full +exercise of the Royal Power be only in and exercised by the said Prince +of Orange, in the Names of the said Prince and Princess during their +Lives, and after their Deceases, the said Crown and Royal Dignity of the +said Kingdoms and Dominions to the Heirs of the Body of the said +Princess; and, for default of such Issue, to the Princess Anne of +Denmark and the Heirs of her Body; and, for default of such Issue, to +the Issue of the said Prince of Orange." Then followed an alteration +required by the scrupulous conscience of Nottingham in the terms of the +Oath of Allegiance. + +On the 12th of February Mary arrived from Holland. On the following day, +in the Banqueting House at Whitehall, the Prince and Princess of Orange +were waited on by both Houses of Convention in a body. The Declaration +was read by the Clerk of the Crown; the sovereignty solemnly tendered to +them by Halifax, in the name of the Estates; and on the same day they +were proclaimed King and Queen in the usual places in the cities of +London and Westminster. + +FOOTNOTES: + +[6] _How_ idle this story was may best be judged by studying the +so-called evidence in its favour, as set forth in the pages of that +writer who, more perhaps than any other chronicler of the events of that +period, would have liked to establish its truth. No one, I think, can +read Burnet's account of the Queen's accouchement, so completely +demonstrating as it does the _impossibility_ of the alleged fraud, +without wondering at the strength of the partisanship and popular +prejudice which could for a moment have believed in its perpetration. + +[7] The fact that the _practical_ cause of this sharp conflict was the +rivalry between the partisans of William and those of Mary is only a +partial explanation of the phenomenon referred to in the text. It is a +reason for the Convention having debated the Whig corollary so much, but +not for their debating the Whig-Tory original proposition so little. Of +course the _practical_ explanation is the simple one, that James had +made himself impossible. Both parties concurred so readily in that +opinion that they applied it without either of them pausing to consider +its scope as a precedent, and that, quite apart from all controversies +as to regency, demise of the crown, vacancy of the throne, or what not, +the first instance in which a people pronounced _any_ king +impossible--such king being of sound mind, and still asserting his +sovereignty--let in the whole modern democratic theory. + +[8] It is somewhat singular that Macaulay should have taken no notice of +an address which really constituted William's sole legal, or quasi legal +title to the administration of affairs between the assembling of the +Convention (which necessarily revoked his original commission) and the +conclusion of its king-making labours. + +[9] The offer and rejection of this compromise appears to me to be +additional proof of the proposition advanced in the text--viz. that both +Whigs and Tories were far more solicitous for the success of their +candidate than for the triumph of their principles. Macaulay, it is +true, contends, as from his point of view he was bound to do, that the +Whigs made no concession of principle in proposing their compromise; for +if, he argues, the Convention could elect William and Mary there must +have been a vacancy of the throne. But surely the resolution as amended +might have been treated as merely _declaratory_ of Mary's title, and +elective only so far as it associated William with her on a throne which +had become his wife's by succession, and so would never have been +vacated at all. No; it was a genuine and not a fictitious surrender of +Whig principle; and while it proved that the Whigs were prepared to +offer any such concession as would make William King, its rejection +proved that the Tories cared for no such concession as did not leave +Mary sole Queen. The gain of votes which the Whigs secured by the +compromise probably represents the proportion of peers who really cared +for the abstract principle apart from the concrete facts. + + + + +CHAPTER VI + +1689 + + William's part in the Revolution--Convention declared a + Parliament--Oath of Allegiance--Settlement of Civil List + --Appropriation Clause--Toleration and Comprehension-- + Address of the Commons inviting the King to declare war. + + +Thus prudently and calmly was effected our great English Revolution. +Both as an event and as an achievement we have equal cause to review its +history with pleasure; for if in some aspects it testifies to the good +fortune of our nation, it reflects credit in others on the good +qualities of our people. I have endeavoured in the last chapter to point +out that the modern Whig view of the Revolution as a great conflict +between two opposing schools of constitutional doctors, resulting in the +victory of the more liberal one, is largely legendary; that the struggle +between Whigs and Tories resolved itself almost entirely into a dispute +of preferences as between two alternative candidates for the throne; and +that both parties showed themselves alike prepared to waive the +principles which they severally held on condition of attaining their +practical end--the success of their favoured candidate. But this does +not in any way detract either from the value of the Revolution or from +the merits of its authors; while it otherwise only serves to conform it +to the normal type of English political work. All our great +constitutional precedents are the parents of principle rather than its +offspring; we deduce our theories from accomplished facts of our own +creation, the creation of such accomplished facts being itself +determined by no theoretical considerations, but by certain practical +exigencies of the moment. Few Englishmen will think any worse of the +Whig because, although firmly wedded to the principle of national +sovereignty, he would have been willing to lose the opportunity of +expressly affirming it so long as he could by any means place William of +Orange, with full regal power, on the throne. Nor will they be any more +disposed to condemn the Tory in that when he found himself compelled to +give way on the practical point of the succession, he did not think it +worth while to quarrel with the assertions or implications of Whig +principle contained in the resolution by which the transfer was +effected. On the contrary, the temper and habits of mind thus jointly +illustrated are national characteristics on which we especially and not +unreasonably pride ourselves. + +For the purposes of a precedent, too, the transaction could hardly have +come more happily off. Even a Tory of to-day will admit that it was good +for the future development of our constitutional life that the Whig +principles of "national sovereignty," "original contract between king +and people," and all the rest of it, should then and there receive +unmistakable recognition and irrevocable ratification; and this beyond +question they did receive. No hair-splittings about desertion or +abdication[10] could obscure the two plain facts, that the nation +_deposed_ James II., and by a distinct assertion of inherent, or +assumption of new, authority--it matters not which--_made_ a new king +out of a man who, but for such assertion or assumption of authority, +could never have become more than the consort of a queen. + +As regards the new King himself, his behaviour at this great crisis in +his own fortunes and the destiny of two nations deserves, at any rate, +the credit of honesty and straightforwardness. We shall not really add +to that honour by seeking any more showy motives than those which lie on +the face of his conduct. The mere masculine repugnance of the man of +action to lower the spear before the distaff would in any case probably +have induced him to reject the proposal of the Tory lords. But apart +from this, his shrewd knowledge of men and clear insight into politics +assured him that he had only to refuse the false position in order to +compel the offer of the true one. He might have been all else that he +was--the devoted son of Holland; the true, if unimpassioned, friend of +England; the implacable enemy of the French king and his designs; the +ardent champion of Protestantism and the liberties of Europe;--and yet +only been the more tempted in every one of these by a place on the steps +of a powerful throne, and an influence which even from that situation he +might have wielded to the attainment of many great ends. He was saved +from accepting it solely by his pride, his ambition, and his +perspicacity. He resented the thought of holding power as his wife's +lieutenant, and he saw that he had only to refuse that post in order to +make himself a necessity as king. + +The first act of the new sovereign was to summon and swear a Privy +Council, and to nominate a Ministry. In the then infancy of our modern +Constitution it was not, as it now is, incumbent upon the sovereign to +select the Ministers from one particular party. It was competent to him, +and William deemed it expedient for him, to tender office to the +representatives of both political connections. Danby, a Tory by +principle, though he had sided with the Whigs in opposing the Regency +scheme, and only broke away from them on the question of declaring the +throne vacant, was made President of the Council. Halifax, a Trimmer +indeed, but of closer affinities with Whiggery than with Toryism, and +the chief upholder of the Whig doctrine on the question of the +succession, became Lord Privy Seal. Nottingham, a Tory up to almost any +point short of passive obedience, received the seals of one +Secretaryship of State; upon Shrewsbury, a Whig, were bestowed those of +the other. The Treasury and the Admiralty were committed to the +Administration of Boards--the former under the presidency of Admiral +Herbert, the latter under that of Charles Mordaunt, afterwards the +famous and eccentric Earl of Peterborough. By an exercise of the royal +authority, willingly acquiesced in at the time by the nation, but +destined to entail more momentous national consequences than any of his +subjects foresaw, King William retained in his own hands the exclusive +direction of foreign affairs. The Great Seal was placed in commission. + +The first question propounded to the Privy Council was whether the +Convention should be declared a lawful Parliament, or dissolved and a +fresh Parliament summoned in the regular manner by royal writ. The +Council advised the former course, and a Bill declaring the Convention a +Parliament was at once introduced and passed through the House of Lords. +It was opposed in the Commons by the Tories, who hoped that a general +election might strengthen their numbers; but the resistance--founded as +it was upon mere technical considerations, and with historical precedent +against it--was never very formidable; and the Bill passed the Lower +House in a few days, and became law. Among its clauses was one providing +that no one should, after the 1st of March then next ensuing, sit or +vote in either House of Parliament without taking the oaths of +allegiance to the new King and Queen, and the Jacobites and ultra-Tories +conceived the hope that many peers, bishops, and commoners would find it +impossible to reconcile their consciences to this test. As a matter of +fact the non-jurors, except among the Episcopal body, to whom Archbishop +Sancroft set the example of recusancy, were comparatively few. Even +later, when the oath was tendered to the clergy at large, the number of +those who found themselves conscientiously unable to take it was but +one-twentieth of the whole body.[11] + +In the interval, however, between the passing of the Act and the day +fixed for submission to the test, the great question of the royal +revenues was taken up and decided. Certain proceeds of taxation were in +those days granted to the Crown either for a fixed term of years or for +life. The former, being on the face of them annexed to the regal office, +were of course transferable without much difficulty or dispute to the +new incumbent of that office; but doubts naturally arose as to the exact +legal status of the latter kind of imposts. Some were for interpreting +the word "life" as virtually meaning reign, upon which construction the +right to exact these taxes had lapsed by the deposition of the sovereign +to whom they were granted. Others insisted on an interpretation stricter +in one sense and laxer in another, and argued that though William had +become entitled to these revenues as King he could only enjoy them +during the life of James. In other words, in order to avoid taking +liberties with the word "life," they were prepared to behave with far +more unbridled license to the word "king." The practical inconvenience +of settling revenues on William during the life of James may or may not +have weighed more with the Parliament than the theoretical anomaly of +treating the former as sovereign for one purpose and the latter as such +for another; but anyhow it was tacitly agreed to treat the grant to +James as annulled by his so-called abdication. The Commons then voted +the sum of 1,200,000 for the current year, one half to be appropriated +to the civil list, the other half to the defences of the +country--mainly, of course, in other words, to the prosecution of the +impending war in Ireland. At the first sitting of Parliament, after the +prorogation, which took place some months afterwards, the Royal Speech +from the Throne contained an announcement to the Commons that in order +that they might be satisfied how the money had been laid out which they +had already given, his Majesty had directed the accounts to be laid +before them whenever they should think fit to call for them. The +privilege thus practically acknowledged may no doubt be, as some +constitutional lawyers have contended, coeval with the constitution; but +it had been so intermittently respected that its unvarying recognition +from this time forward is justly reckoned as one of the chief gains +which accrued to our parliamentary system from the Revolution. It seems, +however, to have been only in the Stat., 9 and 10 Will. III. c. 44, that +there appears an appropriation clause of the modern type apportioning +all the supplies of the session to the services for which they were +provided. + +But while these delicate matters of royal rights and official income +were being disposed of, the King was commendably anxious to show himself +at once in some other light than that of an applicant for parliamentary +aids. As early as the 1st of March he sent a special message to the +Commons calling their attention to the "grievous burden" of the +unpopular hearth-tax, and signifying that assent either "to the +regulation of it, or to the taking of it wholly away," not doubting but +the Commons would take care of his revenue in some other way. This +judicious proposal gave great satisfaction. The Commons replied in +terms of warm acknowledgment, and the city of London presented to him an +address of thanks. He interposed, however, with less success and perhaps +with less judgment in the religious disputes by which the country was +divided. The traditions, alike of his nation and his house, may well +have encouraged him to aspire to the great office of moderator and +mediator between contending sects; but it is doubtful whether such a +post could under any circumstances have been within the reach of a Dutch +Calvinist. For the imperfect and illogically-regulated relief accorded +by the Toleration Act to most of the dissenting denominations the +country was prepared; but neither the occasion nor the idea of the +Comprehension Bill--a measure for widening the entrance to the Church of +England at the very moment when those who had chosen to remain outside +were being encouraged by a relieving Act to remain there--was in itself +a happy one. Churchmen were, from their own point of view, entitled to +argue that the two measures proceeded upon two opposite and conflicting +theories of state policy; that toleration, properly understood and +applied, would render comprehension superfluous, and had indeed been +accepted by the Church with that very object; and that it was but a poor +return for her surrender of her ancient claim to compel schismatics into +her fold, that she should be required unduly to extend its limits for +the purpose of embracing them. It is probable enough that William's eye +for an ecclesiastical scruple was not quite as keen as his insight into +the principles of civil government and the workings of European policy, +for he seems to have been surprised and disappointed at finding that +Churchmen and Dissenters, though the Toleration Act was accepted by the +former without serious difficulty and by the latter with hearty +rejoicings, would neither of them so much as look at his scheme of +comprehension. He evidently understood neither the "dissidence of +dissent" nor the Anglicanism of the Anglican Communion. The +Comprehension Bill had a troubled time of it even in the House of Lords, +where it was first introduced, and after some debate in the House of +Commons it was shelved. As vainly did William attempt to compose the +feud between the Whig and Tory Churchman and Nonconformist by offering, +so to speak, a bribe to each of them to tolerate the other. The new oath +of allegiance, framed by Parliament for itself, required to be extended +to all those classes of persons who had been compelled to take one. +Legislation was commenced for that purpose concurrently with the debates +over the Comprehension Bill, and the King, according to Burnet, saw +here, as he thought, an opportunity of bringing the disputants to a +mutually beneficial compromise. In his speech to the Commons on the 16th +of March, he signified his wish that in the pending legislation "they +would leave room for the admission of all Protestants that were willing +and able to serve"--a suggestion which, of course, was directly aimed at +the tests then excluding Dissenters from office. And while he pressed +this measure of relief upon the Tories, he at the same time invited the +Whigs to make a concession to their adversaries by absolving, as he was +willing to do, the existing beneficed clergy from the necessity of +taking the new oath of allegiance. He begged of the one party not to +compel the Nonconformist to choose between offence against conscience +and exclusion from civil office, and of the other party not to compel a +clergyman to choose between offence against conscience and expulsion +from ecclesiastical office; and he imagined that each would find their +account in consenting. But no. The Whig was determined to force the oath +upon the parson; the Tory was resolved to force the test upon the +dissenter. No provision of relief for Nonconformists was introduced into +the Comprehension Bill, and the measure itself was shortly afterwards +dropped. The Oaths Bill passed in a form which compelled every beneficed +clergyman to swear allegiance to the new King and Queen by the 1st of +August 1689, on pain of suspension, to be followed on the 1st of +February 1690, in the event of the non-juror remaining contumacious, by +deprivation. + +History has done justice to these well-meaning efforts of William; but +the political virtue which for the moment was its own reward, must, one +imagines, have been felt by him as painfully unremunerative. He could +not have expected to be personally popular, and he was not, though +Macaulay, in his desire for strong pictorial effect, has surely +exaggerated his unpopularity. But he, no doubt, counted upon wielding a +greater civil influence at the outset of his career than he in fact +discovered to be his, and must have learned, with some chagrin, that he +had failed to realise the vehemence of those English party conflicts in +which not even the ablest and best intentioned of mediators can +interpose without disappointment until he has mastered all the secrets +of their intensity. On the whole, one can easily understand the feeling +of satisfaction with which he hailed the coming of the hour when he, +with whom the instincts of the European statesman and soldier were +always dominant over these of the domestic administrator, was once more +summoned to activity in one of the two arts in which he shone. On the +19th of April the Commons presented an address to the Crown, in which, +after reciting the various acts of hostility committed by Louis XIV. +against their country, "particularly the present invasion of Ireland," +they assured William that when he "should think fit to enter into a war +against the French king, they would give him such assistance in a +parliamentary way as to enable him to support and go through with the +same." To this invitation from his Parliament William returned an answer +of ready acquiescence, while to those about him he exclaimed, with +unwonted animation, "This is the first day of my reign." + +FOOTNOTES: + +[10] There are but two ways in which a sovereign can, while alive, and +_compos mentis_, become divested of his regal attributes and +authority--by abdication and by deposition; and it is impossible to +define abdication satisfactorily by any form of words which does not +involve the idea of a _voluntary_ act. Even if a voluntary abandonment +or "desertion of the Government" amounted to abdication, it would not +help the case. James's flight from England in 1688 was no more voluntary +than the flight of his brother, then king _de jure_, after Worcester in +1651. Both flights were taken under what was or was conceived to be +_force majeure_. + +[11] This, however, it should be conceded, was really, of the two, a +more respectable proportion; for the clergy had a sterner alternative +before them than the bishops, peers, or members of the Lower House. The +latter had only status at stake--the former, in most cases, their means +of subsistence. + + + + +CHAPTER VII + +1689-1690 + + Invasion of Ireland--Campaign of 1689--Parliamentary strife + --The conduct of the war--The Oates Case--The Succession Bill + --Attempts to pass an Indemnity Bill--Rancour of the Whigs-- + Their factious opposition to William's Irish plans-- + Dissolution of Parliament. + + +An address from Parliament praying the sovereign to declare war against +a foreign state is far from a common incident in our history; and even +in this instance the initiative then taken by the Commons was one of +form rather than of fact. The descent of James upon Ireland, under the +convoy of a French fleet of fifteen sail of the line, and accompanied by +a force of 2500 French soldiers, amounted to an act of war on the part +of France, if ever such an act was committed by one nation upon another; +and it was not till more than a month after the perpetration of this +outrage that the address referred to in the last chapter was presented +to the King. James landed at Kinsale on the 12th of March; the address +to the King is dated, as has been said, on the 19th of April. England, +moreover, was not the first of the coalition of Powers which the patient +diplomacy of William had formed against Louis to take action against the +common enemy. The declaration of the German Diet had appeared in +February, and that of the States-General in March. + +On the 24th of March James entered Dublin, which, in common with all the +other cities of the three southern provinces of Ireland, had declared +for his cause; but after only three weeks' stay in the capital it was +decided, against the advice of his chief French counsellor, d'Avaux, who +with the Lord Deputy Tyrconnel, and the Irish Catholic party in general, +were for keeping him among the Celtic population of the island, that he +should go northward and take command of the royal army in Ulster. He +accordingly set out on the 14th of April, and after some further +hesitations caused by conflicting reports as to the results of a +skirmish between the Protestants and a body of his own men at Strabane, +arrived a few days later among his troops, who were quartered a few +miles south of Londonderry, a city which, with Inniskillen, had formed +the rallying point for the Protestant minority when the outbreak of the +Revolution, awakening the hopes of the Catholic population, appeared to +threaten the "English garrison" with a repetition of the horrors of +1641. Here it had been fully expected by James's more sanguine +counsellors that he would be, if not loyally, at any rate submissively +received. The appearance of their lawful sovereign before their walls +would at any rate, it was thought, confirm the wavering allegiance of +the military under the command of the Governor, Colonel Lundy. As a +matter of fact, it only served to arouse a spirit of determined +resistance in the townsmen, to unite the soldiery in the same cause, and +to precipitate the flight of the Jacobite governor. James and his +retinue, on approaching the gate, were fired on from the nearest +bastion; a subsequent demand for surrender was contemptuously rejected, +and after a few days' delay before the town its rejected sovereign set +off in chagrin and disappointment to return to Dublin, leaving +Londonderry to prepare for that heroic defence of three months against +the combined forces of war, disease, and famine, which has made her name +famous among the cities of the world. James's first act on his return to +the capital was to summon a Parliament, and a Parliament, of a sort, +responded to the summons. That is to say, out of a hundred temporal +peers then in Ireland, fourteen, of whom ten were Catholics, obeyed the +summons, while the fidelity at any rate of the faithful Commons was +guaranteed by the fact that only six out of the total number of two +hundred and fifty were Protestants. Having assembled, they promptly +proceeded to attest this virtue by the wholesale confiscation of the +lands of Protestants, and the proscription of their heads. Ulster, +however, was still unreduced, and while that was so, denunciatory and +spoliatory decrees might well turn out to be mere waste paper. The +dashing Inniskilleners--the cavalry, so to speak, of that Protestant +army in which Londonderry played the part of the immovable square of +infantry--had actually meditated, though they never carried out, an +attempt to relieve their beleaguered sister city, and at Newtown Butler +they were able to render signal service to their cause by the defeat of +General Macarthy and 6000 Irish. By the end of July Londonderry had been +relieved; early in August Marshal Schomberg, then one of the most +renowned of European generals, landed at Carrickfergus with 16,000 men, +and it became evident even to the most hopeful of James's adherents +that the northern province was lost to him irretrievably. + +William meanwhile still remained in London busied with the task, at once +delicate and laborious, of administering the government of a distrustful +and almost unfriendly people through the agency of two bitterly divided +factions. The parliamentary session had become more prolific of quarrels +and more barren of counsel as it proceeded. The two Houses and the two +parties had agreed with little difficulty to do justice to some of the +admitted victims of the oppression practised under the last two +sovereigns. The attainders of Sidney, Russell, and others were reversed +without recorded dissent, but the case of Oates gave rise to acute +conflict between the Lords and Commons--a conflict in which, though the +conduct of the former assembly was undoubtedly arbitrary, the temper, +or, at any rate, the motives of the latter appear by no means worthy of +the unqualified praise bestowed upon them by the great Whig historian. +Undoubtedly the Peers were without justification in refusing to reverse +a sentence which the judges had solemnly pronounced illegal; but it is +ridiculous to represent the Commons, as a body of judicially minded +legislators, doing violence to their natural sentiments in their +determination to obtain justice for Oates. Such a theory is at once +refuted by the fact that, after his release under royal pardon, his +personal adherents in the Commons proved numerous enough to disgrace +their party and their country by procuring a pension of three hundred a +year for perhaps the most infamous wretch who ever disgraced human +nature. The dispute is of importance because it has been suggested that +to the bitterness of feeling engendered by it was due the subsequent +quarrel between the two Houses over the succession clauses in the Bill +of Rights. At the end of this famous enactment--the statutory +affirmation of the claims formulated by the Convention in the +Declaration of Right--it had been proposed at William's suggestion that +to the several enumerated reversions of the British Crown a further +remainder should be added. In the Declaration, as will be remembered, +the crown was settled, after the death of the King or Queen, upon the +survivor, and after the death of such survivor upon the heirs of Mary, +failing whom upon Anne and her heirs, failing whom upon the issue of +William by any other wife than Mary. It appearing by no means +improbable, having regard to the fact that the King and Queen were +childless, and that Anne had repeatedly failed to rear the children to +whom she had given birth, that there might be a failure of all the named +reversioners, and that the otherwise legal right of some Catholic prince +might thereupon come into conflict with the statutory exclusion of +Catholic sovereigns, William proposed to entail the crown after the last +mentioned limitation upon an undoubted Protestant, Sophia of Hanover, +granddaughter of James I., and her issue, being Protestants. That the +proposal was a well-conceived one is evidenced by the fact that it was +actually adopted by Parliament in the succeeding reign; but though the +Lords to whom it was submitted by Burnet accepted it unanimously, the +Commons would have none of it. The irritation left by the Oates quarrel +may in part have accounted for this, but Macaulay attributes too +childish a temper to the Lower House in implying as he does that +ill-humour is the sole explanation of their resistance. They in fact +alleged several grounds of objection of unequal weight, but of which one +at least has every appearance of _bona fides_, viz. that the mentioning +of the House of Hanover would give an opportunity to foreigners of +intermeddling too far in the affairs of the nation. But whatever the +excuse, we can readily imagine that William regarded the action of the +Commons as purely factious, and although the birth at this juncture of +another son and heir to the Princess Anne deprived the succession +dispute of its urgency, the cool-headed Dutchman can hardly but have +been impressed with the keenness of that political strife which could +keep the two branches of the legislature asunder when the cost of their +dissension was the postponement of the greatest statutory assertion of +their liberties since Magna Charta. For as a consequence of the +irreconcilable dispute on the succession clause, the Bill of Rights had +of course to be dropped; and between this date and the 20th of August, +when Parliament was prorogued, the breach between William and the Whigs +was still further widened by the rancour with which they pursued their +political enemies, and resisted the attempts of the King to procure a +statutory amnesty for past political offences. Impartiality was easier +of course for him than them, but William's natural affinities of mind +and politics cannot but have been rather with the Whigs than the Tories, +and the steadiness of purpose with which he persisted in his patriotic +though hopeless attempt at combining representatives of both political +parties in his councils is, upon any view of the matter, highly +honourable to him. It was the Whigs who from the first made the +experiment hopeless, and who finally determined its failure. We owe them +the English Constitution, but we owe them also, at any rate in the rigid +inflexible shape which it has since assumed, that _genius vultu +mutabilis albus et ater_, the English party-system. + +Parliament met again after a two months' recess on the 19th of October, +and seemed at first disposed to act with somewhat more of unity in +support of the Executive. They unanimously affirmed their determination +to assist the King in the reconquest of Ireland, and in a vigorous +prosecution of the war with France, for which purposes they voted an +extraordinary supply of two millions, a portion of which it was at first +proposed, on principles which the enactors of the Bill of Rights (passed +this session without William's suggested amendment) had inherited in a +slightly modified form from the signatory of Magna Charta, to raise by a +special tax upon Jews. Supplies voted, however, disunion recommenced. +The Whigs had come back from their short holiday more bloodthirsty than +ever. Beginning with a legitimate cause of complaint against the +administration in respect of the mismanagement of the war in Ireland, +where the whole organisation of the commissariat seems to have been +almost of a Crimean inefficiency, they easily converted this just +grievance into a general protest against the presence of Tories in the +Government. An attempt was made to induce William to say by whose advice +he had employed Henry Shales, the knavish Commissary-General, to whom +the scandal was mainly if not wholly due--the object of course being to +found an accusation against some one or other of the Tory officials to +whom Shales's retention in his post was assumed to be due. It would +have been enough for William to reply that he found the man Commissary +on his accession, and simply continued him in office. He refused to +gratify the malicious curiosity of the address presented to him on the +subject, though he assented very readily to another for the appointment +of a commission to examine into the state of affairs in Ireland. + +The Tories were next destined to cross the sorely-troubled king by the +resistance which they offered to him on a delicate question connected +with the provision for his sister-in-law. On the vote of the Civil List, +and the question arising under it as to the establishment of the +Princess Anne, it had been originally proposed by William that he +himself should undertake this charge out of his own revenues; but +through the instrumentality of the Churchills a strong party was formed +among the Tories to insist upon Anne having a settlement independent of +the Crown. Seventy thousand a year was the (for those days) extravagant +sum which they demanded, and which proved too much even for an indulgent +House of Commons to grant. The vote was reduced to 50,000, and though +William's dislike to the idea of a parliamentary settlement upon his +sister-in-law induced him to raise his own original offer of 30,000 to +50,000 Anne still held out, and a yearly income of the amount last +mentioned was accordingly secured to her for life by Act of Parliament. +In none of the parts played by the various actors in this little +political drama (the sequel to which was the permanent estrangement of +the Queen and King from the Princess) is it easy to discern the +promptings of any public principle, or indeed of any decorously +avowable motive whatever. The Tories would seem to have been wholly +swayed either by party and ecclesiastical prepossessions, or by personal +interests of a lower kind--either by sentimental sympathy with a High +Churchwoman, or by a practical eye to the Marlborough gold. As to +William it was eminently natural that he should wish to retain at least +_one_ string of this puppet of the Churchills in his own hands; as +natural as that the Churchills themselves should wish to deprive him of +it, and that the puppet herself should respond to the vigorous pulling +of the strings which they already held. Neither of the two latter +parties would probably have cared to allege any public motive for their +behaviour in the transaction. It is to be presumed, however, that +William would have done so if he could; and it is at least noteworthy +that the only objection which he seems to have taken to Anne's +parliamentary settlement affords no logical support to his own +alternative proposal. That Anne should have her income settled on her +for life, while his was only voted to him annually, was doubtless a just +ground of complaint; but the proper redress of the anomaly would have +been to subject his sister-in-law's income like his own to the annual +revision of the House of Commons. The fact that the King was dependent +upon Parliament could be no reason for making the Princess dependent not +upon Parliament, but upon the King. + +Meanwhile the session wore on, and William's cherished project of an Act +of Indemnity was no nearer realisation. He had earnestly recommended it +to Parliament in the Speech from the Throne, but nothing was further +from the hearts of the dominant party in the Commons than the idea of +amnesty. They seemed bent on assuring themselves the tranquil exit of +Marshal Narvaez, who died in peace with all mankind by dint of leaving +himself no enemies to forgive. An Indemnity Bill was for form's sake +brought in at the beginning of November, but no progress was made with +it. Proscription took the place of purgation. Lords Salisbury and +Peterborough, Sir Edward Hales, and others, were marked out for +impeachment and summoned according to their status to the bar of one or +the other House. The Lords appointed a committee to inquire into the +judicial murders of Russell and Sidney, and Sir Dudley North and Lord +Halifax were cited before this body to answer for their shares, real or +alleged, in these dark transactions. John Hampden, a grandson of the +greater John, was conspicuous for the violence of his hostility to the +official Tories, and by his instrumentality a committee was appointed to +prepare an address to the King to remove the authors of the late +failures and to appoint "unsuspected persons" to the management of +affairs. The address, however, presented by Hampden was sharply +criticised for the violence of its language, and the House of Commons +ultimately laid it aside. So plainly, indeed, was the Whig party now +losing ground in that House, and so grave had become their apprehensions +of declining popularity in the country, that with a view of at least +recovering their position at the polling-booths they resolved upon one +of the boldest and most unscrupulous strokes of party tactics which our +history records. Into a Bill then before the House for restoring the +charters to these corporations which had surrendered them to the Crown, +they introduced a clause excluding from municipal office all persons who +had been implicated in the surrenders of such charters--or, in other +words, all Tories, thus designing to fill the municipalities with Whig +office-bearers and to secure the control of the elections to the Whig +party. Smuggled into the Bill in a House half depleted of its members by +the approach of Christmas, it needed a vigorous whip of the Tories to +procure the rejection of this clause by a narrow majority; and William's +disgust at this manoeuvre was further intensified by the attachment to +his much-desired Indemnity Bill of a bill of pains and penalties against +political delinquents. So acute at this moment became his chagrin and +disappointment at the condition of English politics that he was strongly +tempted to wash his hands of the whole distasteful and thankless +business, and he was with difficulty prevailed upon by his ministers to +abandon his design of bidding adieu to the country which he had come to +deliver and retiring to his native land. Dissuaded from this, he +resolved that he would at least reduce Ireland to submission if he had +failed to compose the quarrels of his Parliament; and he let it be known +that he was about to quit the capital for the headquarters of his army +in Ulster. But against this, too, the Whigs vehemently protested. An +address deprecatory of the project was said to be preparing; and +William, his patience exhausted by this last sally of faction, +determined to appeal to the good sense and patriotism of the country. + +Accordingly, on the 27th of January, after having in a speech from the +throne announced his resolve to go to Ireland in person, "and with the +blessing of God Almighty endeavour to reduce that kingdom, that it may +no longer be a charge to this," the King, to the high satisfaction of +the Tories and the proportional discomfiture of the Whigs, proceeded to +prorogue Parliament with a view to its early dissolution. + + + + +CHAPTER VIII + +1690-1691 + + Parliament of 1690--Tory majority--Settlement of the royal + income--Case of the Princess Anne--The "Act of Grace"-- + Detection of Preston's conspiracy--William's departure + for Ireland--Battle of the Boyne--Battle of Beachy Head-- + Marlborough's Irish campaign--Session of 1690. + + +The elections were contested with the utmost energy of party spirit. +Both Whigs and Tories strove their hardest for the victory, but the +policy of the King's appeal to the country was justified by the success +of the latter. A Tory majority was returned to the House of Commons, and +William felt that there was now at last a fair prospect of his +effectually mediating between factions. To have replaced a party to whom +he owed everything by a party who owed everything to him was undoubtedly +a great step towards the attainment of his ends. He had at least secured +a majority who could affect no right to dictate his policy, and had +reduced those who could and did advance this pretension to a minority. +His first act was to remodel his Ministry. Halifax resigned the Privy +Seal, which was placed in commission; Danby, who had been raised at the +distribution of honours accompanying the coronation to the Marquisate of +Caermarthen, became Lord President; Sir John Lowther, First Lord of the +Treasury--not then, as now, the chief office in the Administration. +Whigs and Tories were still mingled in the Government, but no longer in +the old proportions. + +On the 20th of March the new Parliament met, and the King addressed it +in a speech in which he announced his intention of proceeding to Ireland +as soon as might be, and recommended to the prompt attention of the two +Houses the question of the settlement of the royal revenue and of the +enactment of an amnesty. In the former of these matters their action was +more conformable to sound constitutional principle than agreeable to the +King. In addition to the hereditary revenues which had passed with the +crown to William and Mary, the Commons would only agree to settle +absolutely upon the King and Queen about one third of the fiscal +revenues which had been assured to the last two sovereigns for the term +of their lives. That portion of the excise, estimated at 300,000, which +had been settled upon James II. for life, was now settled upon William +and Mary for their joint and separate lives. But, on the other hand, the +customs duties, amounting to 600,000, which had been settled for life +on Charles and James successively, were granted to the Crown for a term +of only four years. This restriction, in which Whigs and Tories +concurred, was not unnaturally displeasing to a sovereign who justly +valued himself on the ability, integrity, and thrift which made him, as +he conceived, at once the most efficient and the most trustworthy +steward of the national resources; but that he should have resented the +action of Parliament in this matter not merely as a limitation upon the +free play of his policy, but as a personal slight to himself, +instructively illustrates the very limited extent to which the +principles of the British Constitution, as we now know it, had +established themselves in the joint recognition of the sovereign and the +legislature. If there was one principle more inevitably implied in the +Revolution that William had headed than another, it was that no personal +claims of any individual sovereign could be allowed either to suspend or +in any degree to qualify the general rule of parliamentary control. Had +William contended, whether reasonably or unreasonably, that the +restraint placed on him by Parliament was more severe than needed to be +imposed upon _any_ sovereign, his position would have been a defensible +one; but his complaint, as Burnet testifies, was that the Commons were +showing an undue and ungenerous jealousy of their particular sovereign +for the time being. His claim to enjoy the same amount of freedom as his +predecessor had abused was founded simply on the fact that James was +James and that he was William; and that was obviously one of these +circumstances of which the administrators of a general rule, intended to +apply to any number of future Jameses and Williams, could not possibly +take into account. Had this general rule been recognised with anything +approaching to its acceptance in these days, it is impossible to suppose +that so clear and fair an intelligence as William's could have missed +its application to himself. + +No doubt it may have caused him some irritation to observe with what +rapidity the coalition of Whigs and Tories, which had formed for the +purpose of limiting his independence, dissolved again when that work +was done. In a few weeks the two parties were as fiercely at odds as +ever upon a Whig Abjuration Bill, the main object of which, though in +one quite indefensible clause it went far beyond this, was to impose a +test which the official Tories could not swallow, and so to drive them +from office. It was not enough that a man should have sworn allegiance +to King William; he must also expressly abjure allegiance to King James. +Who knew but that he might have taken the former oath in some +non-natural sense or with some mental reservations? And though the +answer seemed obvious that he might take the latter in the same sense +and with the same reservations, the Bill was prosecuted to its rejection +in the House of Commons by a majority of thirty-three. An Abjuration +Bill of a somewhat less stringent kind was then introduced into the +House of Lords, the debate upon which William personally attended. He +had let it be known, however, that he was opposed to the former measure, +and it is probable that he had no great liking for the latter. Anyhow, +it underwent so much mutilation in committee that its authors did not +care to persevere with it. + +The Tory majority, however, was soon after employed to an even more +useful purpose in the final accomplishment of William's policy of +pacification. Resolved that on this occasion the measure of indemnity +should not be defeated by delay, the King submitted it personally to the +Upper House in the form of an Act of Grace for political offences--a +proceeding which, according to constitutional practice, abridged its +deliberative stages in each House of Parliament to a single reading. +Introduced under such auspices, and assured of the support of a party +always dominant in the Upper House, and now possessing a majority in the +Lower, it passed without any opposition into law, and is undoubtedly +entitled to take its place among the most honourable and statesmanlike +acts of William's career. Its value as a political precedent was +scarcely capable of exaggeration even by Macaulay; and if he somewhat +inordinately applauds the enlightened clemency which it was as easy for +any brave and dispassionate foreigner to recommend as it was difficult +for English parties embittered by the mutual wrongs of a generation of +conflict to accept, it would be falling into the converse error to +insist on any serious qualification of the historian's praises. +William's great qualities were his own; they must at least divide the +credit of his high-minded and sagacious policy with the accident of his +antecedents in his own country and of his position in ours; nor would it +be gracious to attempt too nice an apportionment of the shares. + +Impatience to proceed to Ireland had probably something to do with the +expeditious form of procedure adopted by the King in the case of the +Indemnity Act. On the 20th of May it became law. On the same day William +informed the Houses that his departure for the seat of war could be +delayed no longer; and after having given his assent to an Act +empowering the Queen to administer the government during his absence, he +prorogued Parliament until the 14th of July. Then, having appointed from +the list of Privy Councillors a small interior Council of Nine to advise +the Queen, and having delayed no longer than was necessary to place in +their hands the threads of a newly-discovered conspiracy,[12] William +took a tender farewell of his wife, and set forth on the strange errand +of defeating the army, if not destroying the life, of his wife's father. +"God send," he exclaimed, "that no harm may come to him." His anxiety on +this score for the Queen's sake was painful; but otherwise, though he +belonged to that order of brave men whose spirits are fortified rather +than exhilarated by danger, he was cheered by the approach of the hour +of action. Ireland in the hands of a hostile army, the shores of England +threatened by a hostile fleet, a dangerous conspiracy only detected on +the eve of success, a formidable insurrection imminent in the country he +was leaving behind him, he could still say to Burnet--"As for me, but +for one thing I should enjoy the prospect of being on horseback and +under canvas again. For I am sure that I am fitter to direct a campaign +than to manage your Houses of Lords and Commons." + +On the 14th of June he landed at Carrickfergus, and immediately set out +for Belfast to take over the command from Schomberg. All Ulster rose +with enthusiasm to receive him, and the soldiers, whom treachery and +incompetency had been sacrificing by the hundred to the ravages of +disease and privation, took heart once more. After ten days spent in +concentrating his forces at Loughbrickland, William started southward +at the head of 36,000 men. Two days after his nephew's landing James had +left Dublin to lead his troops to Dundalk with the view either of giving +battle at that point, or merely, as has been suggested, of eating up the +country between the capital and the invading army, so as to impede its +advance by difficulties of supply. But if the former were the original +object of the movement it was soon abandoned. When William's army +approached Dundalk James fell back upon Ardee; and the former still +pressing southwards, the latter still continued his retreat, until the +pursuer was brought to a halt on the morning of the 30th of June by the +halt of the pursued, and the English and Irish armies at last looked +each other in the face across the now historic waters of the Boyne. +Lauzun, who had succeeded De Rosen in the command of James's forces, was +a courtier rather than a general, but the position he had here taken up, +behind entrenchments and with a river in front, was strategically a +strong one--so strong indeed that the veteran Schomberg doubted his +master's wisdom in resolving upon an immediate attack. But William, as +he had told the Ulster men, had not come to Ireland to "let the grass +grow under his feet." He had the advantage in numbers; the advantage in +generalship; above all, the advantage in the quality of his troops, who, +if but few of them were as good as the trained French soldiers of his +adversary, were none of them so bad as the rapparee Irish levies who +formed the bulk of James's forces. The day passed in an exchange of +shots across the river, from one of which William had well-nigh lost his +life. Having sat down to breakfast somewhat close to the brink of the +Boyne, he attracted the attention of the Irish sentries on the opposite +shore. Two field-pieces were planted opposite to him, and, on his rising +and remounting his horse, were discharged at the group of which he was +the centre. The first shot killed a man and two horses at some distance +from him; the second, better aimed, struck the river bank and grazed the +King's shoulder in its ricochet, inflicting a slight flesh wound. His +staff thronged anxiously about him, but William, in his usual dry and +stoical fashion, relieved their fears. He was unharmed, he told them, +but "there was no need for any bullet to come nearer." His wound was +dressed, and he remained in the saddle till nightfall. At nine o'clock +he held a council of war, and, against the advice of Schomberg, declared +his determination of effecting a passage of the river on the following +day. Unable to dissuade his master from the rash project, as he deemed +it, the veteran general urged that at least a portion of the army should +be sent up the stream at midnight to Slane Bridge, and crossing it at +that point, should be in readiness either to assist them in the event of +their attack being unsuccessful, by a diversion in the rear of James's +army, or, in case the river should have been carried, to cut off the +retreat of the Irish by the pass of Duleek. This plan, which, if +adopted, would probably, as one of William's biographers points out, +have ended the campaign at a stroke, was rejected: why, does not very +clearly appear. The tactics were such as might have been thought likely +to commend themselves to William, and he could apparently have well +spared the men to execute them. It is said by the biographer above +referred to that the plan was opposed "by the Dutch generals"; but it +is not impossible that the objection may have really come from the King +himself, and have been founded not on strategical but on political +considerations. William, as we know, was especially solicitous about his +father-in-law's life, and not perhaps suspecting how well it would be +cared for by its owner, whom he must have remembered to have once been +brave, he may have rejected Schomberg's scheme for its very +completeness, and because he not unnaturally assumed that in cutting off +the retreat of James's army he would be cutting off the retreat of James +himself. The too complimentary assumption that the royal general would +be last rather than first in the flight had yet to be rebutted by +events. But whatever the reason, the Marshal's plan was rejected; he +retired, chagrined and hurt, from the council, and the last night of the +old soldier's life was spent, it is melancholy to think, in displeasure +with the master whom he had so long and faithfully served. + +The morning of the 1st of July broke fair, and a little after sunrise +the English army advanced in three divisions to the attack. The right +under the younger Schomberg, assisted by the Earl of Portland and James +Douglas, was detailed for the same operation which the Marshal would +have had executed four hours earlier, and by a surprise. Having marched +a few miles up the river to Slane Bridge, and finding there but one +regiment of Irish dragoons, they easily beat them back, crossed the +bridge, and made good their footing on the southern bank of the Boyne. +Lauzun, apprehensive for his command of the pass of Duleek, had detached +the best of his troops--his own countrymen--to resist the further +advance of the English right; and the centre and left of William's army +were opposed at the lower fords by the Irish Catholics alone. Between +them and the Dutch Guards, the French Huguenots, the men of Londonderry +and Inniskillen, it was _impar congressus_ indeed.[13] Schomberg in +command of the centre took the water at the ford of Old Bridge. William +at the head of the left wing, consisting entirely of cavalry, made for a +more difficult and dangerous crossing lower down. At one point only does +the passage of the river appear to have been for more than a moment +doubtful. The Danes and Huguenots under Cambon and Caillemot were set +upon in the act of landing by the Irish cavalry under Richard Hamilton; +the former were driven back again into the water, and the latter, +unarmed with pikes, began to give ground. The conflict raged hotly for a +short space at the southern exit of the ford; Caillemot fell mortally +wounded; the whole brigade was wavering; when old Schomberg, who had +been watching the action from the northern bank, dashed impetuously into +the river. "_Allons, Messieurs!_" he cried to the Huguenots, as he +pointed to the French Catholics in James's ranks, "_voila vos +perscuteurs!_" As he uttered the words a small band of Irish horsemen +came galloping in upon the main body, the Huguenots, mistaking them for +friends, having allowed them to pass. In the confused mele which +followed the Marshal was surrounded; he received two sabre cuts on his +head, and a musket shot, said in one account to have been fired in a +fatal mistake "by one of his own men," laid him dead upon the ground. +The arrival of William, who had with difficulty forced his way across +through the strongly flowing tide, at once decided the doubtful +struggle. "Men of Inniskillen, what will you do for me?" was his +inspiriting question to the sorely pressed Protestants of Ulster; and +drawing his sword with an arm yet stiff from the wound of the previous +morning, he led his Dutch Guards and Inniskilleners against the still +unbroken Irish centre. Ulstermen and Hollanders vied with each other in +steadiness and valour; Schomberg's cavalry came opportunely to their +support; De Ginkell's horse effected as timely a diversion on the +enemy's left. Hamilton and his riders being thus driven back, the heart +of the defence was broken, and after one more brief stand at Plottin +Castle, where the Inniskilleners were temporarily checked and had again +to be rallied, and where Hamilton was wounded and made prisoner, the +defeat of the Irish army became a rout, and their retreat a flight. +James, who had watched the battle from the hill of Donore till it went +against him, had already hurried through the pass of Duleek, and was +making the best of his way to Dublin. His army, now a broken and +confused mass of fugitives, struggled after him through the defile. The +battle of the Boyne was won. + +The victory, though not so immediately decisive as it might have been if +Schomberg's plan had been adopted, was practically fatal to the Jacobite +cause. Drogheda surrendered the next day. James, who had reached Dublin +on the evening of the battle, quitted it the day after for ever. On the +3d of July he reached Waterford, whence he embarked on board a French +frigate and sailed for Brest. Lauzun and Tyrconnel collected their +straggling forces as best they could, and, evacuating the Irish capital +immediately after James's flight, marched westward with the design of +reorganising resistance at such still remaining strongholds of the +deposed monarch as Limerick and Athlone. + +William fixed his headquarters at Finglas, near Dublin, but enjoyed no +long period of unmixed satisfaction with his victory. The day before the +two armies closed upon the Boyne, the French fleet, under De Tourville, +had encountered what should have been the combined fleets of England and +the States off Beachy Head, but by the supineness or treachery of the +English Admiral the Dutch had been left to bear the brunt of the battle +alone. After hours of hard fighting they drew off with the worst of the +encounter, and Admiral Herbert, destroying some of the Dutch ships, and +taking the rest in tow, sailed up the Thames, leaving the enemy in +undisputed possession of the Channel. The news of this defeat, and of +the alarm for our unprotected coasts which it had occasioned in London, +reached William on the 27th of July at Carrick-on-Suir, where he was +encamped, after having reduced Waterford. He immediately hurried to +Dublin with the intention of embarking to England; but, reassured by +later advices informing him that the French attempt at a descent on the +Devonshire coast had proved a failure, he returned to headquarters, and +hastened to prosecute the campaign. The glory of the Boyne, however, was +destined to be somewhat dimmed before many weeks were past. At Limerick +the Celtic Irish showed, with the variability of their unstable race, +that they could fight bravely when "i' th' humour." Sarsfield, left in +command by the departure in disgust of Lauzun and Tyrconnel, approved +himself a leader of vigour and resource. He intercepted and destroyed +William's heavier battering-train before it could reach him. The +besieged of Limerick, fighting with a desperate courage, which even +their women imitated, beat back an assault of the English forces with +much bloodshed, and on the 30th of August, fearing the ravages of +disease with the approach of the autumnal rains, William raised the +siege of the city and returned to England. The campaign thus left +undecided was to be taken in hand by a greater commander than himself. +Landing in Ireland some three weeks later, the Earl of Marlborough gave +promise of his future military prowess in the remarkable speed and +success of his operations. In five weeks after leaving Portsmouth he had +taken Cork and Kinsale, and had not his fast sickening army constrained +his retirement, would probably have settled the whole Irish business out +of hand. He returned to London to receive from William, who, besides +being incapable of jealousy, was in the habit of underrating his own +generalship, the graceful compliment that "no officer living who has +seen so little service as my Lord Marlborough is so fit for great +commands." + +On the 2d of November the King once more met his Parliament, and under +more favourable auspices than ever before during his reign. The imminent +dangers to which the nation had been exposed had brought about a +temporary truce between parties; the skill, energy, and valour with +which the King had borne his part in averting them had, moreover, united +them in a common sentiment of admiration and gratitude. Thanks were +voted both to William, and separately to Mary, who had indeed well +merited them by the spirit and vigour which she had displayed during the +critical days that followed the defeat of Beachy Head. Supplies of +unusual magnitude were voted with unusual readiness, and the short +session, marked only by an abortive bill for confiscating the property +of Jacobites, passed tranquilly away. On the 5th of January William +thanked the Houses for their supplies, and assuring them, in words on +which later events were to place an awkward commentary, that he would +not grant away any of the forfeited property in Ireland till they had +had an opportunity of declaring their wishes in that matter, he +adjourned Parliament, and on the following day he quitted London to +return for the first time in two years to his native country. + +FOOTNOTES: + +[12] The conspiracy known as Preston's--a plan of inviting the French +king to land troops in England, and offering to second his efforts by an +insurrection, and, if possible, the treacherous surrender of the whole +or a part of the British fleet. Clarendon and Dartmouth, with other more +or less eminent personages, were implicated in it, including, at least +as was suspected, the Quaker, William Penn. The conspirators were +betrayed by an accomplice, and some of them sent to the Tower. Lord +Preston, a Scotch peer, a ringleader of the conspiracy, was tried and +convicted for high treason, but subsequently pardoned. + +[13] James's ungenerous reproaches of his defeated troops, and the many +French complaints quoted by Macaulay might not in themselves prove +conclusively that the Irish showed greater _natural_ cowardice, as +distinguished from mere military unsteadiness, than other undisciplined +levies. But the mere fact that with all their advantages of position, +commanding a river which their adversaries had to cross, they made, with +the exception of Hamilton's horse, so miserable an exhibition of +themselves, is a clear enough indication of personal deficiencies. It is +only fair to remember, however, that the generalship of James's army was +beneath contempt. To leave a bridge a few miles above their position +unprotected by artillery, and indeed with only a single regiment of +cavalry available for resisting its being crossed by a hostile army, is +surely the last word of tactical ineptitude. + + + + +CHAPTER IX + +1691-1692 + + Campaign of 1691 in the Netherlands--Fall of Mons--Disaffection + of William's councillors--Conclusion of year's campaign-- + Disgrace and dismissal of Marlborough--Massacre of Glencoe. + + +The night of William's arrival off the coast of Holland was wild and +stormy; but impatient to be ashore, he quitted the ship which had +carried him for an open boat, and after a night of extreme danger and +hardship, which he passed through with his usual fearlessness and +stoicism, effected a landing. His welcome among his people was +enthusiastic, and his reception by the assembled notables--electors, +princes, dukes, and ministers-plenipotentiary then assembled in +Congress--at the Hague was signally respectful. Those among them in whom +the statesman was strongest were no doubt chiefly impressed by his +successful elevation of himself to a powerful throne; while to the high +aristocratic and monarchical party among them it was sufficient that he +filled it by a title at least good enough to relieve him of the reproach +of mere high-handed usurpation. Each, after his manner, did homage to +the qualities of character, or the accidents of birth, which are +respectively implied in the two meanings of the word "succeed"; over +both alike, however, the ascendency of William was now in all +probability much more firmly established. As wielding the power of +England he was in a material sense, though not perhaps in any very +imposing degree, stronger than he had been; but the accession to his +moral prestige from his remarkable achievements, in the field and in the +council, of the two previous years was doubtless very great. The banded +enemies of the French monarch looked undoubtedly with new feelings upon +the head of their coalition. + +William addressed the Congress at its opening in a stirring speech in +which he impressed on them the necessity of union in counsel and +promptitude in action; and with such effect that the Congress resolved +to oppose Louis with an army of 220,000 men, to which William, acting as +his own war minister--a function which he assumed as constantly as that +of the conduct of foreign affairs--engaged to contribute a contingent of +20,000. While the Congress, however, were talking their enemy was +acting. A heavy blow was dealt at the confederacy by the capture of +Mons, which surrendered to the vigorous siege of the French, commanded +by the King in person, within a few weeks of the separation of the +Congress. On the news of its danger William collected a force with all +speed for its relief, but he was too late to save it; and the short +period of suspension of hostilities which followed upon this disaster he +took advantage of to return to England. His presence there was really +more needed than he at the time imagined, for it is probable that at no +time during the early years of his reign had he so much reason to +distrust the fidelity of so many of his most highly placed servants. To +review the intrigues with the exiled monarch, in which men like +Marlborough, Russell, Godolphin, and Shrewsbury were at this moment +either voluntarily engaged, or being successfully pressed to join, is +altogether beyond the scope of this volume. But it may be worth while to +interpose one observation here on what appears to me to be a common, +and, in a certain sense, a mitigating feature of all these duplicities. +They differ no doubt to a certain extent in depth of moral turpitude one +from another, just as the moral characters and motives of those who +committed them so differed. The devouring ambition which actuated +Marlborough, the disappointed Whiggism which was the dominant impulse +with Russell, gave place in a man like Godolphin to mere distrust of the +future, and anxiety to provide against the incalculable. But it is only +fair to recollect that this last, and for statesmen of that age, most +venial motive of action, most probably played a considerable part in all +their double-dealing. None of them considered William's position +assured. All perceived that he had so far failed, and all doubted +whether he would ever succeed, in winning the affection of the people. +Whether he would succeed in the experiment of governing by his factious +and deeply-divided Parliament was, to say the least of it, a question of +the gravest uncertainty; and they governed their conduct accordingly. It +is not necessary to suppose that because an individual statesman in +William's service maintained communication with James's agents with more +or less vague promises of assistance he contemplated any downright +betrayal of William's cause. In most cases his deceit was rather of that +negative sort which seeks to make to itself friends betimes of the +mammon of unrighteousness. The deceiver was anxious in the event of a +counter-revolution to stand well with the restored monarch, and +intended no further treachery to his existing master than is necessarily +involved in the attempt to serve two masters at once. + +In May 1691 William returned to Flanders taking Marlborough with him. +The day of that great soldier had not yet come, but though invested with +no military command, it should seem that he attended councils of war +where his great abilities as a general attracted the notice and +admiration of experts. In June the business of campaigning was +recommenced in the leisurely and ceremonious manner peculiar to the age, +and with that strict attention to the limits of the "season" which in +our own day is only bestowed upon the gaieties of London and the sports +of the country. From early in June until the arrival of what may be +called the "close-time," towards the end of September, the armies of +France and of the allies continued to perform their stately military +minuet to the high satisfaction of their commanders, but without +suffering or inflicting on one another any serious blows. + +On the 19th of October William arrived in England, and three days later +he opened Parliament. The circumstances under which he met the Houses +were on the whole favourable, and the mood of the Sovereign and +Legislature was one of mutual good humour. It is true that the campaign +in the Netherlands had been ineffectual, but its failure was more than +balanced by successes nearer home. Ireland had been subdued and +pacified, the navy of England had recovered its ascendency in the +Channel. The King's speech to the two Houses elicited a warm reply, and +the large supplies which he had still to demand for the prosecution of +continental warfare was granted to him without demur. Nor was the +session in other respects one of much difficulty for the King. The House +of Commons indeed renewed its complaints of the magnitude of official +salaries and fees, but, showing little or no capacity to discriminate +between legitimate remuneration for public services and mere corrupt +abuses, they naturally failed to agree upon any measure of reform. The +Bill for regulating trials for high treason--a measure destined to be a +subject of long contention between the two Houses--was introduced for +the first time this session, and, passing the Commons, underwent in the +House of Lords an amendment to which the Lower House refused to assent. +On the merits of the case it ought undoubtedly to have been adopted, but +it happened to touch the royal prerogative, and the Commons made this +the excuse for gratifying their not unreasonable jealousy of the +exclusive privileges in the matter of justiciability which were +possessed by the Peers. They showed no hesitation a little later on in +making a distinct encroachment on the royal rights by imposing the +salaries of the judges as a permanent charge upon the hereditary +revenues of the Crown without the sovereign's consent. On this Bill +William exercised for the first time his right of veto. That such first +employment of it should have been on a matter touching his own +interests, and at the same time affecting the independence of the +judicial bench, was unfortunate; but it is impossible to complain of his +exerting his constitutional authority in this case to arrest a measure +of such a kind as would not, even in our more advanced days, be +introduced without the express assent of the Crown. The "event" of the +year 1691 was undoubtedly the political intrigue, the discovery of which +led to the dismissal and disgrace of Marlborough. That indefatigable +plotter, who was still holding active communication with St. Germains, +undertook to move an address in the House of Lords requesting that all +foreigners might be dismissed from the service of the Crown. It was said +and believed that his object in doing this was to inflame the national +and professional jealousies of the country and the army against the +Dutch officers in William's service, so that in the event of William +declining to act upon the advice of his Parliament, he would find both +the people and the soldiery prepared to support him in an ulterior +design of deposing the King and placing Anne upon the throne, with +himself as mayor of the palace. The plot, however, if plot there was, +fell through; and assuming it to have been really conceived, the natural +resentment with which it inspired William would of course sufficiently +account for the disgrace and dismissal of Marlborough which followed +immediately afterwards.[14] The attempt of the half-lunatic, +half-villain Fuller to repeat the exploits of Oates, with a trumped-up +and promptly disproved charge of conspiracy against many prominent +personages, inspired doubts in the public mind as to whether there had +ever been any Scotch plot at all. + +Here, too,--that is, among the record of the events of the winter of +1691 and the spring of 1692,--seems the most fitting place to take +notice of a strange and terrible incident, which, though of little +importance from the historical point of view, could on no account be +omitted from a biography of William III. On the 13th of February 1692, +at five o'clock in the morning, was perpetrated, under circumstances of +signal perfidy and barbarity, the crime known as the Massacre of +Glencoe--the surprise and slaughter of the chief and thirty-eight men of +the Macdonalds by two companies of soldiers, who had been quartered upon +the clan for the preconcerted purpose of their extirpation, under the +command of Captain Campbell of Glenlyon. It is not necessary, and would +here be impossible, to give more than a highly condensed account of the +intrigues, amounting almost to conspiracy, among various enemies of the +ill-fated clan, which preceded the massacre. Suffice it to say that +private revenge combined with public policy to suggest the act. It was +the joint work of the Earls of Breadalbane and Argyle--hereditary foes +of the Macdonalds--and of the Secretary of State for Scotland, Sir John +Dalrymple, Master of Stair; but the order upon which this official +assumed to act was signed and countersigned by the King himself. It was +in these words: "As for MacIan of Glencoe and that tribe, if they can be +distinguished from the other Highlanders, it will be proper for the +vindication of public justice to extirpate that set of thieves." The +"other Highlanders" from whom they were to be distinguished had, in +accordance with a proclamation issued in the autumn of the previous +year, made formal submission to the Government and taken the oath of +allegiance to the sovereign before the 1st of January 1692. This, by an +accident, MacIan had failed to do. He had presented himself on the 31st +of December 1691 to the officer in command at Fort William; but, being +informed by him that he had no power to administer the oaths, the old +chief was obliged to betake himself to Inverary, to be there sworn by +the Sheriff of Argyleshire, Sir Colin Campbell of Ardkinglass, who, +although the submitted Highlander did not arrive there till the 6th of +January, consented, after some demur, to administer to him the oaths. A +certificate setting forth the circumstances was transmitted to the +Council at Edinburgh, but was there cancelled for irregularity; and the +fact of MacIan's tardy submission does not appear to have been--indeed, +we may affirm with confidence that it never was--brought to the +knowledge of the King. Acting, however, on the pretended authority of +the royal order, the Master of Stair gave directions to the military +authorities that "the thieving tribe of Glencoe be rooted out to +purpose"; adding in a later despatch to the commander of Fort William: +"Pray, when the thing concerning Glencoe is resolved let it be secret +and sudden; better not meddle with them than not to purpose;" and again, +in a still later communication: "I hope the soldiers will not trouble +the Government with prisoners." Acting on these sinister injunctions, +Captain Campbell of Glenlyon marched his men to Glencoe, and, pretending +that he came as a friend and not as an enemy, quartered them upon the +Macdonalds, by whom they were cordially received and hospitably +entertained. After a twelve days' sojourn among the clan, Glenlyon +received orders from his superior officer to proceed to his bloody work, +and at five in the morning of the 13th of February the soldiers fell +upon their unsuspecting hosts in their sleep. The massacre, however, was +less skilfully executed than it had been cunningly planned. The greater +portion of the Macdonalds, including the sons of the chief, effected +their escape; but MacIan himself, with his wife and thirty-eight of his +clansmen, including some women and children, were ruthlessly murdered. +As many more, in all probability, fell victims to the rigours of a +Highland winter in their attempted flight. In those days of slow +communication it was long before the story of the savage deed became +known, or at least before it was recognised as possessing a more +trustworthy character than the ordinary Jacobite fables of the day; and +it was eagerly caught up, of course, by the political enemies of the +King and the Government. History has acquitted William of all complicity +with the crime in the precise form in which it was committed, as indeed +it would only be reasonable to acquit any ruler possessing, we will not +say common humanity, but the common instincts of the soldier. But +Burnet's attempt to exonerate his master on the plea of having signed +the order of "extirpation" through inadvertence, and Macaulay's +half-suggestion that it was his general incuriousness in Scotch affairs +which made him Stair's unquestioning instrument in the matter, must be +alike dismissed. It was not William's practice to affix his signature to +public documents of which he knew not the purport; and the mere fact +that the Macdonalds of Glencoe were excepted by name from the submitted +clans, and with the careful proviso that the proposed measure should +only be taken against them "if they could well be separated from the +rest," seems to afford sufficient proof that to this particular matter +of Scotch administration, at any rate, his attention was specially +called. + +There is, in short, no good reason to doubt that when William signed the +order for the "extirpation" of the Macdonalds he meant them to be +extirpated. He treated his act as equivalent to the issue of one of +those "letters of fire and sword" which in those wild days of Highland +history formed a recognised instrument of police. He would undoubtedly +have been quite prepared to hear that a regiment had been marched into +the valley of Glencoe, had put the contumacious clansmen (as he believed +them to be) to the sword, and left their village a heap of smoking +ruins. As undoubtedly he was _not_ prepared to hear that a body of +soldiers had quartered themselves on the clan under pretence of amity, +and had treacherously slaughtered them at unawares. But though it is +likely enough that when he did hear of this he was disgusted with the +unsoldierly cowardice of the proceeding, we should mistake both the man +and the time in supposing that he viewed it with the horror and +detestation which in our own days it excites. He regarded it, so far as +one can judge, as a mere blundering excess of duty and nothing more. +Four years later, when an inquiry was instituted into the matter by the +Scotch Parliament, he showed no disposition to press it forward;[15] and +later on, when a commission reported that the affair of Glencoe was a +murder for which the Master of Stair was primarily responsible, he +steadily declined to inflict any further penalty on the chief culprit +than he had already suffered in his dismissal from office. Burnet's +excuse for William that he was alarmed at finding how many men it would +be necessary for him to punish for the massacre is, as Macaulay rightly +says, no justification for his screening the one criminal whose case was +so easily distinguishable from the others, and whose guilt was so much +more heinous than theirs. It is idle, in short, to deny that in the +matter of the Glencoe Massacre William incurred something of the +responsibility of an accessory after the fact. + +FOOTNOTES: + +[14] The whole affair is still surrounded with obscurity. At least half +a dozen conflicting explanations of Marlborough's fall are in existence, +and from the same hand--that of Burnet. It cannot be said that the +conspiracy theory, which Macaulay of course adopts, is in itself at all +improbable. + +[15] Macaulay, in that injudicious spirit of special pleading which is +often so damaging to his hero, says that the King, "who knew little and +cared little" about Scotland, "_forgot_ to urge the commissioners." As +if a king would be likely to "forget" an inquiry as to whether one of +his secretaries of state had or had not been guilty of murder. + + + + +CHAPTER X + +1692-1693 + + Gloomy European prospects--Campaign of 1692 in the + Netherlands--Defeat of Steinkirk--Attempt of Grandval + --Session of 1692--Place Bill and Triennial Bill-- + Campaign of 1693--William outwitted by Luxembourg-- + Defeat of Landen--Session of 1693-94--Louis's + overtures of peace. + + +Never perhaps in the whole course of his unresting life were the +energies of William more severely taxed, and never did his great moral +and intellectual qualities shine forth with a brighter lustre, than in +the years 1692-93. The great victory of La Hogue and the destruction of +the flower of the French fleet did, it is true, relieve England of any +immediate dread either of insurrection or invasion, and so far the +prospect before him acquired a slight improvement towards the summer of +1692. But this was the only gleam of light in the horizon; elsewhere the +darkness gathered more thickly than ever as the months rolled on. The +years 1692 and 1693 were years of diplomatic difficulties and military +reverses--the one encountered with unerring sagacity and untiring +patience, the other sustained with a noble fortitude. The great +coalition of Powers which he had succeeded in forming to resist the +ambition of Louis was never nearer dissolution than in the spring of +1692. The Scandinavian states, who had held aloof from it from the +first, were now rapidly changing the benevolence of their neutrality +into something not easily distinguishable from its reverse. The new Pope +Innocent XII. showed himself far less amicably disposed towards William +than his two predecessors. The decrepitude of Spain and the arrogant +self-will of Austria were displaying themselves more conspicuously than +ever. Savoy was ruled by a duke who was more than half suspected of +being a traitor. Out of materials so rotten and so ill-assorted as these +had the one statesman of the whole group to build up and maintain the +barrier which he was bent on erecting against the inroads of France. By +what incessant toil and unfailing tact, with what insistences here and +concessions there, with what appeals to the vanity of this potentate, +the bigotry of that, the cupidity of the third, and the apprehensions of +all, he succeeded in keeping them side by side and with their faces to +the common enemy it would be impossible to describe, in a manner at all +worthy of the subject, within the space at my command. Suffice it to say +that William did succeed in saving the league from dissolution, and in +getting their armies once more into the field. But not, unfortunately, +to any purpose. The campaign of the present year was destined to repeat +the errors of the last, and these errors were to be paid for at a +heavier cost. Mons had fallen in 1691, through the delays and +mismanagement of the allied armies; and in 1692 a greater fortress than +Mons was to share its fate. The French king was bent upon the capture of +the great stronghold of Namur, and the enemy, as in the case of Mons, +were too slow in their movements and too ineffective in their +dispositions to prevent it. Marching to the assault of the doomed city, +with a magnificence of courtly pageantry which had never before been +witnessed in warfare, Louis sat down before Namur, and in eight days its +faint-hearted governor, the nominee of the Spanish viceroy of the +Netherlands, surrendered at discretion. Having accomplished, or rather +having graciously condescended to witness the accomplishment of this +feat of arms, Louis returned to Versailles, leaving his army under the +command of Luxembourg. The fall of Namur was a severe blow to the hopes +of William, but yet worse disasters were in store for him. He was now +pitted against one who enjoyed the reputation of the greatest general of +the age, and William, a fair but by no means brilliant strategist, was +unequal to the contest with his accomplished adversary. Luxembourg lay +at Steinkirk, and William approaching him from a place named Lambeque, +opened his attack upon him by a well-conceived surprise which promised +at first to throw the French army into complete disorder. Luxembourg's +resource and energy, however, were equal to the emergency. He rallied +and steadied his troops with astonishing speed, and the nature of the +ground preventing the allies from advancing as rapidly as they had +expected, they found the enemy in a posture to receive them. The British +forces were in the front, commanded by Count Solmes, the division of +Mackay, a name now honourable for many generations in the annals of +continental, no less than of Scottish warfare, leading the way. These +heroes, for so, though as yet untried soldiers, they approved +themselves, were to have been supported by Count Solmes with a strong +body of cavalry and infantry, but at the critical moment he failed them +miserably, and his failure decided the fortunes of the day. After a +desperate struggle, in which they long sustained the attack of the +French household troops, the flower of Louis's army, Mackay's division +began to give way. But no effective help arrived from Solmes. His +cavalry could not act from the nature of the ground, and he refused to +devote his infantry to what he declared was useless slaughter. The +division was practically annihilated. Its five regiments, "Cutts's, +Mackay's, Angus's, Graham's, and Leven's, all," as Corporal Trim relates +pathetically, "cut to pieces, and so had the English Life-guards been +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." Bitter was +the resentment in the English army at the desertion of these gallant +troops by Count de Solmes, and William gave vent to one of his rare +outbursts of anger at the sight. We have it indeed on the authority +above quoted--unimpeachable as first-hand tradition, for Sterne had +heard the story of these wars at the knees of an eye-witness of and +actor in them--that the King "would not suffer the Count to come into +his presence for many months after." The destruction of Mackay's +division had indeed decided the issue of the struggle. Luxembourg's army +was being rapidly strengthened by reinforcements from that of Boufflers, +and there was nothing for it but retreat. The loss on both sides had +been great, but the moral effect of the victory was still greater. +William's reputation for generalship, perhaps unduly raised by his +recent exploits in Ireland, underwent a serious decline. The French were +exultant at the demonstration of his inferiority to Luxembourg, and the +victory of Steinkirk inflamed the national pride to an overweening +degree. + +William's popularity with his own army and people, however, was at this +time about to receive one of those friendly "lifts" which his more +unscrupulous enemies were continually giving it throughout his life. +Grandval, a French officer, undertook, at the instigation it is said of +Barbesieux, the French Minister, and with the connivance of James II., +to assassinate him, and set out with that purpose, accompanied by two +accomplices, for the camp of the allies. Both of these men, however, +appear, with an originality and independence of initiative not often +found among traitors, to have played him false simultaneously, yet +without any collusion with each other. Grandval had not been long in the +Netherlands before he was arrested, brought to trial before a +court-martial, and, on his own confession, sentenced to death. His +statement, attested by the officers constituting the court-martial, was +published immediately after his execution, and the world then learnt +that the dying man's meditated crime was, according to his solemn +asseveration, suggested to him by a minister then, and after the +exposure still retained, in the service of Louis XIV.; and that James +had signified to him at an interview at St. Germains that he had been +informed of the "business" on which he was setting out, and that if +Grandval and his companions rendered him that service "they should never +want." Neither the French king nor his Minister ever made any reply to +Grandval's confession; but James, though he put forth no public +disclaimer, denied on this as on other occasions that he had ever +participated in any of the schemes for killing William. Probably the +projectors of such schemes were careful never to mention the ugly word +assassination in the royal ears, so that it might always be possible for +his ex-Majesty to assume that nothing was contemplated but William's +"taking-off" in a less serious than the Shakspearean sense. Plots to +kidnap the "usurper" were almost as commonly broached as plots to +assassinate him; and it was convenient that exalted personages should be +able to persuade others, if not themselves, that they were thinking only +of seizing William's person when their humbler instruments were in +reality bent upon taking his life. + +Towards the end of October William arrived in England, and was received +with an amount of popular acclamation to which the crime of Grandval had +contributed more than his own military prowess. In a few days Parliament +met, and the King addressed the two Houses in a judicious speech, in +which he congratulated them on their great naval victory, condoled with +them on their military reverses, referred with concern to the distress +occasioned by the failure of the last harvest, and informed them in +effect that yet more money would be required for the effective +prosecution of the war. The address in reply was amiable enough, but the +Parliament, as the event soon proved, was in no very manageable mood. +The confusion of parties caused by William's perseverance in his +well-meant attempt at mixed government was now at its height, and the +state of things created was undoubtedly not favourable either to +executive or legislative efficiency. An assembly divided as was the then +House of Commons by two intersecting lines of cleavage, with its Whig +and Tory demarcation, traversed by a cross division into "court party" +and "country party," was obviously not a body likely to display much +unity and vigour. Jealousy of officialism forbade ministers to reckon on +the consentaneous support even of members of their own way of political +thinking, while on the other hand party differences prevented the +formation of a strong opposition. + +The session of 1692 was, however, fruitful both in legislative +achievement and in successful legislative effort. In this year was made +that valuation for the land-tax, which subsisted until the tax itself +was made perpetual and redeemable more than a century afterwards in +1798; and the first loan of one million sterling, contracted by the +Government in the name of a National Debt, which has now increased to +almost a thousand times that amount. But the measures with which the +biographer of William is more directly concerned were the Place Bill and +the Triennial Bill. Of both of these legislative projects I shall have +more to say hereafter. Here let it be enough to note that the former was +lost in the House of Lords by a majority of three votes; and that the +latter after passing both Houses was held in suspense by William until +just the eve of the prorogation, and then vetoed. The occasion is one of +special interest to English literature, as it was in reference to this +Bill that the King consulted Sir William Temple, whose strong advice to +his master to assent to the Bill was conveyed through the medium of his +young secretary Jonathan Swift. After making several ministerial +changes, including as the most important the elevation of Lord Somers to +the Chancellorship, William prorogued Parliament, and once more, in the +perpetual succession of the toils of war to the labours of Government, +betook himself to the Netherlands. The outlook of the continental +struggle had not improved; and the task before him, both diplomatic and +military, was as formidable as ever. He had as usual petty quarrels to +compose among the allied Powers, and wounded vanities to soothe, to +animate the energies of the lagging, and to keep an eye on the movements +of the false. The effort in which he was the least successful was the +last mentioned but one; he was unable with all his efforts to collect a +force equal to that of Luxembourg. He managed, however, to take the +field in greater strength than he had mustered on some previous years, +and as Louis had now again put himself, with the usual elaboration of +gorgeous ceremony, at the head of his army, William promised himself the +satisfaction of looking his lifelong enemy once more in the face upon a +battlefield. Louis, however, whether from personal cowardice or from +having really contracted under the influence of perpetual adulation a +sort of religious reverence for his own life, had none of William's +military ardour. He liked directing sieges, but had no taste for +commanding in pitched battles. In other words, he preferred those +operations of war in which the most adventurous of generals must +necessarily remain in the rear to those in which the most cautious of +generals may find himself imperatively called upon to go to the front. +He had hoped that the more agreeable form of warfare would be provided +for him, and that he would have an opportunity of taking Liege or +Brussels as he had taken Ghent. When, however, he found William posted +in his path with a considerable if numerically inferior army, his +martial ardour underwent a rapid reduction of temperature, and he at +once signified his intention of returning to Versailles. The +disappointment of Luxembourg, who had assured him of certain victory +over William, was aggravated by the fact that the King insisted on +detaching Boufflers with a portion of the army of the Netherlands to +reinforce the troops in the Palatinate; which movement having been +effected, he went home to Madame de Maintenon. + +Luxembourg, however, though reduced in strength, had still the advantage +over William in point of numbers, and he succeeded in further increasing +the disparity by a feint in the direction of Liege, which deceived +William into despatching more than twenty thousand men of his army to +protect that city from attack. He was thus left with only fifty thousand +men to oppose a force exceeding his own by more than half. His position, +however, on the bank of the Gette was a naturally strong one, and by +extraordinary efforts with the spade he succeeded in adding most +formidably to its strength. On the morning of the 19th of July the men +of Luxembourg's army found themselves confronted by a powerful line of +earthworks manned by a brave and steady foe. Relying, however, upon a +numerical superiority which he rightly regarded as more than +counterbalancing William's advantages of position, Luxembourg at an +early hour of the morning gave orders for the attack, and the two armies +closed in a struggle more bloody and obstinate than that of Steinkirk. +For eight hours the battle raged fiercely along the whole line, but most +fiercely round the village of Neerwinden on the English right. This, the +position of most strategic importance on the field, was disputed with +extraordinary fury. Twice did the French troops succeed in making +themselves masters of it, and twice were they driven out by the allies, +leaving their dead in heaps behind them. At last the household troops, +who had done such service at Steinkirk, were sent against this village; +it was captured a third time, and this time it was held. William +weakened his centre and left in desperate attempts to retake it, but in +vain; and at last, as the day was wearing towards the evening, the line +of the allies gave way. The French troops poured into and over the +entrenchments; the position was captured; nothing remained for the +commander of the beaten army but to arrest disorganisation and save +retreat from becoming flight. To the moral appeal of the situation +William's great nature might be trusted to respond, and it seems to have +equally stimulated his strategic capacities. The praise of his famous +opponent is sufficient testimony to his skilful conduct of the military +operation; the memory of his fiery valour was perpetuated in the +traditions of the English army. No doubt it was from some old messmate +of Roger Sterne's that the future author of _Tristram Shandy_ gathered +the materials of that vivid picture of the retreat across the bridge of +Neerspeeken which he has put into the mouth of My Uncle Toby. "The +King," Trim reminds his master, "was pressed hard, as your honour knows, +on every side of him." "Gallant mortal," cried my Uncle Toby, caught up +with enthusiasm, "this moment, now that all is lost, I see him galloping +across me, corporal, to the left, to bring up the remains of the English +horse along with him to support the right and tear the laurel from +Luxembourg's brows if yet 'tis possible. I see him with the knot of his +scarf just shot off, infusing fresh spirits into poor Galway's regiment, +riding along the line, then wheeling about and charging Conti at the +head of it. Brave! brave! by heaven! He deserves a crown!" + +With Galway's regiments, we learn from the same tradition, were those of +"Wyndham and Lumley." Talmash "brought off the foot with great prudence; +but the number of wounded was prodigious, and no one had time to think +of anything but his own safety." It is indeed pretty evident that only +William's cool heroism saved his army from annihilation. Solmes, the +_fainant_ of Steinkirk, was left dead on the field. Galway himself, the +refugee Ravigny, was taken prisoner; Sarsfield on the other side +received a mortal wound. It was by far the deadliest battle of the whole +war, and it is difficult to understand why a blow so crushing should +have been so slackly followed up. One cannot help thinking what a French +army and a French general would have made of such a defeat inflicted +upon the troops of a continental coalition on such a battlefield some +hundred years later. But the terrible rapidity of those movements with +which, as with hammerstrokes, Napoleon was wont to drive home the nail +of victory was then unknown to warfare. Town upon town would probably +have fallen after Landen had the fruits of the victory been seized, as +they would have been at a later day. But, either through the indolence +of Luxembourg or the comparative immobility of a seventeenth-century +army, William obtained a priceless respite. He was rejoined by the +troops whom the enemy had so fatally decoyed to Liege; and three weeks +after his defeat he was once more at the head of an army stronger than +he had commanded at Landen. The danger to the allied cause was past. +Luxembourg besieged and took Charleroi for sole trophy of his great +victory, and the campaign closed for the year. + +On the 31st of October William landed in England, and prepared for a +meeting with his Parliament, to which he could hardly have looked +forward with much pleasure. He had a bad account to give and receive. +Over the whole Continent, in Spain, Germany, and Italy, as well as +Flanders, the allies had met with adverse fortune; at sea the vast +"Smyrna fleet" of merchantmen, four hundred strong, had, through the +incapacity of our naval commanders, been surprised in the Bay of Lagos +by the combined Brest and Toulouse fleets of France, and, its +imprudently reduced convoy of twenty English and Dutch sail having been +easily mastered, nearly three-fourths of it suffered capture or +destruction. His Parliament, however, met him as a matter of fact in a +commendably patriotic mood. William made no attempt to ignore the +serious losses which the nation had incurred by land and sea, though of +the former he said (not perhaps with perfect impartiality towards his +own tactical errors) that "they were only occasioned by the great +numbers of our enemies, which exceeded ours in all places"; while the +latter he described as "having brought great disgrace upon the nation." +And, admitting that the charges of the war had already been very great, +"I am yet persuaded," he added, "that the experience of the summer is +sufficient to convince us all that to arrive at a good end of it there +will be a necessity of increasing our forces both by sea and land." The +reply of the Commons was cordial, and manifested no hesitation as to +granting the increased supplies; and their patriotic spirit encouraged +William to hold his ground on a question in which the minds of the +allies were just now about to be exercised. Louis XIV., insatiable in +war as he had hitherto been, was beginning to feel that he, and still +more that France, had had enough of the struggle. Five years of +hostilities carried on in half a dozen quarters of Europe, with a +failure of the French harvest and the vintage, had almost prostrated the +country. Distress was rife in the provinces; even that most patient of +people showed signs of disaffection. Louis made private overtures to the +States-General with the intention, of course, of his proposals being +brought to the ear of William. Through the neutral King of Denmark he +signified his willingness to restore all the conquests he had made +during the present war, to renounce his pretensions to the Low +Countries, and to agree that the Elector of Bavaria should have the +Spanish Netherlands in case of the death of the King of Spain, and that +the commercial arrangements of Europe should be put on their old +footing. The great _crux_ of the negotiations, and of all negotiations +with a similar object, was, and was known to be, the question of the +recognition or non-recognition of the _de facto_ King and Queen of +England. On this question, so far as we can now judge, the mouth-pieces +of Louis gave forth an uncertain sound. The King of Denmark told the +allies that he was making efforts to induce the King of France to waive +the demand for the restoration of James; the French Ambassador hinted at +a compromise. This, it has been suggested, was that "James should waive +his rights, and that the Prince of Wales should be sent to England, be +bred a Protestant, and, being adopted by William and Mary, be declared +his heir." To such an arrangement Macaulay thinks that William would +probably have had no objection, but that he "neither would nor could +have made it a condition of peace with France, since the question who +should reign in England was to be decided by England alone." Undoubtedly +William "could" not have independently assented to a condition which, to +acquire the least validity, would have necessitated the statutory +revision of the succession settlement, as effected by the Convention and +ratified by the Convention Parliament; but there does not seem to be +much evidence that he would have assented to the condition if he could. +There is no trace of any endeavour on his part to sound the chiefs of +his parliamentary parties on the subject, and I cannot but think it far +more likely that neither in this nor in any other matter of foreign +policy was William at all disposed to share any of his discretionary +powers in his capacity of virtual Foreign Minister with his Parliament, +so long as he could obtain what he wanted from that body without +admitting it any more fully to his confidence. His rejection of Louis's +overtures, including this offer of compromise, if it was made, was +probably not dictated by any high constitutional considerations at all. +He thought, and rightly, that pacific advances made by so haughty an +enemy indicated greater exhaustion than had been suspected, and +reckoning justly that another year or two of fighting would get him +better terms still, he decided that another year or two of fighting +there should be. The supplies had been cheerfully voted him, and that +was enough. That the Parliament which had voted them had any paramount +right to decide whether they would go on voting money or accept Louis's +terms almost certainly never entered his mind. To suppose that it did is +to attribute to him a theory of the constitution anachronistic by fully +fifty years. That such a theory is more or less designedly attributed to +him in the above-quoted passage from Macaulay appears unquestionable; +and the Whig historian's anticipation of history in this respect is of a +piece with his exaggeration of the permanent significance of the +constitutional changes which fall to be treated of in the next chapter. + + + + +CHAPTER XI + +1693-1694 + + Formation of the first party Ministry--Reintroduction of + the Triennial Bill and its defeat--Of the Place Bill and + its veto--Causes of the disallowance--Macaulay's account + examined--Campaign of 1694--Death of Mary. + + +I am now to speak of one of the most important, as it is sometimes +regarded, of all the steps made under William's auspices in the +development of our parliamentary polity--a step represented as even more +influential in fixing and determining that system of strict party +government under which the nation is thriving or declining at the +present era than even the Revolution itself--the formation of the first +Ministry of the modern type. "No writer," says Macaulay in speaking of +it, "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 chance and +partly of wisdom--not however of that highest wisdom that 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 +everybody 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 these 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 these leaders, and had learned +to move like one man at the word of command." + +There are perhaps not many passages of the famous history in which its +author's love of dramatic antithesis has displayed itself in a statement +more likely to mislead the student. Because the change which took place +in the relation of Ministers of the Crown between 1693 and 1696 was a +striking one Macaulay cannot resist the temptation of describing it as +though it were a final one. In 1693 Ministers in disagreement with each +other, in 1696 Ministers in accord with each other--the suggestion of +course being that they "lived happily ever afterwards." Certainly no one +previously unacquainted with the facts would suppose from this account +of them that the first politically homogeneous Ministry was a purely +experimental one, and that the experiment was not repeated by William, +and never even attempted by his successor, under whom the old system +prevailed, though with gradual modification, throughout her reign; that +on many later occasions in our history the men in the chief offices of +the Government were to be found "caballing" and sometimes even +"haranguing" against each other; and, in short, that it was not till far +on in the next century that the idea of Ministers being men of like +political opinions "bound together by public and private ties," and +supported by a majority "arrayed in good order under them, and moving +like one man at the word of command," became uniformly and permanently +associated with the constitution. Yet this is in fact the case. The +"lower political wisdom meeting daily exigencies by daily expedients" +did not devise an arrangement calculated to endure for all time; and no +one ought to have been more surprised than Macaulay if it had. It met a +particular exigency by a particular expedient, and as that particular +exigency did not uniformly recur, the particular expedient naturally did +not at once stereotype itself in our parliamentary polity. The pure Whig +Government of 1696 attained the object of its formation, namely, to +carry out his war policy, and passed away. William's later ministries +were of a mixed character; the ministries of Anne were partly Whig and +partly Tory; and the political unity which prevailed in the Walpole +Administration was succeeded by a return to the old practice under +Pulteney. It was not, as has been said, until well on in the century +that it became an admitted political axiom that Cabinets should be +constructed upon some bases of political union agreed upon by the +members composing the same when they accept office together. + +But though it is delusive to represent a mere political experiment as +the consummation of a great constitutional change, yet an experiment by +which such change was foreshadowed cannot of course be otherwise than +deeply interesting. And such undoubtedly is the character of the +ministerial reconstruction which took place in 1693. The particular +exigency which the expedient was designed to meet is almost patent on +the face of the European situation, as it must have presented itself to +a statesman of William's views and with William's policy at heart. The +one fact that the Whigs were in favour of a vigorous prosecution of the +war with Louis on its continental theatre, while the Tories favoured the +husbanding of English military resources and the maintenance of a +defensive attitude behind our "silver streak," and under the protection +of our navy, would undoubtedly have sufficed of itself to determine +William's choice of the former party. In all other respects he probably +regarded both English parties at this as at all other times of his life +with equal indifference--if indeed one should not say with equal +aversion. He could have no love for men who, like the Whigs, regarded +him as a king of their own making, or who, like the Tories, considered +him no king, in the full sense of the word, at all. Whichever of the two +English parties were more willing to assist his efforts for a country +which he loved far better than England was virtually assured of his +favour; and though no doubt he believed honestly enough that the +interests not only of continental Europe, but of insular England, were +identified with those of the United Provinces--though no doubt he +honestly regarded Holland as only the vanguard of European and English +liberties, menaced by the insatiable ambition of Louis--yet it is +impossible to credit him, or any other mortal man in the same situation, +with the capacity of impartial judgment on any point at which the +interests of England and those of Holland might have diverged. Nor is +it, I think, unjust to add that even when the balance of English +advantage might have appeared to William himself to incline somewhat +against any contemplated course of conduct, he would perhaps have held +himself justified in proceeding from contemplation to action. He was in +all probability firmly, and one cannot say unreasonably, possessed with +the idea that England was largely his debtor and the debtor of his +country; and that she should, at least within reason, make sacrifices +for the protection of that nation, who and whose Prince had rendered +such services to her. Whichever English party showed most disposition, +or rather least reluctance, to make common cause with the United +Provinces in the defence of Dutch (and therefore of English and +European) liberties, became thereby the party of William's choice. No +doubt his gradual construction of a pure Whig Ministry was in part +dictated by a desire to secure greater stability of counsel and unity of +action in the House of Commons. No doubt his laudable experiment of +governing by means of both parties had had results with which he could +hardly have been satisfied. But he had borne for five years with the +parliamentary factiousness which that experiment had undoubtedly tended +to aggravate, and there is no visible reason, save that which I have +indicated, for his putting an end to the experiment at this particular +moment and in this particular way. He had made shift to do without a +homogeneous Ministry ever since his accession. If now he needed a +Ministry which should be not only homogeneous, but homogeneously Whig, +we must look to the exigencies of his continental policy for the cause. + +The process, however, of replacing the Tories of the Administration by +Whigs was a very gradual one, and it was not of course until it was +complete that the Whig party in the House of Commons could be trusted to +support the Administration, "right or wrong," as, without much suspicion +of satire, we may say to have now become the accepted constitutional +practice. Nottingham and the Tory Naval administrators were the first to +go, their retirement having been in the one case consequentially, and in +the other directly necessitated by the narrow escape of the latter from +parliamentary censure in respect of the late naval miscarriages. Russell +became First Lord of the Admiralty, and with him Nottingham, who, as +Secretary of State, was then responsible for the military service, was +of course unable to serve. His place, however, was not immediately +filled up, nor was it till the end of the session that any further +ministerial changes were made. And this session itself was one of +peculiar constitutional interest on other grounds. In the first place +the Triennial Bill, vetoed by William in the previous session, was +reintroduced, and met with a most unexpected fate. It was brought in +this time in the House of Commons, and passed through all its stages up +to the final one without a division. But the motion that "the Bill do +now pass" was rejected by a majority of ten. The whole affair is +involved in much obscurity, and the cause or causes of the unlooked-for +rejection of the measure must always remain matter of conjecture. +Macaulay declares its defeat to have been brought about by the +instrumentality of the expert parliamentary intriguer Seymour; and as no +House of Commons that ever lived is likely to have relished the idea of +putting a term to its own existence, it is not difficult to guess the +kind of sentiment to which Seymour might have appealed. But one point +not unworthy of notice in the matter is that the numbers voting in the +division, 146 Noes and 136 Ayes, did not together compose a very full +House. They fell short by thirty-two of the numbers who voted in the +division by which the second edition of the Triennial Bill, introduced +in, and passed through, the House of Lords, and sent down to the House +of Commons, was rejected a fortnight afterwards. In this case, of +course, the adverse majority of 197 were able to allege that they were +not opposing the limitation of Parliament, but merely resisting a +usurpation of constitutional jurisdiction on the part of the Peers. But +it should be observed that this argument does not appear to have +produced many defections from the party of the Ayes. They number 127, or +only nine short of their original strength; and assuming that these nine +votes were transferred to the Noes, it will still leave some forty new +votes to be accounted for. It looks rather as if these were the votes of +members who would have divided against the Bill if they had dared (and +as they did so soon as they got a plausible pretext for doing so), but +not daring, consented to assist in compassing its rejection by absenting +themselves from the division. + +The Place Bill, another abortive measure of this session, had a quite +different history. It was introduced in much the same shape as in the +previous year, and passed the Lower House substantially unchanged. In +the Lords, however, it underwent a material amendment. As originally +drawn it provided that no member of the House of Commons elected after +the 1st 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, while maintaining the provision +for the forfeiture of the seat, introduced words qualifying the acceptor +of office to sit in the same Parliament if again chosen as a +representative. This amendment the Commons adopted, and the Bill thus +modified, having passed both Houses, was, somewhat to the surprise of +everybody and to the disgust of many people, vetoed by the King. This +exercise of the prerogative was received with far less patience than on +the two former occasions, and for a few days a serious conflict between +the Legislature and the Crown appeared to be imminent. An address of +remonstrance was presented to William, who replied in conciliatory +language, but without holding out any hopes that his veto would be +withdrawn. Another debate of a somewhat excited character followed, but +calmer counsels than had at first found favour with the House of Commons +ultimately prevailed. A motion to prepare a new representation or +remonstrance was rejected by a very large majority, and the Place Bill +dropped. The great Whig historian's account of the matter is that the +amendment "deprived the Bill of all efficacy both for good and evil"; +but that the Commons "so little understood what they were about that, +after framing a law, in one view most mischievous"--namely, in respect +of its tending to keep the chief Ministers of the Crown out of the +House of Commons, "and in another view most beneficial"--namely, as +tending to keep subordinate officials out of the House of Commons, they +were perfectly willing that it should be "transformed into a law quite +harmless and almost useless"; and that William went out of the way to +veto this quite harmless and almost useless law, because he "understood +the question as little as the Commons themselves." + +This is not a very plausible theory; nor does one well see why Macaulay +should describe that proviso of a right to re-election--which was +afterwards adopted, and which is an essential feature of our still +subsisting Act of Anne--as depriving the Bill of nine-tenths of its +power both for good and for evil. Surely both King and Parliament might +have been credited with knowing their own business a little better than +that. It seems reasonable rather to ask ourselves whether the amendment +was such as to militate in any serious degree against the legislative +object of the Commons, or in any similar degree to disarm the objections +which William entertained to the measure. If it did neither of these +things, there was nothing paradoxical either in the Commons accepting or +the King pronouncing his veto upon the Place Bill; and it seems to me to +be clear that the amendment did neither of these things in fact. No +doubt it was desirable, from the point of view of the majority, that +office-holders should cease to sit in Parliament and become +incapacitated for re-election; and this on the abstract and general +ground that such persons were not sufficiently independent to be able to +discharge the functions of legislators with advantage to the country. +So far, then, as the general principle relating to office-holders was +concerned, the amendment was opposed to the real wishes of the Commons, +and had no reason therefore to provoke the hostility of the King. But +there was a specific ground on which the House had cause to dislike +office-holders, and a specific class of appointments to which this +ground applied; and the Bill, even as modified by the Lords' proviso, +would have limited the royal influence in respect of these appointments +to an extent quite sufficient to account both for the Commons adopting +the amendment of the Upper House, and for the King refusing his assent +to the Bill. It would obviously have dealt a heavy, though not, of +course, a final, blow to the employment of the patronage of the Crown +for the purpose of "managing" the Legislature. It would have made it a +far more difficult thing for the Court or the Government to maintain +their majority in the House of Commons by what would now be called a +corrupt use of its patronage, but what was then regarded, or getting to +be regarded--at any rate by the party in power,--as one of the +legitimate arts of rule. For whenever the Sovereign or his Ministers +endeavoured to convert a hostile into a friendly vote by the bestowal of +office upon its possessor, he or they would always have to reckon with +the possibility that the constituents of the bought member might not +care to have their interests sold along with their parliamentary +representative. They might, and on a question which strongly moved them +they very probably would, have expressed their disapproval of his +conduct by refusing to re-elect him; in which case the Government would, +of course, have found themselves at the end of the transaction with one +piece of patronage the less, but not with one vote the more. In a word, +the Place Bill, as amended by the Lords, though it would have left +untouched the power of the Crown to bring office-holders into +Parliament, would materially have impaired its power of turning members +of Parliament into office-holders; and apparently it was only because +Macaulay viewed the Bill too exclusively in its relation to the former +power, and took no account of its bearing on the latter, that he could +have regarded it as a measure in which William had no real concern, and +which he only vetoed through some vague dislike of it as affecting his +prerogative he hardly knew how. So far from this, it seems to me that +his objection may well have been a very definite one, and that he +perfectly understood, and was not at all disposed to undervalue, the +particular exercise of his prerogative which it threatened. For whatever +may have been his original or even his persistent repugnance to the acts +of parliamentary management by means of parliamentary corruption, he had +probably come by this time to regard it as among the inevitable if +disagreeable necessities of royal and ministerial policy under the +English system of party government. + +The close of this session witnessed the virtual completion of the work +of ministerial reconstruction on a purely Whig basis. Shrewsbury, who +had been offered the Secretaryship of State left vacant by the +retirement of Nottingham, after some months of hesitation accepted the +office. Trenchard, the other Secretary of State, was also a member of +the Whig party. The rising Whig financier, Charles Montague, who had +during this session devised and carried out the legislative measure for +the establishment of the Bank of England, was for this service elevated +to the post of Chancellor of the Exchequer. The Keeper of the Seal was +the Whig Somers. The Whig Russell was First Lord of the Admiralty. All +the important offices of the State were now in fact in the hands of the +Whig party, and William, now fairly embarked upon the experiment +recommended by Sunderland, made one last concession to his old policy of +balancing one party against the other by a liberal distribution of +honours among the displaced Tories. + +The military and naval operations of 1694 were marked by none of these +successes which catch the public eye, but the year was really one of +more moment to the history of the struggle with Louis than at first +sight appears. Mismanagement and treachery brought disaster on the +expedition against Brest, and the disgrace was certainly not redeemed by +the subsequent bombardment and destruction of Dieppe and Havre. But the +despatch of Russell's fleet to the Mediterranean yielded solid gains +which more than compensated for our losses in the Channel. Russell +relieved Barcelona, blockaded Toulon, brought the hostile Italian States +to reason, and compelled them, for the first time, to acknowledge +William's titles, reanimated the Duke of Savoy, who had begun to think +of a separate peace with France, and, indeed, practically brought the +Mediterranean under English maritime control. As a consequence, our +commerce, which had been declining ever since the Revolution, began +rapidly to revive. + +The land campaign, though equally undistinguished by any striking +triumph, was no less fruitful in matter for solid satisfaction. An +attempt of William to carry the war into the enemy's country was foiled, +it is true, by the skill of Luxembourg, who repulsed the advance of the +Elector of Bavaria upon French Flanders, and this check was, of course, +more important on one side than William's capture of the inconsiderable +fortress of Huy was on the other. But in Spain, where Russell's +appearance before Barcelona had compelled De Noailles to retreat; on the +Rhine, where the Prince of Baden drove back Delorges, and established +himself for the summer in Alsace; and in Piedmont, where, in spite of +the vacillations of the Duke of Savoy, the French gained no material +advantage--the course of events, particularly as contrasted with those +of the three previous years, gave ample justification for the words with +which William met his Parliament on the 9th of November. "With respect," +he said, "to the war by land, I think I may say that this year has put a +stop to the progress of the French arms." Loyal addresses were returned, +and supplies to the amount of five millions were readily voted; but, +along with the Supply Bill, the Triennial Bill was again introduced. It +was probably intimated to Parliament, through some of the private +channels of communication with the Court, that William was not prepared +to veto it a second time. The Bill was brought in on the first day of +the session, and, together with a Bill settling the Customs on the +Crown, received the royal assent on the 22d of December. November of +1696 was fixed as the limit of the life of the existing Parliament. The +Place Bill, vetoed by the King in the previous session, was again +introduced, and with exactly the same results as had followed the second +attempt to pass the Triennial Bill. This measure, it will be +remembered, after failing to obtain the royal assent in the session of +1692-3, was defeated in the Commons in 1693-4, and so also it happened +with the Place Bill. The inference which I think suggests itself in both +cases is that the exercise of the royal veto, though unpopular with the +country, was not by any means equally so with the House of Commons; that +there were many Tories who were not particularly keen on purging +Parliament of office-holders, and not a few Whigs whose zeal for the +limitation of its constitutional life was somewhat lukewarm; and that +both Whigs and Tories of this order were not sorry to be able to evade +their party obligations to vote for these measures by pleading their +unwillingness to force the King's hand, and perhaps provoke a +constitutional crisis. + +The day on which William gave his assent to the Triennial Bill was to +him a day of grave anxiety; and a year fairly prosperous abroad and +peaceful at home was to bring him ere its close the heaviest calamity of +his life. The illness of the Queen, who had been for two or three days +confined to her bed, was on the evening of the 21st of December +recognised by her physician as smallpox. A week afterwards, at one in +the morning of the 28th of December, she died. William's grief at her +loss was uncontrollable, and to all but those, and they were few, who +had penetrated the stoicism beneath which he was accustomed to conceal +deep feelings, it must have been a strange and moving sight. He remained +for days at her bedside scarcely taking food or sleep. He broke out in +the presence of Burnet into passionate outcries upon his agony at the +thought of losing her, and into fervent praises of her love and +virtues. "He cried out," says the Bishop, "that there was no hope, and +that from being the happiest he was now going to be the miserablest +creature on earth. He said that during the whole course of their +marriage he had never known one single fault in her; there was a worth +in her which nobody knew besides himself.... The King's affection was +greater than those who knew him best thought his temper capable of; he +went beyond all bounds in it; during her sickness he was in an agony +that amazed us all, fainting often and breaking out into most violent +lamentations; when she died his spirits sank so low that there was great +reason to apprehend that he was following her; for some weeks after he +was so little master of himself that he was not capable of minding +business or of seeing company." + +The depth of this affection, moreover, was not disproportioned, as is +sometimes the case in examples of conjugal devotion, to the worthiness +of the object. Even Evelyn, who was shocked as a Tory and legitimate +king's-man by the levity of Mary's behaviour (for which, however, an +explanation has been suggested) on her arrival at Whitehall after +James's flight, affirms of her that "she was such an admirable woman, +abating for taking the crown without a due apology, as does, if +possible, outdo the renowned Queen Elizabeth." The comparison, +extravagant as it may appear at first sight, is not without some +justification in the spirited behaviour of Mary on the great national +crisis which occurred during her husband's absence in the Irish +campaign. It would be absurd of course to credit Mary with Elizabeth's +gifts of statecraft, or with her intellectual capacity in general, but +in courage and composure in the presence of danger she was no unworthy +successor of that great queen. In William's passionate declarations of +his debt to her there was no extravagance at all. To him she had been +the most affectionate, dutiful, and forbearing of wives, and if her +influence over him fell short of retaining his marital constancy, she +endeared herself more closely to him on the side of the purer emotions +by her magnanimous forgiveness of his errors. It cannot but soften the +harsher outlines of our conception of William, and help to supply that +human and homely element which is too much wanting in his character, to +know that he was capable both of inspiring and reciprocating so true an +affection as this. + + + + +CHAPTER XII + +1695-1697 + + Campaign of 1695--Capture of Namur by the allies--Dissolution + of Parliament--William's "progress"--The elections--New + Parliament--Grants to Portland--The Assassination Plot-- + Campaign of 1696--Fenwick's conspiracy--Negotiations with + France--Peace of Ryswick. + + +For some weeks after the death of Mary William's grief for her loss +disabled him from the discharge of public duties. He desisted from the +personal delivery of his answers to addresses from the two Houses, and +though important domestic events--such as the disgrace and dismissal of +Sir John Trevor, the Speaker of the House of Commons, for corruption, +and the proceedings preliminary to the contemplated impeachment of +Danby, now Duke of Leeds, for the same offence--took place before the +prorogation, the King does not appear to have actively interested +himself in them, either on one side or the other. Leeds, though he +escaped the impeachment with which he was threatened, stood morally +convicted of the charges preferred against him; but William still +allowed this useful and experienced, if unscrupulous public servant to +remain at the head of the Council. The only mark of royal displeasure +with which he was visited was his exclusion from the list of +lords-justices appointed according to custom to execute the royal +authority during the King's absence on the Continent. + +On the 3d of May Parliament was prorogued, and on the 12th of the same +month William set out for Flanders to take command of the allied army +for what was destined to be the most successful of his campaigns. +Luxembourg was dead, and the command of the French army in the +Netherlands had devolved on a far inferior general in the person of +Marshal Villeroy. William was now matched against a general to whom he +was as much superior as Luxembourg had been to him, and this reversal of +conditions told speedily and signally on the fortunes of the year's +campaign. The prime object of William's operations was the retrieval of +the disastrous loss which the allies had suffered in 1692 by the fall of +Namur. On the recapture of this important fortress he now bent his whole +energies. His first movement, however, was an unsuccessful one. Athlone, +who had been detached with a large force to invest the city, was unable +to prevent Boufflers from throwing himself into it with a strong +reinforcement. The garrison now numbered 14,000 or 15,000 men, and as +its works had been planned by Vauban, the greatest military engineer of +his age, its defenders reckoned it impregnable. Leaving the main body of +his army under the Prince of Vaudemont, who, when pressed by Villeroy, +succeeded in skilfully retiring to Ghent, William, at the head of a +division, effected a junction with the forces of the Elector of Bavaria +and the Brandenburg contingent, and marching to Namur proceeded rapidly +to invest it. Its siege was then vigorously prosecuted. Cohorn, the +pupil of Vauban, and next to him in scientific reputation, was the +engineer of the allies, and, thus pitted against his master, had every +incitement to the exertion of his utmost skill. The trenches were opened +on the 2d of July, and on the 8th the outworks of one side of the city +were attacked and carried by an English force. This was the occasion on +which William is reported to have exclaimed, laying his hand on the +shoulder of the Elector of Bavaria, "Look, look at my brave English!" +The soldier in him was far nearer to them than the statesman, and amid +the smoke and tumult of that Flemish battlefield he was doubtless +stirred by emotions towards his subjects which at Kensington or +Westminster he had never known. On the 17th of the month, after a fierce +conflict in which the attacking forces were thrice beaten back and +thrice returned to the assault, the first counterscarp of the town was +carried. On the 20th the Bavarians and Brandenburgers captured another +portion of the outworks, and a few days later the English and Dutch made +themselves masters of the second line of fortifications. Before, +however, a general assault could be ordered, Boufflers, who did not +consider himself strong enough to defend the town, surrendered it on +terms of being allowed to retire into the citadel, for the possession of +which, in its turn, an obstinate struggle began. Villeroy, now before +Brussels, endeavoured in vain by a furious and destructive bombardment +of that city to compel the allies to raise the siege of the Namur +citadel, and Boufflers, in his last stronghold, soon found himself +exposed to so terrible a fire from one hundred and sixty cannon and +sixty mortars that, unless relief reached him, he felt that capitulation +could only be a question of days. At this desperate juncture Villeroy +advanced to his assistance, and on the 15th of August his army, 80,000 +strong, was sighted by the defenders of Namur. The siege of the citadel +was not for a moment intermitted; the allies stood between the fortress +they were seeking to capture and the host which was marching to relieve +it, equally prepared to strike at both. For three days the two armies +confronted each other--three days of such anxiety as Europe had not +known since the beginning of the war. Everything seemed to portend a +conflict between the two great hosts--as decisive and even epoch-making +a struggle as that which, after the lapse of a century and a quarter, +was to be fought out on that now historic plain which the French general +had skirted on his way from Brussels. But the event surprised every one +and disappointed many. On the night of the 18th Villeroy unaccountably +withdrew his army, and the fate of the fortress was sealed. Portland was +sent to demand its surrender, but Boufflers, oppressed by the tradition +that no French marshal had ever capitulated, refused to do so, and the +next day, after the bloodiest assault which the history of that time +records, the allies succeeded in capturing about a mile of the +prodigious outworks of the citadel. Boufflers requested a truce of +forty-eight hours to bury his dead, which was allowed him; and before +the expiration of the time he signified his willingness to capitulate +within ten days. He was informed by the Elector of Bavaria on behalf of +the allies that he must surrender immediately or prepare for an +immediate renewal of the attack; and thus resolutely met he yielded. On +the 26th of August the garrison marched out with the honours of war, and +the greatest humiliation inflicted upon the French king since the +commencement of his career of conquest was with much pomp and +circumstance consummated. Villeroy and his useless army had already +retired to Mons. + +The capture of Namur was the greatest event of the year, and indeed of +the campaign. It marked the turn of the tide in Louis's fortunes. From +1690 onwards it had set steadily in its favour, and reached full flood +on the day of Landen, in 1693. The following year may be fairly taken as +representing the half-hour of slack water before the ebb begins; but in +1695 it was plain to every one that the tide was running out. No other +victory was needed to demonstrate it after that of Namur, and none in +fact was won. In the autumn hostilities as usual ceased, and on the 10th +of October William, leaving his army in winter quarters, returned to +England to be received with a too rare warmth of welcome by his people. +He seized the opportunity of this burst of popular sunshine to dissolve +Parliament, which had still under the Triennial Act another year of life +to run. It has been suggested that he did so to put a stop to the +impeachment of Leeds, but though the proceeding against the Minister to +whom he owed not only his marriage with Mary, but in a great measure his +elevation to the English throne, must doubtless have given him +uneasiness, he had reason enough apart from this for determining the +life of the Legislature. "The happy state the nation was in," says +Burnet, "put all men except the merchants in a good temper; none could +be sure we should be in so good a state next year; so that now probably +elections would fall on men who were well affected to the Government. A +Parliament that saw itself in its last session might affect to be +froward, the members by such a behaviour hoping to recommend themselves +at the next election." And though Burnet only glances at the State +prosecutions as one among the causes which decided William's action, it +was with no special reference to the case of Leeds. "Besides," are his +words, "if the same Parliament had been continued probably the inquiries +into corruption would have been carried on which might divert them from +more pressing affairs, and kindle greater heats, all which might be more +decently dropped by a new Parliament than suffered to lie asleep by the +old one." + +A proclamation was accordingly issued dissolving the existing +Parliament, and summoning a new one for the 22d of November. The +interval was employed by William in an unwonted effort to conciliate the +goodwill of the electors. For the first and only time in his reign he +set out upon a royal progress through the eastern and northern parts of +his kingdom, visiting many great houses, not only of Whig, but in some +cases of Tory magnates. At each of his stopping-places the rural +population of all degrees from squire to peasant thronged to see him, +and it seems evident that he made almost pathetic efforts to please. +"The King," says Burnet, who is always an outspoken critic of his royal +master, "studied to constrain himself to a little more openness and +affability than was natural to him; but his cold and dry way had too +deep a root not to return too oft upon him." Neither at Cambridge in his +journey northward, nor at Oxford, which he took on his return, was his +visit a success. The chiefs of the younger University invited him to no +entertainment; he declined that which was offered him by the +authorities of the elder. People murmured, too, at his visit to Althorp, +and some remarked, no doubt with less truth than ill-nature, that the +only place in which he really succeeded in making himself agreeable was +at the seat of the highly unpopular Sunderland. Nevertheless, and +however little these conciliatory efforts may have contributed to the +result, the elections went generally in William's favour. In many +constituencies Tories lost their seats, and were replaced by Whigs. The +city of London, which had returned four of the former party, now sent to +Parliament four of the latter. Members were in some places expressly +instructed by their constituents to support the King, and to vote +whatever supplies might be necessary for the vigorous prosecution of the +war. The new Parliament contained about one hundred and sixty members, +of whom the greater number were known to be well disposed towards the +King. William had triumphantly performed a feat which, as attempted by +the advisers of the sovereign, has perhaps more often been attended with +disaster than with success. + +On the 22d of November, the day appointed, the new Parliament met. The +Commons again chose Foley for their Speaker, and the King made a long +speech from the throne. The demand for supplies was still very high, but +William said that as he had engaged in the present war by the advice of +his first Parliament, who thought it necessary for the defence of the +Protestant religion and the preservation of the liberties of Europe, and +as the last Parliament had with great cheerfulness assisted him to carry +on the war, so he could not doubt but that the present Parliament would +be unanimously zealous in the prosecution of it, particularly since the +advantages gained that year afforded a reasonable hope of future +success. The Commons voted an address of thanks and congratulation upon +the success of his Majesty's arms abroad, and pledged themselves to the +prosecution of the war. William returned a short but suitable answer, +and the business of the session began. The Legislature set to work to +effect a much-needed purification of the coinage, and as the Lords had +made a concession to the Commons in respect of the measure which became +necessary for this purpose, the Lower House now assented to the often +rejected amendment introduced by the Upper House in the Bill for +regulating trials in cases of high treason, which now at last became +law. But the session was not to proceed far without giving birth to an +unfortunate difference between Parliament and the King. William, with +that ill-judged profuseness of liberality towards his Dutch adherents, +by which he compromised not only contemporary popularity but posthumous +reputation, proposed to grant to Portland a magnificent estate +consisting of five very extensive manors in Denbighshire. The people of +the county forthwith set up the cry that the King intended to make this +foreigner Prince of Wales, so far at least as he could do so by +bestowing on him all that the Crown had to give in the principality. The +local gentry petitioned against the grant, and an address was voted +requesting the King to stop it. "Portland," says Macaulay, "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." It would have been better, however, if the +historian had in this place added that William forthwith made a fresh +grant to the Earl of Portland of the manors of Grantham, Dracklow, +Pevensey, and East Greenwich, in the counties of Lincoln, Cheshire, +Sussex, and Kent, together with the honour of Penrith in the county of +Cumberland, and other manors in Norfolk, York, and the Duchy of +Lancaster. As these ancient crown-lands were far apart it could not now +be said that the King was creating a principality for the favourite, but +it removed no other of the serious objections to the grant. + +Again, however, and as before, at a moment when the seldom very bright +sky of William's popularity threatened to become seriously overcast, the +sympathies of his people were revived by his enemies. The most +formidable of the conspiracies against the King's life, that known _par +excellence_ as the Assassination Plot, was set on foot, or rather +revived, as the renewal of a project which had been frustrated several +months earlier by the departure of William for the Continent--in the +autumn of 1695; and by the spring of the following year was ripe for +execution. Its leading spirit was one Sir George Barclay, a Scotchman, +who came over from St. Germains with a special commission from James, +which if it did not actually contemplate, or at least expressly sanction +assassination, was, to say the least, of a dangerously elastic +character. Among those whom he enlisted in the conspiracy were one +Charnock, an ex-fellow of Magdalen College, who had been a tool of James +II. in his high-handed violation of the statutes and liberties of that +society, Sir John Fenwick, a man of good family and connections and a +noted Jacobite agitator, and Sir William Parkyns, a Tory. The plan of +the conspirators was to lie in wait for William at a ferry on the +Thames, which he was in the habit of crossing every Saturday on his way +from Kensington to hunt in Richmond Park. To overpower the royal guards +it was necessary to raise the number of the conspirators to forty, among +whom it was tolerably certain that there would be at least one traitor. +As a matter of fact there were three. The secret was communicated by one +of these to Portland; the King, at first disposed to make light of it, +consented at last to abandon his hunting expedition on the Saturday +fixed for the assassination, and again on the same day in the following +week; and the principal conspirators were arrested. Barclay escaped to +France, and the Duke of Berwick, who had at the same time been vainly +attempting to prepare the way for a French invasion by a Jacobite +insurrection, also fled the country. William, in a speech from the +throne, made a formal announcement to the two Houses of the detection of +the conspiracy and his providential escape; and shortly afterwards +several of the conspirators, including Charnock and Parkyns, were tried +and executed. + +That the discovery of the Assassination Plot tended, as Macaulay holds, +to revive the popularity of William may perhaps have been the case; it +is at any rate certain that on the occasion of the next difference +between the King and the Legislature he proved to be fully master of the +situation. The growing jealousy entertained by the landed interest +towards the wealthy traders, who were now in ever-increasing numbers +disputing the representation of the counties and provincial boroughs +with the squirearchy, gave birth during the present session to a project +of legislation of a highly reactionary kind. A Bill was brought in for +excluding from the House of Commons every one not possessed of a certain +estate in land. For a county member this property qualification was +fixed at five hundred a year, for a borough member at two hundred. Early +in February the Bill was read a second time, and referred to a select +committee, whose deliberations are rendered memorable by the fact that +an attempt was made in the course of them to antedate an existing +provision of an electoral system by about a century and a quarter. It +was proposed to add a clause enacting that votes should be taken by +ballot, but the proposition was rejected without a division. Duly +revised by the committee the Bill was returned to the House, and it then +became apparent that the pretensions of the landed interest were to meet +with resistance from an unexpected quarter. The Universities of Oxford +and Cambridge raised their voices against a restriction which struck at +individual ability no less than at personal property, and in deference +to their protest a motion was made to except the Universities from the +operation of the Bill. This, however, was rejected by 151 votes to 143, +and a motion subsequently made to except the city of London was not +pressed to a division. The Lords, from disinclination, let us charitably +hope, to embroil themselves with the elective House on a matter of +electoral legislation, passed the Bill without any amendment, and it +came up in due course for the royal assent. It was perhaps the least +invidious of all the opportunities ever offered to William for the +exercise of the veto, and he very wisely resolved to stop the Bill. In +spite, however, of the obviously disinterested character of the +step--the measure being one which touched no royal prerogative +whatever, and which he could have no reason for vetoing save that he +believed its provisions to be opposed to the true interests of the +country--his action did not escape challenge. An attempt was made by a +section of the Tory party to carry a vote of censure upon whatever +Minister had advised him to refuse assent to the Bill. The proposal, +however, was not taken up by the more moderate members of the +Opposition, and was ultimately rejected by the very large majority of +219 to 70--a sufficiently emphatic affirmation of the legitimate +character of at least this exercise of the prerogative of disallowance. +It is of course not impossible, as has been already admitted, that the +recent revulsion of goodwill towards the King may have contributed to +the completeness of this victory, but it seems scarcely necessary to +ascribe much to the operation of any such sentiment. It is pretty clear +that the Bill for the Regulation of Elections was very doubtfully +regarded in many quarters of the House; and it is indeed rather +surprising that in a Parliament such as that returned in 1695, with Whig +influence in a distinct ascendency, it should have been possible to +carry the Bill at all. It must, moreover, be remembered that even if +there had been a more pronounced liking for it in Parliament itself, the +measure was essentially one of that character for which a shrewd member +will not venture to vote except with one eye on his constituents. +Natural as it was for a country gentleman of that day to object to a +Londoner coming down with a valise full of guineas to contest with him +his native county or his ancestral borough, it is not to be supposed +that his objection would be shared by the free and independent electors +of either constituency. To them it might appear by no means undesirable +that "local interest" should be stimulated to judicious liberality by +the competition of the open-handed outsider. + +On the 27th of April the first session of the new Parliament came to an +end, and a fortnight after the prorogation William landed in Holland, +whence he immediately set out to resume the command of the allied forces +in Flanders. His presence, however, was needed rather for purposes of +counsel than command; for, in truth, the long and desperate struggle +with Louis had now reached a stage when even the most enterprising of +captains might well be of opinion that Q. Fabius was the only general +whose tactics were worth studying. At one time it had almost become a +question which of the combatants would be the first to swoon from +exhaustion; but before William's arrival the skilful surprise and +destruction by Athlone and Cohorn of a vast magazine of ammunition and +stores, collected by the French at Groet, had virtually decided that +question against France. England, then in the throes of a monetary +crisis, was sufficiently hard put to it to support the continued strain +of the campaign; but upon France, with three armies afoot in three +hostile countries at once, the demand was far more terrible. She was +virtually too weak to attack in the Netherlands, and William probably +saw no advantage to himself in forcing an engagement. The summer passed +away in marches and counter-marches, and not a blow was exchanged +between Villeroy and the strategist who had plucked Namur out of his +grasp the year before. On the Rhine operations were equally bloodless +and indecisive. In Catalonia there had been some hard fighting, and +Vendome, who had succeeded Noailles, won a dearly-bought victory over +the Spaniards. Throughout the year, indeed, the pen was more busy than +the sword, and the straits in which Louis found himself may be measured +by the energy of his efforts to detach the allies from each other. The +wavering Duke of Savoy was at last definitively won over, his seduction, +it is said, being finally effected by assurances secretly transmitted to +Turin from the Court of Versailles to the effect that James would +inevitably be restored to his throne in consequence of the extraordinary +measures then being concerted for that purpose. The Duke, upon this, +went on pretence of pilgrimage to Loretto, and there signed a secret +treaty with France. Suspicion of his fidelity, however, soon gained +ground, and in the course of the summer he threw off the mask and +declared his intention, in accordance with a clause in the secret +treaty, of establishing a neutrality over all Italy. To this, of course, +the Emperor and the Kings of Spain and England refused to assent; but +the Duke compelled them to submission by an invasion of Milan, and all +Italian resistance to the French power was brought to an end. Louis at +the same time made separate overtures of peace to the Dutch, and with +such success that the States-General formally resolved that the +concessions of France afforded good ground for a treaty. The terms were +communicated to the other members of the confederacy, by some of the +weaker of whom they were accepted, although the Emperor and the King of +Spain united in rejecting them. + +While matters were in this condition William returned to England for the +parliamentary session, and in his speech on the 20th of October to the +two Houses he informed them that overtures of peace had been made by the +enemy. But the language in which he referred to them left no doubt of +his own views. "I am sure," he said, "we shall agree in opinion that the +only way of treating with France is with our swords in our hands." This +is not a method of treating with foreign Powers which finds equal favour +in our own day; but in 1696 there was no great difference among English +parties as to the proper mode of negotiating, at any rate with Louis +XIV. The House of Commons was as sternly distrustful of the French king +as was William himself. Protracted and burdensome as had been the +struggle, they were in no more hurry to catch at Louis's overtures than +he. In their address of reply the Commons recalled the fact that this +was the eighth year that they had assisted his Majesty with large +supplies for carrying on a just and necessary war, and that this war had +cost the nation much blood as well as treasure; but they added that the +benefits procured to religion and liberty were not dearly purchased at +this price, and they pledged themselves to provide not only the +necessary supplies for continuing the war with vigour, but also for the +payment of the public debt, which had been gradually accumulating in +consequence of the deficiencies of revenue. The close of this session +was marked by vehement debates in both Houses on the Bill for the +attainder of Sir John Fenwick. Fenwick, who had been arrested in the +previous summer, and was now lying in the Tower, endeavoured to save his +life by making a confession incriminating Marlborough, Godolphin, +Russell, Shrewsbury, and other Lords, whom he indicated as holding +communications with the exiled king. William, however, who had long been +well aware of the treason of most of these accused servants of his, +declined to notice the charges, and the accuser only sealed his own doom +by making them. A Bill of Attainder was brought in against him by the +Whigs, and, the insufficient evidence in support of it having by a +straining of the law of treason been voted sufficient, passed both +Houses after a series of hot debates in which neither political party +showed to great advantage, and Fenwick was executed. + +Early in 1697 the long struggle between France and the allies showed +signs of drawing to a close. Louis had expressed his willingness to +surrender the conquests made in the war, to restore Lorraine and +Luxembourg to their lawful owners, and to recognise William as King of +England. To these terms William and the States-General were ready enough +to assent; Spain, however, and the Emperor, raised objections; the +latter, as is suggested, on account of his desire to keep up the war +until the death of the ailing Spanish king, so that his own pretensions +to the crown of Spain might have the support of the allied army against +those of the French rival in the succession. Difficulties were +accordingly raised to delay the meeting by a Congress. The Emperor +proposed Aix-la-Chapelle as its place of meeting, and objected to the +French alternative proposal of the Hague. It was, however, finally +agreed that the representation of the allies should assemble at the +Hague, while those of France took up their quarters at Delft, a few +miles off; and that meetings between the two sets of negotiators should +take place at Ryswick, an intermediate village, in a palace belonging +to the Princes of Orange. Here accordingly they met on the 9th of May +1697, England being represented by Pembroke and Villiers, with the poet +Matthew Prior as their secretary, and France by Messieurs Harley, Crecy, +and Caillieres. Kaunitz and De Quiros were the respective +plenipotentiaries of the Empire and Spain. A Swedish minister acted as +mediator. Like other famous Congresses before and since, however, the +Congress of Ryswick made little progress; and after it had been many +weeks in session with no visible result, William resolved to open +negotiations directly with Louis through one of his generals commanding +in the Netherlands. He selected Boufflers as the most eligible for his +purpose, and Portland was directed to solicit a short interview. Leave +to comply with this request was immediately asked and obtained from the +French king, and several conferences took place between the two, +resulting, in less time than the Congress had taken to exchange powers +and settle formalities of precedence and procedure, in the settlement of +the basis of a treaty. Portland's commission was couched in highly +authoritative terms, and Marshal Boufflers's report of them shows most +strikingly how commanding an influence William then exercised in Europe, +and what lofty language one of the least assuming of men regarded it as +entitling him to use. In the French Marshal's account of his first +interview with Portland he recites an assurance conveyed to him by the +latter on the part of England, "that if satisfaction be given him on +points which concern him (the Prince of Orange) personally, he will +oblige the Emperor and the Spaniards to make peace; being satisfied for +himself, as well as the States-General, with the offers which your +Majesty has made in the preliminaries, and that if the Emperor and the +Spaniards persist in refusing to make peace, he will conclude it without +them together with the Dutch."[16] + +The required satisfaction, however, was not obtained without some +difficulty. On William's side two stipulations were made, to which Louis +hesitated to assent; and neither these nor the two counter demands +advanced by the French king were ultimately assented to in the form in +which they were originally proposed. William required first that in the +peace which was to be concluded, and by which Louis was to consent to +recognise him King of England, the French king should "promise and +engage not to favour, directly or indirectly, King James against him." +The French plenipotentiaries at the Hague had already assented to their +master engaging himself not to favour directly or indirectly "the +enemies of the Prince of Orange, acknowledged King of England." William, +however, desired that James should be designated by name. "It is +absolutely necessary," writes Boufflers, reporting Portland's words to +Louis, "for the security of the Prince of Orange, that your Majesty +should engage _expressly_ not to favour directly or indirectly King +James _nominatim_; and" (this was the second point of contention) "that +he shall go and reside at Rome or elsewhere out of France, provided he +be not near enough to keep up any party in England." Boufflers added +that though the first demand might be waived if Louis had any reluctance +to mention James by name, and that "other equivalent terms" might be +found to give the Prince of Orange the securities he desires, yet that +it was indispensable in order to remove all suspicion that the exiled +king should reside out of France. + +To both of these stipulations Louis demurred. It was inconsistent, he +held, with his honour as a sovereign, and with his duties as a host and +kinsman, to name "the King of England" in the treaty and to engage to +cause him to quit France; but he offered to agree "not to assist +directly or indirectly the enemies of the Prince of Orange without any +exception"; and Boufflers was directed to point out that the last three +words would exclude all suspicion of a restriction in favour of any +person whatsoever, and in fact amount to a virtual designation of James. +Upon this a further clause was engrafted by William, engaging Louis "not +to favour in any manner whatsoever the cabals, secret intrigues, +factions, and rebellions which might occur in England, nor any person or +persons who should excite or foment them," and to this Louis, after +modifying the expression "person or persons" which he regarded +apparently as the equivalent of "James or James's adherents," consented. +An attempt was made by William to obtain an assurance that after peace +was concluded James would be "induced to resolve of his own accord" to +live out of France; but Louis declined to yield even thus far, and the +point was waived. William perhaps believed that he could the better +afford to do so, as he proposed to make his acceptance of one of Louis's +two stipulations dependent upon his obtaining practical satisfaction on +this head. To the demand for the pension of 50,000, to which Mary of +Modena was alleged to be entitled, William had signified his +willingness to allow her any sum to which she could show lawful claim, +but it seems pretty clear that he had resolved to qualify this promise +by the condition that she and her husband should quit St. Germains. The +other demand of Louis--too arrogant to have been seriously urged, and in +all probability only put forward in formal fulfilment of a promise--was +that a general amnesty should be granted to all those who had followed +the fortunes of James, and further, that they should be restored to +their forfeited estates. To this last modest request William replied +that it was not in his power to grant it since the reversal of attainder +was a matter of statute and not of prerogative; to the former he replied +with proper spirit that "as for the general amnesty, besides that his +honour and glory demand that he shall not be forced to it by a treaty of +peace, the safety of his own person requires him not to recall +individuals to England whom he knows to be his personal enemies; but +that as soon as he shall be acknowledged King of England, and in +undisturbed possession by the treaty of peace, he will readily, of his +own free will, pardon those who seem to him disposed to return with good +faith and to live in quietness, behaving as good and loyal subjects." +The demand was of course immediately waived, and the two Powers being +now in accord, it now only remained to bring the rest of the allies into +the agreement. This, however, was not to be done in a moment. Both +Austria and Spain held back, and while they were hesitating new +successes of the French arms brought about an enhancement of the French +terms. Barcelona fell before one of Louis's armies, and the South +American Cartagena before a squadron of his fleet. Upon this his +plenipotentiaries were instructed to announce that he intended to keep +Strasburg, and that unless his terms, thus modified, were accepted by +the 10th of September he should hold himself at liberty to modify them +yet further. The combined influence of the reverse and the menace, +assisted by the steady pressure of William's determination, at length +produced the desired effect. At daybreak on the 11th of September +(1697), after a night spent in debate as to the order of procedure, the +Treaty of Ryswick was at last signed as between France and Spain, France +and the United Provinces, and France and England--the Emperor being +allowed till the 1st of November to signify his adhesion. Two days later +the news was known in England, and was there received with universal +rejoicings. William, however, regarded it with no unmixed satisfaction. +"I received last night," he writes to the Pensionary, Heinsius, "your +letter of the preceding day, and your letter of yesterday has been +delivered to me to-day by Lord Villiers. May God be pleased to bless the +peace which has just been concluded, and long continue it by His grace. +Yet I confess that the manner in which it has been concluded inspires me +with some apprehensions for the future." + +FOOTNOTE: + +[16] Grimblot's _Letters of William III._, etc., i. 8. + + + + +CHAPTER XIII + +1698-1699 + + Portland's embassy--His life in Paris--The question of the + Spanish Succession--The First Partition Treaty--General + election and meeting of the new Parliament--Its temper-- + Opposition to William's military policy--Reduction of the + army. + + +One of William's first steps after the conclusion of the peace was to +appoint a strong ambassador to Versailles. Portland was selected, +partly, as it is said, in consequence of his jealousy of the growing +ascendency of his youthful rival Keppel in the favour of William, but +much more, one may suppose, because of his force of character and +intimate acquaintance with European politics. The Ambassador +Extraordinary was intended, as he understood his mission, to hold his +head high at the Court of Louis, and he undoubtedly did so. His retinue +and equipage was of remarkable splendour, and his bearing, especially +towards those who showed any sign of disputing his just pretensions, was +marked by an unflinching dignity.[17] He protested bluntly against the +presence of the would-be assassins of William at a Court at which he +was William's representative. He pressed for the removal of James and +his adherents from St. Germains; and on both these matters Louis, while +firmly maintaining the position which he had taken up at the Brabant +negotiation, showed, nevertheless, unmistakable anxiety to conciliate +the resolute ambassador. It was not, however, to deal with points of +this kind that Portland had been sent to Versailles. Another matter of +the greatest European moment was beginning to press, and it was to +endeavour to effect an adjustment of the various conflicting interests +involved in it that William had despatched his carefully-selected +emissary to the French Court. Charles II., King of Spain and the Indies, +and last of the male line of the Emperor Charles V., was known to be +near his end, and at his death the whole of his vast empire in the two +hemispheres would pass to one or other of two powerful reigning Houses, +to neither of which its transfer would be regarded with indifference by +Europe at large. The rightful heir of Charles II., if blood alone had +had to be considered, was the Dauphin of France, the son of his sister, +who had married Louis XIV. With the consent of her husband she had at +the time of her marriage renounced for herself and her posterity all +pretensions to the Spanish crown, and her renunciation was duly recorded +in a European Treaty. Failing this line it would be necessary to go back +another generation, and the Emperor Leopold, as the son of Charles's +aunt, stood next in succession. His claim was barred by no renunciation; +but it was no more likely that Louis would quietly allow him to succeed +than that he would submit to the succession of a Bourbon. It was not to +the interests of Europe that either House should acquire such an +enormous accession of territory and power. To William it appeared at any +rate intolerable that the House of Bourbon should do so, and in order to +avert this calamity, as he regarded it, he took one of the most keenly +canvassed steps of his political life in the negotiation and conclusion +of the famous Partition Treaty. There is no likelihood that posterity +will ever arrive at accord upon the policy of this famous transaction, +but before even attempting to consider the unfavourable criticisms +passed upon it, it is absolutely necessary to note one cardinal +characteristic of its nature. To William it was avowedly and essentially +an expedient adopted, to use Aristotle's expression, +kata ton deuteron +ploun+. It was never regarded or represented by him as more than the +"second-best" thing to be done in a case where the actual best had been +rendered impracticable by circumstances beyond his own control. He knew +that Louis's moderation in the settlement of the terms of Ryswick had +been merely politic; that its main object was to put an end to the war, +and so to break up the forces of a coalition which both he and his rival +knew that it would be a hard matter to get together again; and that the +peace once concluded, Louis would have it in his power to recruit his +military strength, and prepare to take advantage of the almost daily +expected death of Charles II. of Spain to carry out his long cherished +design upon that kingdom. There were two ways of dealing with this +situation, and two only. Either England must be kept under arms, or the +King of England must "transact" with the King of France. The former of +these two courses was denied him by the jealousy of his English +subjects, and he was accordingly forced upon the latter. In writing to +the Pensionary Heinsius he deplores the fact that he cannot "remain +armed," and declares that little reliance as could be placed upon +engagement with France, it was absolutely necessary that such should be +concluded; since otherwise, he writes, "I do not see a possibility of +preventing France from putting herself in immediate possession of the +monarchy of Spain in case the King should happen to die soon." +Obviously, therefore, it would be unfair to judge of the First Partition +Treaty as though the arrangement of it had been deliberately selected by +William from a variety of more or less eligible expedients. The only +mode in which it can be logically or reasonably attacked is by +contending either that the object of the Treaty, the exclusion of the +grandson of Louis from the throne of Spain, was not a political end of +such importance as to be worth bargaining for at all, or else that the +particular bargain to which William agreed was in itself an improvident +one. + +So much premised, let us proceed to examine the provisions of this +memorable instrument. Roughly speaking they would have effected a +division of the heritage of the Spanish king between the Electoral +Prince of Bavaria and the Dauphin of France. The former was to have the +kingdom of Spain, the Spanish Netherlands, and the Spanish possessions +in the New World; to the latter were to pass the two Sicilies and +Sardinia, certain places on and off the coast of Tuscany, and the +Cis-Pyrenan portion of the Province of Guipuzcoa. Milan was to go to +the Archduke Charles, the second son of the Emperor Leopold. Such was +the arrangement, and whether its terms were to be deemed good or bad for +England, it is at least certain that they were only obtained from the +French king after long and obstinate diplomatic haggling, first between +Portland, William's Ambassador-Extraordinary at Versailles, and the +French Ministers, and afterwards between the Count de Tallard, Louis +XIV.'s ambassador to England, and William himself. The French king was +extremely anxious to secure the Spanish kingdom for his grandson Philip, +Duke of Anjou, and was ready to undertake that the Dauphin and Philip's +elder brother should waive their rights, so as to guard against the +possibility of the French and Spanish monarchies being united under one +sceptre. As to the danger lest a Bourbon, once established at Madrid, +might hand over the Spanish Netherlands to the head of the family, Louis +was willing to protect England and Holland against that danger by +consenting that those provinces should be ceded to the Elector of +Bavaria. William met this proposal, not by a direct negative, but by +raising his terms of assent to it. Not only, he insisted, must the +Spanish Netherlands pass to the Elector of Bavaria, but Louis must give +up some fortified towns on his Flemish frontier, for the better +self-protection of the United Provinces, while England was "compensated" +on the Mediterranean and the Gulf of Mexico. Louis protested on his own +behalf against the former of these proposals, and declared that the +Spaniards would never consent to the latter. At last, unable to obtain +his way with regard to the elevation of one of his grandsons to the +Spanish throne, he assented to the only alternative arrangement which +would prevent Spain from passing to his rival the Emperor, and signified +his willingness to accept the Electoral Prince of Bavaria as the heir to +the Peninsula. The obstinacy with which the points of this treaty were +contested may be measured by the fact that the first interview between +Pomponne and Portland, in which the matter of the Spanish succession was +broached, took place on the 15th of March, and it was not till the 4th +of September that the treaty was signed. It cannot therefore be +contended that William spared pains to obtain what he considered the +best terms from Louis, and having regard to the fact that the King of +Spain was not expected to live out the year, it is plain enough that on +one assumption--that, namely, of the paramount necessity of preventing +the accession of a grandson of Louis to the Spanish throne--the +negotiations could not with safety have been protracted much longer. The +latter, in short, of the two questions which were propounded at the +outset of the examination may be said to depend for its answer upon the +former. Supposing that the exclusion of the Duke of Anjou or the Duke of +Berry from the throne of Spain was a political object worth bargaining +for at all, William cannot, I think, be charged with having paid an +improvident price for it. Nor does it appear to me reasonably arguable +that the object in question was not worth bargaining to obtain. It has +been urged by some critics of this transaction that the apprehensions +roused in those days at the prospect of a Bourbon prince succeeding to +the throne of Charles were exaggerated; that experience has shown the +fallacy of supposing that ties of kindred count for much in determining +the policy of monarchs, and that it would certainly have been better +that the Spanish throne should pass to the descendant of a French king +than that the two Sicilies and other points of vantage on the +Mediterranean should pass to a future French king himself. But those who +so argue rely too much upon general principles and pay too little +attention to the facts of the particular case. One might readily admit +that ties of kindred count for little in determining the policy of +monarchs, and at the same time retain the full conviction that the +subsistence of the relation of grandfather and grandson between the then +King of France--the man and the circumstances being what they were--and +the King of Spain would have been fraught with the most disastrous +consequences for all Europe. There could be no serious doubt that the +Duke of Anjou or the Duke of Berry would be a mere puppet with his +strings pulled from beyond the Pyrenees, and that the whole resources of +his kingdom would at once have been drawn upon by Louis to enable him to +resume the war. Had the French crown rested upon another head, or even +had there been any probability that the new occupant of the Spanish +throne would have time allowed him to outgrow the _regni novitas_ and +strike out a policy of his own, the case would have been different. But +we must judge of the situation by the light of the facts as they were. +It is beside the point to argue that because a grandson of Louis after +all succeeded the Spanish king, and after a desolating war for his +dethronement continued to reign over Spain, and his children after him, +without Europe being "a penny the worse"--it is beside the point, I say, +to argue that an arrangement which operated not amiss for Europe from +1712 onwards would have been tolerable in 1698. Philip V. was well +enough as a king of Spain, after his grandfather's power had been +brought low by a dozen more years of European war, but Philip of Anjou, +the nominee and instrument of Louis XIV., at the close of the previous +century, would have been a weapon pointed at the breast of free and +Protestant Europe. You cannot judge of the strength or keenness of a +dagger by merely estimating its power in the grasp of a failing hand. + +Doubtless, however, the complaints both contemporary and subsequent of +the provisions of the Partition Treaty were to some extent stimulated by +the circumstances of its arrangement. It is well known that William, +acting as his own Foreign Minister, carried his official independence so +far as to conduct the whole of the negotiations with Louis from +beginning to end without any reference to, or at least any effective +consultation of, a single English Minister. Somers, it is true, had been +told before the King's departure for Loo that Lord Portland had been +sounded by Louis with reference to an agreement with England concerning +the Spanish succession; but it was not till the terms were actually +arranged that William wrote to Somers for his opinion upon them, +"leaving it to his judgment to whom else he might think it proper to +impart them," and adding "if it be fit that this negotiation be carried +on there is no time to be lost, and you will send me the full powers +under the Great Seal, with the names in blank, to treat with Count +Tallard." Portland at the same time communicated directly with Vernon, +the then Secretary of State, whose consent was necessary to the imprint +of the Great Seal; and Somers himself confided the affair to several +other Ministers. But it is clear, not only from Somers's own reply to +William, but generally on the face of the whole transaction, that even +if the King's English Ministers had been competent to revise the +agreement, their suggestions would have come too late. Somers's +criticisms, though sensible in themselves, were of the most tentative +character; he excuses himself indeed that his thoughts were so ill put +together, and pleaded the known effect of the waters at Tunbridge Wells, +where he then was, in "discomposing and disturbing the head so as almost +totally to disable one from writing"; but in fact he writes with the +extreme diffidence natural to the "layman" conscious of his incapacity +to advise the expert. The commission of plenipotentiaries was then drawn +out by Secretary Vernon with the names left in blank, and the Chancellor +requested the Secretary for his warrant before affixing the Great Seal. +This, however, Vernon refused to give, and Somers thereupon sealed the +powers with his own hand, taking care, however, to keep the King's +letter as a justification or an excuse for the act. That the whole +proceeding was unconstitutional, according to the fully developed theory +of the constitution, is of course obvious, and it is only a partial and +not a complete defence of William's share in it that the theory in +question was nothing like so fully developed or so firmly established as +it is at the present day. It is all very well to say that "William was +his own Foreign Minister,"--a statement which is repeated by Whig +writers, as though it sufficed to explain any conceivable +irregularity,--but the mere fact of his being unable to complete the +legal execution of a treaty without calling in the assistance of a +Minister (or rather, as it really should have been, if the Chancellor +had not taken upon him to dispense with the Secretary's co-operation, of +two Ministers), must have been a sufficient indication to the King of +the even _then_ constitutional limits of his prerogative. The _form_, in +short, was eloquent of the _fact_. It would have been plainly irrational +to suppose that the royal treaty-making power would have been made +exercisable only under the authority of an instrument validated by an +act which none but a Minister or Ministers could perform, unless it were +intended that such Minister or Ministers should be as fully responsible +for the doings of the executive in foreign as in domestic affairs. And +assuredly it cannot be regarded as more than a colourable recognition of +this responsibility to procure the merely mechanical assent of Ministers +to the results of an international agreement, in the negotiations for +which they have not been permitted to take any part. It seems difficult +therefore to contend that William was not in this matter _knowingly_ +over-riding constitutional restrictions, under the conviction probably +that the pressing nature of the emergency, and the danger of delaying +the Spanish settlement by deliberations with the English Ministers, +sufficiently justified the irregularity. + +There was that, too, in Somers's letter which would have confirmed him +in the belief that he had done well in agreeing betimes with his +adversary. The Chancellor spoke of the "deadness and want of spirit" +universally prevailing in the nation. None, he said, were disposed to +the thought of entering on a new war; but all seemed to be tired out +with taxes, to a degree beyond what was discerned till it appeared upon +the occasion of the late elections. And, indeed, the lesson of these +elections was too significant to be missed. A great change had passed +over the mind of the country since the return of the Parliament of 1695, +and the overthrow of the Tory ascendency by an electorate thoroughly +roused to a sense of the duty of prosecuting the war, and to that end +supporting the war party. In 1698, although the Tory ranks were not very +largely recruited, nor those of the non-Ministerial Whigs materially +reduced, it is certain that many candidates on both sides had been +compelled to pledge themselves to a policy of peace and retrenchment. +The new Parliament was opened by the King on the 6th of December, and +the temper of the House of Commons was not long in declaring itself. The +Ministerial party succeeded in carrying the election of their Speaker, +Sir Thomas Littleton, but they were utterly powerless to sustain their +master's military policy against the mass of opposition which it had to +encounter. A resolution was adopted cutting down the army to 7000 men, +"and these to consist of his Majesty's natural-born subjects." To +William, whose Ministers had held out hopes to him that a force of at +least 10,000 men would be sanctioned by Parliament, and who personally +held that anything less than double that number would be insufficient, a +resolution which would not only have inexcusably weakened, in his +opinion, the defences of England, but have deprived him even of the +services of those Dutch Guards who had fought with such signal bravery +for the liberties of that country, caused natural and bitter chagrin. He +gave the royal assent to the Bill founded upon this resolution, but he +gave it in a speech through the dignified composure of which his grave +concern and disappointment perceptibly struggle. A later attempt to save +his Dutch Guards, almost pathetic in its character,[18] proved +unsuccessful; and, when, in reply to this appeal, the Commons reminded +him that he had promised in 1688 to "send all foreign troops that came +over with him back again," so narrow and ungenerous an insistence on the +strict letter of his pledge must no doubt have added to his +mortification. + +The occasion of this second attempt was an event to be shortly noticed, +which might have been thought likely to dispose the Parliament to a more +liberal view of military necessities; and William has been censured by +his greatest admirer for not having applied to the House for an increase +of the English establishment instead of striving to retain a force of +his countrymen. It is not a matter for regret, however, that this +mistake, if mistake it was, should have been committed; for it enables +us pretty accurately to measure the respective proportions of reason and +prejudice in the conduct of Parliament. So far as the motive of the +House of Commons in these military retrenchments was a purely economical +one--so far even as it implied blindness to those European +considerations which our insular position no more absolved us from +regarding in 1698 than it does to-day--this motive was, if mistaken, +respectable. Even that exaggerated dread of a standing army, which, no +doubt, had more to do with the decision of the parliamentary majority +than any theory, good, bad, or indifferent, of the probable course of +European affairs, would not deserve to be severely judged. But it is +difficult to attribute the refusal of the House of Commons to sanction +William's retention of his body-guard to any worthier motive than mere +jealousy of the foreigner. It was a step as unwise from the political +point of view, and in its bearing on the relations of sovereign and +subject, as on the moral side it was ungracious. One can well understand +that the personal affront involved in it may have been harder for the +King to bear than even the rejection of his general military demands. +Anyhow there seems no doubt that upon learning the decision of the House +in the matter of the army William did seriously contemplate retirement +to Holland, after abdicating in favour of the Princess Anne, and that +nothing but the firmness of Somers prevented him from carrying his +resolution into effect. So at least Somers himself believed; and +Somers's knowledge of the royal mind, as well as of the royal character, +was distinctly superior to that of Burnet, who treated the threat of +withdrawal as not seriously meant. And when, having schooled himself to +submit with dignity and grace to this rebuff, he found himself +churlishly denied the slight personal favour which he subsequently +requested, his bitterness of feeling was, we may well believe, +extreme.[19] The whole incident is one which no Englishman of the +present day, whatever his politics, can look back upon without a sense +of shame. + +William, it may be imagined, was not sorry to put an end to a +parliamentary session so fraught with unpleasant incidents. Nor, after +the settlement of the military question, was there much more business to +be done. Its despatch, however, was attended by one occurrence which +deserves notice here as having prepared the way for one of the gravest +political conflicts of the reign. Defeated by the manoeuvre above +referred to in their attack upon the Crown grants, the country party +brought their forces to bear upon a position at once more limited and +more assailable. They demanded a commission of inquiry into the disposal +of the Irish forfeitures, and to insure the accomplishment of their +object they resorted to the questionable expedient of "tacking" to a +money Bill which they were sending to the Upper House a clause +authorising the appointment of seven commissioners to carry out the +proposed investigation. To this virtual "ouster" of their jurisdiction +over the question the Lords very naturally objected. They could not +reject the Land Tax Bill, the measure to which this clause had been +tacked, without creating national confusion; and rejection without +amendment was their only constitutional alternative to accepting +it--commissioners' clause, and all. They demurred, but ultimately +yielded, under protest; and William, not as it seems without foreboding +of future trouble, assented to the Bill with its irrelevant rider. + +It was now the month of May, and the Houses, having held uninterrupted +session ever since the 1st of January, had fairly earned their recess. +On the 4th of the month the King came down to Westminster and bade his +Parliament a cold adieu. + +FOOTNOTES: + +[17] It is with a mixture of amusement and admiration that one reads in +Grimblot (i. 220) the account he gives of one of his diplomatic +receptions: "The King had sent the Duke d'Aumont, his first gentleman of +the bedchamber, to compliment me. After this the Duchess of Burgundy +sent the Marquis de Villacerf. They then began to make new pretensions, +requiring me to go and meet him half-way down the steps, as I had done +the former nobleman, and I refused to receive him except at the door of +the antechamber, which is at the top of the stairs. This gave rise to a +lengthened dispute, during which he was standing half-way up the steps, +and I at the top, while messengers passed backwards and forwards between +us. At length I sent him word that, if this did not content him, it +would be best for each of us to go our own way, without my having the +honour of seeing him, for that undoubtedly I should do no more, after +which he came up." Upon this grandee's leaving another difficulty arose. +Portland, although he conducted him back to his carriage, did not wait +to "see him depart," on which the "conductor of ambassadors" made great +complaints. The dispute as to the proper ceremony of reception was +renewed by the next arrival, when the conductor of ambassadors behaved +impertinently in public, "obliging me," says Portland, "to treat him as +became a person who has the honour to represent your Majesty," whereat +the conductor of ambassadors was "confounded and irritated." + +[18] The message from the King runs thus: "His Majesty is pleased to let +the House know that the necessary preparations are made for transporting +the Guards who came with him into England, and that he intends to send +them away immediately, unless out of consideration for him the House be +disposed to find a way for continuing them longer in his service, which +his Majesty would take very kindly." + +[19] He writes in a letter to Lord Galway, Jan. 27, 1699: "It is not +possible to be more sensibly touched than I am at my not being able to +do more for the poor refugee officers who have served me with so much +zeal and fidelity. I am afraid the good God will punish the ingratitude +of this nation. Assuredly on all sides my patience is put to the +trial." + + + + +CHAPTER XIV + +1699-1700 + + Death of the Electoral Prince of Bavaria--Renewed negotiations + --Second Partition Treaty--The Irish forfeitures--The + Resumption Bill--Will and death of the King of Spain. + + +The political event on which William had founded hopes of re-opening the +army question has been indirectly referred to in the last chapter. This +event, as has been said, was one which might reasonably have been +thought likely to dispose the English Parliament to a more liberal view +of the military necessities of the country by bringing once more into +prominence a European danger which diplomacy had been hitherto believed +to have averted. In the early days of 1699 the Electoral Prince of +Bavaria--the youthful heir-designate of the Spanish monarchy--took his +departure from a troubled world whose confusions were to be formidably +increased by his quitting it. The English Parliament, as we have seen, +refused to allow the Prince's death to modify their policy. But William +could not afford to overlook it; for it, of course, reopened at once the +whole question which had been closed by the First Partition Treaty, and +rendered it necessary to nominate a new successor to the Spanish +kingdom and its possessions in the New World. Louis XIV. was the first +to move in the matter. He instructed De Tallard to sound William as to a +new Treaty, and, after one or two candidates had been mentioned and +rejected, it was finally agreed between the French and English +sovereigns that the Archduke Charles, the son of the Emperor Leopold, +should be the future King of Spain and the Indies, and that the +Milanese, which had been allotted to him under the First Treaty, should +go to Louis, by whom it was to be bartered for Lorraine. The arrangement +was complete in all respects except that of having received the sanction +of the Emperor by the summer or early autumn of 1699; but the rumour of +it caused a violent outbreak of indignation in Spain. The Marquis of +Canales, Spanish Ambassador at the English Court, was instructed to +protest, which he did in terms so insolently imperious that William, on +being informed at Loo of the language used by him, at once directed that +the Marquis's passports should be handed to him, and at the same time +recalled our own ambassador at Madrid. By whose means the provisions of +the new Treaty were communicated to the Spanish Court and people is not +certainly known; but considering that one of the parties to whom it had +been submitted rejected it (for the Emperor at the eleventh hour refused +to sign), and, moreover, that another party--the French king--had never, +in all probability, sincerely assented to it, there is no need for much +speculation on this point. Leopold had known and obvious motives for +disclosing it to the unhappy Charles, and Louis is more than suspected +of having private motives for doing so. But whichever of the two was the +medium of communication, Louis was indisputably the gainer. The news +aroused a powerful anti-Austrian feeling in the minds of the Spanish +people, of which the French King, who was far better served at the Court +of Madrid than the Emperor, was not slow to take advantage. From the +autumn of 1699 till the 1st of November 1700, when the few and miserable +days of Charles II. came to an end, the agents of France worked +persistently, and in the end successfully, to overcome the Austrian +leanings of the dying monarch, and to convince him that on grounds of +patriotism, no less than of legal and moral obligation, he was bound to +devise his dominions to his lawful French heir, and away from the Prince +to whom Louis had solemnly agreed with William that they should pass. + +The final consummation of these intrigues, however, was still a year +distant, and meanwhile an incident of extreme interest, and at the time +of exceeding gravity, in English politics, has to be recorded. On the +19th of November Parliament met again, and in a mood which boded ill for +the relations between the sovereign and the third estate of his realm. +The session began with one of the numerous abortive attacks made upon +Somers in the course of his distinguished career, and an equally +unsuccessful attempt was made to procure the disgrace of that perpetual +bugbear of the Tories, Bishop Burnet. But these were merely in the +nature of preliminary skirmishes; it was not long before hostilities +were opened upon William and his Ministers in a more serious way. It +will be remembered that at the close of the last session the Commons +tacked to the Land Tax Bill a clause appointing seven commissioners to +inquire into the Irish forfeitures, and that the Lords, after some +demur to the manner in which the proposal was being forced upon them, +passed the measure. The report of these commissioners, who had been +pursuing their inquiries in Ireland during the recess, was now ready, +and early in the session it was presented to Parliament, signed by four +of the commissioners, the other three dissenting. Disfigured by many +exaggerations and some wilful misstatements, this important document +contained, nevertheless, an amount of discreditable truth sufficient not +only to excite considerable popular feeling against William at the time, +but to inflict some permanent injury on his historical reputation. + +The four commissioners reported that all the lands in the several +counties in Ireland belonging to the forfeited persons amounted, as far +as they could reckon, to 1,060,762 acres, worth 211,623 per annum, and +computed therefrom to be of the capital value of 2,685,138. That some +of these lands had been restored to the old proprietors by virtue of the +Articles of Limerick and Galway, or by his Majesty's favour through +reversal of outlawries, and royal pardons obtained chiefly by +gratifications to such persons as had abused his Majesty's royal bounty +and compassion; and that besides these restitutions, which they thought +to be corruptly procured, there were seventy-six grants and "custodians" +under the Great Seal of Ireland, of which they made a recital--as, for +instance, to the Lord Romney, three grants now in being, containing +49,517 acres; to the Earl of Albemarle, in two grants, 106,633 acres in +possession and reversion; to William Bentinck, Esq., Lord Woodstock +(Portland's eldest son), 135,820 acres of land; to the Earl of Athlone +in two grants, 26,480 acres; to the Earl of Galway one grant of 36,148 +acres, etc. That the estates so mentioned did not indeed yield so much +to the grantees as they were valued at, because as most of them had +abused his Majesty on the real value of their estates, so their agents +had imposed upon them, and had either sold or let the greatest part of +these lands at an undervalue; but that after all deductions and +allowances there yet remained 1,699,343: 14s. which they laid before +the Commons as the gross value of the estates forfeited since the 13th +day of February 1689, and not restored. The commissioners went on, in +excess, as it should seem, of their attributions,[20] to report that +William had conferred the forfeited Irish estates of the late King +James, estimated at 95,649 acres, worth 25,998 a year, on his mistress, +the Countess of Orkney. Excluding this item, however, the value of the +restorations and royal grants against which the commissioners reported +amounted, it will be seen, to close upon a million sterling. + +It is very probable, indeed it may be said to be certain, that the total +value of these forfeitures was grossly exaggerated by the commissioners; +it is possible that it was to some extent wilfully exaggerated for party +purposes. The lands forfeited in Ireland during the Revolution may have +been worth "nearer half a million sterling than two millions and a +half." It does not seem to me, however, that this is a point of the +importance which Macaulay seems to attach to it. Even if it could be +shown that the proportion of the royal grants to the total forfeitures +was unduly magnified through an over-estimate of the value of the +former, I cannot see that it would affect the merits of the case. The +real gist of the charge against William in respect of these +grants--assuming, that is to say, that he was justified in making them +at all without the sanction of Parliament--is to be sought not in a +comparison of the royal benefactions with the amount of the property at +his disposal, but in an examination of their proportions _inter se_. +Even if it be shown that he distributed property of the value not of a +million sterling, but of only a fifth of that sum, it remains equally +true in either case, that more than one-tenth of his bounty went to a +single favourite who had little or no public services to show for them, +and very nearly an eighth to a young man whose only claim upon him was +that of being an able and faithful servant's eldest son. The grants to +Albemarle and Woodstock are impossible to defend, and the latter almost +impossible to explain. William had already loaded Portland with +benefits, and to the vast estates he had bestowed upon him in England +his eldest son would, in the natural course of events, succeed. On what +ground, either of justice or even of sentiment, it could have been +thought well to enrich the expectant heir of so much English landed +property with 135,820 acres of forfeited Irish land is a mystery which +has never been satisfactorily explained. As to the grant to Albemarle, +it was of even worse example. Woodstock was at least the son of a +counsellor to whom William owed much, and whom he might conceivably +have regarded himself as rewarding in the person of his heir; but what +had Keppel, a mere favourite, a young courtier with no other +recommendations but his youth, his good looks, and his complaisance, a +personality too closely recalling that of a "minion" of Henri Trois, and +which in the Jacobite libels, not wisely to be thus supplied with +colourable pretexts for their calumnies, was openly so described--what, +one cannot but ask, had Keppel done to deserve a grant of 106,633 acres +of the forfeited Irish land? Compare these two largesses, Woodstock's +and Albemarle's, with those bestowed on Lord Romney, an ex-Secretary of +State, and one of the leaders of the movement which brought William to +England; on Lord Athlone, the stout Dutch soldier who, as General +Ginkel, had given and taken many a hard knock in his master's service; +on Lord Galway, that gallant Marquis de Ruvigny who had turned the flank +of the Irish on the bloody day of Aghrim. Albemarle's, the smaller of +the two, is more than twice that of Romney, nearly thrice that of +Galway, more than four times that of Athlone. It was impossible for +William to contend in the face of this evidence that he had simply been +using the forfeited lands of Irish rebels to reward those public +servants who had done most by valour in the field, or wisdom in the +council-chamber, to establish firmly on the throne of England, the +Prince chosen by the nation; and that therefore he was merely +anticipating the national reward which would have been conferred upon +them, and virtually drawing upon one national fund in relief of +prospective charges upon another. He could not even contend, as we have +seen, that this was the _main_ use to which he had put the forfeitures; +for though wisdom and valour had come in for a share of the spoils, +their share was lamentably smaller than that which was won by mere arts +of courtiership. There is, in short, no denying the fact that while +William applied a part of this property to strictly public objects, or, +in other words, to objects to which, but for such application of it, the +public would have to contribute in another shape, he devoted far too +large a portion of it to purposes of purely private benefaction, for +which he would otherwise have had to resort to drafts upon his Civil +List.[21] + +But even this does not exhaust all the disagreeable elements in the +transaction. Had the Irish forfeitures been simply in the nature of +property "within the order and disposition" of the sovereign, and +impressed with only a constructive trust for the benefit of the nation, +the King's dealings with it would have been open to grave reprehension. +As a matter of fact, however, the property in question was the subject +not of a mere constructive trust, but of an express recognition on +William's part of its fiduciary character, and of a distinct promise +that Parliament, as representing the _cestui que trust_, should have an +opportunity of deciding on the proper mode of its application. On the +5th of January 1691 the King had closed the short autumn with a speech, +in which he assured the Houses that he would not "make any grant of the +forfeited lands in England and Ireland till there be another opportunity +of settling that matter in Parliament, in such manner as shall be +thought most expedient." This undertaking had reference to a Bill which +had actually passed the Commons for applying the Irish forfeitures, and +which only failed to become law because William, who was due at the +Congress then about to meet at the Hague, was compelled to prorogue +Parliament before the Lords had had time to consider the measure. It is +vain to contend that this promise was fulfilled, because several +"opportunities" were given to Parliament to deal with the question--in +the sense that several sessions were allowed to pass without Parliament +moving in the matter--before William himself proceeded to grant away the +forfeited lands. William was not entitled, under the circumstances, to +infer any surrender of parliamentary control over the forfeitures from +mere parliamentary inaction. Such an inference would in any case have +been a somewhat questionable one; but this was a case in which the +wishes of one branch of the Legislature had already been recorded in the +form of a distinct legislative project. The King knew, in short, that +the Commons desired to make Irish rebellion as far as possible pay for +its own suppression; he knew that they looked to the value of the +rebels' lands to afford partial relief to the English tax-payer from the +heavy imposts to which he was being subjected; and when, knowing this, +he proceeded to grant away large tracts of these lands, thus affected to +the national service, at his own will and pleasure, and in many cases to +persons whom the nation would never have consented to endow so +munificently out of its own pocket, he was unquestionably dealing with +his Parliament and people after a fashion which, in the case of a +private individual standing in analogous relation to other parties, +would be severely condemned. If he intended to ignore his promise of +January 1691 altogether, his grants were mere high-handed usurpations of +right; if he relied upon the mere "allowance of opportunities" in the +manner above mentioned as being a fulfilment of that promise, then he +was guilty of something which can only be described in modern +phraseology as sharp practice. + +Undoubtedly the House of Commons might have proceeded with more +moderation than they displayed, but the majority in that House felt that +they had a good, and what was still better, a popular case against the +King and his advisers; they knew that the country was sore with the +weight of taxation, and jealous of the amount of royal favour bestowed +upon foreigners; and they felt that they might rely upon the combined +force of these two sentiments to support them in extreme measures. +Having gained their first triumph in the committal to the Tower of Sir +Richard Levinge, one of the dissentient commissioners who had charged +his colleagues with speaking disrespectfully of the sovereign in +connection with these benefactions, they introduced the famous +Resumption Bill, a measure by which all the royal grants were +invalidated, and the whole of the alienated property resumed to the use +of the State. In the Bill sent up to the Lords from the Lower House in +1690 it had been proposed to reserve a third part of the forfeitures to +the King, and William was not without hopes that this reservation, which +would just about have covered his grants to Woodstock, Albemarle, and +the three other peers whose names have been mentioned above, would be +renewed. The imperious majority, however, refused to hear of any such +modification of their demands. They rejected a clause moved by Ministers +for reserving at least some portion of the forfeitures to the King; and +they carried resolutions to the effect that "the advising, procuring, +and passing of the grants in Ireland had been the occasion of +contracting great debts, and laying heavy burdens upon the people; that +the said grants reflected highly upon the King's honour; and that the +officers and instruments concerned in procuring and passing them had +highly failed in the performance of their duty." These resolutions were +presented to William at Kensington by the Speaker and leaders of the +Opposition. William replied that he had thought himself bound to reward +out of the forfeited property those who had served him well, and +especially those who had borne a principal part in the reduction of +Ireland. The war, he said, had undoubtedly left behind it a heavy debt, +and he should be glad to see that debt reduced by just and effectual +means. + +The answer, though undoubtedly weak enough, seems scarcely open to one +of the criticisms which Macaulay pronounces upon it[22]. It would have +been not so much injudicious as absurd on William's part to "hint" that +the Irish forfeitures "could not justly be applied to the discharge of +the public debts." His meaning could only have been that it would not be +just to the grantees to resume their property in order to apply it to +public uses. It would appear, however, that the House of Commons +understood his words in the wider and less defensible sense. The +Resumption Bill was pushed vigorously through the House of Commons, and +in order to paralyze the expected resistance of the Lords, the expedient +of tacking was again resorted to. The Bill was tacked to a Land Tax Bill +for raising two shillings in the pound for the service of the next year, +and then sent to the Upper House. It passed its second reading by a +considerable majority, but in committee and on the third reading several +amendments were carried. It is highly significant, however, that though +William was known to be very solicitous to obtain the confirmation of at +least some of his Irish grants, and though the majority in the Lords in +favour of the amendment may be supposed desirous of doing all that they +reasonably could to gratify him, the Bill as regards his dealings with +the Irish forfeitures was left untouched. The majority contented +themselves with modifying certain arbitrary and inequitable provisions +whereby the Lower House had sought to usurp jurisdiction over property +which had never come to the Crown by forfeiture at all, and to grant +estates and sums of money of their own authority, and without the +constitutional intermediation of the Crown, to certain favoured +individuals. Thus amended, the Bill was sent back to the Lower House, +where it met of course with the very reception which the expedient of +tacking was designed, in the event of its coming back with amendments, +to secure for it. Parties had been much divided as to the policy of +tacking the Resumption Bill to a money Bill; but as to the duty of +resisting an attempt on the part of the Lords to amend a Bill sent up to +them in this fashion parties were united. The amendments were rejected +_nemine dissentiente_, and at the conference which followed the Lords +were informed by the managers of the Commons that the point of +constitutional practice was too well settled to be arguable, and that +the Bill was left in their hands along with the responsibility of all +the serious consequences which must follow its rejection. The Lords +nevertheless for a time stood firm; they resolved by a majority of +thirteen to adhere to their amendments, and on the following day the +Bill was, on a second conference, returned once more to the Commons, by +whom it was once more sent back to the Lords, with an intimation that +the determination of the Lower House was unalterable. This was on the +10th of May, and the whole of that day and night the greatest public +excitement prevailed. The deadlock between the two Houses had reached +such a point that if both refused to give way, and the supplies were +consequently lost, a complete dislocation of the national business, +accompanied in all probability by dangerous popular disturbance, would +have assuredly followed. + +From this peril the country was saved at the critical moment by the good +sense and magnanimity of William. His behaviour was the more creditable +to him because not only was he eager, as has been said, for the +rejection of the Resumption Bill, but he had taken so active a part in +the attempt to bring about that result that surrender must necessarily +subject him to additional humiliation. There can be no doubt from the +account given by Burnet, whose own painful perplexity between the claims +of courtiership and patriotism increases the value of his testimony on +the subject, that William had tried hard to procure the defeat of the +measure. "The King," says the Bishop, "seemed resolved to venture on all +the ill consequences that might follow the losing this Bill, though +these would probably have been fatal. As far as we can judge either +another session of that Parliament or a new one would have banished the +favourites and begun the Bill anew with the addition of obliging the +grantees to refund all the mesne profits. Many in the Lords, that in all +other things were very firm to the King, were for passing the Bill, +notwithstanding the King's earnestness for it, since they apprehended +the ill consequences that were like to follow if it was lost." On the +5th of April he told Portland that if the Bill was not stopped in the +Upper House he should count all lost; and on the same day he declared +that he was resolved not to pass the Bill, and that the only question +was whether he should prorogue the Parliament on that day or on the +following Monday. On or before the 10th of April he had reflected more +maturely on the situation, and with that intuitive recognition of when +to give way, which only strong rulers ever seem to exhibit, and which +the masterful Elizabeth had displayed before him, he saw that the time +had arrived to yield. He took steps to have it conveyed to his adherents +in the Upper House that he desired the Bill to pass; and on the sitting +of the following day, May 11, the Lords withdrew their amendments and +accepted the Bill in its original form. Thus passed away a most perilous +crisis, and William, by the fine temper and moral courage with which he +thus submitted to perhaps the most galling rebuke ever inflicted upon a +monarch by a legislative assembly, must be admitted to have gone far to +atone for the serious error of his previous action. He was, however, and +not unnaturally, of opinion that he had done enough in the cause of the +peace, and the next day, in order to prevent the presentation to him of +an address from the Commons, praying that no person not a native, except +Prince George of Denmark, should be admitted to his Majesty's Councils +in England or Ireland, he came down and prorogued Parliament without a +speech. + +The whole of the year 1700 was destined to abound in fresh troubles for +this sorely-tried and now fast waning life. No sooner had the English +Parliament separated than the Scotch Parliament met; and their first +business was to espouse the cause of their foolish and unlucky +countrymen who had taken part in the famous "Darien expedition," and +were now under detention by the Spanish Government at Carthagena. The +notable scheme in which these men had thus lost their liberty, and so +many thousands of other Scotchmen their property, was originated by an +adventurer of the name of Paterson, and depended for its success on the +double assumption that the territorial owners of the country on which +they proposed to found a trading station for the avowed purpose of +diverting trade from these owners' hands into their own would respect +their occupancy, and that the burning heat and malarious climate of an +equatorial region would spare their lives. Neither of these assumptions +had been realised. The sun and the swamps had thinned the number of the +settlers to a handful, and this remnant had been besieged, forced to +capitulate, and expelled from the isthmus by the forces of Spain. +William promised, in reply to an address from the Edinburgh legislators, +to demand the release of the Carthagena prisoners; but when the Scotch +Parliament proceeded to pass a resolution affirming that the colony in +Darien was a legal and rightful settlement, and that the Parliament +would maintain and support the same, the King thought it high time to +put a check on their proceedings. This he endeavoured to do through the +royal commissioner by means of repeated adjournments carried to such an +extent as to cause riots in Edinburgh, and at last, by dint of +conciliatory replies to their resolutions, and possibly by +gratifications of a more substantial kind, succeeded not only in +pacifying his northern subjects on this matter, but in bringing them, +before the close of the session at the end of the year, into a state of +such loyal complaisance that, unlike their English brethren, the Scotch +legislators voted for keeping on foot the whole of the land forces that +existed in the kingdom when the session began. + +The time was now fast approaching when William's military policy was to +be justified by events. Throughout the whole of this year the struggle +of rival Powers over the fast decaying body of the unhappy Charles had +gone spiritedly forward at the Court of Madrid. The combatants, however, +were unequally matched. On the side of France were enlisted the services +of Cardinal Portocarrero, who soon succeeded in removing the King's +confessor--an Austrian instrument--and substituting another in the +French interests. The terrors of religion were then brought to bear upon +the wretched sovereign in a strength sufficient to overcome his natural +leanings in the matter of the disposition of his crown and kingdom +towards his own Austrian flesh and blood. They persuaded the unhappy +imbecile that he had been bewitched through Austrian agency; they +persuaded the populace of Madrid that the partisans of Austria had +brought about a famine. Having at last succeeded in utterly discrediting +the rival party, and working upon the superstition of Charles until he +believed that if he ousted his Bourbon heir from the succession he would +be inevitably damned, the French faction finally induced him to sign a +will appointing Philip, Duke of Anjou, universal successor to the +Spanish monarchy. A month afterwards this miserable slave of the priest +and the plotter at last obtained his manumission. He died on the 1st of +November 1700, and William then learnt for the first time that the +months of laborious negotiations spent on the successive framing of two +carefully-drawn treaties had been completely thrown away. For a brief +space of time, indeed, he remained in doubt whether Louis really +intended to play him false, but before the middle of the month of +November all uncertainty was at an end. Louis threw over the Partition +Treaty and adopted the will. The Duke of Anjou was despatched into Spain +with the historic exclamation touching the effacement of the +Pyrenees--mountains certainly not in this instance removed by +"faith,"--and William had the intolerable chagrin of discovering not +only that he had been befooled, but that his English subjects had no +sympathy with him or animosity against the royal swindler who had +tricked him. "The blindness of the people here," he writes sadly to the +Pensionary Heinsius, "is incredible. For though the affair is not +public, yet it was no sooner said that the King of Spain's will was in +favour of the Duke of Anjou, than it was the general opinion that it was +better for England that France should accept the will than fulfil the +Treaty of Partition." + +FOOTNOTES: + +[20] It was justly contended by the dissentient commissioners that these +lands had passed to William by his father-in-law's abdication in 1688, +and did not therefore come properly within the purview of an inquiry +limited to forfeitures occurring since February 13, 1689. The majority +of the commission insisted, however, paradoxically enough, that James's +Irish estates were only forfeited on, and by, his invasion of Ireland in +March of the latter year. + +[21] The grants to Lady Orkney, of which so much was made by the country +party at the time, raised a totally different question on another level, +so to speak, of political morality. These grants were made out of +William's inheritance from his predecessor; and though Macaulay is no +doubt abstractedly right in arguing that William should have pensioned +his mistress out of economies effected in his Civil List than by +alienating his hereditary revenue, the remark is from the practical +point of view somewhat of an anachronism. In our day, when the lands of +the Crown are formally vested in commissioners by the sovereign in +consideration of his Civil List at the commencement of each reign, the +quasi-national character of this property is fixed and emphasised. But +no sovereign before William's time had regarded it in this light, or +recognised any implied restraint upon alienation; and William, with +Charles II.'s grants to his numerous mistresses before his eyes, may +well be excused for thinking his gift to Lady Orkney not only +justifiable but laudably moderate. + +[22] The context of the passage, "The Commons murmured, etc., 'His +Majesty tells us,' they said, 'that the debts fall to us, and the +forfeitures to him'" (_Hist. Eng._ v. 271), appears clearly to show that +Macaulay supposed William to be speaking of the whole of the forfeitures +as not justly applicable to the public debt. His own previous words will +just admit (though not in strict grammar) of the construction that the +King was referring only to the "one-fifth part of these estates" which +had passed to deserving grantees; but if this is to be its construction, +Macaulay's favourite boast that he had written no sentence capable of +being misunderstood would have to be abandoned. + + + + +CHAPTER XV + +1701-1702 + + English indifference on the Spanish question--Death of James + II. and Louis's recognition of the Pretender--Reaction in + England--Dissolution of Parliament--Support of William's + policy by its successor--The Treaties--Accident to William + --His illness and death--Character--The Whig legend examined + --His great qualities as man and ruler--Our debt to him. + + + +The insensibility of Englishmen to a danger which weighed heavily on the +mind of William was exactly matched by his own indifference to one which +appeared extremely serious to them. William dreaded the idea of a +Bourbon reigning at Madrid, but he saw no very grave objection, as the +two treaties showed, to Naples and Sicily passing into French hands. +With his English subjects the exact converse was the case. They strongly +deprecated the assignment of the Mediterranean possessions of the +Spaniard to the Dauphin; but they were undisturbed by the sight of the +Duke of Anjou seating himself on the Spanish throne. It has been said +that on their own principles they ought to have disliked the will even +more than the Partition Treaties, because the former document, in +devising _all_ the possessions of Spain to the Duke of Anjou, "gave +precisely the same advantages to France on the Mediterranean" as she +would have obtained under the Treaties. But this argument obviously +begs the whole question against the English view by assigning to the +word "France" a meaning which it was of the essence of that view to +repudiate. The very gist of the English case was that "France" and "the +second son of the French Dauphin barred from the succession to the +French Crown" were not convertible terms. Had Englishmen in general so +regarded them, they would perhaps have been as jealous of the Duke of +Anjou's succession to the Spanish throne as was William himself. They +held, however,--whether rightly or wrongly, and I have already stated my +reason for thinking that at the time and in the circumstances they were +wrong--that the elevation of Louis's grandson to the Spanish throne did +not mean the "solidarity" of France and Spain.[23] But while the Duke of +Anjou, considered as the owner of the two Sicilies, did not in their +opinion stand for "France," the Dauphin, who was to have had them under +the Partition Treaties, undeniably did. The heir to the Crown of France +of course is France, not as a matter of opinion, but as a matter of +fact. The English view therefore, however mistaken on the point of +policy, was unassailable on the ground of logic; and its inherent +plausibility, in addition to the national dissatisfaction with the +manner in which the Treaties had been negotiated, would, in all +probability, have made it impossible for William to carry the country +with him in a war policy directed against France. + +But just as, under a discharge from an electric battery, two repugnant +chemical compounds will sometimes rush into sudden combination, so at +this juncture the King and the nation were instantaneously united by the +shock of a gross affront. The hand that liberated the uniting fluid was +that of the Christian king. On the 16th of September 1701 James II. +breathed his last at St. Germains, and, obedient to one of those +impulses, half-chivalrous, half-arrogant, which so often determined his +policy, Louis XIV. declared his recognition of the Prince of Wales as +_de jure_ King of England. No more timely and effective assistance to +the policy of its _de facto_ king could possibly have been rendered. Its +effect upon English public opinion was instantaneous; and when William +returned from Holland on the 4th of November, he found the country in +the temper in which he could most have wished it to be. Still he +hesitated for a while as to whether or not he should dissolve +Parliament. Sunderland, for whose astuteness and profound knowledge of +English politics William entertained a respect unqualified, as was usual +with that cool and cynical observer of men, by any repugnance he might +have felt for the ex-Minister's political profligacy, had been consulted +by him on this point through Somers both before and since the death of +James; and this sagacious counsellor had urgently recommended a +dissolution, predicting that it would result in a signal triumph of the +Whigs. On the 7th of November William laid the question before his Privy +Council, who were divided in opinion, and, acting on his own judgment, +he then determined to dissolve. On the 11th of the month the royal +proclamation to that effect was issued, and the new Parliament summoned +to meet on the 31st of December. The result did not, indeed, completely +bear out Sunderland's prediction, but it proved that a marked change had +taken place in the opinion of the country; for, though the Tories +managed still to hold their own in the smaller boroughs, the Whigs +carried most of the counties and great towns. Their opponents, however, +were strong enough to re-elect Harley to the Speakership, his nomination +being seconded by his afterwards yet more famous political ally, Henry +St. John, the future Lord Bolingbroke. William addressed the Houses in a +speech of unusual length and earnestness, in which he recalled the "high +indignity" offered to himself and the nation by Louis's recognition of +the pretended Prince of Wales as King of England, and the dangers with +which England and Europe were threatened by the elevation of his +grandson to the Spanish throne. To obviate these dangers he had, he told +them, concluded several alliances, and treaties for the conclusion of +others were still pending. He went on to remind them that the eyes of +all Europe were upon this Parliament, and "all matters at a standstill +until their resolution was known. Therefore," said he, "no time ought to +be lost; you have an opportunity, by God's blessing, to secure to you +and your posterity the quiet enjoyment of your religion and liberties, +if you are not wanting to yourselves, but will exert the ancient vigour +of the English nation; but I tell you plainly my opinion is, if you do +not lay hold on this occasion you have no reason to hope for another." +He concluded with an exhortation, almost passionate for him, to lay +aside "the unhappy fatal animosities" which divided and weakened them. +"Let me conjure you to disappoint the only hopes of our enemies by your +unanimity. I have shown, and will always show, how desirous I am to be +the common father of my people; do you in like manner lay aside parties +and divisions; let there be no other distinction heard of among us in +future but of those who are for the Protestant religion and the present +Establishment, and of those who mean a Popish prince and a French +Government." + +This stirring speech produced its due effect. Opposition in +Parliament--in the country it was already inaudible--was completely +silenced. The two Houses sent up addresses assuring the King of their +firm resolve to defend the succession against the pretended Prince of +Wales and all other pretenders whatsoever. The Commons declared +independently--in those days addresses from the two Houses were not as +now identical in terms--that they would to the utmost of their power +enable his Majesty to make good all such alliances as he had made--an +omission from the address of the Upper House which their Lordships +subsequently supplied. Nor did the goodwill of Parliament expend itself +in words. The Commons accepted without a word of protest the four +treaties constituting the new Grand Alliance, though the inequality of +some of their conditions as regarded England, and the self-seeking +motives which actuated one at least of their continental signatories, +were apparent on the face of them. The votes of supply were passed +unanimously, and ere the Parliament had well completed the first +fortnight of its existence a Bill of Attainder against the Prince of +Wales--in which the Lords endeavoured, but in vain, to include Mary of +Modena--had passed both Houses. But the King's assent to this, as also +to an Abjuration Bill directed to the same object, had to be given by +commission; for William was now already sickening to his death. His +always feeble health had become feebler during the winter; his constant +asthma had told heavily upon the condition of his lungs; his legs had +swollen to an extent which led his doctors, though erroneously it would +seem, to suspect dropsy; he had, in fact, arrived at that state of body +in which any accident might be fatal. On Saturday, the 21st of February, +he set out from Kensington on horseback to hunt, according to his weekly +custom, at Hampton Court. On the road his horse stumbled over a +molehill,[24] and fell with his rider, who fractured his right +collar-bone. William was taken to Hampton Court, where the bone was set, +and the surgeon, finding him feverish, recommended bleeding. This he +declined, and, contrary to advice, insisted on returning that evening to +Kensington, where it appeared that the setting of the bone had been +displaced by the motion of the carriage, and the operation had to be +repeated. William slept well, and for a few days no signs of mischief +appeared. But, as was afterwards shown by the autopsy, the fall from his +horse had violently detached a diseased portion of his lungs from its +adhesion to the walls of the thoracic cavity, and this had set up +pulmonary inflammation. On the 28th of February he found himself unable +to attend Parliament in person, and accordingly conveyed to the Houses +by way of message his last recommendation of a project which, ever +since the beginning of his reign, he had had much at heart--that, +namely, of effecting a legislative union between England and Scotland. +On the next day alarming symptoms appeared. The assent to the Prince of +Wales's Attainder Bill was given by commission, and a week later, on the +7th of March, when it became necessary to issue another commission for a +similar purpose, William was past the power of subscribing the +sign-manual, which had to be affixed by a stamp. "_Je tire vers ma +fin_," he murmured to Albemarle, who had arrived from Holland the same +night; and, as the perversity of fate had willed it, he who had from +boyhood sought death everywhere, had not for years perhaps been so +little prepared to meet it. "Sometimes he would have been glad, he told +Portland, to have been delivered out of all his troubles, but he +confessed now he saw another scene, and could wish to live a little +longer." It was another scene indeed--the whole web of his Spanish +policy unravelled, his great enemy once more powerful for mischief, the +whole work of his life to do again! + +He lived through the night, but that was all. Burnet and Tillotson had +gone to him that morning and did not quit him till he died. The +Archbishop prayed with him some time, but he was then so weak that he +could scarcely articulate. "About five o'clock on Saturday morning he +desired the Sacrament, and went through the office with great appearance +of seriousness, but could not express himself; when this was done he +called for the Earl of Albemarle and gave him a charge to take care of +his papers. He thanked M. Auverquerque for his long and faithful +services. He took leave of the Duke of Ormond, and called for the Earl +of Portland, but before he came his voice quite failed; so he took him +by the hand and carried it to his heart with great tenderness. Between +seven and eight o'clock the rattle began; the commendatory prayer was +said for him, and as it ended he died." + +More than one hundred and eighty years have passed since that morning; +but though the fierce political controversies which raged around the +person and character of the dead man, leaving, perhaps, no quality but +his courage unassailed, have long since subsided, some into utter +silence, others into moderation, it is impossible to say that their +disturbing force is altogether spent. A faint echo from those furious +clamours may still be heard mingling with the voice of History; a ripple +from those distant billows still breaks the mirror of her judgment. It +could hardly be otherwise. The principles of which William was in part +the voluntary and in part the unchoosing champion have triumphed so +completely that they find nowadays no avowed opponent, and scarcely even +any secret enemy; but it was William's destiny to have been identified +in the promotion and defence of them with an English political party +whose many excellent qualities as statesmen and citizens have been +always associated with a moral and intellectual temper which, for a +century and a half, has offered a standing provocation to men of every +other political school. Fate made William of Orange a Whig hero, and in +arranging his preliminary condition ordained also by inevitable sequence +his exposure to some measure of the polemical resentments which his +votaries have never failed to concentrate upon themselves. That the +Whigs of his own day should have behaved as they did, on many occasions +exceedingly ill to him, is no more unnatural than that they should have +unduly exaggerated his virtues after his death. Both their ill-treatment +and their excessive eulogy of him were, in different ways, the +expression of the same modest confidence in their own civil deserts. The +Whigs believed themselves entitled not only to an exclusive interest in +a living Whig-made king, but also to as much capital as could be made +out of his posthumous renown. If they behaved ill to him at times during +his life, it was to assert the just claims of the Whig party; if they +over-praised him when dead, it was by way of just tribute to the Whig +virtues. + +Far be it from me to suggest that William of Orange needs any such +artificial additions to his legitimate glory. They are mentioned merely +to account for and excuse the fact that an impartial review of his +career and character needs to be commenced with what might otherwise +seem words of captious disparagement. It is absolutely necessary to +strip off the draperies of partisanship in order to see the real man +beneath; but that truly heroic figure can well afford it. + +William of Orange, I maintain then, is not to be regarded as altogether +that "patriot king," that "sovereign of the people," which it has +pleased his Whig devotees to discover in him, still less as that sort of +anticipatory and prophetic political philosopher for which he passes in +the legend of some Whig constitutionalists. No doubt he had a distinct +popular fibre in his nature. The great-grandson of his great-grandfather +can hardly have been wanting in sympathy with popular aspirations, or in +belief in the might and virtue of popular forces. But such sentiments +have been the birthright of many a man whose instincts were the very +reverse of democratic; and there is no reason to think that William +either foresaw or would have relished that growth of the democratic +element in English government to which he inevitably contributed so +powerful a stimulus. He was not, it must be remembered, a democrat even +in his own country; on the contrary, his strongest impulses were +essentially of aristocratic origin. It was not his Protestant +enthusiasm, though this was ardent enough, nor his love of his country +and his hatred of foreign dictation, though these passions were strong +and sincere enough, which were the dominant influences in moulding his +youthful character. It was pride of ancestry, the memory of William the +Silent, resentment at the fallen fortunes of his house, and resolution +to restore them. These it was which first inspired him with an ambition +essentially personal in its character, and it was not till this ambition +had been gratified by his elevation to higher dignities even than his +forefathers, that the other impulses of birth or training can be said to +have begun to sway him at all. And until that ambition was gratified he +was not only capable of all the virtues of the ambitious, but an adept +in their vices also. He was but sixteen when he taught his mother the +wisdom of disarming the suspicion of the Pensionary De Witt by pretended +cordiality, and earned the criticism of the shrewd French envoy +d'Estrades that he was "a great dissembler, and omitted nothing to gain +his ends." So, too, one can hardly doubt that it was ambition rather +than zeal for liberty and Protestantism that first inspired him with +that design of intervention in England, which must have just taken shape +in his mind shortly after the return of Dykvelt from his mission of +1687. His succession, or rather his wife's succession, was safe enough +if Mary of Modena bore no male issue to James. But she might and did +bear such issue, in a child whose claims could only be set aside by a +revolution; and even had no heir apparent been born to the throne, the +position of William accepting the English crown conjointly with his wife +in his capacity as liberator of the English people would be something +very different from that of a king-consort, which was all he could +otherwise have hoped to be. It is surely not unjust to a man of +William's antecedents to believe that from the hour that he learned the +strength of his party in England, down to the hour when he was presented +with the crown in the banqueting chamber at Whitehall, he had eyes for +little else than the great European future which would open before him +as King of England; and that any hesitations he may have shown in +accepting the sovereignty were as purely politic as those of Csar at +the Lupercal. + +As regards his attitude towards English political institutions in +general, and the _voluntary_ element in his share in developing them, +the Whig legend appears to me more purely mythical still. At no time in +his life did William show the slightest personal predilection for or +even faith in parliamentary institutions, still less in party +government. He looked upon the English Parliament as a clumsy and +irritating instrument, blunt at one part, dangerously double-edged at +another, which he was nevertheless bound to work with and make the best +of. That he was the first to try the system of a party ministry and +party government is, as I have essayed to show, a fact of little +significance. He tried it as he tried other means of managing the +apparently otherwise unmanageable, as he had at first tried dividing +offices of State among the leading men of both parties, and as he had +tried and continued to try the method of corruption for the rank and +file. As to any preference of one English party to another there is no +trace of such a feeling in his mind. From the moral point of view, I +imagine, he regarded most of the leaders of both parties with an equal, +and, it may be, with an equally just, contempt; but with his +intellectual appreciations he never allowed his moral judgment to +interfere. He used the unscrupulous Tory Marlborough and the +unscrupulous Whig Sunderland with an impartial indifference to their +political profligacy. He made trial, in fact, of all English public men +and of all political expedients to serve his European ends, which were +sometimes but not always English ends also; and thus it was that though +he experimentalised with the strict party system in order to secure a +Parliament which would support the war energetically in 1695, yet in the +next Parliament, his immediate object being gained, he showed no +disposition to prosecute that experiment on abstract political grounds. +It is impossible to represent a ruler of this kind, however wise and +moderate, as _consciously_ training our parliamentary institutions upon +the peculiar lines of growth which they subsequently followed. + +Yet after all these deductions there remains to William, both as a +European statesman and as a benefactor to our country, an ample margin +of renown. Of his moral and mental stature as a man it is scarcely +necessary to speak. It must be patent to all but the dullest prejudices +of our day as it was to all but the fiercest passions of his own. It is +the highest praise of his high qualities to say that our impression of +them easily survives the reaction from idolatry, and that after we have +thrown aside the magnifying-glass of Whiggism the objects which it was +used to exaggerate still fill the eye. If William had not all the +virtues which belong to the patriot and philosopher, he had all that go +to the making of the hero. Even Macaulay, who has over painted both his +king-craft and his statesmanship, has not laid on the colours of his +heroism with too bold a hand. Sagacious as he undoubtedly was in +counsel, dexterous as he was in the management of men, keen as was his +outlook on European politics, and resourceful as he was in meeting its +exigencies, it is possible to contend that his Whig eulogist has +credited him with far more than the keenness and sagacity, the dexterity +and resource, which he possessed. But such eulogy does not, for it could +not, materially exaggerate his great features as a man--his patience of +delay and disappointment, his fortitude under disaster, his +imperturbable composure in moments of crisis, his lofty magnanimity, +which from its high place seemed literally to overlook rather than to +forgive injuries, his haughty courage, which thought it equal shame to +glance aside at the lurking assassin and to turn away from the open foe. +His character was stern, forbidding, unamiable, contemptuously generous, +as little fitted to attract love as it was assured of commanding +respect; but it bears in every lineament the unmistakable stamp of +greatness. And his achievements were as great as his character. His +record as a ruler pure and simple, as a mere expert in the art of +governing, has never been surpassed, perhaps never equalled, in history. +The showy administrative exploits of a Napoleon with vast armies at his +back, and the pen of a despotism in his hand, appear to me to sink into +insignificance when compared with those of this ruler of four nations--a +constitutional sovereign in England and Scotland, the chief of a +republic in Holland, and a military autocrat, governing by the sword +alone, in Ireland,--who for eleven years successfully directed the +affairs of these alien and often mutually hostile communities, and who +throughout all that time held in one hand the threads of a vast network +of European diplomacy, and in the other the sword which kept the most +formidable of European monarchs at bay. Nor should we omit from the +comparison that he did all this under moral restraints and physical +disadvantages to which Napoleon was a total stranger, impeded by +obligations to law, municipal and international, which Napoleon set +cynically at defiance, and distressed throughout his life by bodily +ailments which never troubled the Corsican's iron frame. + +Nor in what has been written in criticism of the Whig legend would I for +a moment be suspected of undervaluing the debt which Englishmen owe to +William of Orange. It is not necessary to exalt him into a divinely +inspired progenitor of the British Constitution in order to recognise +fully the greatness of the services which he rendered to it. He was not +"Father of the Constitution" in the sense in which the poet is the +father of his poem, or the philosopher of his theory; but assuredly he +was so in the sense in which we say that a child has found a "second +father" in an upright guardian, who, while not, it may be, comprehending +his character, or in sympathy with his spirit, or foreseeing his future, +has yet been his vigilant protector through the perils of childhood, and +has accounted for his patrimony to the uttermost farthing. That William +stood in this relation to our modern English polity throughout his too +short reign, and that he loyally discharged its obligations, is +indisputable. The virtues which enabled him to do so were mainly three, +which are essential to all good and faithful guardianship, whether of +children or constitutions--the virtues of good sense, self-restraint, +and honesty. And the greatest of these three is honesty. William's +practical wisdom always told him the moment when to yield in a struggle +with his Parliament; and when that moment arrived his naturally +passionate temper never failed to answer to the rein. But even at those +moments there would often have been an evil alternative open to him, +from which the fundamental integrity of his nature always turned aside. +He scrupled not to use all the arts of political "management" which were +sanctioned by the lax morality of his day; he exerted his prerogative +freely to gain his ends; but he knew that the compact between him and +his people was that in the last resort the will of the people should +prevail, and this compact he never attempted either to violate or to +evade. Here he was as emphatically a _R Galantuomo_, a "King +Honest-man," as was Victor Emmanuel himself. + + "Hos ante effigies majorum pone tuorum, + Prcedant ipsas illi, te consule, virgas." + +Rulers who have earned this name may justly rank it, if only for its +rarity, above every other title of honour--even though, themselves the +creators or regenerators of nations, they can look back upon the +splendid achievements of the Counts of Nassau, or the long ancestral +glories of the House of Savoy. + +FOOTNOTES: + +[23] That Louis intended it to mean this is pretty obvious from his +remark about the effacement of the Pyrenees. + +[24] The nature of the impediment lives for history in the Jacobite +toast which so grimly reflects the brutal passions of the time--"To the +little gentleman in black velvet that works underground." + + +THE END + +_Printed by_ R. & R. CLARK, LIMITED, _Edinburgh_. + + + + +Twelve English Statesmen + +Crown 8vo. _2s. 6d._ each + +*** _A Series of Short Biographies, not designed to be a complete roll +of famous Statesmen, but to present in historic order the lives and work +of those leading actors in our affairs who by their direct influence +have left an abiding mark on the policy, the institutions, and the +position of Great Britain among States._ + + + =WILLIAM THE CONQUEROR.= By EDWARD A. FREEMAN, D.C.L., + LL.D., late Regius Professor of Modern History in the + University of Oxford. + + =HENRY II.= By Mrs. J. R. GREEN. + + =EDWARD I.= By T. F. TOUT, M.A., Professor of History, The + Owens College, Manchester. + + =HENRY VII.= By JAMES GAIRDNER. + + =CARDINAL WOLSEY.= By Bishop CREIGHTON, D.D., late Dixie + Professor of Ecclesiastical History in the University of + Cambridge. + + =ELIZABETH.= By E. S. BEESLY, M.A., Professor of Modern + History, University College, London. + + =OLIVER CROMWELL.= By FREDERIC HARRISON. + + =WILLIAM III.= By H. D. TRAILL. + + =WALPOLE.= By JOHN MORLEY. + + =CHATHAM.= By FREDERIC HARRISON. + + =PITT.= By Lord ROSEBERY. + + =PEEL.= By J. R. THURSFIELD, M.A., late Fellow of Jesus + College, Oxford. + + +English Men of Action Series + +Crown 8vo. Cloth. With Portraits. _2s. 6d._ each + + =CAMPBELL (COLIN).= By ARCHIBALD FORBES. + + =CLIVE.= By Sir CHARLES WILSON. + + =COOK (Captain).= By Sir WALTER BESANT. + =DAMPIER.= By W. CLARK RUSSELL. + + =DRAKE.= By JULIAN CORBETT. + + =DUNDONALD.= By the Hon. J. W. FORTESCUE. + + =GORDON (General).= By Sir W. BUTLER. + + =HASTINGS (Warren).= By Sir A. LYALL. + + =HAVELOCK (Sir Henry).= By A. FORBES. + + =HENRY V.= By the Rev. A. J. CHURCH. + + =LAWRENCE (Lord).= By Sir RICHARD TEMPLE. + + =LIVINGSTONE.= By THOMAS HUGHES. + + =MONK.= By JULIAN CORBETT. + + =MONTROSE.= By MOWBRAY MORRIS. + + =NAPIER (Sir Charles).= By Sir W. BUTLER. + + =NELSON.= By Prof. J. K LAUGHTON. + + =PETERBOROUGH.= By W. STEBBING. + + =RALEIGH (Sir Walter).= By Sir RENNELL RODD. + + =RODNEY.= By DAVID HANNAY. + =SMITH (Captain John).= By A. G. BRADLEY. + + =STRAFFORD.= By H. D. TRAILL. + + =WARWICK, the King-Maker=. By C. W. OMAN. + + =WELLINGTON.= By GEORGE HOOPER. + + =WOLFE.= By A. G. BRADLEY. + +MACMILLAN AND CO., LTD., LONDON + + +Foreign Statesmen Series + +Edited by J. B. BURY, M.A., Regius Professor of Modern History +at Cambridge. + +Crown 8vo. _2s. 6d._ each + + =CHARLES THE GREAT.= By THOMAS HODGKIN, D.C.L., + Author of _Italy and Her Invaders_, &c. _Ready_ + + =PHILIP AUGUSTUS.= By Rev. W. H. HUTTON, Fellow and + Tutor of St. John's College, Oxford. _Ready_ + + =WILLIAM THE SILENT.= By FREDERIC HARRISON. _Ready_ + + =PHILIP THE SECOND OF SPAIN.= By Major MARTIN HUME. + _Ready_ + + =RICHELIEU.= By R. LODGE, Professor of History in + the University of Edinburgh. _Ready_ + + =MARIA THERESA.= By Dr. J. FRANCK BRIGHT, D.D. + _Ready_ + + =JOSEPH II.= By Dr. J. FRANCK BRIGHT, D.D. _Ready_ + + =MIRABEAU.= By P. F. WILLERT, Fellow of Exeter + College, Oxford. _Ready_ + + =COSIMO DE MEDICI.= By Miss K. D. EWART. _Ready_ + + =CAVOUR.= By the Countess MARTINENGO CESARESCO. + _Ready_ + + =MAZARIN.= By ARTHUR HASSALL, Student and Tutor of + Christ Church, Oxford. _Ready_ + + =CATHERINE II.= By J. B. BURY, Regius Professor of + Modern History in the University of Cambridge. + +MACMILLAN AND CO., LTD., LONDON + + + + + +-------------------------------------------------------+ + | Transcriber's Note: | + | | + | Inconsistent hyphenation and spelling in the original | + | document have been preserved. | + | | + | Typographical errors corrected in the text: | + | | + | Page 2 Nassua changed to Nassau | + | Page 17 Strasburg changed to Strasbourg | + | Page 69 renowed changed to renowned | + | Page 151 Harlay changed to Harley | + +-------------------------------------------------------+ + + + +***END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK WILLIAM THE THIRD*** + + +******* This file should be named 36895-8.txt or 36895-8.zip ******* + + +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: +http://www.gutenberg.org/dirs/3/6/8/9/36895 + + + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed. + +Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. 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D. Traill</h1> +<pre> +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at <a href = "http://www.gutenberg.org">www.gutenberg.org</a></pre> +<p>Title: William the Third</p> +<p>Author: H. D. Traill</p> +<p>Release Date: July 29, 2011 [eBook #36895]</p> +<p>Language: English</p> +<p>Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1</p> +<p>***START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK WILLIAM THE THIRD***</p> +<p> </p> +<h3 class="pg">E-text prepared by Delphine Lettau, Barbara Kosker,<br /> + and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team<br /> + (http://www.pgdp.net)</h3> +<p> </p> +<hr class="full" /> +<p> </p> +<p> </p> +<p> </p> + +<h2><i>Twelve English Statesmen</i></h2> +<br /> +<br /> +<br /> +<br /> + +<h2>WILLIAM THE THIRD</h2> + +<br /> +<br /> +<br /> +<br /> + +<div class="img"> +<img border="0" src="images/deco.png" width="20%" alt="Publisher's Mark" /> +</div> + +<br /> +<br /> +<br /> +<br /> + +<h1>WILLIAM THE THIRD</h1> +<br /> +<br /> +<br /> +<br /> + +<h4>BY</h4> + +<h2>H. D. TRAILL</h2> +<br /> +<br /> +<br /> +<br /> + +<h4> London<br /> + MACMILLAN AND CO., <span class="smcap">Limited</span><br /> + NEW YORK: THE MACMILLAN COMPANY<br /> + 1906<br /> +<br /> +<i>All rights reserved</i></h4> + +<br /> +<br /> +<br /> +<br /> + + +<h4><i>First Edition, May 1888</i><br /> +<i>Reprinted August 1888, 1892, 1897, 1902, 1906</i></h4> +<br /> +<br /> +<br /> +<br /> + + +<hr /><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_v" id="Page_v">[Pg v]</a></span> +<br /> +<h2>CONTENTS</h2> + +<div class="centered"> +<table border="0" width="80%" cellpadding="2" cellspacing="0" summary="Table of Contents"> + <tr> + <td class="tdc" colspan="2">CHAPTER I</td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="tdc" colspan="2">1650-1672</td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="tdlh" width="85%">Birth, ancestry, and early years—State of Dutch + parties—William's boyhood—His character and ambitions—Hostility of + De Witt and his partisans—Visit to England—Outbreak of the War of 1672</td> + <td class="tdrb" width="15%"><a href="#Page_1">Page 1</a> +</td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="tdl"> </td> + <td class="tdr"> </td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="tdc" colspan="2">CHAPTER II</td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="tdc" colspan="2">1672-1678</td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="tdlh">William elected Stadtholder of Holland—Murder of the De Witts—Campaign + of 1672-3—Successes of the Prince—Declared hereditary + Stadtholder—Progress of the French arms—Marriage with Mary—Negotiations + of Nimeguen—Conclusion of the Peace—Battle of St. Denis</td> + <td class="tdrb"><a href="#Page_9">9</a></td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="tdl"> </td> + <td class="tdr"> </td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="tdc" colspan="2">CHAPTER III</td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="tdc" colspan="2">1678-1688</td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="tdlh">An interval of repose—Revival of continental troubles—Death of + Charles II.—Expedition of Monmouth—Mission of Dykvelt—James's + growing unpopularity—Invitation to William—Attempted intervention + by France—William's declaration—He sets sail, and<br /> is driven back + by storm—Second expedition and landing</td> + <td class="tdrb"><a href="#Page_17">17</a></td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="tdl"> </td> + <td class="tdr"> </td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="tdc" colspan="2">CHAPTER IV<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_vi" id="Page_vi">[Pg vi]</a></span></td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="tdc" colspan="2">1688</td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="tdlh">Advance to Exeter—Measures of James—Council of the + Lords—Their proposals—The King goes to Salisbury—Defection of + Churchill—James returns to London—Negotiation—Attempted flight of + James—His arrest—Advance of William—Entry of Dutch troops into + London—Actual flight of James</td> + <td class="tdrb"><a href="#Page_30">30</a></td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="tdl"> </td> + <td class="tdr"> </td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="tdc" colspan="2">CHAPTER V</td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="tdc" colspan="2">1688-1689</td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="tdlh">Characteristics of the English Revolution—Views of the various + parties—The Convention—Proposal to declare the throne vacant—The Regency + question—The resolution of the Commons—Amendment of the Lords—The + crisis—Attitude of Mary—Announcement of William—Resolution + passed—Declaration of Right—Tender of the Crown</td> + <td class="tdrb"><a href="#Page_39">39</a></td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="tdl"> </td> + <td class="tdr"> </td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="tdc" colspan="2">CHAPTER VI</td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="tdc" colspan="2">1689</td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="tdlh">William's part in the Revolution—Convention declared a Parliament—Oath + of Allegiance—Settlement of Civil List—Appropriation + Clause—Toleration and Comprehension—Address of the Commons + inviting the King to declare war</td> + <td class="tdrb"><a href="#Page_56">56</a></td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="tdl"> </td> + <td class="tdr"> </td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="tdc" colspan="2">CHAPTER VII</td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="tdc" colspan="2">1689-1690</td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="tdlh">Invasion of Ireland—Campaign of 1689—Parliamentary strife—The + conduct of the war—The Oates Case—The Succession Bill—Attempts + to pass an Indemnity Bill—Rancour of the Whigs—<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_vii" id="Page_vii">[Pg vii]</a></span> + Their factious opposition to William's Irish plans—Dissolution of Parliament</td> + <td class="tdrb"><a href="#Page_67">67</a></td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="tdl"> </td> + <td class="tdr"> </td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="tdc" colspan="2">CHAPTER VIII</td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="tdc" colspan="2">1690-1691</td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="tdlh">Parliament of 1690—Tory majority—Settlement of the royal income—Case + of the Princess Anne—The "Act of Grace"—Detection of + Preston's conspiracy—William's departure for Ireland—Battle of + the Boyne—Battle off Beachy Head—Marlborough's Irish campaign—William's + departure for the Hague</td> + <td class="tdrb"><a href="#Page_79">79</a></td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="tdl"> </td> + <td class="tdr"> </td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="tdc" colspan="2">CHAPTER IX</td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="tdc" colspan="2">1691-1692</td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="tdlh">Campaign of 1691 in the Netherlands—Fall of Mons—Disaffection of + William's councillors—Conclusion of year's campaign—Disgrace and dismissal of + Marlborough—Massacre of Glencoe</td> + <td class="tdrb"><a href="#Page_93">93</a></td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="tdl"> </td> + <td class="tdr"> </td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="tdc" colspan="2">CHAPTER X</td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="tdc" colspan="2">1692-1693</td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="tdlh">Gloomy European prospects—Campaign of 1692 in the Netherlands—Defeat + of Steinkirk—Attempt of Grandval—Session of 1692—Place + Bill and Triennial Bill—Campaign of 1693—William outwitted by + Luxembourg—Defeat of Landen—Session of 1693-94—Louis's + overtures of peace</td> + <td class="tdrb"><a href="#Page_104">104</a></td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="tdl"> </td> + <td class="tdr"> </td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="tdc" colspan="2">CHAPTER XI</td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="tdc" colspan="2">1693-1694</td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="tdlh">Formation of the first party Ministry—Reintroduction of the + Triennial Bill and its defeat—Of the Place Bill and its veto—Causes + of the disallowance—Macaulay's account examined—Campaign + of 1694—Death of Mary</td> + <td class="tdrb"><a href="#Page_119">119</a></td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="tdl"> </td> + <td class="tdr"> </td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="tdc" colspan="2">CHAPTER XII<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_viii" id="Page_viii">[Pg viii]</a></span></td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="tdc" colspan="2">1695-1697</td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="tdlh">Campaign of 1695—Capture of Namur by the allies—Dissolution of + Parliament—William's "progress"—The elections—New Parliament—Grants + to Portland—The Assassination Plot—Campaign of 1696—Fenwick's + conspiracy—Negotiations with France—Peace of Ryswick</td> + <td class="tdrb"><a href="#Page_135">135</a></td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="tdl"> </td> + <td class="tdr"> </td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="tdc" colspan="2">CHAPTER XIII</td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="tdc" colspan="2">1698-1699</td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="tdlh">Portland's embassy—His life in Paris—The question of the Spanish + Succession—The First Partition Treaty—General election and + meeting of the new Parliament—Its temper—Opposition to William's + military policy—Reduction of the army</td> + <td class="tdrb"><a href="#Page_156">156</a></td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="tdl"> </td> + <td class="tdr"> </td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="tdc" colspan="2">CHAPTER XIV</td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="tdc" colspan="2">1699-1700</td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="tdlh">Death of the Electoral Prince of Bavaria—Renewed negotiations—Second + Partition Treaty—The Irish forfeitures—The Resumption + Bill—Will and death of the King of Spain</td> + <td class="tdrb"><a href="#Page_171">171</a></td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="tdl"> </td> + <td class="tdr"> </td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="tdc" colspan="2">CHAPTER XV</td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="tdc" colspan="2">1701-1702</td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="tdlh">English indifference on the Spanish Question—Death of James II. + and Louis's recognition of the Pretender—Reaction in England—Dissolution + of Parliament—Support of William's policy by its + successor—The Treaties—Accident to William—His illness and + death—Character—The Whig legend examined—His great qualities + as man and ruler—Our debt to him</td> + <td class="tdrb"><a href="#Page_189">189</a></td> + </tr> +</table> +</div> + +<br /> +<br /> +<br /><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_1" id="Page_1">[Pg 1]</a></span> +<br /> + +<hr /> +<br /> +<h2>CHAPTER I</h2> + +<h3>1650-1672</h3> + +<div class="blockquot"><p class="hang" style="margin-left: 2em;">Birth, ancestry, and early years—State of Dutch +parties—William's boyhood—His character and +ambitions—Hostility of De Witt and his partisans—Visit to +England—Outbreak of the War of 1672.</p></div> + + +<p>William Henry, Prince of Orange and Count of Nassau, a ruler destined to +play a greater part in shaping the destinies of modern England than any +of her native sovereigns, was born at the Hague on the 4th of November +1650. By blood and ancestral tradition he was well fitted for the work +to which he was to be called. The descendant of a line of statesmen and +warriors, the scion of a house which more than a century before had been +associated with the most heroic struggle for national freedom that +history records, he could hardly have added stronger hereditary to the +great personal qualifications for the enterprises reserved for him. His +family was one of the most ancient in Europe—reaching back, indeed, for +its origin into the regions of fable. "I will not take upon me," says an +English biographer, writing shortly after his hero's death, "to extend +the Antiquity of the House of Nassau as far as the time of <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_2" id="Page_2">[Pg 2]</a></span>Julius +Cæsar, though that Emperor in his first book of Commentaries, <i>De Bello +Gallico</i>, says that one Nassau, with his brother Cimberius, led a body +of Germans out of Suabia and settled upon the banks of the Rhine near +Treves, which is the more observable by reason of the Affinity of the +Words, which differ only in the Transposition of one Letter; but I doubt +'tis rather Presumption than Truth for any one to affirm that there is +an Estate upon that very Spot of Ground mentioned by Cæsar which belongs +to the Nassovian Family to this Day." Without insisting on so very +ancient and remote an origin as this, we may take it as certain that the +House of Nassau had been established in Europe for some thousand years +at the birth of William. As early as in the thirteenth century it was +honoured with the imperial dignity in the person of Adolph of Nassau. +The title and domains of Orange were added to the family in the +sixteenth century by the marriage of Claude de Chalons, sister and +heiress of the then Prince of Orange, with Henry of Nassau, from whose +son Réné the principality passed by testamentary bequest to the great +Stadtholder of Holland, William, surnamed the Silent, the illustrious +liberator of the United Provinces from the yoke of Spain. The +acquisition of this petty principality—only twelve miles in length by +nine in breadth—was by no means the matter of trivial importance which +its territorial dimensions might imply. Its situation in the very heart +of the dominions of France, the incidents attaching to that situation +and the consequences flowing from it, contributed in their degree to +that complex system of forces by which the course of history is +determined. To William I. succeeded his son <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_3" id="Page_3">[Pg 3]</a></span>Maurice, the bearer of a +name also memorable in the history of the States, a greater soldier and +a statesman of scarcely less ability than his father, though of a far +more chequered fame. Under Maurice the power of the Stadtholder or +Governor was, in spite of the jealousy with which it was regarded by the +burgher party, considerably advanced, and he was not without reason +suspected of the design of making himself an absolute ruler. Dying +without issue, he was succeeded by his brother Frederick Henry, another +renowned captain, under whom the long struggle with Spain was at last +brought to a close by the renunciation, in the Treaty of Westphalia, of +the Spanish claim upon the United Provinces. William II., the son of +Frederick Henry, was born in 1626, and succeeded his father at the age +of twenty-one. Endowed with all the restless activity and ambition of +his uncle, he attempted, in prosecution of the same monarchical designs +as that prince, to seize the city of Amsterdam by a <i>coup de main</i>. The +project, however, was defeated, and William, after a troubled reign of +only four years, was fatally attacked by the smallpox, and died on the +27th of October 1650, leaving no issue. Eight days after his death, +however, his widow, Mary, daughter of Charles I., gave premature birth +to the son whose career it is in these pages proposed to trace.</p> + +<p>Seldom has a new-born child been the object of such diverse emotions, +the centre of so many conflicting hopes and fears among its countrymen +as was this infant Prince. To the partisans of the House of Orange he +appeared as the God-sent heir—an earlier <i>enfant du miracle</i> vouchsafed +by Providence to save the great race of William <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_4" id="Page_4">[Pg 4]</a></span>the Silent from +extinction in the male line. To the party of the municipal oligarchy he +presented himself as the probable inheritor rather of the ambitions of +his father and his father's uncle, than of the virtues of his +great-grandfather. The latter party, who for the moment had the upper +hand, were fully resolved that the young Prince should never wield as +much power as that which Prince Frederick Henry had sought during his +four years' reign to abuse. The party of the infant Prince, on the other +hand, a party headed by the Princess Dowager and her mother, made up as +far as possible for the lack of direct and political power by incessant +and indefatigable intrigue; and to their efforts it was that the +Pensionary De Witt, the representative of the municipal party, ascribed, +and not without reason, the war which broke out between the States and +the Rump Parliament in 1651. Its effect, however, was temporarily +disastrous to their ambitions; for, the United Provinces being compelled +to solicit peace from Cromwell, the Lord Protector, who was naturally +opposed to the elevation of a family allied by marriage to the exiled +Stuarts, compelled the States of Holland and West Friesland, as a +condition of his ratifying the articles of peace, to pass a decree that +"they would never elect the Prince or any of his lineage Stadtholder of +their province, nor consent that he or any of his family should be +Captain-General of the forces of the United Provinces."</p> + +<p>Reared from his very cradle amid the animosities of contending factions, +the young Prince learned early those four lessons of statecraft,—to +conceal his designs, to watch his opportunities, to choose his +instruments, and to bide his time. His education, other than that which +he was <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_5" id="Page_5">[Pg 5]</a></span>receiving daily in the stern school of circumstances, he owed to +his mother alone. Under her care he acquired a good knowledge of +mathematics and military science, and learned to speak English, French, +and German almost as fluently as his native tongue. The chiefs of the +municipal party, who became his official guardians, would have willingly +stinted his instruction, if by so doing they might have checked his +aspirations; but the ambition to emulate the fame of his great +predecessors, and to secure the power which they had wielded, took root +within him from his boyish years, and grew steadily with his growth. +Weak and ailing from his childhood, for he shared the too common lot of +those infants who are brought into the world before the appointed months +are run, he took no pleasure, as he possessed no skill, in the ordinary +pastimes of the boy; and, with a mind thus turned inward upon itself, +from an age at which other children have no care or thought but for the +thousand novel interests and attractions of the world without them, he +acquired habits of reserve and thoughtfulness beyond his years. The +religious faith in which he was nurtured was a Calvinism of the +strictest sort. His firm hold of the grim doctrine of predestination +stood him in much the same stead as Napoleon's belief in his destiny, +and long before he arrived at man's estate he had in all probability +convinced himself that the inscrutable counsels of Providence had +designed him for great things.</p> + +<p>Humanly speaking, however, his prospects did not appear to brighten +before him as years went on. At the age of ten he lost his mother, who +had gone to England to visit her brother, just restored to the throne, +and was there carried off by an attack of smallpox. In <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_6" id="Page_6">[Pg 6]</a></span>the same year he +saw his principality of Orange forcibly seized by Louis, who, after +demolishing its fortifications, held possession of it for five years, +surrendering it only in 1665. Then came the war of that year between +England and the Dutch Provinces, a conflict which his party temporarily +conceived the hope of turning to their own profit, but which left them +ultimately in a worse plight than before; for no provisions in the +Prince's interests were insisted on by his uncle, Charles II., in the +Treaty of Peace, and, under the instigation of De Witt, the States of +Holland and West Friesland subsequently passed a perpetual edict +suppressing the office of Stadtholder. A faint effort was made by +Charles II. through Sir William Temple to vindicate the rights of his +nephew, but the efforts of the ambassador were coldly received by the +Pensionary, and the matter dropped. De Witt now pushed his hostility yet +further, and the States resorted to the ignoble and ungrateful measure +of calling upon the young Prince to quit the house at the Hague which, +though technically the property of the States, had been for many years +the official residence of his family. To the Pensionary, who was charged +with the communication of this order, William replied by a spirited +refusal, directing his visitor to inform the States that he would not +quit the house unless removed by force; upon which his persecutors, +apprehensive no doubt of the odium which such a step would excite among +the common people, who were many of them well affected to his historic +family, allowed their demand to lapse. William, now eighteen years of +age, determined to make a counter-move on his own part, and presenting +himself before the assembly of the States of the province of Zealand, +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_7" id="Page_7">[Pg 7]</a></span>he proposed to them to elect him first noble of that province, a +dignity which they had been wont to confer upon his ancestors at his +then age. The Zealanders complied readily with the request, though they +did not proceed, as had been expected, to elect him to the higher office +of Stadtholder of the province; and except by entitling him to a seat in +the States General as representative of the nobility of Zealand, the +minor honours procured him nothing but the increased jealousy and +suspicions of the party of De Witt. Sir William Temple, then ambassador +at the Hague, with whom the Prince came into contact at this time, +characteristically reports of him in his Letters as a "young Man of more +Parts than ordinary and of the better Sort; that is, not lying in that +kind of Wit which is neither of use to one's self nor to anybody else, +but in good plain Sense which showed Application if he had business that +deserved it; and this with extreme good and agreeable Humour and +Dispositions without any Vice; that he was asleep in bed always at Ten +o'clock; loved Hunting as much as he hated Swearing, and preferred +Cock-ale before any Wine." In the year 1670 he managed after some +diplomatic difficulties to pay a visit to London, where he received the +attentions of a civic banquet, and of an honorary degree at Oxford, and +where too he acquired a very shrewd perception of the King's leanings +towards the religion of Rome.</p> + +<p>But his day was now fast approaching. At the close of the year 1671 was +concluded the ever-infamous Treaty of Dover. Charles transformed +himself, with more than the celerity of the nimblest modern rat, from +the champion of the Protestant faith in Europe into the ally of <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_8" id="Page_8">[Pg 8]</a></span>its +deadliest enemy. Sir William Temple was recalled from the Hague, and the +Triple League between England, the States, and Sweden, which that +skilful envoy had taken so much pains to cement, was broken up. Early in +1672 war was declared by England against the Dutch, and the armies of +Louis, pouring into the United Provinces, became masters of all their +chief strongholds "in as little time," to quote the vigorous comparison +of one of William's biographers, "as travellers usually employ to view +them." The Prince's opportunity had come.</p> +<br /> +<br /> +<br /><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_9" id="Page_9">[Pg 9]</a></span> +<br /> + +<hr /> +<br /> +<h2>CHAPTER II</h2> + +<h3>1672-1678</h3> + +<div class="blockquot"><p class="hang" style="margin-left: 2em;">William elected Stadtholder of Holland—Murder of the De +Witts—Campaign of 1672-3—Successes of the +Prince—Declared hereditary Stadtholder—Progress of the +French arms—Marriage with Mary—Negotiations of +Nimeguen—Conclusion of the Peace—Battle of St. Denis.</p></div> + + +<p>Louis XIV., like other military malefactors before and since, was +himself the creator of the enemy by whom his power was to be shaken to +its foundations. His invasion of the United Provinces, an enterprise +commenced with that contempt of public right in which no other potentate +has ever equalled him, and prosecuted with that barbarity in which only +Oriental conquerors have ever surpassed him, was the means of raising to +power the one European foe by whom he was destined to be successfully +withstood. The municipal party, unduly absorbed in the task of +safeguarding the liberties of their country against the supposed +ambitions of a single fellow-countryman, had wholly neglected the +protection of its very existence against the known ambitions of a +foreign aggressor. Most of their veteran troops had been disbanded; the +greatest posts in their armies were in the hands of unskilled civilians; +cities garrisoned with considerable forces of soldiery opened <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_10" id="Page_10">[Pg 10]</a></span>their +gates and surrendered without firing a gun. Popular indignation rose +high. Upon William, always a favourite among the commonalty, and the +inheritor of a name ennobled not only by civil wisdom but by military +exploits, all eyes were turned. An insurrection in his favour took place +at Dort, and the magistrates of that city, intimidated by the clamour of +the people, passed an ordinance repealing the perpetual edict, and made +him Stadtholder. Other cities followed their example, and the +States-General of the provinces confirmed their decrees. The two De +Witts, John and his brother Cornelius, now the objects of popular +suspicion and hatred, were assassinated in a street riot; and the +people, as if inspired with new courage by the restoration of a Prince +of Orange to a position from which princes of that name had so often led +them to victory, turned fiercely upon their French invaders. Five +thousand of Louis's troops were repulsed before Ardenburg by the bravery +of no more than two hundred burghers, assisted by the women and children +of the town, and one hundred garrison soldiers. The citizens of +Groningen, aided by the spirited students of its university, defended +themselves with equal vigour and good fortune against the warlike Bishop +of Munster, at the head of 30,000 soldiers, compelling him to raise the +siege. It was evident that a Dutch conquest was going to be no mere +military promenade, as had first appeared to promise, and Louis thought +it advisable to negotiate. To the chief of a state so desperately bested +as were the United Provinces at that moment, the terms offered to +William by the French monarch,—no less than the sovereignty of his +country under the protection of England and <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_11" id="Page_11">[Pg 11]</a></span>France,—might well have +appeared tempting. William rejected them with scorn. He would never, he +said, "betray the trust of his country that his ancestors had so long +defended." Solicitations addressed to him in the same sense by England +met with the same reply. To Buckingham, who had pressed them upon him, +and warned him that "if he persisted in his present humour he must +unavoidably see the final ruin of his cause," he made the Spartan answer +that he "had one way still left not to see that ruin completed, which +was to die in the last dyke."</p> + +<p>The winter of 1672-3 had stopped the progress of the French for the +time, but William was unwilling to allow it to arrest his own action. He +laid siege to the town of Woerden, and, though forced by the Duke of +Luxembourg to retreat from it, inflicted heavy losses upon the enemy. +Then, having invested Tongres, captured Walcheren, and demolished Binch, +he himself retired reluctantly into winter quarters. In the following +spring he besieged and took Naerden, and later on in the year achieved a +still more important triumph in the capture of Bonn, which had been put +into the hands of France at the beginning of the war. New honours now +began to be contemplated by his grateful countrymen for their stout +defender. The Stadtholdership of Holland and West Friesland was not only +confirmed to him for life, but was settled upon his heirs male; and on +the same day the like dignity was conferred on him by the States of +Zealand—an example shortly afterwards followed by those of Utrecht. Nor +were his successes without effect upon his enemies. Charles, with whose +subjects the war had never been <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_12" id="Page_12">[Pg 12]</a></span>popular, concluded a peace with him +after these two summers of fighting, and offered his mediation between +the powers still at war, an offer which was accepted by France. Four +years, however, were to elapse, and many souls of brave men to be sent +to Hades, before this mediation took effect in a concluded peace. In the +summer of 1674 was fought the fiercest engagement of the whole war—the +bloody and indecisive battle of Seneff, in which William was pitted +against the renowned Prince of Condé. The young Prince had too much to +gain in reputation not to be eager to provoke a battle, and the old +soldier too much to lose to be willing to accept one if it could be +avoided; but William succeeded in his object. Condé was at first +victorious in an encounter between a portion of the two armies, but he +imprudently brought on a general battle, which, after raging furiously +for a whole day, left both parties to claim the victory—"the allies +because they were last upon the field, and the French on the strength of +the great number of prisoners and standards they had carried off." "But +whoever had the honour," adds Sir William Temple, "both had the loss." +It was on this occasion that Condé paid his famous compliment to the +Prince by describing him as having acted like an old general throughout +the action in every respect save that of having "exposed himself like a +young recruit."</p> + +<p>For yet another four years, as has been said, this struggle continued to +rage, and, as it raged, to store up in his heart that exhaustless fund +of resentment against Louis which underwent hardly any depletion till +the day of his death. Several times were attempts made to detach William +from his Spanish allies and to induce <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_13" id="Page_13">[Pg 13]</a></span>him to conclude a separate peace, +but he remained firm against all such solicitations of betrayal. In vain +did Arlington, specially commissioned for that purpose, endeavour to +tempt him to the desertion of his allies by the offer of an English +matrimonial alliance. William simply replied that his fortunes were not +in a condition for him to think of a wife. Louis, however, was extremely +desirous of peace on any honourable terms, and William, to meet him +half-way, put forward a counter-proposal of a marriage between the King +of Spain and the eldest daughter of the Duke of Orleans, to whom France +should give in dowry the late conquered places in Flanders. This +ingenious proposal for reconciling the vindication of Spanish and Dutch +interests on the Flemish frontier with the maintenance of French +military honour, can scarcely have been made with any other purpose than +that of putting France in the wrong. William knew probably that it would +not square with Louis's existing hopes and pretensions, and that whether +Charles pressed it upon his cousin or not, it was pretty certain that no +more would be heard of it. For the present, moreover, he was under no +pressure to make a peace at all. The United Provinces had recovered +their confidence and hopefulness, and were full of admiration for and +attachment to their young leader. He had been actually offered the +sovereignty of Guelderland, and though his politic moderation induced +him to refuse it, opinion among the other provinces was divided as to +the propriety of his rejecting the offer. Nothing, however, could have +more strikingly illustrated the commanding position which he had +attained among his countrymen than <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_14" id="Page_14">[Pg 14]</a></span>the complete paralysis which +overcame them in 1675, during the fortunately brief period of the +Prince's suffering from a dangerous attack of smallpox. From this +disease, so fatal to his race, he recovered with apparent promptitude, +but it is only too probable that it left deep traces behind it on his +congenitally feeble frame.</p> + +<p>After much dispute the scene of the peace negotiations had been fixed at +Nimeguen, and the Congress met there in the month of July 1676. But the +diplomatists there were still to deliberate for two years while armies +were fighting; and if William could have prevented it, the peace would +not have been made even as soon as it was. The next two years, however, +were on the whole years of success for France and of defeat for the +allies; and early in 1677 William, of his own accord, revived a project +to which, when previously broached to him, he had refused to listen. The +terms submitted to him during the deliberations at Nimeguen were +intolerable, and yet, though he obstinately refused to accept them, town +after town was falling before the French arms, and his country was at +last beginning to weary of the struggle. If he must at last be forced to +assent to distasteful conditions, why not, as the price of his assent, +obtain for himself a matrimonial alliance which, besides bringing him a +step nearer to the English throne, would immensely strengthen his +position as a representative of the Protestant cause in Europe. A year +before he had sounded Temple as to a proposal for the hand of his cousin +Mary, the Duke of York's eldest daughter; and had been encouraged by +that ambassador to hope for success in his suit. He now more formally +pressed it, <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_15" id="Page_15">[Pg 15]</a></span>selecting the moment with considerable astuteness. Neither +Charles nor James had any liking for the match, but the King was in the +midst of a struggle with his Parliament; his subserviency to Louis was +inflaming popular resentment against him, and a marriage of his niece to +William, more especially if it could be made the means of bringing about +a peace, appeared to promise the only means of extricating himself from +his difficulties. Danby, his minister, moreover, was just at that moment +trembling for his head, and was prepared to exert himself to the utmost +to save it by the only means available—the detachment of his master +from the French alliance. William was reluctantly invited to England, +and it is clear, in the whole history of the affair, that he felt +himself from the moment of his arrival to be <i>dominus contractûs</i>. With +respect to the question whether the business of the marriage should be +arranged before that of the peace or <i>vice versâ</i>, William insisted upon +his own order of procedure, and procured its adoption. Charles consented +to the marriage, and compelled the assent of his brother. The +States-General, communicated with by express, immediately signified +their approval; and William, who had fortunately found the person and +manners of his cousin highly attractive to him, was married hurriedly +and privately at eleven o'clock on the night of the 4th of November +1677, the anniversary of his birth. The King of England did his best to +reconcile his brother of France to a match, the news of which, our +ambassador at the French Court told Danby, he received "as he would have +done the loss of an army," by representing it as an important step +towards a peace; but William <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_16" id="Page_16">[Pg 16]</a></span>returned home with his bride, pledged only +to his uncle to accept a basis of peace which was to a large extent, if +not entirely, of his own formulation, and far more liberal to the allies +than anything which France had proposed. Louis, however, was to get his +own way after all. The United Provinces were now heartily sick of the +war, and were, moreover, not uninfluenced by a party hostile to William, +who felt or feigned apprehension of his designs upon the liberties of +the Republic. The States-General accepted the articles of France, and +having by their constitution the absolute power of peace and war, they +were able, on the 11th of August, to conclude a treaty over William's +head. Three days after the Prince, unaware, officially at least, that +the signatures had been actually affixed to the treaty, made a dash upon +the army of Luxembourg, then besieging Mons, and after a desperate +encounter secured one of the most brilliant successes of the war. The +next morning, however, advices arrived from the Hague of the conclusion +of the peace, and William had the mortification of feeling that the +fruits of a victory which had opened a way for the allies into the +country of their enemy were to remain ungathered.</p> +<br /> +<br /> +<br /><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_17" id="Page_17">[Pg 17]</a></span> +<br /> + +<hr /> +<br /> +<h2>CHAPTER III</h2> + +<h3>1678-1688</h3> + +<div class="blockquot"><p class="hang" style="margin-left: 2em;">An interval of repose—Revival of continental troubles—Death +of Charles II.—Expedition of Monmouth—Mission of +Dykvelt—James's growing unpopularity—Invitation to +William—Attempted intervention by France—William's +declaration—He sets sail, and is driven back by +storm—Second expedition and landing.</p></div> + + +<p>For the next six or seven years the life of the Prince of Orange was to +be unmarked by any striking external incidents. He was occupied with all +his wonted patience in the reparation of the mischiefs of the Treaty of +Nimeguen, and in the laborious construction of that great European +league by means of which he was afterwards destined to arrest the course +of French aggression. In this undertaking, and in watching and +retaliating upon the encroachments which Louis XIV., almost on the +morrow of the treaty, began making upon its provisions, William was +sufficiently employed. In 1684 these encroachments became intolerable. +Louis having vainly demanded of the Spaniards certain towns in Flanders, +on the pretext of their being rightful dependencies on places ceded to +him by the Treaty of Nimeguen, seized Strasbourg and besieged Luxembourg +in physical enforcement of his claim. Spain declared war, and William, +though thwarted by the States <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_18" id="Page_18">[Pg 18]</a></span>(mainly through the instrumentality of +the city of Amsterdam, which was always ill-disposed towards him), and +denied the levy of 16,000 men which he had asked for, took the field +notwithstanding in support of his Spanish ally. The united forces, +however, were too weak to effect much. Luxembourg speedily surrendered, +and as the result a twenty years' truce, on terms not very favourable +for William, was concluded with France.</p> + +<p>During this period, as always, affairs in England no doubt demanded +general vigilance; but it was not till 1685 that they showed signs of +becoming critical. The death of Charles, and the known designs of +Monmouth, placed William in a very delicate position. During Charles's +life-time he had extended his protection to the exiled Duke, and had +even insisted so punctiliously on proper respect being shown to him, +that a difference had arisen between William and the English Court with +reference to the Duke's receiving salutes from the English troops, and +was actually unadjusted at Charles's death. Upon James's accession, +however, either to clear himself of all suspicion of abetting a +pretender to the throne, or, as some have asserted, to thwart the new +king's design of having his nephew seized and sent a prisoner to +England, William procured his departure from Dutch territory. Monmouth +retired to Brussels, but at the instance of James, who wrote a letter to +the Governor of the Spanish Netherlands charging him with high treason, +he was ordered by that functionary to quit the King of Spain's +dominions, and returned to Holland. Then followed his ill-fated +enterprise, throughout the brief course of which William maintained an +attitude of strict loyalty towards his father-in-law. He <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_19" id="Page_19">[Pg 19]</a></span>not only +despatched the six English and Scotch regiments in the Dutch service to +assist in suppressing the insurrection, but he offered, if James wished, +to take command of the royal troops in person. The offer was declined, +very likely from motives of suspicion by the King, but it is impossible +to suggest any plausible reason for questioning its <i>bona fides</i>. The +idle story that it was prompted by William's disgust at Monmouth's +proclaiming himself king, in breach of a promise to raise William +himself to the throne, bears absurdity on its face. The Princess stood +next in succession to the throne as it was; and if the Prince had +conceived a project of anticipating his wife's inheritance, he certainly +would not have entrusted the execution of that project to the feeble +hands and flighty brain of Monmouth.</p> + +<p>But two years had scarcely passed before it really became necessary for +him to look after the interests of her reversion. As early as the spring +of 1687 it was beginning to be suspected by men of foresight, both in +England and in Holland, that James II.'s position was precarious. No +one, indeed, who was capable of forming a correct estimate of his +character and capacities could find in them any guarantees of prolonged +rule. He was as obstinate and insincere as his father, as selfish and +unscrupulous as his brother, while he was destitute alike of the +former's power of enlisting the devotion of individuals, and of the +latter's easy popularity with the common people. It would be unjust to +him not to admit that many of his gravest difficulties were prepared for +him in his brother's time, if not by his brother's means; but it cannot +be denied that he had made astonishing haste to convert these grave +difficulties <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_20" id="Page_20">[Pg 20]</a></span>into the most formidable dangers. In little more than two +years from his accession in February 1685, his nephew found it expedient +to send over an emissary to England for the purpose of sounding English +political leaders, not as yet, indeed, with any definitely-formed design +of intervening by force in English affairs, but rather probably that, in +the event of the King rendering himself "impossible," the people might +know where to look for a substitute, and might understand that the +heiress-presumptive and her consort were not only the most natural, but, +as a matter of fact, the most eligible choice for the people to make in +the circumstances. Dykvelt, a judicious diplomatist, made the best use +of his time, and while continuing to give no just ground of remonstrance +to James, to whom he was of course nominally accredited, he managed to +bring back information and assurances of much value from many English +politicians of eminence.</p> + +<p>Meantime, and while James was still industriously undermining his +throne, his relations with his destined successor were becoming more +strained. A dispute arose between them with reference to the six English +regiments lent to the States under treaty. The King made a demand that +these regiments should be officered by Catholics—a claim put forward +either with the object of insuring their fidelity to him in case of +future rupture with Holland, or else merely to invite refusal and create +a pretext for insisting on their recall. At any rate the refusal came, +and on James's demanding the return of the troops, the States refused +this also, appealing to the terms of the treaty as only authorising the +King of England to require restitution of these forces in the <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_21" id="Page_21">[Pg 21]</a></span>event of +his being actually engaged in warfare with a foreign foe. An acrimonious +correspondence ensued between the two governments; but James failed to +move the States from their firm attitude. Equally unsuccessful was he in +an attempt to inveigle the Prince into an approval of that policy of +pretended toleration by which he was seeking to further the interests of +the Catholic at the expense of those of the Protestant religion in +England. A Scots lawyer named Stuart, who had taken refuge in Holland +from the religious persecution during the late reign, having made, or +been bribed to make, his submission to the royal authority, was procured +to open a correspondence with the Grand Pensionary Fagel, in which he +pressed the latter to advise the Prince of Orange to support his uncle's +policy, declaring that James would not repeal the penal laws unless the +tests were repealed also. Fagel for some time returned no answer, but at +last, finding the rumour in circulation that the Prince had associated +himself with the King's measures, he wrote a reply, which had no doubt +been drafted by William, to the refugee's request. In this remarkably +politic document the Prince contrived to hold the balance equally +between the English Protestants, with whom he was particularly anxious +to stand well, and the Catholic continental sovereigns, whom in his +struggle with France he could not afford to offend. While maintaining +his former attitude with regard to the tests, William declared that he +would gladly see all other grievances on the part of the English +Catholics removed. He would have no man subjected to punishment for his +opinions, but—and on this point he instanced the practice of the +States-General themselves with respect to Roman Catholics—he was <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_22" id="Page_22">[Pg 22]</a></span>not +prepared to remove all official disabilities founded on religious +opinion. This letter was forwarded by Stuart to the King, and was by him +considered in council. Burnet declares that all the lay papists of +England who were not engaged in the intrigues of the priests earnestly +pressed him to accept the Prince's terms as being what would render them +safe and easy for the future; but the King as usual was obstinate, and +no resolution was taken on the matter.</p> + +<p>During most of the remainder of this year the King was filling up the +measure of his political offences. From March till October the dispute +with Magdalen College had raged, and the breach between James and the +once devoted Church of England proportionately widened. But at the end +of the year 1687 a momentous announcement was made to the Court. The +Queen was pronounced to be pregnant, and in July of the following year +she was delivered of a male child. That an infant brought into the world +at so opportune a moment should have been loudly alleged to be +supposititious by the inflamed political partisans of the time was +naturally to be expected. A word or two more will be said on that point +hereafter; it is here only necessary to remark that whether William +shared the suspicions of his partisans or not his outward behaviour on +the occasion was irreproachable. He congratulated his father-in-law on +the auspicious event; and the infant prince was duly prayed for in his +private chapel at the Hague, until the protest hereafter to be referred +to was made against the ceremony by his English partisans. Meanwhile the +events of the eventful year 1688 had been ripening fast to their +destined issue. The end of April had witnessed <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_23" id="Page_23">[Pg 23]</a></span>the second promulgation +of the Declaration of Indulgence, and the ferment occasioned by that new +assertion of the dispensing power. In July, in almost exact coincidence +of time with the Queen's accouchement, came the memorable trial of the +Seven Bishops, which gave the first demonstration of the full force of +that popular animosity which James's rule had provoked. Some months +before,<a name="FNanchor_1_1" id="FNanchor_1_1"></a><a href="#Footnote_1_1" class="fnanchor">[1]</a> however, Edward Russell, nephew of the Earl of Bedford and +cousin of Algernon Sidney's fellow-victim, had sought the Hague with +proposals to William to make an armed descent upon England, as +vindication of English liberties and the Protestant religion.<a name="FNanchor_2_2" id="FNanchor_2_2"></a><a href="#Footnote_2_2" class="fnanchor">[2]</a> William +had cautiously required a signed invitation from at least a few +representative statesmen before committing himself to such an +enterprise, and on the day of the acquittal of the Seven Bishops a +paper, signed in cipher by Lords Shrewsbury, Devonshire, Danby, and +Lumley, by Compton, Bishop of Northampton, by Edward Russell, and by +Henry Sidney, <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_24" id="Page_24">[Pg 24]</a></span>brother of Algernon, was conveyed by Admiral Herbert to +the Hague. William was now furnished with the required security for +English assistance in the projected undertaking, but the task before him +was still one of extreme difficulty. He had to allay the natural +disquietudes of the Catholic supporters of his continental policy +without alarming his Protestant friends in England; to win over the +States-General, not by any means universally favourable either to his +designs against James or to his attitude towards Louis (Amsterdam, for +instance, had sided with the former monarch in his dispute with William +about the return of the English regiments); and, above all, he had to +make his naval and military preparations for a descent upon England +without exciting suspicions, or provoking an anticipatory attack. That +he managed matters with much address is evident from the result, but it +is no less clear that luck was on his side. A quarrel of the French king +with the Pope, on a question of diplomatic extra-territorial rights in +the papal city, and his arrogant interference in the election of the +Elector of Cologne, had arrayed against Louis the spiritual and temporal +forces of Catholicism, represented respectively by the Papacy and the +Empire; his ill-timed persecutions of Protestants, and certain +prohibitive measures adopted by him against Dutch trade, had the effect +of alienating his partisans in the States-General. In the meanwhile the +combined blindness and obstinacy of James permitted William to prosecute +his military preparations unmolested, if not unsuspected. These +preparations were very extensive and conspicuous, and seem to have had +their commencement at an earlier date than is consistent with Burnet's +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_25" id="Page_25">[Pg 25]</a></span>theory referred to in the note on a previous page. It was not, however, +till the summer was beginning to give place to autumn that they began to +excite any very distinct suspicions as to their object. The Cologne +quarrel formed a plausible excuse enough for them; for if Louis, as +events seemed to threaten, were to occupy the Rhine provinces with an +army, it would be obviously necessary for Holland to stand on guard. By +the middle of August the French king had become uneasy, and despatched a +special envoy in the person of M. Bonrepos to awaken James to a sense of +his danger. He had authority, according to Burnet (whom, however, +Macaulay, who mostly follows him, on this point contradicts<a name="FNanchor_3_3" id="FNanchor_3_3"></a><a href="#Footnote_3_3" class="fnanchor">[3]</a>), to +offer James not only naval but military assistance to repel the invasion +with which he believed him to be threatened. Bonrepos was directed by +his master to promise the King of England that ten or fifteen thousand +(others, according to Ralph, say thirty thousand) men should be landed +at Portsmouth if required, and asked that that place should be put into +his hands to keep the communication between the two kingdoms. +Sunderland, acting perhaps <i>bona fide</i>, but more probably not, most +earnestly counselled James to reject the offer, and it was rejected +accordingly, the King's characteristic imbecility of judgment being +never more characteristically shown than in his unwillingness to offend +the patriotic prejudices of his subjects by accepting an offer which, +had <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_26" id="Page_26">[Pg 26]</a></span>he been aware of their true feelings towards him, he would have +recognised as his last chance of saving his crown and kingdom. At this +juncture Ronquillo, the Spanish ambassador, went out of his way to +assure James of what he probably knew to be false, and certainly had no +reason to believe true—namely, that no descent upon England was in +contemplation on the part of William. On an early day in September, +however, Albeville was despatched to the Hague with instructions to +present a memorandum of complaint on the subject of the Dutch +preparations; and the day following d'Avaux delivered, on the part of +Louis, a threatening note to the States, in which he warned them to +desist from their designs upon a monarch to whom he was bound by "such +ties of friendship and alliance" as would oblige him, if James were +attacked, to come to his assistance. That Louis's motive in taking this +step was to commit his brother of England to the alliance which he +pretended to exist it is almost impossible to doubt; but James, more and +more bent upon repudiating the assistance of France the more necessary +it became to him, did his utmost to assure the States that there was +nothing in the nature of an alliance between himself and Louis. William, +however, and his partisans in the States-General, asked nothing better +than this excuse for continuing their preparations, and the Dutch +armament was actively pushed forward. In October the final alienation of +the Dutch friends of France was brought about by Louis's despatching an +army under the Dauphin to besiege Philipsburg, and simultaneously +issuing manifestos against the Emperor and the Pope. Avignon had been +seized by him the day before the <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_27" id="Page_27">[Pg 27]</a></span>siege of Philipsburg was opened; and +the attack on the latter place was followed by the rapid seizure of most +of the important towns of the Palatinate.</p> + +<p>On the 10th of October, matters now being ripe for such a step, William, +in conjunction with some of his English advisers, put forth his famous +declaration. Starting with a preamble to the effect that the observance +of laws is necessary to the happiness of states, the instrument proceeds +to enumerate fifteen particulars in which the laws of England had been +set at naught. The most important of these were—(1) the exercise of the +dispensing power; (2) the corruption, coercion, and packing of the +judicial bench; (3) the violation of the test laws by the appointment of +papists to offices (particularly judicial and military offices, and the +administration of Ireland), and generally the arbitrary and illegal +measures resorted to by James for the propagation of the Catholic +religion; (4) the establishment and action of the Court of High +Commission; (5) the infringement of some municipal charters, and the +procuring of the surrender of others; (6) interference with elections by +turning out of all employment such as refused to vote as they were +required; and (7) the grave suspicion which had arisen that the Prince +of Wales was not born of the Queen, which as yet nothing had been done +to remove. Having set forth these grievances, the Prince's manifesto +went on to recite the close interest which he and his consort had in +this matter as next in succession to the crown, and the earnest +solicitations which had been made to him by many lords spiritual and +temporal, and other English subjects of all ranks, to interpose, and +concluded by affirming in a very distinct and solemn manner that the +sole object of the <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_28" id="Page_28">[Pg 28]</a></span>expedition then preparing was to obtain the +assembling of a free and lawful Parliament, to which the Prince pledged +himself to refer all questions concerning the due execution of the laws, +and the maintenance of the Protestant religion, and the conclusion of an +agreement between the Church of England and the Dissenters, as also the +inquiry into the birth of the "pretended Prince of Wales"; and that this +object being attained, the Prince would, as soon as the state of the +nation should permit of it, send home his foreign forces.</p> + +<p>About a week after, on the 16th of October, all things being now in +readiness, the Prince took solemn leave of the States-General, thanked +them for their past kindness to him, called them to witness that the +motives of his enterprise were solely those set forth in his +declaration, namely, the vindication of the liberties of England, and +the defence of the Protestant religion, and commended his wife to their +care. The scene was an affecting one, and many among the assembly were +melted to tears; only the Prince himself, says Burnet, "continued firm +in his usual gravity and phlegm." Two days later the States came to a +formal resolution to assist the Prince of Orange with ships and forces +on his expedition to England, having heard his explanations thereof and +found them satisfactory; and authorised their ministers at the various +European Courts to make use of this resolution in whatever way they +might find most convenient.</p> + +<p>On the 19th William and his armament set sail from Helvoetsluys, but was +met on the following day by a violent storm which forced him to put back +on the 21st.<a name="FNanchor_4_4" id="FNanchor_4_4"></a><a href="#Footnote_4_4" class="fnanchor">[4]</a> <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_29" id="Page_29">[Pg 29]</a></span>On the 1st of November the fleet put to sea a second +time, and for the first twelve hours held its course towards the +north-west. It was calculated that thus the scouting vessels sent out by +Dartmouth would carry back word that the landing might be expected to +take place on the Yorkshire coast; and, this ruse successfully effected, +the fleet tacked and sailed southward for the Channel. William was +naturally most desirous to avoid a conflict with the English fleet, and +the heavy weather which prevented Dartmouth from leaving the Thames +enabled him to attain his object. His fleet passed the Straits of Dover +at midday of the 3d of November, and made for Torbay, where it had been +determined to land. In the haze, however, of the morning of the 5th of +November the pilot overshot the mark, and took the fleet some miles to +the west. Its situation became critical. Plymouth was the next port, and +of Lord Bath, who there commanded the King's forces, William was by no +means sure. From the east the royal fleet under Dartmouth was believed +to be approaching. Russell, who had told Burnet that "all was over," and +that he might "go to prayers," was just upon taking boat for the +Prince's ship when the "Protestant wind," as the long prayed-for +easterly gale had hitherto been called, having now by force of +circumstances become a breeze of a distinctly Catholic tendency, was, as +all good Protestants of that day believed, providentially lulled. A wind +of the right direction and denomination sprang up shortly after, and in +four hours' time, by noon of the 5th of November, the Prince's fleet was +wafted safely into Torbay.</p> + +<h4>FOOTNOTES:</h4> + +<div class="footnote"><p class="noin"><a name="Footnote_1_1" id="Footnote_1_1"></a><a href="#FNanchor_1_1"><span class="label">[1]</span></a> In April or May. Macaulay (after Burnet) says May; and the +point is of some importance, because if, as Ralph maintains and proves +by reference to the date of the Elector of Brandenburg's death (an event +referred to by Burnet as still prospective at the date of the conference +with Russell), this interview really took place in April, it does prove, +as Ralph says, that "measures were forming in England against the King +and embraced in Holland before the second Declaration of Indulgence was +published, or the Order in Council which was founded thereon, or the +Prosecution of the Bishops was thought of; which his lordship (Burnet) +holds of such weight for the justification of those measures." Ralph i. +998.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p class="noin"><a name="Footnote_2_2" id="Footnote_2_2"></a><a href="#FNanchor_2_2"><span class="label">[2]</span></a> One of Russell's arguments for immediate action was that +James's soldiers, "though <i>bad Englishmen</i> and <i>worse Christians</i>, were +as yet such <i>good Protestants</i> that neither were they attached to His +Majesty, nor could His Majesty depend upon them."—Burnet <i>ap.</i> Ralph, +<i>Hist.</i> i. 997.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p class="noin"><a name="Footnote_3_3" id="Footnote_3_3"></a><a href="#FNanchor_3_3"><span class="label">[3]</span></a> It is difficult to see why. Sunderland, in his <i>Apology</i>, +distinctly says, "I opposed to death the acceptance of them (the ships) +as well as any assistance of men, and I can most truly say that I was +the principal means of hindering both." Sunderland, no doubt, was not +the most veracious of men; but one does not see his precise motive for +lying on this matter.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p class="noin"><a name="Footnote_4_4" id="Footnote_4_4"></a><a href="#FNanchor_4_4"><span class="label">[4]</span></a> To make some capital out of the mischance the Haarlem and +Amsterdam Gazettes were ordered (Ralph declares) "to set forth a +lamentable relation of the losses occasioned by it," losses which, it +seems, included "nine men of war, a thousand horses, and Dr. Burnet."</p></div> +<br /> +<br /> +<br /><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_30" id="Page_30">[Pg 30]</a></span> +<br /> + +<hr /> +<br /> +<h2>CHAPTER IV</h2> + +<h3>1688</h3> + +<div class="blockquot"><p class="hang" style="margin-left: 2em;">Advance to Exeter—Measures of James—Council of the +Lords—Their proposals—The King goes to +Salisbury—Defection of Churchill—James returns to +London—Negotiation—Attempted flight of James—His +arrest—Advance of William—Entry of Dutch troops into +London—Actual flight of James.</p></div> + + +<p>The spot was in one respect well, in another ill chosen for a descent. +Nowhere, indeed, was James's tyranny more detested than in that quarter +of England in which William now found himself, but nowhere also was it +more feared. It was the country of the men who had risen for Monmouth +and fought at Sedgemoor, but it was the country too of the men who had +trembled before Jeffreys, and whose blood had given its name to his +terrible Assize. The reception which William met with was in fact +determined by a balance of these considerations. He was welcomed with +abundance of popular sympathy, but with little overt popular support. +The gentry and peasantry rejoiced at the sight of his standard, but were +slow in gathering to it. His march to Exeter was something like a +triumph, but it seemed at first, and indeed for some days after he had +fixed his quarters there, that he was to get nothing from the people but +their good wishes. That this delay <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_31" id="Page_31">[Pg 31]</a></span>in supporting him gave much +disappointment and even some anxiety to William is certain. He was too +politic to make any public manifestation of feelings, the disclosure of +which might only have served to aggravate their cause; but in private he +complained indignantly of the slackness of his promised adherents, and +even talked—though here we may permit ourselves to doubt his +seriousness—of abandoning his enterprise and returning to Holland. At +the end of a week, however, important partisans of his cause began to +make their appearance. Lord Colchester, a friend of Monmouth's, was the +first to join him; Edward Russell, a son of the Earl of Bedford, +followed; Lord Abingdon, a recruit from the other side of politics, was +the next to give his adhesion to William; and almost at the same moment +the cause of James sustained the most significant repudiation it had yet +undergone in the desertion of Lord Cornbury, the eldest son of Lord +Clarendon, who, after an unsuccessful attempt to bring over with him the +three regiments of which he was the commander, deserted them with a few +followers and made his way to William's quarters.</p> + +<p>In London, ever since the news of the Prince's landing, considerable +agitation had prevailed, and some actual rioting taken place. But the +royal authority was still upheld, and it was evident that the action of +the capital, reversing the order of revolutionary proceedings to which +France has now accustomed us, would await the course of events in the +provinces. As for the King, he was, characteristically enough, as much +reassured by a week's respite from bad news as he had been disturbed by +the tidings of his nephew's landing; but the intelligence of Cornbury's +defection threw him <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_32" id="Page_32">[Pg 32]</a></span>into a state of genuine alarm. Having convoked and +addressed the principal officers then in London, from whom he received +the most earnest professions of loyalty, he prepared to set out to meet +the invader at Salisbury, when he was waited upon by a deputation of the +Lords, praying him to call a Parliament and to open a negotiation with +the Prince of Orange. James, however, to whom no measure ever presented +itself as advisable at the proper moment for adopting it, rejected their +advice. His reason was an excellent one—for any king in a totally +different position from his. He said, and with much truth, that no +Parliament could be freely chosen for a country with an invading army +encamped on its soil; but the question which a clearer-sighted sovereign +would have asked himself was not whether the parliamentary elector would +be a free agent, but whether he himself was. It was eminently probable +that the convocation of a Parliament would not save his throne, but it +was quite certain that nothing else would. Nor had James the excuse of +pride for rejecting the Peers' advice; he was to show in a very short +time that no such account of his conduct could be sustained. Some +monarchs might have preferred to lose a crown rather than be forced into +political concession under coercion of an invading army. James was quite +willing to pay that or any other price to save his crown, only he was +impenetrable to the proof that it was necessary at that moment. He set +out for his destined headquarters, and reached them on the 19th of +November; but by the time he established himself at Salisbury the real +royal court had collected itself at Exeter. William was haranguing the +"friends and fellow Protestants" <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_33" id="Page_33">[Pg 33]</a></span>who had gathered to his banner, and +continually receiving fresh adhesions, among which that of Lord Bath, +the commander of the royal forces at Plymouth, was the most important. +Meanwhile, the northern population of the kingdom, among whom William +had been expected to present himself first, were up in arms. York and +Nottingham were the chief centres of insurrection, and to one or the +other of them many of the great peers and landowners of the north were +already making their way. Placed thus between two fires, it was evident +that immediate action was necessary on James's part to prevent their +meeting and engulfing him. As it was no less evidently to William's +interest to defer a conflict as long as possible, he succeeded in +avoiding anything save mere skirmishes between outposts, until the +occurrence of an event for which he was probably prepared, and which he +had good reason to hope would insure the triumph of his cause without +any serious fighting at all. This was no less an event than the +desertion of Churchill, who, if, as is likely enough, he had been up to +this point doubting to which side his interests pointed—the only form +of indecision he was liable to—had by this time satisfied himself that +James's cause was lost. Alarmed by rumours of disaffection in his army, +James's eagerness for an encounter with William had now entirely +disappeared. He talked of retreating, but Churchill strongly urged an +advance. Whether, if his counsels had prevailed, he would have taken +over the troops under his command to William, or whether he would have +awaited the issue of battle in order to obtain still clearer light on +the only question that interested him, must for ever remain uncertain. +James resolved to <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_34" id="Page_34">[Pg 34]</a></span>fall back, and Churchill resolved not to accompany +him. He quitted the royal camp that night, leaving behind him a letter, +in which he declared it impossible for him to fight against the cause of +the Protestant religion, and presented himself next day at the quarters +of the Prince of Orange. His flight threw James into extreme +consternation. A precipitate retreat was ordered, and the royal +standard, now losing more and more followers every day, was soon being +hurried back to London. Prince George of Denmark, who lives in history +as <i>Est-il possible?</i> abandoned his father-in-law at Andover, and James +returned to Whitehall to find that his younger daughter had followed her +husband's example. "God help me!" the wretched King exclaimed; "my own +children have forsaken me." A man so accustomed to subordinate all the +kindlier instincts of human nature to the precepts of his religion might +have recollected that Anne had only to identify the interests of +Anglican Protestantism with the cause of Christ in order to find +excellent Scriptural authority for turning her back upon her father.</p> + +<p>It being now too late to hope for an accommodation with his people and +their invited champion, James began to think of arranging one. He +summoned a council of the Lords spiritual and temporal then in London, +and signified his willingness to "agree with his adversary" slowly, and +when no longer "in the way with him." He was ready now to take the +advice which had been tendered him before he started for +Salisbury—namely, to summon a Parliament and open negotiations with +William. It was now, however, pointed out to him that, his position +having become worse by delay, he must make an advance on his original +offers by <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_35" id="Page_35">[Pg 35]</a></span>dismissing all Catholics from office, breaking off his +relations with France, and promising an amnesty to all political +opponents; but as this or some similar enlargement of the original terms +of concession submitted to him unmistakably recommended itself to common +sense, the King would not hear of it. He would summon a Parliament, and +at once did so by directing Jeffreys to issue writs convoking that body +for the 13th of January. He would negotiate with William, and he named +Nottingham, Halifax, and Godolphin as his commissioners for that +purpose. But more than this he at first declined to do. On further +reflection, however, it occurred to him that the pang of giving these +distasteful pledges might be much mitigated by a secret resolve to break +them. He therefore issued a proclamation granting a free pardon to all +who were in rebellion against him, and declaring them eligible as +members of the forthcoming Parliament. At the same time he gave an +earnest of his willingness to conform to the law excluding papists from +office by removing the Catholic Lieutenant of the Tower. Again, at the +same time, and as the reverse of an "earnest" of anything, he informed +the French Ambassador that the negotiation with William was "a mere +feint," and that all he wanted was to gain time "to ship off his wife +and the Prince of Wales." There was undoubtedly a good deal of his royal +and unfortunate father about James II. He seems, indeed, to have +inherited almost all Charles's moral qualities except his courage. These +he "threw back" to his grandfather—not a fortunate illustration of the +biological principle of atavism.</p> + +<p>Infected with the duplicity and unredeemed by the bravery of Charles I., +the close of his reign is naturally <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_36" id="Page_36">[Pg 36]</a></span>less romantic than his father's. +Kings who fail in business undoubtedly owe it to their historical +reputation to perish on the scaffold or the battlefield. A royal martyr +is a much more impressive object than a royal levanter. It is better to +"ascend to Heaven" as "the son of St. Louis" than to take ship for Dover +as "Mr. Smith." The last three weeks of James's reign are weeks of +painful ignominy. His plan of spiriting away the infant Prince of Wales +was defeated by Dartmouth, the admiral on whom he had relied to execute +it, but who steadfastly refused to lend a hand to the project. William's +army advanced from Exeter to Salisbury, and from Salisbury to +Hungerford, where it had been arranged that the royal commissioners +should meet the Prince. The result of the negotiation was favourable +beyond anything James had a right to expect. The Prince accepted his +father-in-law's offer to refer all questions in dispute to the +Parliament about to be assembled, stipulating only that the capital +should be relieved from military pressure on either side; that James +should, as a security against his inviting French aid, place Portsmouth +under the command of an officer in whom both sides had confidence; and +that, while London was denuded of troops, the Tower—as also Tilbury +Fort—should be garrisoned by the city of London. It is by no means +impossible that James might have saved a crown, however shorn of its +prerogatives, had he accepted these terms. But he was bent on attempting +to regain by foreign arms that full despotic authority which he could +not retain by his own. He contrived, with the assistance of the +chivalrous and eccentric Frenchman Lauzun, to get the Queen and Prince +of Wales <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_37" id="Page_37">[Pg 37]</a></span>conveyed safely to France; and twenty-four hours afterwards, +on the night of the 11th of December, he endeavoured to follow them, but +he was recognised at the Isle of Sheppey, whence he was about to embark, +and his flight arrested. In London, where the royal forces had, in +obedience to James's parting orders, been disbanded by their +commander-in-chief, some forty-eight hours of very dangerous panic +ensued upon the King's departure; but a provisional government was +hastily formed by a committee of temporal and spiritual peers, and +measures promptly taken by them for the maintenance of order. On hearing +of the capture of James, they immediately despatched Feversham with a +troop of Life Guards to escort him back to London. Here he was received +with some marks of popular commiseration, which he mistook for reviving +popular favour, and, regaining confidence, he sent Feversham to Windsor +as the bearer of a letter to the Prince of Orange, expressing a desire +for a personal conference with him at St. James's Palace, which he +offered to fit up for the Prince's accommodation. William, however, as +one may now see plainly, was bent on creating a vacancy of the throne. +He no doubt keenly regretted the officiousness of the sailors who had +defeated James's first attempt at flight, and resolved to do all in his +power short of downright physical coercion to induce him to repeat the +attempt. He arrested Feversham for want of a military safe conduct, and +replied to James's letter by declining the conference, and desiring him +to remain at Rochester. The King had by this time reached Whitehall; +but, disquieted by the sternness of William's message, and by the arrest +of his officer, his nerve began once more <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_38" id="Page_38">[Pg 38]</a></span>to fail him. On the night of +the 18th three or four battalions of William's infantry and a squadron +of horse marched down to Whitehall, and, the English Guards being +withdrawn by the King's orders and to the great regret of their stout +old commander, Lord Craven, took practical possession of the palace. In +the small hours of the morning Halifax and two other lords arrived from +Windsor with a recommendation to James to retire to Ham. Ostensibly +delivered in the name of his own Peers, James felt satisfied that it was +really a hint from William. He proposed to substitute Rochester for Ham, +and the substitution was accepted by William with a readiness which +significantly showed his desire to facilitate his uncle's flight. Early +the next morning James, accompanied by Lords Aylesbury, Lichfield, +Arran, and Dumbarton—peers whose names deserve if only as a matter of +curiosity to be recorded,<a name="FNanchor_5_5" id="FNanchor_5_5"></a><a href="#Footnote_5_5" class="fnanchor">[5]</a>—set out for Rochester; and four days +afterwards, with motives which have been variously estimated, but in +which fear for his life or liberty and hopes of foreign assistance +towards the recovery of his kingdom played perhaps about an equal part, +he again resolved to quit the kingdom. A letter from his +Queen—intercepted indeed, but which William took care to have conveyed +to him—confirmed his resolution. Between two and three o'clock on the +morning of the 23d he embarked on board a frigate on the Medway, and, +finding the wind favourable, landed after a speedy voyage at Ambleteuse, +whence he proceeded to St. Germains.</p> + +<h4>FOOTNOTE:</h4> + +<div class="footnote"><p class="noin"><a name="Footnote_5_5" id="Footnote_5_5"></a><a href="#FNanchor_5_5"><span class="label">[5]</span></a> It is true that a large number of courtiers quitted +Whitehall at the same time, making the palace, as Ralph says, "like a +Desart." But the large majority of them got no further than St. +James's.</p></div> +<br /> +<br /> +<br /><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_39" id="Page_39">[Pg 39]</a></span> +<br /> + +<hr /> +<br /> +<h2>CHAPTER V</h2> + +<h3>1688-1689</h3> + +<div class="blockquot"><p class="hang" style="margin-left: 2em;">Characteristics of the English Revolution—Views of the +various parties—The Convention—Proposal to declare the +throne vacant—The Regency question—The resolution of the +Commons—Amendment of the Lords—The crisis—Attitude of +Mary—Announcement of William—Resolution +passed—Declaration of Right—Tender of the crown.</p></div> + + +<p>It is significant of the peaceful and, so to speak, constitutional +character of our English Revolution that by far its most momentous +scenes were enacted within the four walls of the meeting-places of +deliberative assemblies, and find their chronicle in the dry record of +votes and resolutions. We have no "days," in the French sense of the +word, or hardly any, to commemorate. The gradual accomplishment of the +political work of 1688-89 is not marked and emphasised like that of +1789-92 at every stage by some out-door event of the picturesque, the +stirring, or the terrible kind—such for instance as those by which the +14th of July, the 6th of October, the 10th of August, and in a darker +order of memories, the 2d of September, have been made landmarks in the +revolutionary history of France. On every one of the days thus singled +out for glorious or for shameful remembrance, some irrevocable step was +taken—some new position gained by the advancing forces of <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_40" id="Page_40">[Pg 40]</a></span>French +democracy from which there was no retreat. We in England have no +anniversaries of the kind. We may remember, though we have ceased to +celebrate in our churches, the day in which William first set foot on +our shores; but we feel that after all it was not an "event" in the +sense of that other great Protestant deliverance with which in +month-date it so fortunately coincided, and for which the Anglican +liturgy economically set apart a common form of thanksgiving. The +discovery of the Gunpowder Plot was an incident having results of the +most permanent and unalterable character. It made all the difference +between the safety and the destruction of the Sovereign and the three +Estates of the Realm. Again, the execution of Charles I. determined +something, by committing the country to the military autocracy of +Cromwell and the powerful reaction of the Restoration. But this cannot +be said of the landing of the Prince of Orange at Torbay—the mere +opening of a drama which might have had any one of half a dozen +<i>dénoûments</i>; it can hardly even be said of the second and definitive +flight of James. The 23d of December 1688 was in one sense no more of an +"epoch-making" day than the 5th of November in the same year. It is true +that the sovereign's abandonment of his throne and country became +something more than a striking dramatic event; it was elevated into an +act of profound political import. It had or was invested with inward and +most momentous legal significance, in addition to its outward historical +prominence. But for all that it determined nothing at the moment of its +occurrence but the future of a single man. It is quite conceivable that +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_41" id="Page_41">[Pg 41]</a></span>the mere flight of James II. should have settled no more than his own +incapacitation—that it should not even have brought about the exclusion +of his son from the succession, still less have led to the formal +recognition of a new principle in the English Constitution. True it is +that all these consequences were deducible from it as matter of +argument, and flowed from it in fact. True it is that, when James stole +down the Medway in the early morning of the 23d of December, he was +taking a step which was capable of being turned by the friends of +liberty and good government, or his own enemies,—and it was difficult +to be one without being the other,—to the disherison of his son, and +the far-reaching substitution of a statutory for a common-law monarchy. +But no less true is it that these results were very far from being +necessary or automatic in their character; that, on the contrary, they +hung for some critical days in the balance, and that the active +co-operation of human qualities in its very conspicuous and not too +common forms of courage, foresight, and political dexterity, was needed +in the last resort to secure them. It is for this reason that our +"days," our anniversaries of such merely external incidents as William's +landing or James's departure are, comparatively speaking, so +unimportant. No such incident either made or insured the making of our +existing English Constitution. The events which really made it passed, +as I have said, within the walls of two deliberative assemblies, between +January 23 and February 13, 1689, and its making was not actually +assured until this period was well-nigh expired.</p> + +<p>How important was the political work compressed <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_42" id="Page_42">[Pg 42]</a></span>within these three +weeks will be at once apparent if now, having noted how little was +settled by the mere flight of James II., we go on to consider how great +was the variety of its possible results. James had ceased to be king <i>de +facto</i>, that was all; and the English people were pretty unanimous in +their determination that he should never be king <i>de facto</i> again. But +was he still king <i>de jure</i>? If not, if he was not legally sovereign, +was any one? And if so, who? Upon each of these last three questions +there was room for difference of opinion, and upon at least two of them +opinion was in fact divided. A considerable section of the Tory party +were of opinion that James, although he had <i>de facto</i> ceased to reign, +was still the only lawful king of England, in whose name, at any rate, +all royal authority should be exercised, and all royal acts of state +performed. To these men, therefore, the only legal and constitutional +solution of the problem appeared to be the creation of a Regency. They +were for raising William to the position of Regent, and empowering him +to preside over the actual government of the country in this capacity +during the life of his father-in-law.</p> + +<p>A second section of the Tory party held, on the other hand, that James +having by his own act ceased to govern, had also ceased to reign. By +deliberately laying aside the sceptre he had brought about a demise of +the crown. It had simply devolved upon the person next in succession, +and that person was, they declared, the Princess Mary. There was no need +therefore for the creation of a Regent, and still less for the more +extreme and wholly unprecedented step of appointing a new sovereign. All +that was necessary was a mere formal recognition by the <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_43" id="Page_43">[Pg 43]</a></span>country of the +bare legal facts of the case. According to this party the Princess Mary +was in truth at that moment the lawful Queen of England, and nothing +more was needed than a national acknowledgment of her title.</p> + +<p>To both of these doctrines the Whig party were equally opposed. They +held in opposition to the former, that James had ceased to reign, and in +opposition to the latter, that the crown had been not demised but simply +forfeited. The King's destruction of his own right could not have, and +had not had, the effect of transmitting them to any one else whomsoever. +They resided at that moment, whatever constitutional fictions might aver +to the contrary, in no one; and a special expression of the national +will, a special exertion of the national power, would be required in +favour of some designated successors to these rights before anybody +could be regarded, whether in fact or law, as invested with them.</p> + +<p>Apart from all political prepossessions there can, I think, be no +serious dispute as to which was the most logical and tenable contention +of the three; and that this was distinctly that of the Whigs. The Tories +who contended that James had lost his right to the personal exercise of +the royal authority, while yet retaining so much of that authority that +any one who exercised it in his stead must be supposed to do so as his +deputy, were involved in a hopeless contradiction. In assuming to +appoint such deputy to act for a person whom they still persisted in +regarding as king <i>de jure</i>, they were themselves obviously usurping a +portion of that very <i>jus</i> which they professed to respect. True, they +attempted to get over this objection by urging that James had placed +himself <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_44" id="Page_44">[Pg 44]</a></span>under a disability to exercise his royal authority, but they +could point to nothing in the facts of the case to support their +contention. Disability to exercise royal authority could, in the view of +the Constitution, arise from one cause alone, the same cause from which +in the view of the common law arises the disability to exercise civil +rights. The disabled King, like the disabled subject, must have become +mentally incapacitated; and James's incapacitation for the work of +government was purely moral. Setting aside the deposition and execution +of his father, which even the Whigs did not endeavour to elevate into a +regular precedent, there was no constitutional sanction for the +withdrawal of the reins of state from the hands of the monarch, on any +ground save that of insanity. Once extend this, and admit that a king +who is merely bad may be treated as though he were mad, and the Whig +doctrine is thereby absolutely conceded. As to the practical +inconveniences of a Regency exercised in the name of an actively hostile +sovereign—a sovereign who would have been sometimes in arms against his +own nominal authority, and always plotting its overthrow—they would of +course have been both grave and numerous. But it is less surprising that +the Regency party of that day should have ignored them than that they +should have been so indifferent to the complete surrender of their +political principles which was involved in the proposal to which they +committed themselves.</p> + +<p>More logical in form, but equally untenable in fact, was the position +assumed by the other section of the Tory party. There was perhaps +nothing altogether irreconcilable with their principles in the theory +that a voluntary abandonment of the throne might operate as a demise of +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_45" id="Page_45">[Pg 45]</a></span>the crown; but coolly to assert a right to pass over the infant Prince +of Wales on the strength of the mere idle story that he was a +supposititious child<a name="FNanchor_6_6" id="FNanchor_6_6"></a><a href="#Footnote_6_6" class="fnanchor">[6]</a> was a pretension which, especially as put +forward by men who were such sticklers for constitutional fictions as to +insist that there must at any given moment be some one person or other +entitled to wear the English crown, appears little short of +preposterous.</p> + +<p>The Whig theory of the situation rejected the fictions of both branches +of the Tory party with equal decision. There was no need, according to +the Whigs, for the country to bewilder itself in efforts to distinguish +between <i>de jure</i> and <i>de facto</i> sovereignty, still less to resort to +the far-fetched expedient of assuming a demise of the crown in order to +prevent the former kind of sovereignty from undergoing interruption. A +king, they held, might lose his title to the crown by a voluntary +abandonment of the throne; and he might lose that title without anybody +succeeding to it. Indeed, since the English crown devolved according to +the ordinary English laws of succession, it was impossible that anybody +should succeed to it by mere <i>operation of law</i> during its former +wearer's life-time. If it was a principle of constitutional law that at +any given moment there must be some lawful king or queen of England in +existence, it was no less a principle <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_46" id="Page_46">[Pg 46]</a></span>of the common law that <i>nemo est +hæres viventis</i>. James, therefore, had according to the Whig theory +ceased to be sovereign, and no one else had become sovereign in his +stead: the throne was vacant. Being vacant it was for the Convention to +fill it, and the members of that body were both entitled and bound to +select the fittest successor to it, unconstrained, though not +necessarily uninfluenced, by the claims of successorship which would +have vested in this, that, or the other person under an ordinary demise +of the crown.</p> + +<p>That this was the most logical and self-consistent view of the situation +appears to me undeniable; but it is a singular illustration of the +manner in which events may transpose the relative proportions of +principles that this Whig corollary from the abdication of James +appeared to the statesmen of the time, and even it should seem to +Macaulay, a century and a half after them, to be a more pregnant +assertion of democratic doctrine, and a bolder step in its application, +than that expressed in the earlier proposition that James had ceased to +reign. Nowadays the difference between the Tories who contended that the +crown had been demised, and the Whigs who insisted that the throne was +vacant, hardly arrests the student for an instant. He is disposed to +brush the Tory fiction aside as alike irrational and unnecessary. The +real passage of the Rubicon took place in his view of the matter when it +was declared that James had ceased to be <i>de jure</i> king, and no +subsequent assertion of popular rights in the choice of a successor +could possibly be stronger or more important than that declaration +itself. Yet whereas the Convention accepted the first of these +propositions <i>nemine contradicente</i>, <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_47" id="Page_47">[Pg 47]</a></span>the second was only adopted after +having been once actually rejected, and was in fact the subject of so +sharp a conflict of opinion as to threaten irreconcilable deadlock +between the two branches of the constituent body.<a name="FNanchor_7_7" id="FNanchor_7_7"></a><a href="#Footnote_7_7" class="fnanchor">[7]</a></p> + +<p>The Convention met on the 22d of January, when Halifax was chosen +president in the Lords; Powle, Speaker of the Commons. A letter from +William, read in both Houses, informed their members that he had +endeavoured to the best of his power to discharge the trust reposed in +him, and that it now rested with the Convention to lay the foundation of +a firm security for their religion, laws, and liberties. The Prince then +went on to refer to the dangerous condition of the Protestants in +Ireland and the present state of things abroad, which obliged him to +tell them that next to the danger of unreasonable divisions among +themselves, nothing could be so fatal as too great a delay in their +consultations. And he further intimated that as England was already +bound by treaty to help the Dutch in such exigencies as, deprived of the +troops which he had brought over, and threatened with war by Louis XIV., +they might easily <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_48" id="Page_48">[Pg 48]</a></span>be reduced to, so he felt confident that the cheerful +concurrence of the Dutch in preserving this kingdom would meet with all +the returns of friendship from Protestants and Englishmen whenever their +own condition should require assistance. To this the two Houses replied +with an address thanking the Prince for his great care in the +administration of the affairs of the kingdom to this time, and formally +continuing to him the same commission,<a name="FNanchor_8_8" id="FNanchor_8_8"></a><a href="#Footnote_8_8" class="fnanchor">[8]</a> recommending to his particular +care the present state of Ireland. William's answer to this address was +characteristic both of his temperament and his preoccupation. "My lords +and gentlemen," he said, "I am glad that what I have done hath pleased +you; and since you desire me to continue the administration of affairs, +I am willing to accept it. I must recommend to you the consideration of +affairs abroad which makes it fit for you to expedite your business, not +only for making a settlement at home on a good foundation, but for the +safety of Europe." On the 28th the Commons resolved themselves into a +committee of the whole House, and Richard Hampden, son of the great +John, was voted into the chair. The honour of having been the first to +speak the word which was on everybody's lips belongs to Gilbert Dolben, +son of a late Archbishop of York, who "made a long speech tending to +prove that the King's deserting his kingdom without appointing any +person to administer the government amounted in reason and judgment of +law to a demise." Sir Robert Howard, one of the members for <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_49" id="Page_49">[Pg 49]</a></span>Castle +Rising, went a step further, and asserted that the throne, was vacant. +The extreme Tories made a vain effort to procure an adjournment, but the +combination against them of Whigs and their own moderates was too strong +for them, and after a long and stormy debate the House resolved "That +King James II., having endeavoured to subvert the constitution by +breaking the original contract between the King and people, and by the +advice of Jesuits and other wicked persons having violated the +fundamental laws and withdrawn himself out of the kingdom, has abdicated +the government, and that the throne is thereby vacant."</p> + +<p>This resolution was at once sent up to the Lords. Before, however, they +could proceed to consider it, another message arrived from the Commons +to the effect that they had just voted it inconsistent with the safety +and welfare of this Protestant nation to be governed by a Popish king. +To this resolution the Peers assented with a readiness which showed in +advance that James had no party in the Upper House, and that the utmost +length to which the Tories in that body were prepared to go was to +support the proposal of a Regency. The first resolution of the Commons +was then put aside in order that this proposal might be discussed. It +was Archbishop Sancroft's plan, who, however, did not make his +appearance to advocate it, and in his absence it was supported by +Rochester and Nottingham, while Halifax and Danby led the opposition to +it. After a day's debate it was lost by the narrow majority of two, +forty-nine peers declaring in its favour, and fifty-one against it. The +Lords then went into Committee on the Commons' resolution, and at once +proceeded, as was <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_50" id="Page_50">[Pg 50]</a></span>natural enough, to dispute the clause in its preamble +which referred to the original contract between the King and the people. +No Tory of course could really have subscribed to the doctrine implied +in these words; but it was doubtless as hard in those days as in these +to interest an assembly of English politicians in affirmations of +abstract political principle, and some Tories probably thought it not +worth while to multiply causes of dissent with the Lower House by +attacking a purely academic recital of their resolution. Anyhow, the +numbers of the minority slightly fell off, only forty-six peers +objecting to the phrase, while fifty-three voted that it should stand. +The word "deserted" was then substituted without a division for the word +"abdicated," and the hour being late, the Lords adjourned.</p> + +<p>The real battle, of course, was now at hand, and to any one who assents +to the foregoing criticisms it will be evident that it was far less of a +conflict on a point of constitutional principle, and far more of a +struggle between the parties of two distinct—one cannot call them +rival—claimants to the throne than high-flying Whig writers are +accustomed to represent it. It would of course, be too much to say that +the Whigs insisted on declaring the vacancy of the throne, <i>only</i> +because they wished to place William on it, and that the Tories +contended for a demise of the crown, <i>only</i> because they wished an +English princess to succeed to the throne rather than a Dutch prince. +Still, it is pretty certain that, but for this conflict of preferences, +the two political parties, who had made so little difficulty of agreeing +in the declaration that James had ceased to reign, would never have +found it so hard to concur in its almost <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_51" id="Page_51">[Pg 51]</a></span>necessary sequence that the +throne was vacant. The debate on the last clause of the resolution +began, and it soon became apparent that the Whigs were outnumbered. The +forty-nine peers who had supported the proposal of a Regency, which +implied that the royal title was still in James, were bound, of course, +to oppose the proposition that the throne was vacant; and they were +reinforced by several peers who held that that title had already +devolved upon Mary. An attempt to compromise the dispute by omitting the +words pronouncing the throne vacant, and inserting words which merely +proclaimed the Prince and Princess of Orange King and Queen, was +rejected by fifty-two votes to forty-seven<a name="FNanchor_9_9" id="FNanchor_9_9"></a><a href="#Footnote_9_9" class="fnanchor">[9]</a>; and the original clause +was then put and negatived by fifty-five votes to forty-one.</p> + +<p>Thus amended by the substitution of "deserted" for "abdicated," and the +omission of the words "and <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_52" id="Page_52">[Pg 52]</a></span>that the throne is thereby vacant," the +resolution was sent back to the Commons, who instantly and without a +division disagreed with the amendments. The situation was now becoming +critical. The prospect of a deadlock between the two branches of the +Convention threw London into a ferment; crowds assembled in Palace Yard; +petitions were presented in that tumultuous fashion which converts +supplication into menace. To their common credit, however, both parties +united in resistance to these attempts at popular coercion; and William +himself interposed to enjoin a stricter police of the capital. On +Monday, the 4th of February, the Lords resolved to insist on their +amendments; on the following day the Commons reaffirmed their +disagreement with them by 282 votes to 151. A free Conference between +the two Houses was then arranged, and met on the following day.</p> + +<p>But the dispute, like many another in our political history, had +meanwhile been settled out of court. Between the date of the Peers' vote +and the Conference Mary had communicated to Danby her high displeasure +at the conduct of those who were setting up her claims in opposition to +those of her husband; and William, who had previously maintained an +unbroken silence, now made, unsolicited, a declaration of a most +important, and indeed of a conclusive kind. If the Convention, he said, +chose to adopt the plan of a Regency, he had nothing to say against it, +only they must look out for some other person to fill the office, for he +himself would not consent to do so. As to the alternative proposal of +putting Mary on the throne and allowing him to reign by her courtesy, +"No man," he said, "can esteem a <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_53" id="Page_53">[Pg 53]</a></span>woman more than I do the Princess; but +I am so made that I cannot think of holding anything by apron-strings; +nor can I think it reasonable to have any share in the government unless +it be put in my own person, and that for the term of my life. If you +think fit to settle it otherwise I will not oppose you, but will go back +to Holland and meddle no more in your affairs." These few sentences of +plain speaking swept away the clouds of intrigue and pedantry as by a +wholesome gust of wind. Both political parties at once perceived that +there was but one possible issue from the situation. The Conference was +duly held, and the constitutional question was, with great display of +now unnecessary learning, solemnly debated; but the managers for the two +Houses met only to register a foregone conclusion. The word "abdicated" +was restored; the vacancy of the throne was voted by sixty-two votes to +forty-seven; and it was immediately proposed and carried without a +division that the Prince and Princess of Orange should be declared King +and Queen of England.</p> + +<p>It now only remained to give formal effect to this resolution, and in so +doing to settle the conditions whereon the crown, which the Convention +had now distinctly recognised itself as conferring upon the Prince and +Princess, should be conferred. A Committee appointed by the Commons to +consider what safeguards should be taken against the aggressions of +future sovereigns had made a report in which they recommended not only a +solemn enunciation of ancient constitutional principles, but the +enactment of new laws. The Commons, however, having regard to the +importance of prompt action, judiciously resolved on carrying out <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_54" id="Page_54">[Pg 54]</a></span>only +the first part of the programme. They determined to preface their tender +of the crown to William and Mary by a recital of the royal encroachments +of the past reigns, and a formal assertion of the constitutional +principles against which such encroachments had offended. This document, +drafted by a Committee of which the celebrated Somers, then a +scarcely-known young advocate, was the chairman, was the famous +<span class="smcap">Declaration of Right</span>.</p> + +<p>The grievances which it recapitulated in its earlier portion, fourteen +in number, were as follows:—(1) the royal pretension to dispense with +and suspend laws without consent of Parliament; (2) the punishment of +subjects, as in the Seven Bishops' case, for petitioning the Crown; (3) +the establishment of the illegal Court of High Commission for +ecclesiastical affairs; (4) the levy of taxes without the consent of +Parliament; (5) the maintenance of a standing army in time of peace +without the same consent; (6) the disarmament of Protestants while +Papists were both armed and employed contrary to law; (7) the violation +of the freedom of election; (8) the prosecution in the King's Bench of +suits only cognisable in Parliament; (9) the return of partial and +corrupt juries; (10) the requisition of excessive bail; (11) the +imposition of excessive fines; (12) the infliction of illegal and cruel +punishments; (13) the grants of the estates of accused persons before +conviction. Then, after solemnly reaffirming the popular rights from +which these abuses of the prerogative derogated, the Declaration goes on +to recite that, having an "entire confidence" William would "preserve +them from the violation of the rights which they have here asserted, the +Three Estates <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_55" id="Page_55">[Pg 55]</a></span>do resolve that William and Mary, Prince and Princess of +Orange, be and be declared King and Queen ... to hold the Crown and +Royal Dignity ... to them the said Prince and Princess during their +Lives and the Life of the Survivor of them; and the sole and full +exercise of the Royal Power be only in and exercised by the said Prince +of Orange, in the Names of the said Prince and Princess during their +Lives, and after their Deceases, the said Crown and Royal Dignity of the +said Kingdoms and Dominions to the Heirs of the Body of the said +Princess; and, for default of such Issue, to the Princess Anne of +Denmark and the Heirs of her Body; and, for default of such Issue, to +the Issue of the said Prince of Orange." Then followed an alteration +required by the scrupulous conscience of Nottingham in the terms of the +Oath of Allegiance.</p> + +<p>On the 12th of February Mary arrived from Holland. On the following day, +in the Banqueting House at Whitehall, the Prince and Princess of Orange +were waited on by both Houses of Convention in a body. The Declaration +was read by the Clerk of the Crown; the sovereignty solemnly tendered to +them by Halifax, in the name of the Estates; and on the same day they +were proclaimed King and Queen in the usual places in the cities of +London and Westminster.</p> + +<h4>FOOTNOTES:</h4> + +<div class="footnote"><p class="noin"><a name="Footnote_6_6" id="Footnote_6_6"></a><a href="#FNanchor_6_6"><span class="label">[6]</span></a> <i>How</i> idle this story was may best be judged by studying +the so-called evidence in its favour, as set forth in the pages of that +writer who, more perhaps than any other chronicler of the events of that +period, would have liked to establish its truth. No one, I think, can +read Burnet's account of the Queen's accouchement, so completely +demonstrating as it does the <i>impossibility</i> of the alleged fraud, +without wondering at the strength of the partisanship and popular +prejudice which could for a moment have believed in its perpetration.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p class="noin"><a name="Footnote_7_7" id="Footnote_7_7"></a><a href="#FNanchor_7_7"><span class="label">[7]</span></a> The fact that the <i>practical</i> cause of this sharp conflict +was the rivalry between the partisans of William and those of Mary is +only a partial explanation of the phenomenon referred to in the text. It +is a reason for the Convention having debated the Whig corollary so +much, but not for their debating the Whig-Tory original proposition so +little. Of course the <i>practical</i> explanation is the simple one, that +James had made himself impossible. Both parties concurred so readily in +that opinion that they applied it without either of them pausing to +consider its scope as a precedent, and that, quite apart from all +controversies as to regency, demise of the crown, vacancy of the throne, +or what not, the first instance in which a people pronounced <i>any</i> king +impossible—such king being of sound mind, and still asserting his +sovereignty—let in the whole modern democratic theory.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p class="noin"><a name="Footnote_8_8" id="Footnote_8_8"></a><a href="#FNanchor_8_8"><span class="label">[8]</span></a> It is somewhat singular that Macaulay should have taken no +notice of an address which really constituted William's sole legal, or +quasi legal title to the administration of affairs between the +assembling of the Convention (which necessarily revoked his original +commission) and the conclusion of its king-making labours.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p class="noin"><a name="Footnote_9_9" id="Footnote_9_9"></a><a href="#FNanchor_9_9"><span class="label">[9]</span></a> The offer and rejection of this compromise appears to me to +be additional proof of the proposition advanced in the text—viz. that +both Whigs and Tories were far more solicitous for the success of their +candidate than for the triumph of their principles. Macaulay, it is +true, contends, as from his point of view he was bound to do, that the +Whigs made no concession of principle in proposing their compromise; for +if, he argues, the Convention could elect William and Mary there must +have been a vacancy of the throne. But surely the resolution as amended +might have been treated as merely <i>declaratory</i> of Mary's title, and +elective only so far as it associated William with her on a throne which +had become his wife's by succession, and so would never have been +vacated at all. No; it was a genuine and not a fictitious surrender of +Whig principle; and while it proved that the Whigs were prepared to +offer any such concession as would make William King, its rejection +proved that the Tories cared for no such concession as did not leave +Mary sole Queen. The gain of votes which the Whigs secured by the +compromise probably represents the proportion of peers who really cared +for the abstract principle apart from the concrete facts.</p></div> +<br /> +<br /> +<br /><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_56" id="Page_56">[Pg 56]</a></span> +<br /> + +<hr /> +<br /> +<h2>CHAPTER VI</h2> + +<h3>1689</h3> + +<div class="blockquot"><p class="hang" style="margin-left: 2em;">William's part in the Revolution—Convention declared a +Parliament—Oath of Allegiance—Settlement of Civil +List—Appropriation Clause—Toleration and +Comprehension—Address of the Commons inviting the King to +declare war.</p></div> + + +<p>Thus prudently and calmly was effected our great English Revolution. +Both as an event and as an achievement we have equal cause to review its +history with pleasure; for if in some aspects it testifies to the good +fortune of our nation, it reflects credit in others on the good +qualities of our people. I have endeavoured in the last chapter to point +out that the modern Whig view of the Revolution as a great conflict +between two opposing schools of constitutional doctors, resulting in the +victory of the more liberal one, is largely legendary; that the struggle +between Whigs and Tories resolved itself almost entirely into a dispute +of preferences as between two alternative candidates for the throne; and +that both parties showed themselves alike prepared to waive the +principles which they severally held on condition of attaining their +practical end—the success of their favoured candidate. But this does +not in any way detract either from the value of the Revolution or from +the merits of its authors; while it otherwise only serves to conform it +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_57" id="Page_57">[Pg 57]</a></span>to the normal type of English political work. All our great +constitutional precedents are the parents of principle rather than its +offspring; we deduce our theories from accomplished facts of our own +creation, the creation of such accomplished facts being itself +determined by no theoretical considerations, but by certain practical +exigencies of the moment. Few Englishmen will think any worse of the +Whig because, although firmly wedded to the principle of national +sovereignty, he would have been willing to lose the opportunity of +expressly affirming it so long as he could by any means place William of +Orange, with full regal power, on the throne. Nor will they be any more +disposed to condemn the Tory in that when he found himself compelled to +give way on the practical point of the succession, he did not think it +worth while to quarrel with the assertions or implications of Whig +principle contained in the resolution by which the transfer was +effected. On the contrary, the temper and habits of mind thus jointly +illustrated are national characteristics on which we especially and not +unreasonably pride ourselves.</p> + +<p>For the purposes of a precedent, too, the transaction could hardly have +come more happily off. Even a Tory of to-day will admit that it was good +for the future development of our constitutional life that the Whig +principles of "national sovereignty," "original contract between king +and people," and all the rest of it, should then and there receive +unmistakable recognition and irrevocable ratification; and this beyond +question they did receive. No hair-splittings about desertion or +abdication<a name="FNanchor_10_10" id="FNanchor_10_10"></a><a href="#Footnote_10_10" class="fnanchor">[10]</a> could obscure the two plain facts, that the <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_58" id="Page_58">[Pg 58]</a></span>nation +<i>deposed</i> James II., and by a distinct assertion of inherent, or +assumption of new, authority—it matters not which—<i>made</i> a new king +out of a man who, but for such assertion or assumption of authority, +could never have become more than the consort of a queen.</p> + +<p>As regards the new King himself, his behaviour at this great crisis in +his own fortunes and the destiny of two nations deserves, at any rate, +the credit of honesty and straightforwardness. We shall not really add +to that honour by seeking any more showy motives than those which lie on +the face of his conduct. The mere masculine repugnance of the man of +action to lower the spear before the distaff would in any case probably +have induced him to reject the proposal of the Tory lords. But apart +from this, his shrewd knowledge of men and clear insight into politics +assured him that he had only to refuse the false position in order to +compel the offer of the true one. He might have been all else that he +was—the devoted son of Holland; the true, if unimpassioned, friend of +England; the implacable enemy of the French king and his designs; the +ardent champion of Protestantism and the liberties of Europe;—and yet +only been the more tempted in every one of these by a place on the steps +of a powerful throne, and an influence which even from that situation he +might <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_59" id="Page_59">[Pg 59]</a></span>have wielded to the attainment of many great ends. He was saved +from accepting it solely by his pride, his ambition, and his +perspicacity. He resented the thought of holding power as his wife's +lieutenant, and he saw that he had only to refuse that post in order to +make himself a necessity as king.</p> + +<p>The first act of the new sovereign was to summon and swear a Privy +Council, and to nominate a Ministry. In the then infancy of our modern +Constitution it was not, as it now is, incumbent upon the sovereign to +select the Ministers from one particular party. It was competent to him, +and William deemed it expedient for him, to tender office to the +representatives of both political connections. Danby, a Tory by +principle, though he had sided with the Whigs in opposing the Regency +scheme, and only broke away from them on the question of declaring the +throne vacant, was made President of the Council. Halifax, a Trimmer +indeed, but of closer affinities with Whiggery than with Toryism, and +the chief upholder of the Whig doctrine on the question of the +succession, became Lord Privy Seal. Nottingham, a Tory up to almost any +point short of passive obedience, received the seals of one +Secretaryship of State; upon Shrewsbury, a Whig, were bestowed those of +the other. The Treasury and the Admiralty were committed to the +Administration of Boards—the former under the presidency of Admiral +Herbert, the latter under that of Charles Mordaunt, afterwards the +famous and eccentric Earl of Peterborough. By an exercise of the royal +authority, willingly acquiesced in at the time by the nation, but +destined to entail more momentous national consequences than any of his +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_60" id="Page_60">[Pg 60]</a></span>subjects foresaw, King William retained in his own hands the exclusive +direction of foreign affairs. The Great Seal was placed in commission.</p> + +<p>The first question propounded to the Privy Council was whether the +Convention should be declared a lawful Parliament, or dissolved and a +fresh Parliament summoned in the regular manner by royal writ. The +Council advised the former course, and a Bill declaring the Convention a +Parliament was at once introduced and passed through the House of Lords. +It was opposed in the Commons by the Tories, who hoped that a general +election might strengthen their numbers; but the resistance—founded as +it was upon mere technical considerations, and with historical precedent +against it—was never very formidable; and the Bill passed the Lower +House in a few days, and became law. Among its clauses was one providing +that no one should, after the 1st of March then next ensuing, sit or +vote in either House of Parliament without taking the oaths of +allegiance to the new King and Queen, and the Jacobites and ultra-Tories +conceived the hope that many peers, bishops, and commoners would find it +impossible to reconcile their consciences to this test. As a matter of +fact the non-jurors, except among the Episcopal body, to whom Archbishop +Sancroft set the example of recusancy, were comparatively few. Even +later, when the oath was tendered to the clergy at large, the number of +those who found themselves conscientiously unable to take it was but +one-twentieth of the whole body.<a name="FNanchor_11_11" id="FNanchor_11_11"></a><a href="#Footnote_11_11" class="fnanchor">[11]</a></p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_61" id="Page_61">[Pg 61]</a></span>In the interval, however, between the passing of the Act and the day +fixed for submission to the test, the great question of the royal +revenues was taken up and decided. Certain proceeds of taxation were in +those days granted to the Crown either for a fixed term of years or for +life. The former, being on the face of them annexed to the regal office, +were of course transferable without much difficulty or dispute to the +new incumbent of that office; but doubts naturally arose as to the exact +legal status of the latter kind of imposts. Some were for interpreting +the word "life" as virtually meaning reign, upon which construction the +right to exact these taxes had lapsed by the deposition of the sovereign +to whom they were granted. Others insisted on an interpretation stricter +in one sense and laxer in another, and argued that though William had +become entitled to these revenues as King he could only enjoy them +during the life of James. In other words, in order to avoid taking +liberties with the word "life," they were prepared to behave with far +more unbridled license to the word "king." The practical inconvenience +of settling revenues on William during the life of James may or may not +have weighed more with the Parliament than the theoretical anomaly of +treating the former as sovereign for one purpose and the latter as such +for another; but anyhow it was tacitly agreed to treat the grant to +James as annulled by his so-called abdication. The Commons then voted +the sum of £1,200,000 for the current year, one half to be appropriated +to the <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_62" id="Page_62">[Pg 62]</a></span>civil list, the other half to the defences of the +country—mainly, of course, in other words, to the prosecution of the +impending war in Ireland. At the first sitting of Parliament, after the +prorogation, which took place some months afterwards, the Royal Speech +from the Throne contained an announcement to the Commons that in order +that they might be satisfied how the money had been laid out which they +had already given, his Majesty had directed the accounts to be laid +before them whenever they should think fit to call for them. The +privilege thus practically acknowledged may no doubt be, as some +constitutional lawyers have contended, coeval with the constitution; but +it had been so intermittently respected that its unvarying recognition +from this time forward is justly reckoned as one of the chief gains +which accrued to our parliamentary system from the Revolution. It seems, +however, to have been only in the Stat., 9 and 10 Will. III. c. 44, that +there appears an appropriation clause of the modern type apportioning +all the supplies of the session to the services for which they were +provided.</p> + +<p>But while these delicate matters of royal rights and official income +were being disposed of, the King was commendably anxious to show himself +at once in some other light than that of an applicant for parliamentary +aids. As early as the 1st of March he sent a special message to the +Commons calling their attention to the "grievous burden" of the +unpopular hearth-tax, and signifying that assent either "to the +regulation of it, or to the taking of it wholly away," not doubting but +the Commons would take care of his revenue in some other way. This +judicious proposal gave great <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_63" id="Page_63">[Pg 63]</a></span>satisfaction. The Commons replied in +terms of warm acknowledgment, and the city of London presented to him an +address of thanks. He interposed, however, with less success and perhaps +with less judgment in the religious disputes by which the country was +divided. The traditions, alike of his nation and his house, may well +have encouraged him to aspire to the great office of moderator and +mediator between contending sects; but it is doubtful whether such a +post could under any circumstances have been within the reach of a Dutch +Calvinist. For the imperfect and illogically-regulated relief accorded +by the Toleration Act to most of the dissenting denominations the +country was prepared; but neither the occasion nor the idea of the +Comprehension Bill—a measure for widening the entrance to the Church of +England at the very moment when those who had chosen to remain outside +were being encouraged by a relieving Act to remain there—was in itself +a happy one. Churchmen were, from their own point of view, entitled to +argue that the two measures proceeded upon two opposite and conflicting +theories of state policy; that toleration, properly understood and +applied, would render comprehension superfluous, and had indeed been +accepted by the Church with that very object; and that it was but a poor +return for her surrender of her ancient claim to compel schismatics into +her fold, that she should be required unduly to extend its limits for +the purpose of embracing them. It is probable enough that William's eye +for an ecclesiastical scruple was not quite as keen as his insight into +the principles of civil government and the workings of European policy, +for he seems to have been surprised <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_64" id="Page_64">[Pg 64]</a></span>and disappointed at finding that +Churchmen and Dissenters, though the Toleration Act was accepted by the +former without serious difficulty and by the latter with hearty +rejoicings, would neither of them so much as look at his scheme of +comprehension. He evidently understood neither the "dissidence of +dissent" nor the Anglicanism of the Anglican Communion. The +Comprehension Bill had a troubled time of it even in the House of Lords, +where it was first introduced, and after some debate in the House of +Commons it was shelved. As vainly did William attempt to compose the +feud between the Whig and Tory Churchman and Nonconformist by offering, +so to speak, a bribe to each of them to tolerate the other. The new oath +of allegiance, framed by Parliament for itself, required to be extended +to all those classes of persons who had been compelled to take one. +Legislation was commenced for that purpose concurrently with the debates +over the Comprehension Bill, and the King, according to Burnet, saw +here, as he thought, an opportunity of bringing the disputants to a +mutually beneficial compromise. In his speech to the Commons on the 16th +of March, he signified his wish that in the pending legislation "they +would leave room for the admission of all Protestants that were willing +and able to serve"—a suggestion which, of course, was directly aimed at +the tests then excluding Dissenters from office. And while he pressed +this measure of relief upon the Tories, he at the same time invited the +Whigs to make a concession to their adversaries by absolving, as he was +willing to do, the existing beneficed clergy from the necessity of +taking the new oath of allegiance. He begged of the one party not to +compel <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_65" id="Page_65">[Pg 65]</a></span>the Nonconformist to choose between offence against conscience +and exclusion from civil office, and of the other party not to compel a +clergyman to choose between offence against conscience and expulsion +from ecclesiastical office; and he imagined that each would find their +account in consenting. But no. The Whig was determined to force the oath +upon the parson; the Tory was resolved to force the test upon the +dissenter. No provision of relief for Nonconformists was introduced into +the Comprehension Bill, and the measure itself was shortly afterwards +dropped. The Oaths Bill passed in a form which compelled every beneficed +clergyman to swear allegiance to the new King and Queen by the 1st of +August 1689, on pain of suspension, to be followed on the 1st of +February 1690, in the event of the non-juror remaining contumacious, by +deprivation.</p> + +<p>History has done justice to these well-meaning efforts of William; but +the political virtue which for the moment was its own reward, must, one +imagines, have been felt by him as painfully unremunerative. He could +not have expected to be personally popular, and he was not, though +Macaulay, in his desire for strong pictorial effect, has surely +exaggerated his unpopularity. But he, no doubt, counted upon wielding a +greater civil influence at the outset of his career than he in fact +discovered to be his, and must have learned, with some chagrin, that he +had failed to realise the vehemence of those English party conflicts in +which not even the ablest and best intentioned of mediators can +interpose without disappointment until he has mastered all the secrets +of their intensity. On the whole, one can easily understand the feeling +of satisfaction with which he <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_66" id="Page_66">[Pg 66]</a></span>hailed the coming of the hour when he, +with whom the instincts of the European statesman and soldier were +always dominant over these of the domestic administrator, was once more +summoned to activity in one of the two arts in which he shone. On the +19th of April the Commons presented an address to the Crown, in which, +after reciting the various acts of hostility committed by Louis XIV. +against their country, "particularly the present invasion of Ireland," +they assured William that when he "should think fit to enter into a war +against the French king, they would give him such assistance in a +parliamentary way as to enable him to support and go through with the +same." To this invitation from his Parliament William returned an answer +of ready acquiescence, while to those about him he exclaimed, with +unwonted animation, "This is the first day of my reign."</p> + +<h4>FOOTNOTES:</h4> + +<div class="footnote"><p class="noin"><a name="Footnote_10_10" id="Footnote_10_10"></a><a href="#FNanchor_10_10"><span class="label">[10]</span></a> There are but two ways in which a sovereign can, while +alive, and <i>compos mentis</i>, become divested of his regal attributes and +authority—by abdication and by deposition; and it is impossible to +define abdication satisfactorily by any form of words which does not +involve the idea of a <i>voluntary</i> act. Even if a voluntary abandonment +or "desertion of the Government" amounted to abdication, it would not +help the case. James's flight from England in 1688 was no more voluntary +than the flight of his brother, then king <i>de jure</i>, after Worcester in +1651. Both flights were taken under what was or was conceived to be +<i>force majeure</i>.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p class="noin"><a name="Footnote_11_11" id="Footnote_11_11"></a><a href="#FNanchor_11_11"><span class="label">[11]</span></a> This, however, it should be conceded, was really, of the +two, a more respectable proportion; for the clergy had a sterner +alternative before them than the bishops, peers, or members of the Lower +House. The latter had only status at stake—the former, in most cases, +their means of subsistence.</p></div> +<br /> +<br /> +<br /><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_67" id="Page_67">[Pg 67]</a></span> +<br /> + +<hr /> +<br /> +<h2>CHAPTER VII</h2> + +<h3>1689-1690</h3> + +<div class="blockquot"><p class="hang" style="margin-left: 2em;">Invasion of Ireland—Campaign of 1689—Parliamentary +strife—The conduct of the war—The Oates Case—The +Succession Bill—Attempts to pass an Indemnity +Bill—Rancour of the Whigs—Their factious opposition to +William's Irish plans—Dissolution of Parliament.</p></div> + + +<p>An address from Parliament praying the sovereign to declare war against +a foreign state is far from a common incident in our history; and even +in this instance the initiative then taken by the Commons was one of +form rather than of fact. The descent of James upon Ireland, under the +convoy of a French fleet of fifteen sail of the line, and accompanied by +a force of 2500 French soldiers, amounted to an act of war on the part +of France, if ever such an act was committed by one nation upon another; +and it was not till more than a month after the perpetration of this +outrage that the address referred to in the last chapter was presented +to the King. James landed at Kinsale on the 12th of March; the address +to the King is dated, as has been said, on the 19th of April. England, +moreover, was not the first of the coalition of Powers which the patient +diplomacy of William had formed against Louis to take action against the +common enemy. The declaration of the German Diet had <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_68" id="Page_68">[Pg 68]</a></span>appeared in +February, and that of the States-General in March.</p> + +<p>On the 24th of March James entered Dublin, which, in common with all the +other cities of the three southern provinces of Ireland, had declared +for his cause; but after only three weeks' stay in the capital it was +decided, against the advice of his chief French counsellor, d'Avaux, who +with the Lord Deputy Tyrconnel, and the Irish Catholic party in general, +were for keeping him among the Celtic population of the island, that he +should go northward and take command of the royal army in Ulster. He +accordingly set out on the 14th of April, and after some further +hesitations caused by conflicting reports as to the results of a +skirmish between the Protestants and a body of his own men at Strabane, +arrived a few days later among his troops, who were quartered a few +miles south of Londonderry, a city which, with Inniskillen, had formed +the rallying point for the Protestant minority when the outbreak of the +Revolution, awakening the hopes of the Catholic population, appeared to +threaten the "English garrison" with a repetition of the horrors of +1641. Here it had been fully expected by James's more sanguine +counsellors that he would be, if not loyally, at any rate submissively +received. The appearance of their lawful sovereign before their walls +would at any rate, it was thought, confirm the wavering allegiance of +the military under the command of the Governor, Colonel Lundy. As a +matter of fact, it only served to arouse a spirit of determined +resistance in the townsmen, to unite the soldiery in the same cause, and +to precipitate the flight of the Jacobite governor. James and his +retinue, on approaching the <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_69" id="Page_69">[Pg 69]</a></span>gate, were fired on from the nearest +bastion; a subsequent demand for surrender was contemptuously rejected, +and after a few days' delay before the town its rejected sovereign set +off in chagrin and disappointment to return to Dublin, leaving +Londonderry to prepare for that heroic defence of three months against +the combined forces of war, disease, and famine, which has made her name +famous among the cities of the world. James's first act on his return to +the capital was to summon a Parliament, and a Parliament, of a sort, +responded to the summons. That is to say, out of a hundred temporal +peers then in Ireland, fourteen, of whom ten were Catholics, obeyed the +summons, while the fidelity at any rate of the faithful Commons was +guaranteed by the fact that only six out of the total number of two +hundred and fifty were Protestants. Having assembled, they promptly +proceeded to attest this virtue by the wholesale confiscation of the +lands of Protestants, and the proscription of their heads. Ulster, +however, was still unreduced, and while that was so, denunciatory and +spoliatory decrees might well turn out to be mere waste paper. The +dashing Inniskilleners—the cavalry, so to speak, of that Protestant +army in which Londonderry played the part of the immovable square of +infantry—had actually meditated, though they never carried out, an +attempt to relieve their beleaguered sister city, and at Newtown Butler +they were able to render signal service to their cause by the defeat of +General Macarthy and 6000 Irish. By the end of July Londonderry had been +relieved; early in August Marshal Schomberg, then one of the most +renowned of European generals, landed at Carrickfergus with 16,000 men, +and <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_70" id="Page_70">[Pg 70]</a></span>it became evident even to the most hopeful of James's adherents +that the northern province was lost to him irretrievably.</p> + +<p>William meanwhile still remained in London busied with the task, at once +delicate and laborious, of administering the government of a distrustful +and almost unfriendly people through the agency of two bitterly divided +factions. The parliamentary session had become more prolific of quarrels +and more barren of counsel as it proceeded. The two Houses and the two +parties had agreed with little difficulty to do justice to some of the +admitted victims of the oppression practised under the last two +sovereigns. The attainders of Sidney, Russell, and others were reversed +without recorded dissent, but the case of Oates gave rise to acute +conflict between the Lords and Commons—a conflict in which, though the +conduct of the former assembly was undoubtedly arbitrary, the temper, +or, at any rate, the motives of the latter appear by no means worthy of +the unqualified praise bestowed upon them by the great Whig historian. +Undoubtedly the Peers were without justification in refusing to reverse +a sentence which the judges had solemnly pronounced illegal; but it is +ridiculous to represent the Commons, as a body of judicially minded +legislators, doing violence to their natural sentiments in their +determination to obtain justice for Oates. Such a theory is at once +refuted by the fact that, after his release under royal pardon, his +personal adherents in the Commons proved numerous enough to disgrace +their party and their country by procuring a pension of three hundred a +year for perhaps the most infamous wretch who ever disgraced human +nature. The dispute is of importance because it has <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_71" id="Page_71">[Pg 71]</a></span>been suggested that +to the bitterness of feeling engendered by it was due the subsequent +quarrel between the two Houses over the succession clauses in the Bill +of Rights. At the end of this famous enactment—the statutory +affirmation of the claims formulated by the Convention in the +Declaration of Right—it had been proposed at William's suggestion that +to the several enumerated reversions of the British Crown a further +remainder should be added. In the Declaration, as will be remembered, +the crown was settled, after the death of the King or Queen, upon the +survivor, and after the death of such survivor upon the heirs of Mary, +failing whom upon Anne and her heirs, failing whom upon the issue of +William by any other wife than Mary. It appearing by no means +improbable, having regard to the fact that the King and Queen were +childless, and that Anne had repeatedly failed to rear the children to +whom she had given birth, that there might be a failure of all the named +reversioners, and that the otherwise legal right of some Catholic prince +might thereupon come into conflict with the statutory exclusion of +Catholic sovereigns, William proposed to entail the crown after the last +mentioned limitation upon an undoubted Protestant, Sophia of Hanover, +granddaughter of James I., and her issue, being Protestants. That the +proposal was a well-conceived one is evidenced by the fact that it was +actually adopted by Parliament in the succeeding reign; but though the +Lords to whom it was submitted by Burnet accepted it unanimously, the +Commons would have none of it. The irritation left by the Oates quarrel +may in part have accounted for this, but Macaulay attributes too +childish a temper to the Lower House in <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_72" id="Page_72">[Pg 72]</a></span>implying as he does that +ill-humour is the sole explanation of their resistance. They in fact +alleged several grounds of objection of unequal weight, but of which one +at least has every appearance of <i>bona fides</i>, viz. that the mentioning +of the House of Hanover would give an opportunity to foreigners of +intermeddling too far in the affairs of the nation. But whatever the +excuse, we can readily imagine that William regarded the action of the +Commons as purely factious, and although the birth at this juncture of +another son and heir to the Princess Anne deprived the succession +dispute of its urgency, the cool-headed Dutchman can hardly but have +been impressed with the keenness of that political strife which could +keep the two branches of the legislature asunder when the cost of their +dissension was the postponement of the greatest statutory assertion of +their liberties since Magna Charta. For as a consequence of the +irreconcilable dispute on the succession clause, the Bill of Rights had +of course to be dropped; and between this date and the 20th of August, +when Parliament was prorogued, the breach between William and the Whigs +was still further widened by the rancour with which they pursued their +political enemies, and resisted the attempts of the King to procure a +statutory amnesty for past political offences. Impartiality was easier +of course for him than them, but William's natural affinities of mind +and politics cannot but have been rather with the Whigs than the Tories, +and the steadiness of purpose with which he persisted in his patriotic +though hopeless attempt at combining representatives of both political +parties in his councils is, upon any view of the matter, highly +honourable to him. It was the Whigs <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_73" id="Page_73">[Pg 73]</a></span>who from the first made the +experiment hopeless, and who finally determined its failure. We owe them +the English Constitution, but we owe them also, at any rate in the rigid +inflexible shape which it has since assumed, that <i>genius vultu +mutabilis albus et ater</i>, the English party-system.</p> + +<p>Parliament met again after a two months' recess on the 19th of October, +and seemed at first disposed to act with somewhat more of unity in +support of the Executive. They unanimously affirmed their determination +to assist the King in the reconquest of Ireland, and in a vigorous +prosecution of the war with France, for which purposes they voted an +extraordinary supply of two millions, a portion of which it was at first +proposed, on principles which the enactors of the Bill of Rights (passed +this session without William's suggested amendment) had inherited in a +slightly modified form from the signatory of Magna Charta, to raise by a +special tax upon Jews. Supplies voted, however, disunion recommenced. +The Whigs had come back from their short holiday more bloodthirsty than +ever. Beginning with a legitimate cause of complaint against the +administration in respect of the mismanagement of the war in Ireland, +where the whole organisation of the commissariat seems to have been +almost of a Crimean inefficiency, they easily converted this just +grievance into a general protest against the presence of Tories in the +Government. An attempt was made to induce William to say by whose advice +he had employed Henry Shales, the knavish Commissary-General, to whom +the scandal was mainly if not wholly due—the object of course being to +found an accusation against some one or other of the Tory officials to +whom <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_74" id="Page_74">[Pg 74]</a></span>Shales's retention in his post was assumed to be due. It would +have been enough for William to reply that he found the man Commissary +on his accession, and simply continued him in office. He refused to +gratify the malicious curiosity of the address presented to him on the +subject, though he assented very readily to another for the appointment +of a commission to examine into the state of affairs in Ireland.</p> + +<p>The Tories were next destined to cross the sorely-troubled king by the +resistance which they offered to him on a delicate question connected +with the provision for his sister-in-law. On the vote of the Civil List, +and the question arising under it as to the establishment of the +Princess Anne, it had been originally proposed by William that he +himself should undertake this charge out of his own revenues; but +through the instrumentality of the Churchills a strong party was formed +among the Tories to insist upon Anne having a settlement independent of +the Crown. Seventy thousand a year was the (for those days) extravagant +sum which they demanded, and which proved too much even for an indulgent +House of Commons to grant. The vote was reduced to £50,000, and though +William's dislike to the idea of a parliamentary settlement upon his +sister-in-law induced him to raise his own original offer of £30,000 to +£50,000 Anne still held out, and a yearly income of the amount last +mentioned was accordingly secured to her for life by Act of Parliament. +In none of the parts played by the various actors in this little +political drama (the sequel to which was the permanent estrangement of +the Queen and King from the Princess) is it easy to discern the +promptings of any <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_75" id="Page_75">[Pg 75]</a></span>public principle, or indeed of any decorously +avowable motive whatever. The Tories would seem to have been wholly +swayed either by party and ecclesiastical prepossessions, or by personal +interests of a lower kind—either by sentimental sympathy with a High +Churchwoman, or by a practical eye to the Marlborough gold. As to +William it was eminently natural that he should wish to retain at least +<i>one</i> string of this puppet of the Churchills in his own hands; as +natural as that the Churchills themselves should wish to deprive him of +it, and that the puppet herself should respond to the vigorous pulling +of the strings which they already held. Neither of the two latter +parties would probably have cared to allege any public motive for their +behaviour in the transaction. It is to be presumed, however, that +William would have done so if he could; and it is at least noteworthy +that the only objection which he seems to have taken to Anne's +parliamentary settlement affords no logical support to his own +alternative proposal. That Anne should have her income settled on her +for life, while his was only voted to him annually, was doubtless a just +ground of complaint; but the proper redress of the anomaly would have +been to subject his sister-in-law's income like his own to the annual +revision of the House of Commons. The fact that the King was dependent +upon Parliament could be no reason for making the Princess dependent not +upon Parliament, but upon the King.</p> + +<p>Meanwhile the session wore on, and William's cherished project of an Act +of Indemnity was no nearer realisation. He had earnestly recommended it +to Parliament in the Speech from the Throne, but nothing was further +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_76" id="Page_76">[Pg 76]</a></span>from the hearts of the dominant party in the Commons than the idea of +amnesty. They seemed bent on assuring themselves the tranquil exit of +Marshal Narvaez, who died in peace with all mankind by dint of leaving +himself no enemies to forgive. An Indemnity Bill was for form's sake +brought in at the beginning of November, but no progress was made with +it. Proscription took the place of purgation. Lords Salisbury and +Peterborough, Sir Edward Hales, and others, were marked out for +impeachment and summoned according to their status to the bar of one or +the other House. The Lords appointed a committee to inquire into the +judicial murders of Russell and Sidney, and Sir Dudley North and Lord +Halifax were cited before this body to answer for their shares, real or +alleged, in these dark transactions. John Hampden, a grandson of the +greater John, was conspicuous for the violence of his hostility to the +official Tories, and by his instrumentality a committee was appointed to +prepare an address to the King to remove the authors of the late +failures and to appoint "unsuspected persons" to the management of +affairs. The address, however, presented by Hampden was sharply +criticised for the violence of its language, and the House of Commons +ultimately laid it aside. So plainly, indeed, was the Whig party now +losing ground in that House, and so grave had become their apprehensions +of declining popularity in the country, that with a view of at least +recovering their position at the polling-booths they resolved upon one +of the boldest and most unscrupulous strokes of party tactics which our +history records. Into a Bill then before the House for restoring the +charters to these corporations which had surrendered <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_77" id="Page_77">[Pg 77]</a></span>them to the Crown, +they introduced a clause excluding from municipal office all persons who +had been implicated in the surrenders of such charters—or, in other +words, all Tories, thus designing to fill the municipalities with Whig +office-bearers and to secure the control of the elections to the Whig +party. Smuggled into the Bill in a House half depleted of its members by +the approach of Christmas, it needed a vigorous whip of the Tories to +procure the rejection of this clause by a narrow majority; and William's +disgust at this manœuvre was further intensified by the attachment to +his much-desired Indemnity Bill of a bill of pains and penalties against +political delinquents. So acute at this moment became his chagrin and +disappointment at the condition of English politics that he was strongly +tempted to wash his hands of the whole distasteful and thankless +business, and he was with difficulty prevailed upon by his ministers to +abandon his design of bidding adieu to the country which he had come to +deliver and retiring to his native land. Dissuaded from this, he +resolved that he would at least reduce Ireland to submission if he had +failed to compose the quarrels of his Parliament; and he let it be known +that he was about to quit the capital for the headquarters of his army +in Ulster. But against this, too, the Whigs vehemently protested. An +address deprecatory of the project was said to be preparing; and +William, his patience exhausted by this last sally of faction, +determined to appeal to the good sense and patriotism of the country.</p> + +<p>Accordingly, on the 27th of January, after having in a speech from the +throne announced his resolve to go to Ireland in person, "and with the +blessing of God <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_78" id="Page_78">[Pg 78]</a></span>Almighty endeavour to reduce that kingdom, that it may +no longer be a charge to this," the King, to the high satisfaction of +the Tories and the proportional discomfiture of the Whigs, proceeded to +prorogue Parliament with a view to its early dissolution.</p> +<br /> +<br /> +<br /><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_79" id="Page_79">[Pg 79]</a></span> +<br /> + +<hr /> +<br /> +<h2>CHAPTER VIII</h2> + +<h3>1690-1691</h3> + +<div class="blockquot"><p class="hang" style="margin-left: 2em;">Parliament of 1690—Tory majority—Settlement of the royal +income—Case of the Princess Anne—The "Act of +Grace"—Detection of Preston's conspiracy—William's +departure for Ireland—Battle of the Boyne—Battle of +Beachy Head—Marlborough's Irish campaign—Session of 1690.</p></div> + + +<p>The elections were contested with the utmost energy of party spirit. +Both Whigs and Tories strove their hardest for the victory, but the +policy of the King's appeal to the country was justified by the success +of the latter. A Tory majority was returned to the House of Commons, and +William felt that there was now at last a fair prospect of his +effectually mediating between factions. To have replaced a party to whom +he owed everything by a party who owed everything to him was undoubtedly +a great step towards the attainment of his ends. He had at least secured +a majority who could affect no right to dictate his policy, and had +reduced those who could and did advance this pretension to a minority. +His first act was to remodel his Ministry. Halifax resigned the Privy +Seal, which was placed in commission; Danby, who had been raised at the +distribution of honours accompanying the coronation to the Marquisate of +Caermarthen, became Lord <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_80" id="Page_80">[Pg 80]</a></span>President; Sir John Lowther, First Lord of the +Treasury—not then, as now, the chief office in the Administration. +Whigs and Tories were still mingled in the Government, but no longer in +the old proportions.</p> + +<p>On the 20th of March the new Parliament met, and the King addressed it +in a speech in which he announced his intention of proceeding to Ireland +as soon as might be, and recommended to the prompt attention of the two +Houses the question of the settlement of the royal revenue and of the +enactment of an amnesty. In the former of these matters their action was +more conformable to sound constitutional principle than agreeable to the +King. In addition to the hereditary revenues which had passed with the +crown to William and Mary, the Commons would only agree to settle +absolutely upon the King and Queen about one third of the fiscal +revenues which had been assured to the last two sovereigns for the term +of their lives. That portion of the excise, estimated at £300,000, which +had been settled upon James II. for life, was now settled upon William +and Mary for their joint and separate lives. But, on the other hand, the +customs duties, amounting to £600,000, which had been settled for life +on Charles and James successively, were granted to the Crown for a term +of only four years. This restriction, in which Whigs and Tories +concurred, was not unnaturally displeasing to a sovereign who justly +valued himself on the ability, integrity, and thrift which made him, as +he conceived, at once the most efficient and the most trustworthy +steward of the national resources; but that he should have resented the +action of Parliament in this matter not <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_81" id="Page_81">[Pg 81]</a></span>merely as a limitation upon the +free play of his policy, but as a personal slight to himself, +instructively illustrates the very limited extent to which the +principles of the British Constitution, as we now know it, had +established themselves in the joint recognition of the sovereign and the +legislature. If there was one principle more inevitably implied in the +Revolution that William had headed than another, it was that no personal +claims of any individual sovereign could be allowed either to suspend or +in any degree to qualify the general rule of parliamentary control. Had +William contended, whether reasonably or unreasonably, that the +restraint placed on him by Parliament was more severe than needed to be +imposed upon <i>any</i> sovereign, his position would have been a defensible +one; but his complaint, as Burnet testifies, was that the Commons were +showing an undue and ungenerous jealousy of their particular sovereign +for the time being. His claim to enjoy the same amount of freedom as his +predecessor had abused was founded simply on the fact that James was +James and that he was William; and that was obviously one of these +circumstances of which the administrators of a general rule, intended to +apply to any number of future Jameses and Williams, could not possibly +take into account. Had this general rule been recognised with anything +approaching to its acceptance in these days, it is impossible to suppose +that so clear and fair an intelligence as William's could have missed +its application to himself.</p> + +<p>No doubt it may have caused him some irritation to observe with what +rapidity the coalition of Whigs and Tories, which had formed for the +purpose of limiting <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_82" id="Page_82">[Pg 82]</a></span>his independence, dissolved again when that work +was done. In a few weeks the two parties were as fiercely at odds as +ever upon a Whig Abjuration Bill, the main object of which, though in +one quite indefensible clause it went far beyond this, was to impose a +test which the official Tories could not swallow, and so to drive them +from office. It was not enough that a man should have sworn allegiance +to King William; he must also expressly abjure allegiance to King James. +Who knew but that he might have taken the former oath in some +non-natural sense or with some mental reservations? And though the +answer seemed obvious that he might take the latter in the same sense +and with the same reservations, the Bill was prosecuted to its rejection +in the House of Commons by a majority of thirty-three. An Abjuration +Bill of a somewhat less stringent kind was then introduced into the +House of Lords, the debate upon which William personally attended. He +had let it be known, however, that he was opposed to the former measure, +and it is probable that he had no great liking for the latter. Anyhow, +it underwent so much mutilation in committee that its authors did not +care to persevere with it.</p> + +<p>The Tory majority, however, was soon after employed to an even more +useful purpose in the final accomplishment of William's policy of +pacification. Resolved that on this occasion the measure of indemnity +should not be defeated by delay, the King submitted it personally to the +Upper House in the form of an Act of Grace for political offences—a +proceeding which, according to constitutional practice, abridged its +deliberative stages in each House of Parliament to a single reading. +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_83" id="Page_83">[Pg 83]</a></span>Introduced under such auspices, and assured of the support of a party +always dominant in the Upper House, and now possessing a majority in the +Lower, it passed without any opposition into law, and is undoubtedly +entitled to take its place among the most honourable and statesmanlike +acts of William's career. Its value as a political precedent was +scarcely capable of exaggeration even by Macaulay; and if he somewhat +inordinately applauds the enlightened clemency which it was as easy for +any brave and dispassionate foreigner to recommend as it was difficult +for English parties embittered by the mutual wrongs of a generation of +conflict to accept, it would be falling into the converse error to +insist on any serious qualification of the historian's praises. +William's great qualities were his own; they must at least divide the +credit of his high-minded and sagacious policy with the accident of his +antecedents in his own country and of his position in ours; nor would it +be gracious to attempt too nice an apportionment of the shares.</p> + +<p>Impatience to proceed to Ireland had probably something to do with the +expeditious form of procedure adopted by the King in the case of the +Indemnity Act. On the 20th of May it became law. On the same day William +informed the Houses that his departure for the seat of war could be +delayed no longer; and after having given his assent to an Act +empowering the Queen to administer the government during his absence, he +prorogued Parliament until the 14th of July. Then, having appointed from +the list of Privy Councillors a small interior Council of Nine to advise +the Queen, and having delayed no longer than was necessary to place in +their <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_84" id="Page_84">[Pg 84]</a></span>hands the threads of a newly-discovered conspiracy,<a name="FNanchor_12_12" id="FNanchor_12_12"></a><a href="#Footnote_12_12" class="fnanchor">[12]</a> William +took a tender farewell of his wife, and set forth on the strange errand +of defeating the army, if not destroying the life, of his wife's father. +"God send," he exclaimed, "that no harm may come to him." His anxiety on +this score for the Queen's sake was painful; but otherwise, though he +belonged to that order of brave men whose spirits are fortified rather +than exhilarated by danger, he was cheered by the approach of the hour +of action. Ireland in the hands of a hostile army, the shores of England +threatened by a hostile fleet, a dangerous conspiracy only detected on +the eve of success, a formidable insurrection imminent in the country he +was leaving behind him, he could still say to Burnet—"As for me, but +for one thing I should enjoy the prospect of being on horseback and +under canvas again. For I am sure that I am fitter to direct a campaign +than to manage your Houses of Lords and Commons."</p> + +<p>On the 14th of June he landed at Carrickfergus, and immediately set out +for Belfast to take over the command from Schomberg. All Ulster rose +with enthusiasm to receive him, and the soldiers, whom treachery and +incompetency had been sacrificing by the hundred to the ravages of +disease and privation, took heart once more. After ten days spent in +concentrating his forces at <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_85" id="Page_85">[Pg 85]</a></span>Loughbrickland, William started southward +at the head of 36,000 men. Two days after his nephew's landing James had +left Dublin to lead his troops to Dundalk with the view either of giving +battle at that point, or merely, as has been suggested, of eating up the +country between the capital and the invading army, so as to impede its +advance by difficulties of supply. But if the former were the original +object of the movement it was soon abandoned. When William's army +approached Dundalk James fell back upon Ardee; and the former still +pressing southwards, the latter still continued his retreat, until the +pursuer was brought to a halt on the morning of the 30th of June by the +halt of the pursued, and the English and Irish armies at last looked +each other in the face across the now historic waters of the Boyne. +Lauzun, who had succeeded De Rosen in the command of James's forces, was +a courtier rather than a general, but the position he had here taken up, +behind entrenchments and with a river in front, was strategically a +strong one—so strong indeed that the veteran Schomberg doubted his +master's wisdom in resolving upon an immediate attack. But William, as +he had told the Ulster men, had not come to Ireland to "let the grass +grow under his feet." He had the advantage in numbers; the advantage in +generalship; above all, the advantage in the quality of his troops, who, +if but few of them were as good as the trained French soldiers of his +adversary, were none of them so bad as the rapparee Irish levies who +formed the bulk of James's forces. The day passed in an exchange of +shots across the river, from one of which William had well-nigh lost his +life. Having sat down to breakfast somewhat close to the <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_86" id="Page_86">[Pg 86]</a></span>brink of the +Boyne, he attracted the attention of the Irish sentries on the opposite +shore. Two field-pieces were planted opposite to him, and, on his rising +and remounting his horse, were discharged at the group of which he was +the centre. The first shot killed a man and two horses at some distance +from him; the second, better aimed, struck the river bank and grazed the +King's shoulder in its ricochet, inflicting a slight flesh wound. His +staff thronged anxiously about him, but William, in his usual dry and +stoical fashion, relieved their fears. He was unharmed, he told them, +but "there was no need for any bullet to come nearer." His wound was +dressed, and he remained in the saddle till nightfall. At nine o'clock +he held a council of war, and, against the advice of Schomberg, declared +his determination of effecting a passage of the river on the following +day. Unable to dissuade his master from the rash project, as he deemed +it, the veteran general urged that at least a portion of the army should +be sent up the stream at midnight to Slane Bridge, and crossing it at +that point, should be in readiness either to assist them in the event of +their attack being unsuccessful, by a diversion in the rear of James's +army, or, in case the river should have been carried, to cut off the +retreat of the Irish by the pass of Duleek. This plan, which, if +adopted, would probably, as one of William's biographers points out, +have ended the campaign at a stroke, was rejected: why, does not very +clearly appear. The tactics were such as might have been thought likely +to commend themselves to William, and he could apparently have well +spared the men to execute them. It is said by the biographer above +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_87" id="Page_87">[Pg 87]</a></span>referred to that the plan was opposed "by the Dutch generals"; but it +is not impossible that the objection may have really come from the King +himself, and have been founded not on strategical but on political +considerations. William, as we know, was especially solicitous about his +father-in-law's life, and not perhaps suspecting how well it would be +cared for by its owner, whom he must have remembered to have once been +brave, he may have rejected Schomberg's scheme for its very +completeness, and because he not unnaturally assumed that in cutting off +the retreat of James's army he would be cutting off the retreat of James +himself. The too complimentary assumption that the royal general would +be last rather than first in the flight had yet to be rebutted by +events. But whatever the reason, the Marshal's plan was rejected; he +retired, chagrined and hurt, from the council, and the last night of the +old soldier's life was spent, it is melancholy to think, in displeasure +with the master whom he had so long and faithfully served.</p> + +<p>The morning of the 1st of July broke fair, and a little after sunrise +the English army advanced in three divisions to the attack. The right +under the younger Schomberg, assisted by the Earl of Portland and James +Douglas, was detailed for the same operation which the Marshal would +have had executed four hours earlier, and by a surprise. Having marched +a few miles up the river to Slane Bridge, and finding there but one +regiment of Irish dragoons, they easily beat them back, crossed the +bridge, and made good their footing on the southern bank of the Boyne. +Lauzun, apprehensive for his command of the pass of Duleek, had detached +the best of <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_88" id="Page_88">[Pg 88]</a></span>his troops—his own countrymen—to resist the further +advance of the English right; and the centre and left of William's army +were opposed at the lower fords by the Irish Catholics alone. Between +them and the Dutch Guards, the French Huguenots, the men of Londonderry +and Inniskillen, it was <i>impar congressus</i> indeed.<a name="FNanchor_13_13" id="FNanchor_13_13"></a><a href="#Footnote_13_13" class="fnanchor">[13]</a> Schomberg in +command of the centre took the water at the ford of Old Bridge. William +at the head of the left wing, consisting entirely of cavalry, made for a +more difficult and dangerous crossing lower down. At one point only does +the passage of the river appear to have been for more than a moment +doubtful. The Danes and Huguenots under Cambon and Caillemot were set +upon in the act of landing by the Irish cavalry under Richard Hamilton; +the former were driven back again into the water, and the latter, +unarmed with pikes, began to give ground. The conflict raged hotly for a +short space at the southern exit of the ford; Caillemot fell mortally +wounded; the whole brigade was wavering; when old Schomberg, who had +been watching the action from the northern bank, dashed impetuously into +the river. <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_89" id="Page_89">[Pg 89]</a></span>"<i>Allons, Messieurs!</i>" he cried to the Huguenots, as he +pointed to the French Catholics in James's ranks, "<i>voila vos +persécuteurs!</i>" As he uttered the words a small band of Irish horsemen +came galloping in upon the main body, the Huguenots, mistaking them for +friends, having allowed them to pass. In the confused melée which +followed the Marshal was surrounded; he received two sabre cuts on his +head, and a musket shot, said in one account to have been fired in a +fatal mistake "by one of his own men," laid him dead upon the ground. +The arrival of William, who had with difficulty forced his way across +through the strongly flowing tide, at once decided the doubtful +struggle. "Men of Inniskillen, what will you do for me?" was his +inspiriting question to the sorely pressed Protestants of Ulster; and +drawing his sword with an arm yet stiff from the wound of the previous +morning, he led his Dutch Guards and Inniskilleners against the still +unbroken Irish centre. Ulstermen and Hollanders vied with each other in +steadiness and valour; Schomberg's cavalry came opportunely to their +support; De Ginkell's horse effected as timely a diversion on the +enemy's left. Hamilton and his riders being thus driven back, the heart +of the defence was broken, and after one more brief stand at Plottin +Castle, where the Inniskilleners were temporarily checked and had again +to be rallied, and where Hamilton was wounded and made prisoner, the +defeat of the Irish army became a rout, and their retreat a flight. +James, who had watched the battle from the hill of Donore till it went +against him, had already hurried through the pass of Duleek, and was +making the best of his way to Dublin. His army, now a broken and +confused mass of <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_90" id="Page_90">[Pg 90]</a></span>fugitives, struggled after him through the defile. The +battle of the Boyne was won.</p> + +<p>The victory, though not so immediately decisive as it might have been if +Schomberg's plan had been adopted, was practically fatal to the Jacobite +cause. Drogheda surrendered the next day. James, who had reached Dublin +on the evening of the battle, quitted it the day after for ever. On the +3d of July he reached Waterford, whence he embarked on board a French +frigate and sailed for Brest. Lauzun and Tyrconnel collected their +straggling forces as best they could, and, evacuating the Irish capital +immediately after James's flight, marched westward with the design of +reorganising resistance at such still remaining strongholds of the +deposed monarch as Limerick and Athlone.</p> + +<p>William fixed his headquarters at Finglas, near Dublin, but enjoyed no +long period of unmixed satisfaction with his victory. The day before the +two armies closed upon the Boyne, the French fleet, under De Tourville, +had encountered what should have been the combined fleets of England and +the States off Beachy Head, but by the supineness or treachery of the +English Admiral the Dutch had been left to bear the brunt of the battle +alone. After hours of hard fighting they drew off with the worst of the +encounter, and Admiral Herbert, destroying some of the Dutch ships, and +taking the rest in tow, sailed up the Thames, leaving the enemy in +undisputed possession of the Channel. The news of this defeat, and of +the alarm for our unprotected coasts which it had occasioned in London, +reached William on the 27th of July at Carrick-on-Suir, where he was +encamped, after having reduced Waterford. He <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_91" id="Page_91">[Pg 91]</a></span>immediately hurried to +Dublin with the intention of embarking to England; but, reassured by +later advices informing him that the French attempt at a descent on the +Devonshire coast had proved a failure, he returned to headquarters, and +hastened to prosecute the campaign. The glory of the Boyne, however, was +destined to be somewhat dimmed before many weeks were past. At Limerick +the Celtic Irish showed, with the variability of their unstable race, +that they could fight bravely when "i' th' humour." Sarsfield, left in +command by the departure in disgust of Lauzun and Tyrconnel, approved +himself a leader of vigour and resource. He intercepted and destroyed +William's heavier battering-train before it could reach him. The +besieged of Limerick, fighting with a desperate courage, which even +their women imitated, beat back an assault of the English forces with +much bloodshed, and on the 30th of August, fearing the ravages of +disease with the approach of the autumnal rains, William raised the +siege of the city and returned to England. The campaign thus left +undecided was to be taken in hand by a greater commander than himself. +Landing in Ireland some three weeks later, the Earl of Marlborough gave +promise of his future military prowess in the remarkable speed and +success of his operations. In five weeks after leaving Portsmouth he had +taken Cork and Kinsale, and had not his fast sickening army constrained +his retirement, would probably have settled the whole Irish business out +of hand. He returned to London to receive from William, who, besides +being incapable of jealousy, was in the habit of underrating his own +generalship, the graceful compliment that "no officer living who has +seen so little <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_92" id="Page_92">[Pg 92]</a></span>service as my Lord Marlborough is so fit for great +commands."</p> + +<p>On the 2d of November the King once more met his Parliament, and under +more favourable auspices than ever before during his reign. The imminent +dangers to which the nation had been exposed had brought about a +temporary truce between parties; the skill, energy, and valour with +which the King had borne his part in averting them had, moreover, united +them in a common sentiment of admiration and gratitude. Thanks were +voted both to William, and separately to Mary, who had indeed well +merited them by the spirit and vigour which she had displayed during the +critical days that followed the defeat of Beachy Head. Supplies of +unusual magnitude were voted with unusual readiness, and the short +session, marked only by an abortive bill for confiscating the property +of Jacobites, passed tranquilly away. On the 5th of January William +thanked the Houses for their supplies, and assuring them, in words on +which later events were to place an awkward commentary, that he would +not grant away any of the forfeited property in Ireland till they had +had an opportunity of declaring their wishes in that matter, he +adjourned Parliament, and on the following day he quitted London to +return for the first time in two years to his native country.</p> + +<h4>FOOTNOTES:</h4> + +<div class="footnote"><p class="noin"><a name="Footnote_12_12" id="Footnote_12_12"></a><a href="#FNanchor_12_12"><span class="label">[12]</span></a> The conspiracy known as Preston's—a plan of inviting the +French king to land troops in England, and offering to second his +efforts by an insurrection, and, if possible, the treacherous surrender +of the whole or a part of the British fleet. Clarendon and Dartmouth, +with other more or less eminent personages, were implicated in it, +including, at least as was suspected, the Quaker, William Penn. The +conspirators were betrayed by an accomplice, and some of them sent to +the Tower. Lord Preston, a Scotch peer, a ringleader of the conspiracy, +was tried and convicted for high treason, but subsequently pardoned.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p class="noin"><a name="Footnote_13_13" id="Footnote_13_13"></a><a href="#FNanchor_13_13"><span class="label">[13]</span></a> James's ungenerous reproaches of his defeated troops, and +the many French complaints quoted by Macaulay might not in themselves +prove conclusively that the Irish showed greater <i>natural</i> cowardice, as +distinguished from mere military unsteadiness, than other undisciplined +levies. But the mere fact that with all their advantages of position, +commanding a river which their adversaries had to cross, they made, with +the exception of Hamilton's horse, so miserable an exhibition of +themselves, is a clear enough indication of personal deficiencies. It is +only fair to remember, however, that the generalship of James's army was +beneath contempt. To leave a bridge a few miles above their position +unprotected by artillery, and indeed with only a single regiment of +cavalry available for resisting its being crossed by a hostile army, is +surely the last word of tactical ineptitude.</p></div> +<br /> +<br /> +<br /><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_93" id="Page_93">[Pg 93]</a></span> +<br /> + +<hr /> +<br /> +<h2>CHAPTER IX</h2> + +<h3>1691-1692</h3> + +<div class="blockquot"><p class="hang" style="margin-left: 2em;">Campaign of 1691 in the Netherlands—Fall of +Mons—Disaffection of William's councillors—Conclusion of +year's campaign—Disgrace and dismissal of +Marlborough—Massacre of Glencoe.</p></div> + + +<p>The night of William's arrival off the coast of Holland was wild and +stormy; but impatient to be ashore, he quitted the ship which had +carried him for an open boat, and after a night of extreme danger and +hardship, which he passed through with his usual fearlessness and +stoicism, effected a landing. His welcome among his people was +enthusiastic, and his reception by the assembled notables—electors, +princes, dukes, and ministers-plenipotentiary then assembled in +Congress—at the Hague was signally respectful. Those among them in whom +the statesman was strongest were no doubt chiefly impressed by his +successful elevation of himself to a powerful throne; while to the high +aristocratic and monarchical party among them it was sufficient that he +filled it by a title at least good enough to relieve him of the reproach +of mere high-handed usurpation. Each, after his manner, did homage to +the qualities of character, or the accidents of birth, which are +respectively implied in the two meanings of the word "succeed"; over +both alike, however, the ascendency <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_94" id="Page_94">[Pg 94]</a></span>of William was now in all +probability much more firmly established. As wielding the power of +England he was in a material sense, though not perhaps in any very +imposing degree, stronger than he had been; but the accession to his +moral prestige from his remarkable achievements, in the field and in the +council, of the two previous years was doubtless very great. The banded +enemies of the French monarch looked undoubtedly with new feelings upon +the head of their coalition.</p> + +<p>William addressed the Congress at its opening in a stirring speech in +which he impressed on them the necessity of union in counsel and +promptitude in action; and with such effect that the Congress resolved +to oppose Louis with an army of 220,000 men, to which William, acting as +his own war minister—a function which he assumed as constantly as that +of the conduct of foreign affairs—engaged to contribute a contingent of +20,000. While the Congress, however, were talking their enemy was +acting. A heavy blow was dealt at the confederacy by the capture of +Mons, which surrendered to the vigorous siege of the French, commanded +by the King in person, within a few weeks of the separation of the +Congress. On the news of its danger William collected a force with all +speed for its relief, but he was too late to save it; and the short +period of suspension of hostilities which followed upon this disaster he +took advantage of to return to England. His presence there was really +more needed than he at the time imagined, for it is probable that at no +time during the early years of his reign had he so much reason to +distrust the fidelity of so many of his most highly placed servants. To +review the intrigues with the exiled monarch, in which men like +Marlborough, <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_95" id="Page_95">[Pg 95]</a></span>Russell, Godolphin, and Shrewsbury were at this moment +either voluntarily engaged, or being successfully pressed to join, is +altogether beyond the scope of this volume. But it may be worth while to +interpose one observation here on what appears to me to be a common, +and, in a certain sense, a mitigating feature of all these duplicities. +They differ no doubt to a certain extent in depth of moral turpitude one +from another, just as the moral characters and motives of those who +committed them so differed. The devouring ambition which actuated +Marlborough, the disappointed Whiggism which was the dominant impulse +with Russell, gave place in a man like Godolphin to mere distrust of the +future, and anxiety to provide against the incalculable. But it is only +fair to recollect that this last, and for statesmen of that age, most +venial motive of action, most probably played a considerable part in all +their double-dealing. None of them considered William's position +assured. All perceived that he had so far failed, and all doubted +whether he would ever succeed, in winning the affection of the people. +Whether he would succeed in the experiment of governing by his factious +and deeply-divided Parliament was, to say the least of it, a question of +the gravest uncertainty; and they governed their conduct accordingly. It +is not necessary to suppose that because an individual statesman in +William's service maintained communication with James's agents with more +or less vague promises of assistance he contemplated any downright +betrayal of William's cause. In most cases his deceit was rather of that +negative sort which seeks to make to itself friends betimes of the +mammon of unrighteousness. The deceiver was anxious in the event of a +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_96" id="Page_96">[Pg 96]</a></span>counter-revolution to stand well with the restored monarch, and +intended no further treachery to his existing master than is necessarily +involved in the attempt to serve two masters at once.</p> + +<p>In May 1691 William returned to Flanders taking Marlborough with him. +The day of that great soldier had not yet come, but though invested with +no military command, it should seem that he attended councils of war +where his great abilities as a general attracted the notice and +admiration of experts. In June the business of campaigning was +recommenced in the leisurely and ceremonious manner peculiar to the age, +and with that strict attention to the limits of the "season" which in +our own day is only bestowed upon the gaieties of London and the sports +of the country. From early in June until the arrival of what may be +called the "close-time," towards the end of September, the armies of +France and of the allies continued to perform their stately military +minuet to the high satisfaction of their commanders, but without +suffering or inflicting on one another any serious blows.</p> + +<p>On the 19th of October William arrived in England, and three days later +he opened Parliament. The circumstances under which he met the Houses +were on the whole favourable, and the mood of the Sovereign and +Legislature was one of mutual good humour. It is true that the campaign +in the Netherlands had been ineffectual, but its failure was more than +balanced by successes nearer home. Ireland had been subdued and +pacified, the navy of England had recovered its ascendency in the +Channel. The King's speech to the two Houses elicited a warm reply, and +the large supplies <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_97" id="Page_97">[Pg 97]</a></span>which he had still to demand for the prosecution of +continental warfare was granted to him without demur. Nor was the +session in other respects one of much difficulty for the King. The House +of Commons indeed renewed its complaints of the magnitude of official +salaries and fees, but, showing little or no capacity to discriminate +between legitimate remuneration for public services and mere corrupt +abuses, they naturally failed to agree upon any measure of reform. The +Bill for regulating trials for high treason—a measure destined to be a +subject of long contention between the two Houses—was introduced for +the first time this session, and, passing the Commons, underwent in the +House of Lords an amendment to which the Lower House refused to assent. +On the merits of the case it ought undoubtedly to have been adopted, but +it happened to touch the royal prerogative, and the Commons made this +the excuse for gratifying their not unreasonable jealousy of the +exclusive privileges in the matter of justiciability which were +possessed by the Peers. They showed no hesitation a little later on in +making a distinct encroachment on the royal rights by imposing the +salaries of the judges as a permanent charge upon the hereditary +revenues of the Crown without the sovereign's consent. On this Bill +William exercised for the first time his right of veto. That such first +employment of it should have been on a matter touching his own +interests, and at the same time affecting the independence of the +judicial bench, was unfortunate; but it is impossible to complain of his +exerting his constitutional authority in this case to arrest a measure +of such a kind as would not, even in our more advanced days, be +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_98" id="Page_98">[Pg 98]</a></span>introduced without the express assent of the Crown. The "event" of the +year 1691 was undoubtedly the political intrigue, the discovery of which +led to the dismissal and disgrace of Marlborough. That indefatigable +plotter, who was still holding active communication with St. Germains, +undertook to move an address in the House of Lords requesting that all +foreigners might be dismissed from the service of the Crown. It was said +and believed that his object in doing this was to inflame the national +and professional jealousies of the country and the army against the +Dutch officers in William's service, so that in the event of William +declining to act upon the advice of his Parliament, he would find both +the people and the soldiery prepared to support him in an ulterior +design of deposing the King and placing Anne upon the throne, with +himself as mayor of the palace. The plot, however, if plot there was, +fell through; and assuming it to have been really conceived, the natural +resentment with which it inspired William would of course sufficiently +account for the disgrace and dismissal of Marlborough which followed +immediately afterwards.<a name="FNanchor_14_14" id="FNanchor_14_14"></a><a href="#Footnote_14_14" class="fnanchor">[14]</a> The attempt of the half-lunatic, +half-villain Fuller to repeat the exploits of Oates, with a trumped-up +and promptly disproved charge of conspiracy against many prominent +personages, inspired doubts in the public mind as to whether there had +ever been any Scotch plot at all.</p> + +<p>Here, too,—that is, among the record of the events of <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_99" id="Page_99">[Pg 99]</a></span>the winter of +1691 and the spring of 1692,—seems the most fitting place to take +notice of a strange and terrible incident, which, though of little +importance from the historical point of view, could on no account be +omitted from a biography of William III. On the 13th of February 1692, +at five o'clock in the morning, was perpetrated, under circumstances of +signal perfidy and barbarity, the crime known as the Massacre of +Glencoe—the surprise and slaughter of the chief and thirty-eight men of +the Macdonalds by two companies of soldiers, who had been quartered upon +the clan for the preconcerted purpose of their extirpation, under the +command of Captain Campbell of Glenlyon. It is not necessary, and would +here be impossible, to give more than a highly condensed account of the +intrigues, amounting almost to conspiracy, among various enemies of the +ill-fated clan, which preceded the massacre. Suffice it to say that +private revenge combined with public policy to suggest the act. It was +the joint work of the Earls of Breadalbane and Argyle—hereditary foes +of the Macdonalds—and of the Secretary of State for Scotland, Sir John +Dalrymple, Master of Stair; but the order upon which this official +assumed to act was signed and countersigned by the King himself. It was +in these words: "As for MacIan of Glencoe and that tribe, if they can be +distinguished from the other Highlanders, it will be proper for the +vindication of public justice to extirpate that set of thieves." The +"other Highlanders" from whom they were to be distinguished had, in +accordance with a proclamation issued in the autumn of the previous +year, made formal submission to the Government and taken the oath of +allegiance to the sovereign before the 1st of <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_100" id="Page_100">[Pg 100]</a></span>January 1692. This, by an +accident, MacIan had failed to do. He had presented himself on the 31st +of December 1691 to the officer in command at Fort William; but, being +informed by him that he had no power to administer the oaths, the old +chief was obliged to betake himself to Inverary, to be there sworn by +the Sheriff of Argyleshire, Sir Colin Campbell of Ardkinglass, who, +although the submitted Highlander did not arrive there till the 6th of +January, consented, after some demur, to administer to him the oaths. A +certificate setting forth the circumstances was transmitted to the +Council at Edinburgh, but was there cancelled for irregularity; and the +fact of MacIan's tardy submission does not appear to have been—indeed, +we may affirm with confidence that it never was—brought to the +knowledge of the King. Acting, however, on the pretended authority of +the royal order, the Master of Stair gave directions to the military +authorities that "the thieving tribe of Glencoe be rooted out to +purpose"; adding in a later despatch to the commander of Fort William: +"Pray, when the thing concerning Glencoe is resolved let it be secret +and sudden; better not meddle with them than not to purpose;" and again, +in a still later communication: "I hope the soldiers will not trouble +the Government with prisoners." Acting on these sinister injunctions, +Captain Campbell of Glenlyon marched his men to Glencoe, and, pretending +that he came as a friend and not as an enemy, quartered them upon the +Macdonalds, by whom they were cordially received and hospitably +entertained. After a twelve days' sojourn among the clan, Glenlyon +received orders from his superior officer to proceed to his bloody work, +and at five in the morning of the 13th <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_101" id="Page_101">[Pg 101]</a></span>of February the soldiers fell +upon their unsuspecting hosts in their sleep. The massacre, however, was +less skilfully executed than it had been cunningly planned. The greater +portion of the Macdonalds, including the sons of the chief, effected +their escape; but MacIan himself, with his wife and thirty-eight of his +clansmen, including some women and children, were ruthlessly murdered. +As many more, in all probability, fell victims to the rigours of a +Highland winter in their attempted flight. In those days of slow +communication it was long before the story of the savage deed became +known, or at least before it was recognised as possessing a more +trustworthy character than the ordinary Jacobite fables of the day; and +it was eagerly caught up, of course, by the political enemies of the +King and the Government. History has acquitted William of all complicity +with the crime in the precise form in which it was committed, as indeed +it would only be reasonable to acquit any ruler possessing, we will not +say common humanity, but the common instincts of the soldier. But +Burnet's attempt to exonerate his master on the plea of having signed +the order of "extirpation" through inadvertence, and Macaulay's +half-suggestion that it was his general incuriousness in Scotch affairs +which made him Stair's unquestioning instrument in the matter, must be +alike dismissed. It was not William's practice to affix his signature to +public documents of which he knew not the purport; and the mere fact +that the Macdonalds of Glencoe were excepted by name from the submitted +clans, and with the careful proviso that the proposed measure should +only be taken against them "if they could well be separated from the +rest," seems <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_102" id="Page_102">[Pg 102]</a></span>to afford sufficient proof that to this particular matter +of Scotch administration, at any rate, his attention was specially +called.</p> + +<p>There is, in short, no good reason to doubt that when William signed the +order for the "extirpation" of the Macdonalds he meant them to be +extirpated. He treated his act as equivalent to the issue of one of +those "letters of fire and sword" which in those wild days of Highland +history formed a recognised instrument of police. He would undoubtedly +have been quite prepared to hear that a regiment had been marched into +the valley of Glencoe, had put the contumacious clansmen (as he believed +them to be) to the sword, and left their village a heap of smoking +ruins. As undoubtedly he was <i>not</i> prepared to hear that a body of +soldiers had quartered themselves on the clan under pretence of amity, +and had treacherously slaughtered them at unawares. But though it is +likely enough that when he did hear of this he was disgusted with the +unsoldierly cowardice of the proceeding, we should mistake both the man +and the time in supposing that he viewed it with the horror and +detestation which in our own days it excites. He regarded it, so far as +one can judge, as a mere blundering excess of duty and nothing more. +Four years later, when an inquiry was instituted into the matter by the +Scotch Parliament, he showed no disposition to press it forward;<a name="FNanchor_15_15" id="FNanchor_15_15"></a><a href="#Footnote_15_15" class="fnanchor">[15]</a> and +later on, when a commission reported that the affair of Glencoe was a +murder for which <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_103" id="Page_103">[Pg 103]</a></span>the Master of Stair was primarily responsible, he +steadily declined to inflict any further penalty on the chief culprit +than he had already suffered in his dismissal from office. Burnet's +excuse for William that he was alarmed at finding how many men it would +be necessary for him to punish for the massacre is, as Macaulay rightly +says, no justification for his screening the one criminal whose case was +so easily distinguishable from the others, and whose guilt was so much +more heinous than theirs. It is idle, in short, to deny that in the +matter of the Glencoe Massacre William incurred something of the +responsibility of an accessory after the fact.</p> + +<h4>FOOTNOTES:</h4> + +<div class="footnote"><p class="noin"><a name="Footnote_14_14" id="Footnote_14_14"></a><a href="#FNanchor_14_14"><span class="label">[14]</span></a> The whole affair is still surrounded with obscurity. At +least half a dozen conflicting explanations of Marlborough's fall are in +existence, and from the same hand—that of Burnet. It cannot be said +that the conspiracy theory, which Macaulay of course adopts, is in +itself at all improbable.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p class="noin"><a name="Footnote_15_15" id="Footnote_15_15"></a><a href="#FNanchor_15_15"><span class="label">[15]</span></a> Macaulay, in that injudicious spirit of special pleading +which is often so damaging to his hero, says that the King, "who knew +little and cared little" about Scotland, "<i>forgot</i> to urge the +commissioners." As if a king would be likely to "forget" an inquiry as +to whether one of his secretaries of state had or had not been guilty of +murder.</p></div> +<br /> +<br /> +<br /><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_104" id="Page_104">[Pg 104]</a></span> +<br /> + +<hr /> +<br /> +<h2>CHAPTER X</h2> + +<h3>1692-1693</h3> + +<div class="blockquot"><p class="hang" style="margin-left: 2em;">Gloomy European prospects—Campaign of 1692 in the +Netherlands—Defeat of Steinkirk—Attempt of +Grandval—Session of 1692—Place Bill and Triennial +Bill—Campaign of 1693—William outwitted by +Luxembourg—Defeat of Landen—Session of 1693-94—Louis's +overtures of peace.</p></div> + + +<p>Never perhaps in the whole course of his unresting life were the +energies of William more severely taxed, and never did his great moral +and intellectual qualities shine forth with a brighter lustre, than in +the years 1692-93. The great victory of La Hogue and the destruction of +the flower of the French fleet did, it is true, relieve England of any +immediate dread either of insurrection or invasion, and so far the +prospect before him acquired a slight improvement towards the summer of +1692. But this was the only gleam of light in the horizon; elsewhere the +darkness gathered more thickly than ever as the months rolled on. The +years 1692 and 1693 were years of diplomatic difficulties and military +reverses—the one encountered with unerring sagacity and untiring +patience, the other sustained with a noble fortitude. The great +coalition of Powers which he had succeeded in forming to resist the +ambition of Louis was never nearer dissolution than in the spring of +1692. The <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_105" id="Page_105">[Pg 105]</a></span>Scandinavian states, who had held aloof from it from the +first, were now rapidly changing the benevolence of their neutrality +into something not easily distinguishable from its reverse. The new Pope +Innocent XII. showed himself far less amicably disposed towards William +than his two predecessors. The decrepitude of Spain and the arrogant +self-will of Austria were displaying themselves more conspicuously than +ever. Savoy was ruled by a duke who was more than half suspected of +being a traitor. Out of materials so rotten and so ill-assorted as these +had the one statesman of the whole group to build up and maintain the +barrier which he was bent on erecting against the inroads of France. By +what incessant toil and unfailing tact, with what insistences here and +concessions there, with what appeals to the vanity of this potentate, +the bigotry of that, the cupidity of the third, and the apprehensions of +all, he succeeded in keeping them side by side and with their faces to +the common enemy it would be impossible to describe, in a manner at all +worthy of the subject, within the space at my command. Suffice it to say +that William did succeed in saving the league from dissolution, and in +getting their armies once more into the field. But not, unfortunately, +to any purpose. The campaign of the present year was destined to repeat +the errors of the last, and these errors were to be paid for at a +heavier cost. Mons had fallen in 1691, through the delays and +mismanagement of the allied armies; and in 1692 a greater fortress than +Mons was to share its fate. The French king was bent upon the capture of +the great stronghold of Namur, and the enemy, as in the case of Mons, +were too slow in their movements and too ineffective in their +dispositions to prevent it. <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_106" id="Page_106">[Pg 106]</a></span>Marching to the assault of the doomed city, +with a magnificence of courtly pageantry which had never before been +witnessed in warfare, Louis sat down before Namur, and in eight days its +faint-hearted governor, the nominee of the Spanish viceroy of the +Netherlands, surrendered at discretion. Having accomplished, or rather +having graciously condescended to witness the accomplishment of this +feat of arms, Louis returned to Versailles, leaving his army under the +command of Luxembourg. The fall of Namur was a severe blow to the hopes +of William, but yet worse disasters were in store for him. He was now +pitted against one who enjoyed the reputation of the greatest general of +the age, and William, a fair but by no means brilliant strategist, was +unequal to the contest with his accomplished adversary. Luxembourg lay +at Steinkirk, and William approaching him from a place named Lambeque, +opened his attack upon him by a well-conceived surprise which promised +at first to throw the French army into complete disorder. Luxembourg's +resource and energy, however, were equal to the emergency. He rallied +and steadied his troops with astonishing speed, and the nature of the +ground preventing the allies from advancing as rapidly as they had +expected, they found the enemy in a posture to receive them. The British +forces were in the front, commanded by Count Solmes, the division of +Mackay, a name now honourable for many generations in the annals of +continental, no less than of Scottish warfare, leading the way. These +heroes, for so, though as yet untried soldiers, they approved +themselves, were to have been supported by Count Solmes with a strong +body of cavalry and infantry, but at the critical moment he failed them +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_107" id="Page_107">[Pg 107]</a></span>miserably, and his failure decided the fortunes of the day. After a +desperate struggle, in which they long sustained the attack of the +French household troops, the flower of Louis's army, Mackay's division +began to give way. But no effective help arrived from Solmes. His +cavalry could not act from the nature of the ground, and he refused to +devote his infantry to what he declared was useless slaughter. The +division was practically annihilated. Its five regiments, "Cutts's, +Mackay's, Angus's, Graham's, and Leven's, all," as Corporal Trim relates +pathetically, "cut to pieces, and so had the English Life-guards been +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." Bitter was +the resentment in the English army at the desertion of these gallant +troops by Count de Solmes, and William gave vent to one of his rare +outbursts of anger at the sight. We have it indeed on the authority +above quoted—unimpeachable as first-hand tradition, for Sterne had +heard the story of these wars at the knees of an eye-witness of and +actor in them—that the King "would not suffer the Count to come into +his presence for many months after." The destruction of Mackay's +division had indeed decided the issue of the struggle. Luxembourg's army +was being rapidly strengthened by reinforcements from that of Boufflers, +and there was nothing for it but retreat. The loss on both sides had +been great, but the moral effect of the victory was still greater. +William's reputation for generalship, perhaps unduly raised by his +recent exploits in Ireland, underwent a serious decline. The French were +exultant at the demonstration <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_108" id="Page_108">[Pg 108]</a></span>of his inferiority to Luxembourg, and the +victory of Steinkirk inflamed the national pride to an overweening +degree.</p> + +<p>William's popularity with his own army and people, however, was at this +time about to receive one of those friendly "lifts" which his more +unscrupulous enemies were continually giving it throughout his life. +Grandval, a French officer, undertook, at the instigation it is said of +Barbesieux, the French Minister, and with the connivance of James II., +to assassinate him, and set out with that purpose, accompanied by two +accomplices, for the camp of the allies. Both of these men, however, +appear, with an originality and independence of initiative not often +found among traitors, to have played him false simultaneously, yet +without any collusion with each other. Grandval had not been long in the +Netherlands before he was arrested, brought to trial before a +court-martial, and, on his own confession, sentenced to death. His +statement, attested by the officers constituting the court-martial, was +published immediately after his execution, and the world then learnt +that the dying man's meditated crime was, according to his solemn +asseveration, suggested to him by a minister then, and after the +exposure still retained, in the service of Louis XIV.; and that James +had signified to him at an interview at St. Germains that he had been +informed of the "business" on which he was setting out, and that if +Grandval and his companions rendered him that service "they should never +want." Neither the French king nor his Minister ever made any reply to +Grandval's confession; but James, though he put forth no public +disclaimer, denied on this as on other occasions that he <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_109" id="Page_109">[Pg 109]</a></span>had ever +participated in any of the schemes for killing William. Probably the +projectors of such schemes were careful never to mention the ugly word +assassination in the royal ears, so that it might always be possible for +his ex-Majesty to assume that nothing was contemplated but William's +"taking-off" in a less serious than the Shakspearean sense. Plots to +kidnap the "usurper" were almost as commonly broached as plots to +assassinate him; and it was convenient that exalted personages should be +able to persuade others, if not themselves, that they were thinking only +of seizing William's person when their humbler instruments were in +reality bent upon taking his life.</p> + +<p>Towards the end of October William arrived in England, and was received +with an amount of popular acclamation to which the crime of Grandval had +contributed more than his own military prowess. In a few days Parliament +met, and the King addressed the two Houses in a judicious speech, in +which he congratulated them on their great naval victory, condoled with +them on their military reverses, referred with concern to the distress +occasioned by the failure of the last harvest, and informed them in +effect that yet more money would be required for the effective +prosecution of the war. The address in reply was amiable enough, but the +Parliament, as the event soon proved, was in no very manageable mood. +The confusion of parties caused by William's perseverance in his +well-meant attempt at mixed government was now at its height, and the +state of things created was undoubtedly not favourable either to +executive or legislative efficiency. An assembly divided as was the then +House of Commons by two intersecting <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_110" id="Page_110">[Pg 110]</a></span>lines of cleavage, with its Whig +and Tory demarcation, traversed by a cross division into "court party" +and "country party," was obviously not a body likely to display much +unity and vigour. Jealousy of officialism forbade ministers to reckon on +the consentaneous support even of members of their own way of political +thinking, while on the other hand party differences prevented the +formation of a strong opposition.</p> + +<p>The session of 1692 was, however, fruitful both in legislative +achievement and in successful legislative effort. In this year was made +that valuation for the land-tax, which subsisted until the tax itself +was made perpetual and redeemable more than a century afterwards in +1798; and the first loan of one million sterling, contracted by the +Government in the name of a National Debt, which has now increased to +almost a thousand times that amount. But the measures with which the +biographer of William is more directly concerned were the Place Bill and +the Triennial Bill. Of both of these legislative projects I shall have +more to say hereafter. Here let it be enough to note that the former was +lost in the House of Lords by a majority of three votes; and that the +latter after passing both Houses was held in suspense by William until +just the eve of the prorogation, and then vetoed. The occasion is one of +special interest to English literature, as it was in reference to this +Bill that the King consulted Sir William Temple, whose strong advice to +his master to assent to the Bill was conveyed through the medium of his +young secretary Jonathan Swift. After making several ministerial +changes, including as the most important the elevation of Lord Somers to +the Chancellorship, William prorogued <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_111" id="Page_111">[Pg 111]</a></span>Parliament, and once more, in the +perpetual succession of the toils of war to the labours of Government, +betook himself to the Netherlands. The outlook of the continental +struggle had not improved; and the task before him, both diplomatic and +military, was as formidable as ever. He had as usual petty quarrels to +compose among the allied Powers, and wounded vanities to soothe, to +animate the energies of the lagging, and to keep an eye on the movements +of the false. The effort in which he was the least successful was the +last mentioned but one; he was unable with all his efforts to collect a +force equal to that of Luxembourg. He managed, however, to take the +field in greater strength than he had mustered on some previous years, +and as Louis had now again put himself, with the usual elaboration of +gorgeous ceremony, at the head of his army, William promised himself the +satisfaction of looking his lifelong enemy once more in the face upon a +battlefield. Louis, however, whether from personal cowardice or from +having really contracted under the influence of perpetual adulation a +sort of religious reverence for his own life, had none of William's +military ardour. He liked directing sieges, but had no taste for +commanding in pitched battles. In other words, he preferred those +operations of war in which the most adventurous of generals must +necessarily remain in the rear to those in which the most cautious of +generals may find himself imperatively called upon to go to the front. +He had hoped that the more agreeable form of warfare would be provided +for him, and that he would have an opportunity of taking Liege or +Brussels as he had taken Ghent. When, however, he found William posted +in his path with a considerable if <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_112" id="Page_112">[Pg 112]</a></span>numerically inferior army, his +martial ardour underwent a rapid reduction of temperature, and he at +once signified his intention of returning to Versailles. The +disappointment of Luxembourg, who had assured him of certain victory +over William, was aggravated by the fact that the King insisted on +detaching Boufflers with a portion of the army of the Netherlands to +reinforce the troops in the Palatinate; which movement having been +effected, he went home to Madame de Maintenon.</p> + +<p>Luxembourg, however, though reduced in strength, had still the advantage +over William in point of numbers, and he succeeded in further increasing +the disparity by a feint in the direction of Liege, which deceived +William into despatching more than twenty thousand men of his army to +protect that city from attack. He was thus left with only fifty thousand +men to oppose a force exceeding his own by more than half. His position, +however, on the bank of the Gette was a naturally strong one, and by +extraordinary efforts with the spade he succeeded in adding most +formidably to its strength. On the morning of the 19th of July the men +of Luxembourg's army found themselves confronted by a powerful line of +earthworks manned by a brave and steady foe. Relying, however, upon a +numerical superiority which he rightly regarded as more than +counterbalancing William's advantages of position, Luxembourg at an +early hour of the morning gave orders for the attack, and the two armies +closed in a struggle more bloody and obstinate than that of Steinkirk. +For eight hours the battle raged fiercely along the whole line, but most +fiercely round the village of Neerwinden on the English right. This, the +position of most strategic importance on the <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_113" id="Page_113">[Pg 113]</a></span>field, was disputed with +extraordinary fury. Twice did the French troops succeed in making +themselves masters of it, and twice were they driven out by the allies, +leaving their dead in heaps behind them. At last the household troops, +who had done such service at Steinkirk, were sent against this village; +it was captured a third time, and this time it was held. William +weakened his centre and left in desperate attempts to retake it, but in +vain; and at last, as the day was wearing towards the evening, the line +of the allies gave way. The French troops poured into and over the +entrenchments; the position was captured; nothing remained for the +commander of the beaten army but to arrest disorganisation and save +retreat from becoming flight. To the moral appeal of the situation +William's great nature might be trusted to respond, and it seems to have +equally stimulated his strategic capacities. The praise of his famous +opponent is sufficient testimony to his skilful conduct of the military +operation; the memory of his fiery valour was perpetuated in the +traditions of the English army. No doubt it was from some old messmate +of Roger Sterne's that the future author of <i>Tristram Shandy</i> gathered +the materials of that vivid picture of the retreat across the bridge of +Neerspeeken which he has put into the mouth of My Uncle Toby. "The +King," Trim reminds his master, "was pressed hard, as your honour knows, +on every side of him." "Gallant mortal," cried my Uncle Toby, caught up +with enthusiasm, "this moment, now that all is lost, I see him galloping +across me, corporal, to the left, to bring up the remains of the English +horse along with him to support the right and tear the laurel from +Luxembourg's brows if yet 'tis <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_114" id="Page_114">[Pg 114]</a></span>possible. I see him with the knot of his +scarf just shot off, infusing fresh spirits into poor Galway's regiment, +riding along the line, then wheeling about and charging Conti at the +head of it. Brave! brave! by heaven! He deserves a crown!"</p> + +<p>With Galway's regiments, we learn from the same tradition, were those of +"Wyndham and Lumley." Talmash "brought off the foot with great prudence; +but the number of wounded was prodigious, and no one had time to think +of anything but his own safety." It is indeed pretty evident that only +William's cool heroism saved his army from annihilation. Solmes, the +<i>fainéant</i> of Steinkirk, was left dead on the field. Galway himself, the +refugee Ravigny, was taken prisoner; Sarsfield on the other side +received a mortal wound. It was by far the deadliest battle of the whole +war, and it is difficult to understand why a blow so crushing should +have been so slackly followed up. One cannot help thinking what a French +army and a French general would have made of such a defeat inflicted +upon the troops of a continental coalition on such a battlefield some +hundred years later. But the terrible rapidity of those movements with +which, as with hammerstrokes, Napoleon was wont to drive home the nail +of victory was then unknown to warfare. Town upon town would probably +have fallen after Landen had the fruits of the victory been seized, as +they would have been at a later day. But, either through the indolence +of Luxembourg or the comparative immobility of a seventeenth-century +army, William obtained a priceless respite. He was rejoined by the +troops whom the enemy had so fatally decoyed to Liege; and three weeks +after his defeat he was once <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_115" id="Page_115">[Pg 115]</a></span>more at the head of an army stronger than +he had commanded at Landen. The danger to the allied cause was past. +Luxembourg besieged and took Charleroi for sole trophy of his great +victory, and the campaign closed for the year.</p> + +<p>On the 31st of October William landed in England, and prepared for a +meeting with his Parliament, to which he could hardly have looked +forward with much pleasure. He had a bad account to give and receive. +Over the whole Continent, in Spain, Germany, and Italy, as well as +Flanders, the allies had met with adverse fortune; at sea the vast +"Smyrna fleet" of merchantmen, four hundred strong, had, through the +incapacity of our naval commanders, been surprised in the Bay of Lagos +by the combined Brest and Toulouse fleets of France, and, its +imprudently reduced convoy of twenty English and Dutch sail having been +easily mastered, nearly three-fourths of it suffered capture or +destruction. His Parliament, however, met him as a matter of fact in a +commendably patriotic mood. William made no attempt to ignore the +serious losses which the nation had incurred by land and sea, though of +the former he said (not perhaps with perfect impartiality towards his +own tactical errors) that "they were only occasioned by the great +numbers of our enemies, which exceeded ours in all places"; while the +latter he described as "having brought great disgrace upon the nation." +And, admitting that the charges of the war had already been very great, +"I am yet persuaded," he added, "that the experience of the summer is +sufficient to convince us all that to arrive at a good end of it there +will be a necessity of <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_116" id="Page_116">[Pg 116]</a></span>increasing our forces both by sea and land." The +reply of the Commons was cordial, and manifested no hesitation as to +granting the increased supplies; and their patriotic spirit encouraged +William to hold his ground on a question in which the minds of the +allies were just now about to be exercised. Louis XIV., insatiable in +war as he had hitherto been, was beginning to feel that he, and still +more that France, had had enough of the struggle. Five years of +hostilities carried on in half a dozen quarters of Europe, with a +failure of the French harvest and the vintage, had almost prostrated the +country. Distress was rife in the provinces; even that most patient of +people showed signs of disaffection. Louis made private overtures to the +States-General with the intention, of course, of his proposals being +brought to the ear of William. Through the neutral King of Denmark he +signified his willingness to restore all the conquests he had made +during the present war, to renounce his pretensions to the Low +Countries, and to agree that the Elector of Bavaria should have the +Spanish Netherlands in case of the death of the King of Spain, and that +the commercial arrangements of Europe should be put on their old +footing. The great <i>crux</i> of the negotiations, and of all negotiations +with a similar object, was, and was known to be, the question of the +recognition or non-recognition of the <i>de facto</i> King and Queen of +England. On this question, so far as we can now judge, the mouth-pieces +of Louis gave forth an uncertain sound. The King of Denmark told the +allies that he was making efforts to induce the King of France to waive +the demand for the restoration of James; the French Ambassador hinted at +a compromise. This, it <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_117" id="Page_117">[Pg 117]</a></span>has been suggested, was that "James should waive +his rights, and that the Prince of Wales should be sent to England, be +bred a Protestant, and, being adopted by William and Mary, be declared +his heir." To such an arrangement Macaulay thinks that William would +probably have had no objection, but that he "neither would nor could +have made it a condition of peace with France, since the question who +should reign in England was to be decided by England alone." Undoubtedly +William "could" not have independently assented to a condition which, to +acquire the least validity, would have necessitated the statutory +revision of the succession settlement, as effected by the Convention and +ratified by the Convention Parliament; but there does not seem to be +much evidence that he would have assented to the condition if he could. +There is no trace of any endeavour on his part to sound the chiefs of +his parliamentary parties on the subject, and I cannot but think it far +more likely that neither in this nor in any other matter of foreign +policy was William at all disposed to share any of his discretionary +powers in his capacity of virtual Foreign Minister with his Parliament, +so long as he could obtain what he wanted from that body without +admitting it any more fully to his confidence. His rejection of Louis's +overtures, including this offer of compromise, if it was made, was +probably not dictated by any high constitutional considerations at all. +He thought, and rightly, that pacific advances made by so haughty an +enemy indicated greater exhaustion than had been suspected, and +reckoning justly that another year or two of fighting would get him +better terms still, <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_118" id="Page_118">[Pg 118]</a></span>he decided that another year or two of fighting +there should be. The supplies had been cheerfully voted him, and that +was enough. That the Parliament which had voted them had any paramount +right to decide whether they would go on voting money or accept Louis's +terms almost certainly never entered his mind. To suppose that it did is +to attribute to him a theory of the constitution anachronistic by fully +fifty years. That such a theory is more or less designedly attributed to +him in the above-quoted passage from Macaulay appears unquestionable; +and the Whig historian's anticipation of history in this respect is of a +piece with his exaggeration of the permanent significance of the +constitutional changes which fall to be treated of in the next chapter.</p> +<br /> +<br /> +<br /><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_119" id="Page_119">[Pg 119]</a></span> +<br /> + +<hr /> +<br /> +<h2>CHAPTER XI</h2> + +<h3>1693-1694</h3> + +<div class="blockquot"><p class="hang" style="margin-left: 2em;">Formation of the first party Ministry—Reintroduction of the +Triennial Bill and its defeat—Of the Place Bill and its +veto—Causes of the disallowance—Macaulay's account +examined—Campaign of 1694—Death of Mary.</p></div> + + +<p>I am now to speak of one of the most important, as it is sometimes +regarded, of all the steps made under William's auspices in the +development of our parliamentary polity—a step represented as even more +influential in fixing and determining that system of strict party +government under which the nation is thriving or declining at the +present era than even the Revolution itself—the formation of the first +Ministry of the modern type. "No writer," says Macaulay in speaking of +it, "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 chance and +partly of wisdom—not however of that highest wisdom that 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 <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_120" id="Page_120">[Pg 120]</a></span>completed about the close of 1696. But +everybody 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 these 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 these leaders, and had learned +to move like one man at the word of command."</p> + +<p>There are perhaps not many passages of the famous history in which its +author's love of dramatic antithesis has displayed itself in a statement +more likely to mislead the student. Because the change which took place +in the relation of Ministers of the Crown between 1693 and 1696 was a +striking one Macaulay cannot resist the temptation of describing it as +though it were a final one. In 1693 Ministers in disagreement with each +other, in 1696 Ministers in accord with each other—the suggestion of +course being that they "lived happily ever afterwards." Certainly no one +previously unacquainted with the facts would suppose from this account +of them that the first politically homogeneous Ministry was a purely +experimental one, and that the experiment was not repeated by William, +and never even attempted by his successor, under whom the old system +prevailed, <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_121" id="Page_121">[Pg 121]</a></span>though with gradual modification, throughout her reign; that +on many later occasions in our history the men in the chief offices of +the Government were to be found "caballing" and sometimes even +"haranguing" against each other; and, in short, that it was not till far +on in the next century that the idea of Ministers being men of like +political opinions "bound together by public and private ties," and +supported by a majority "arrayed in good order under them, and moving +like one man at the word of command," became uniformly and permanently +associated with the constitution. Yet this is in fact the case. The +"lower political wisdom meeting daily exigencies by daily expedients" +did not devise an arrangement calculated to endure for all time; and no +one ought to have been more surprised than Macaulay if it had. It met a +particular exigency by a particular expedient, and as that particular +exigency did not uniformly recur, the particular expedient naturally did +not at once stereotype itself in our parliamentary polity. The pure Whig +Government of 1696 attained the object of its formation, namely, to +carry out his war policy, and passed away. William's later ministries +were of a mixed character; the ministries of Anne were partly Whig and +partly Tory; and the political unity which prevailed in the Walpole +Administration was succeeded by a return to the old practice under +Pulteney. It was not, as has been said, until well on in the century +that it became an admitted political axiom that Cabinets should be +constructed upon some bases of political union agreed upon by the +members composing the same when they accept office together.</p> + +<p>But though it is delusive to represent a mere political <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_122" id="Page_122">[Pg 122]</a></span>experiment as +the consummation of a great constitutional change, yet an experiment by +which such change was foreshadowed cannot of course be otherwise than +deeply interesting. And such undoubtedly is the character of the +ministerial reconstruction which took place in 1693. The particular +exigency which the expedient was designed to meet is almost patent on +the face of the European situation, as it must have presented itself to +a statesman of William's views and with William's policy at heart. The +one fact that the Whigs were in favour of a vigorous prosecution of the +war with Louis on its continental theatre, while the Tories favoured the +husbanding of English military resources and the maintenance of a +defensive attitude behind our "silver streak," and under the protection +of our navy, would undoubtedly have sufficed of itself to determine +William's choice of the former party. In all other respects he probably +regarded both English parties at this as at all other times of his life +with equal indifference—if indeed one should not say with equal +aversion. He could have no love for men who, like the Whigs, regarded +him as a king of their own making, or who, like the Tories, considered +him no king, in the full sense of the word, at all. Whichever of the two +English parties were more willing to assist his efforts for a country +which he loved far better than England was virtually assured of his +favour; and though no doubt he believed honestly enough that the +interests not only of continental Europe, but of insular England, were +identified with those of the United Provinces—though no doubt he +honestly regarded Holland as only the vanguard of European and English +liberties, menaced by the insatiable ambition of <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_123" id="Page_123">[Pg 123]</a></span>Louis—yet it is +impossible to credit him, or any other mortal man in the same situation, +with the capacity of impartial judgment on any point at which the +interests of England and those of Holland might have diverged. Nor is +it, I think, unjust to add that even when the balance of English +advantage might have appeared to William himself to incline somewhat +against any contemplated course of conduct, he would perhaps have held +himself justified in proceeding from contemplation to action. He was in +all probability firmly, and one cannot say unreasonably, possessed with +the idea that England was largely his debtor and the debtor of his +country; and that she should, at least within reason, make sacrifices +for the protection of that nation, who and whose Prince had rendered +such services to her. Whichever English party showed most disposition, +or rather least reluctance, to make common cause with the United +Provinces in the defence of Dutch (and therefore of English and +European) liberties, became thereby the party of William's choice. No +doubt his gradual construction of a pure Whig Ministry was in part +dictated by a desire to secure greater stability of counsel and unity of +action in the House of Commons. No doubt his laudable experiment of +governing by means of both parties had had results with which he could +hardly have been satisfied. But he had borne for five years with the +parliamentary factiousness which that experiment had undoubtedly tended +to aggravate, and there is no visible reason, save that which I have +indicated, for his putting an end to the experiment at this particular +moment and in this particular way. He had made shift to do without a +homogeneous Ministry ever <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_124" id="Page_124">[Pg 124]</a></span>since his accession. If now he needed a +Ministry which should be not only homogeneous, but homogeneously Whig, +we must look to the exigencies of his continental policy for the cause.</p> + +<p>The process, however, of replacing the Tories of the Administration by +Whigs was a very gradual one, and it was not of course until it was +complete that the Whig party in the House of Commons could be trusted to +support the Administration, "right or wrong," as, without much suspicion +of satire, we may say to have now become the accepted constitutional +practice. Nottingham and the Tory Naval administrators were the first to +go, their retirement having been in the one case consequentially, and in +the other directly necessitated by the narrow escape of the latter from +parliamentary censure in respect of the late naval miscarriages. Russell +became First Lord of the Admiralty, and with him Nottingham, who, as +Secretary of State, was then responsible for the military service, was +of course unable to serve. His place, however, was not immediately +filled up, nor was it till the end of the session that any further +ministerial changes were made. And this session itself was one of +peculiar constitutional interest on other grounds. In the first place +the Triennial Bill, vetoed by William in the previous session, was +reintroduced, and met with a most unexpected fate. It was brought in +this time in the House of Commons, and passed through all its stages up +to the final one without a division. But the motion that "the Bill do +now pass" was rejected by a majority of ten. The whole affair is +involved in much obscurity, and the cause or causes of the unlooked-for +rejection of the <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_125" id="Page_125">[Pg 125]</a></span>measure must always remain matter of conjecture. +Macaulay declares its defeat to have been brought about by the +instrumentality of the expert parliamentary intriguer Seymour; and as no +House of Commons that ever lived is likely to have relished the idea of +putting a term to its own existence, it is not difficult to guess the +kind of sentiment to which Seymour might have appealed. But one point +not unworthy of notice in the matter is that the numbers voting in the +division, 146 Noes and 136 Ayes, did not together compose a very full +House. They fell short by thirty-two of the numbers who voted in the +division by which the second edition of the Triennial Bill, introduced +in, and passed through, the House of Lords, and sent down to the House +of Commons, was rejected a fortnight afterwards. In this case, of +course, the adverse majority of 197 were able to allege that they were +not opposing the limitation of Parliament, but merely resisting a +usurpation of constitutional jurisdiction on the part of the Peers. But +it should be observed that this argument does not appear to have +produced many defections from the party of the Ayes. They number 127, or +only nine short of their original strength; and assuming that these nine +votes were transferred to the Noes, it will still leave some forty new +votes to be accounted for. It looks rather as if these were the votes of +members who would have divided against the Bill if they had dared (and +as they did so soon as they got a plausible pretext for doing so), but +not daring, consented to assist in compassing its rejection by absenting +themselves from the division.</p> + +<p>The Place Bill, another abortive measure of this session, had a quite +different history. It was introduced <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_126" id="Page_126">[Pg 126]</a></span>in much the same shape as in the +previous year, and passed the Lower House substantially unchanged. In +the Lords, however, it underwent a material amendment. As originally +drawn it provided that no member of the House of Commons elected after +the 1st 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, while maintaining the provision +for the forfeiture of the seat, introduced words qualifying the acceptor +of office to sit in the same Parliament if again chosen as a +representative. This amendment the Commons adopted, and the Bill thus +modified, having passed both Houses, was, somewhat to the surprise of +everybody and to the disgust of many people, vetoed by the King. This +exercise of the prerogative was received with far less patience than on +the two former occasions, and for a few days a serious conflict between +the Legislature and the Crown appeared to be imminent. An address of +remonstrance was presented to William, who replied in conciliatory +language, but without holding out any hopes that his veto would be +withdrawn. Another debate of a somewhat excited character followed, but +calmer counsels than had at first found favour with the House of Commons +ultimately prevailed. A motion to prepare a new representation or +remonstrance was rejected by a very large majority, and the Place Bill +dropped. The great Whig historian's account of the matter is that the +amendment "deprived the Bill of all efficacy both for good and evil"; +but that the Commons "so little understood what they were about that, +after framing a law, in one view most mischievous"—namely, in respect +of <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_127" id="Page_127">[Pg 127]</a></span>its tending to keep the chief Ministers of the Crown out of the +House of Commons, "and in another view most beneficial"—namely, as +tending to keep subordinate officials out of the House of Commons, they +were perfectly willing that it should be "transformed into a law quite +harmless and almost useless"; and that William went out of the way to +veto this quite harmless and almost useless law, because he "understood +the question as little as the Commons themselves."</p> + +<p>This is not a very plausible theory; nor does one well see why Macaulay +should describe that proviso of a right to re-election—which was +afterwards adopted, and which is an essential feature of our still +subsisting Act of Anne—as depriving the Bill of nine-tenths of its +power both for good and for evil. Surely both King and Parliament might +have been credited with knowing their own business a little better than +that. It seems reasonable rather to ask ourselves whether the amendment +was such as to militate in any serious degree against the legislative +object of the Commons, or in any similar degree to disarm the objections +which William entertained to the measure. If it did neither of these +things, there was nothing paradoxical either in the Commons accepting or +the King pronouncing his veto upon the Place Bill; and it seems to me to +be clear that the amendment did neither of these things in fact. No +doubt it was desirable, from the point of view of the majority, that +office-holders should cease to sit in Parliament and become +incapacitated for re-election; and this on the abstract and general +ground that such persons were not sufficiently independent to be able to +discharge the functions of legislators with advantage to the <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_128" id="Page_128">[Pg 128]</a></span>country. +So far, then, as the general principle relating to office-holders was +concerned, the amendment was opposed to the real wishes of the Commons, +and had no reason therefore to provoke the hostility of the King. But +there was a specific ground on which the House had cause to dislike +office-holders, and a specific class of appointments to which this +ground applied; and the Bill, even as modified by the Lords' proviso, +would have limited the royal influence in respect of these appointments +to an extent quite sufficient to account both for the Commons adopting +the amendment of the Upper House, and for the King refusing his assent +to the Bill. It would obviously have dealt a heavy, though not, of +course, a final, blow to the employment of the patronage of the Crown +for the purpose of "managing" the Legislature. It would have made it a +far more difficult thing for the Court or the Government to maintain +their majority in the House of Commons by what would now be called a +corrupt use of its patronage, but what was then regarded, or getting to +be regarded—at any rate by the party in power,—as one of the +legitimate arts of rule. For whenever the Sovereign or his Ministers +endeavoured to convert a hostile into a friendly vote by the bestowal of +office upon its possessor, he or they would always have to reckon with +the possibility that the constituents of the bought member might not +care to have their interests sold along with their parliamentary +representative. They might, and on a question which strongly moved them +they very probably would, have expressed their disapproval of his +conduct by refusing to re-elect him; in which case the Government would, +of course, have found themselves at the end of the transaction with <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_129" id="Page_129">[Pg 129]</a></span>one +piece of patronage the less, but not with one vote the more. In a word, +the Place Bill, as amended by the Lords, though it would have left +untouched the power of the Crown to bring office-holders into +Parliament, would materially have impaired its power of turning members +of Parliament into office-holders; and apparently it was only because +Macaulay viewed the Bill too exclusively in its relation to the former +power, and took no account of its bearing on the latter, that he could +have regarded it as a measure in which William had no real concern, and +which he only vetoed through some vague dislike of it as affecting his +prerogative he hardly knew how. So far from this, it seems to me that +his objection may well have been a very definite one, and that he +perfectly understood, and was not at all disposed to undervalue, the +particular exercise of his prerogative which it threatened. For whatever +may have been his original or even his persistent repugnance to the acts +of parliamentary management by means of parliamentary corruption, he had +probably come by this time to regard it as among the inevitable if +disagreeable necessities of royal and ministerial policy under the +English system of party government.</p> + +<p>The close of this session witnessed the virtual completion of the work +of ministerial reconstruction on a purely Whig basis. Shrewsbury, who +had been offered the Secretaryship of State left vacant by the +retirement of Nottingham, after some months of hesitation accepted the +office. Trenchard, the other Secretary of State, was also a member of +the Whig party. The rising Whig financier, Charles Montague, who had +during this session devised and carried out the legis<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_130" id="Page_130">[Pg 130]</a></span>lative measure for +the establishment of the Bank of England, was for this service elevated +to the post of Chancellor of the Exchequer. The Keeper of the Seal was +the Whig Somers. The Whig Russell was First Lord of the Admiralty. All +the important offices of the State were now in fact in the hands of the +Whig party, and William, now fairly embarked upon the experiment +recommended by Sunderland, made one last concession to his old policy of +balancing one party against the other by a liberal distribution of +honours among the displaced Tories.</p> + +<p>The military and naval operations of 1694 were marked by none of these +successes which catch the public eye, but the year was really one of +more moment to the history of the struggle with Louis than at first +sight appears. Mismanagement and treachery brought disaster on the +expedition against Brest, and the disgrace was certainly not redeemed by +the subsequent bombardment and destruction of Dieppe and Havre. But the +despatch of Russell's fleet to the Mediterranean yielded solid gains +which more than compensated for our losses in the Channel. Russell +relieved Barcelona, blockaded Toulon, brought the hostile Italian States +to reason, and compelled them, for the first time, to acknowledge +William's titles, reanimated the Duke of Savoy, who had begun to think +of a separate peace with France, and, indeed, practically brought the +Mediterranean under English maritime control. As a consequence, our +commerce, which had been declining ever since the Revolution, began +rapidly to revive.</p> + +<p>The land campaign, though equally undistinguished by any striking +triumph, was no less fruitful in matter <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_131" id="Page_131">[Pg 131]</a></span>for solid satisfaction. An +attempt of William to carry the war into the enemy's country was foiled, +it is true, by the skill of Luxembourg, who repulsed the advance of the +Elector of Bavaria upon French Flanders, and this check was, of course, +more important on one side than William's capture of the inconsiderable +fortress of Huy was on the other. But in Spain, where Russell's +appearance before Barcelona had compelled De Noailles to retreat; on the +Rhine, where the Prince of Baden drove back Delorges, and established +himself for the summer in Alsace; and in Piedmont, where, in spite of +the vacillations of the Duke of Savoy, the French gained no material +advantage—the course of events, particularly as contrasted with those +of the three previous years, gave ample justification for the words with +which William met his Parliament on the 9th of November. "With respect," +he said, "to the war by land, I think I may say that this year has put a +stop to the progress of the French arms." Loyal addresses were returned, +and supplies to the amount of five millions were readily voted; but, +along with the Supply Bill, the Triennial Bill was again introduced. It +was probably intimated to Parliament, through some of the private +channels of communication with the Court, that William was not prepared +to veto it a second time. The Bill was brought in on the first day of +the session, and, together with a Bill settling the Customs on the +Crown, received the royal assent on the 22d of December. November of +1696 was fixed as the limit of the life of the existing Parliament. The +Place Bill, vetoed by the King in the previous session, was again +introduced, and with exactly the same results as had followed the second +attempt to <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_132" id="Page_132">[Pg 132]</a></span>pass the Triennial Bill. This measure, it will be +remembered, after failing to obtain the royal assent in the session of +1692-3, was defeated in the Commons in 1693-4, and so also it happened +with the Place Bill. The inference which I think suggests itself in both +cases is that the exercise of the royal veto, though unpopular with the +country, was not by any means equally so with the House of Commons; that +there were many Tories who were not particularly keen on purging +Parliament of office-holders, and not a few Whigs whose zeal for the +limitation of its constitutional life was somewhat lukewarm; and that +both Whigs and Tories of this order were not sorry to be able to evade +their party obligations to vote for these measures by pleading their +unwillingness to force the King's hand, and perhaps provoke a +constitutional crisis.</p> + +<p>The day on which William gave his assent to the Triennial Bill was to +him a day of grave anxiety; and a year fairly prosperous abroad and +peaceful at home was to bring him ere its close the heaviest calamity of +his life. The illness of the Queen, who had been for two or three days +confined to her bed, was on the evening of the 21st of December +recognised by her physician as smallpox. A week afterwards, at one in +the morning of the 28th of December, she died. William's grief at her +loss was uncontrollable, and to all but those, and they were few, who +had penetrated the stoicism beneath which he was accustomed to conceal +deep feelings, it must have been a strange and moving sight. He remained +for days at her bedside scarcely taking food or sleep. He broke out in +the presence of Burnet into passionate outcries upon his agony at the +thought of losing her, and <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_133" id="Page_133">[Pg 133]</a></span>into fervent praises of her love and +virtues. "He cried out," says the Bishop, "that there was no hope, and +that from being the happiest he was now going to be the miserablest +creature on earth. He said that during the whole course of their +marriage he had never known one single fault in her; there was a worth +in her which nobody knew besides himself.... The King's affection was +greater than those who knew him best thought his temper capable of; he +went beyond all bounds in it; during her sickness he was in an agony +that amazed us all, fainting often and breaking out into most violent +lamentations; when she died his spirits sank so low that there was great +reason to apprehend that he was following her; for some weeks after he +was so little master of himself that he was not capable of minding +business or of seeing company."</p> + +<p>The depth of this affection, moreover, was not disproportioned, as is +sometimes the case in examples of conjugal devotion, to the worthiness +of the object. Even Evelyn, who was shocked as a Tory and legitimate +king's-man by the levity of Mary's behaviour (for which, however, an +explanation has been suggested) on her arrival at Whitehall after +James's flight, affirms of her that "she was such an admirable woman, +abating for taking the crown without a due apology, as does, if +possible, outdo the renowned Queen Elizabeth." The comparison, +extravagant as it may appear at first sight, is not without some +justification in the spirited behaviour of Mary on the great national +crisis which occurred during her husband's absence in the Irish +campaign. It would be absurd of course to credit Mary with Elizabeth's +gifts of statecraft, or with her intellectual capacity in general, <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_134" id="Page_134">[Pg 134]</a></span>but +in courage and composure in the presence of danger she was no unworthy +successor of that great queen. In William's passionate declarations of +his debt to her there was no extravagance at all. To him she had been +the most affectionate, dutiful, and forbearing of wives, and if her +influence over him fell short of retaining his marital constancy, she +endeared herself more closely to him on the side of the purer emotions +by her magnanimous forgiveness of his errors. It cannot but soften the +harsher outlines of our conception of William, and help to supply that +human and homely element which is too much wanting in his character, to +know that he was capable both of inspiring and reciprocating so true an +affection as this.</p> +<br /> +<br /> +<br /><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_135" id="Page_135">[Pg 135]</a></span> +<br /> + +<hr /> +<br /> +<h2>CHAPTER XII</h2> + +<h3>1695-1697</h3> + +<div class="blockquot"><p class="hang" style="margin-left: 2em;">Campaign of 1695—Capture of Namur by the allies—Dissolution +of Parliament—William's "progress"—The elections—New +Parliament—Grants to Portland—The Assassination +Plot—Campaign of 1696—Fenwick's conspiracy—Negotiations +with France—Peace of Ryswick.</p></div> + + +<p>For some weeks after the death of Mary William's grief for her loss +disabled him from the discharge of public duties. He desisted from the +personal delivery of his answers to addresses from the two Houses, and +though important domestic events—such as the disgrace and dismissal of +Sir John Trevor, the Speaker of the House of Commons, for corruption, +and the proceedings preliminary to the contemplated impeachment of +Danby, now Duke of Leeds, for the same offence—took place before the +prorogation, the King does not appear to have actively interested +himself in them, either on one side or the other. Leeds, though he +escaped the impeachment with which he was threatened, stood morally +convicted of the charges preferred against him; but William still +allowed this useful and experienced, if unscrupulous public servant to +remain at the head of the Council. The only mark of royal displeasure +with which he was visited was his exclusion from the list of +lords-justices appointed <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_136" id="Page_136">[Pg 136]</a></span>according to custom to execute the royal +authority during the King's absence on the Continent.</p> + +<p>On the 3d of May Parliament was prorogued, and on the 12th of the same +month William set out for Flanders to take command of the allied army +for what was destined to be the most successful of his campaigns. +Luxembourg was dead, and the command of the French army in the +Netherlands had devolved on a far inferior general in the person of +Marshal Villeroy. William was now matched against a general to whom he +was as much superior as Luxembourg had been to him, and this reversal of +conditions told speedily and signally on the fortunes of the year's +campaign. The prime object of William's operations was the retrieval of +the disastrous loss which the allies had suffered in 1692 by the fall of +Namur. On the recapture of this important fortress he now bent his whole +energies. His first movement, however, was an unsuccessful one. Athlone, +who had been detached with a large force to invest the city, was unable +to prevent Boufflers from throwing himself into it with a strong +reinforcement. The garrison now numbered 14,000 or 15,000 men, and as +its works had been planned by Vauban, the greatest military engineer of +his age, its defenders reckoned it impregnable. Leaving the main body of +his army under the Prince of Vaudemont, who, when pressed by Villeroy, +succeeded in skilfully retiring to Ghent, William, at the head of a +division, effected a junction with the forces of the Elector of Bavaria +and the Brandenburg contingent, and marching to Namur proceeded rapidly +to invest it. Its siege was then vigorously prosecuted. Cohorn, the +pupil of Vauban, and next to him in scientific <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_137" id="Page_137">[Pg 137]</a></span>reputation, was the +engineer of the allies, and, thus pitted against his master, had every +incitement to the exertion of his utmost skill. The trenches were opened +on the 2d of July, and on the 8th the outworks of one side of the city +were attacked and carried by an English force. This was the occasion on +which William is reported to have exclaimed, laying his hand on the +shoulder of the Elector of Bavaria, "Look, look at my brave English!" +The soldier in him was far nearer to them than the statesman, and amid +the smoke and tumult of that Flemish battlefield he was doubtless +stirred by emotions towards his subjects which at Kensington or +Westminster he had never known. On the 17th of the month, after a fierce +conflict in which the attacking forces were thrice beaten back and +thrice returned to the assault, the first counterscarp of the town was +carried. On the 20th the Bavarians and Brandenburgers captured another +portion of the outworks, and a few days later the English and Dutch made +themselves masters of the second line of fortifications. Before, +however, a general assault could be ordered, Boufflers, who did not +consider himself strong enough to defend the town, surrendered it on +terms of being allowed to retire into the citadel, for the possession of +which, in its turn, an obstinate struggle began. Villeroy, now before +Brussels, endeavoured in vain by a furious and destructive bombardment +of that city to compel the allies to raise the siege of the Namur +citadel, and Boufflers, in his last stronghold, soon found himself +exposed to so terrible a fire from one hundred and sixty cannon and +sixty mortars that, unless relief reached him, he felt that capitulation +could only be a question of days. At this desperate juncture Villeroy +advanced to <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_138" id="Page_138">[Pg 138]</a></span>his assistance, and on the 15th of August his army, 80,000 +strong, was sighted by the defenders of Namur. The siege of the citadel +was not for a moment intermitted; the allies stood between the fortress +they were seeking to capture and the host which was marching to relieve +it, equally prepared to strike at both. For three days the two armies +confronted each other—three days of such anxiety as Europe had not +known since the beginning of the war. Everything seemed to portend a +conflict between the two great hosts—as decisive and even epoch-making +a struggle as that which, after the lapse of a century and a quarter, +was to be fought out on that now historic plain which the French general +had skirted on his way from Brussels. But the event surprised every one +and disappointed many. On the night of the 18th Villeroy unaccountably +withdrew his army, and the fate of the fortress was sealed. Portland was +sent to demand its surrender, but Boufflers, oppressed by the tradition +that no French marshal had ever capitulated, refused to do so, and the +next day, after the bloodiest assault which the history of that time +records, the allies succeeded in capturing about a mile of the +prodigious outworks of the citadel. Boufflers requested a truce of +forty-eight hours to bury his dead, which was allowed him; and before +the expiration of the time he signified his willingness to capitulate +within ten days. He was informed by the Elector of Bavaria on behalf of +the allies that he must surrender immediately or prepare for an +immediate renewal of the attack; and thus resolutely met he yielded. On +the 26th of August the garrison marched out with the honours of war, and +the greatest humiliation inflicted upon the <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_139" id="Page_139">[Pg 139]</a></span>French king since the +commencement of his career of conquest was with much pomp and +circumstance consummated. Villeroy and his useless army had already +retired to Mons.</p> + +<p>The capture of Namur was the greatest event of the year, and indeed of +the campaign. It marked the turn of the tide in Louis's fortunes. From +1690 onwards it had set steadily in its favour, and reached full flood +on the day of Landen, in 1693. The following year may be fairly taken as +representing the half-hour of slack water before the ebb begins; but in +1695 it was plain to every one that the tide was running out. No other +victory was needed to demonstrate it after that of Namur, and none in +fact was won. In the autumn hostilities as usual ceased, and on the 10th +of October William, leaving his army in winter quarters, returned to +England to be received with a too rare warmth of welcome by his people. +He seized the opportunity of this burst of popular sunshine to dissolve +Parliament, which had still under the Triennial Act another year of life +to run. It has been suggested that he did so to put a stop to the +impeachment of Leeds, but though the proceeding against the Minister to +whom he owed not only his marriage with Mary, but in a great measure his +elevation to the English throne, must doubtless have given him +uneasiness, he had reason enough apart from this for determining the +life of the Legislature. "The happy state the nation was in," says +Burnet, "put all men except the merchants in a good temper; none could +be sure we should be in so good a state next year; so that now probably +elections would fall on men who were well affected to the Government. A +Parliament that saw itself <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_140" id="Page_140">[Pg 140]</a></span>in its last session might affect to be +froward, the members by such a behaviour hoping to recommend themselves +at the next election." And though Burnet only glances at the State +prosecutions as one among the causes which decided William's action, it +was with no special reference to the case of Leeds. "Besides," are his +words, "if the same Parliament had been continued probably the inquiries +into corruption would have been carried on which might divert them from +more pressing affairs, and kindle greater heats, all which might be more +decently dropped by a new Parliament than suffered to lie asleep by the +old one."</p> + +<p>A proclamation was accordingly issued dissolving the existing +Parliament, and summoning a new one for the 22d of November. The +interval was employed by William in an unwonted effort to conciliate the +goodwill of the electors. For the first and only time in his reign he +set out upon a royal progress through the eastern and northern parts of +his kingdom, visiting many great houses, not only of Whig, but in some +cases of Tory magnates. At each of his stopping-places the rural +population of all degrees from squire to peasant thronged to see him, +and it seems evident that he made almost pathetic efforts to please. +"The King," says Burnet, who is always an outspoken critic of his royal +master, "studied to constrain himself to a little more openness and +affability than was natural to him; but his cold and dry way had too +deep a root not to return too oft upon him." Neither at Cambridge in his +journey northward, nor at Oxford, which he took on his return, was his +visit a success. The chiefs of the younger University invited him to no +entertainment; he declined <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_141" id="Page_141">[Pg 141]</a></span>that which was offered him by the +authorities of the elder. People murmured, too, at his visit to Althorp, +and some remarked, no doubt with less truth than ill-nature, that the +only place in which he really succeeded in making himself agreeable was +at the seat of the highly unpopular Sunderland. Nevertheless, and +however little these conciliatory efforts may have contributed to the +result, the elections went generally in William's favour. In many +constituencies Tories lost their seats, and were replaced by Whigs. The +city of London, which had returned four of the former party, now sent to +Parliament four of the latter. Members were in some places expressly +instructed by their constituents to support the King, and to vote +whatever supplies might be necessary for the vigorous prosecution of the +war. The new Parliament contained about one hundred and sixty members, +of whom the greater number were known to be well disposed towards the +King. William had triumphantly performed a feat which, as attempted by +the advisers of the sovereign, has perhaps more often been attended with +disaster than with success.</p> + +<p>On the 22d of November, the day appointed, the new Parliament met. The +Commons again chose Foley for their Speaker, and the King made a long +speech from the throne. The demand for supplies was still very high, but +William said that as he had engaged in the present war by the advice of +his first Parliament, who thought it necessary for the defence of the +Protestant religion and the preservation of the liberties of Europe, and +as the last Parliament had with great cheerfulness assisted him to carry +on the war, so he could not doubt but that the present Parliament would +be unanimously zealous in the <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_142" id="Page_142">[Pg 142]</a></span>prosecution of it, particularly since the +advantages gained that year afforded a reasonable hope of future +success. The Commons voted an address of thanks and congratulation upon +the success of his Majesty's arms abroad, and pledged themselves to the +prosecution of the war. William returned a short but suitable answer, +and the business of the session began. The Legislature set to work to +effect a much-needed purification of the coinage, and as the Lords had +made a concession to the Commons in respect of the measure which became +necessary for this purpose, the Lower House now assented to the often +rejected amendment introduced by the Upper House in the Bill for +regulating trials in cases of high treason, which now at last became +law. But the session was not to proceed far without giving birth to an +unfortunate difference between Parliament and the King. William, with +that ill-judged profuseness of liberality towards his Dutch adherents, +by which he compromised not only contemporary popularity but posthumous +reputation, proposed to grant to Portland a magnificent estate +consisting of five very extensive manors in Denbighshire. The people of +the county forthwith set up the cry that the King intended to make this +foreigner Prince of Wales, so far at least as he could do so by +bestowing on him all that the Crown had to give in the principality. The +local gentry petitioned against the grant, and an address was voted +requesting the King to stop it. "Portland," says Macaulay, "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." It would have been better, however, if the +historian had in this place added <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_143" id="Page_143">[Pg 143]</a></span>that William forthwith made a fresh +grant to the Earl of Portland of the manors of Grantham, Dracklow, +Pevensey, and East Greenwich, in the counties of Lincoln, Cheshire, +Sussex, and Kent, together with the honour of Penrith in the county of +Cumberland, and other manors in Norfolk, York, and the Duchy of +Lancaster. As these ancient crown-lands were far apart it could not now +be said that the King was creating a principality for the favourite, but +it removed no other of the serious objections to the grant.</p> + +<p>Again, however, and as before, at a moment when the seldom very bright +sky of William's popularity threatened to become seriously overcast, the +sympathies of his people were revived by his enemies. The most +formidable of the conspiracies against the King's life, that known <i>par +excellence</i> as the Assassination Plot, was set on foot, or rather +revived, as the renewal of a project which had been frustrated several +months earlier by the departure of William for the Continent—in the +autumn of 1695; and by the spring of the following year was ripe for +execution. Its leading spirit was one Sir George Barclay, a Scotchman, +who came over from St. Germains with a special commission from James, +which if it did not actually contemplate, or at least expressly sanction +assassination, was, to say the least, of a dangerously elastic +character. Among those whom he enlisted in the conspiracy were one +Charnock, an ex-fellow of Magdalen College, who had been a tool of James +II. in his high-handed violation of the statutes and liberties of that +society, Sir John Fenwick, a man of good family and connections and a +noted Jacobite agitator, and Sir William Parkyns, a Tory. The plan of +the conspirators was to lie in wait <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_144" id="Page_144">[Pg 144]</a></span>for William at a ferry on the +Thames, which he was in the habit of crossing every Saturday on his way +from Kensington to hunt in Richmond Park. To overpower the royal guards +it was necessary to raise the number of the conspirators to forty, among +whom it was tolerably certain that there would be at least one traitor. +As a matter of fact there were three. The secret was communicated by one +of these to Portland; the King, at first disposed to make light of it, +consented at last to abandon his hunting expedition on the Saturday +fixed for the assassination, and again on the same day in the following +week; and the principal conspirators were arrested. Barclay escaped to +France, and the Duke of Berwick, who had at the same time been vainly +attempting to prepare the way for a French invasion by a Jacobite +insurrection, also fled the country. William, in a speech from the +throne, made a formal announcement to the two Houses of the detection of +the conspiracy and his providential escape; and shortly afterwards +several of the conspirators, including Charnock and Parkyns, were tried +and executed.</p> + +<p>That the discovery of the Assassination Plot tended, as Macaulay holds, +to revive the popularity of William may perhaps have been the case; it +is at any rate certain that on the occasion of the next difference +between the King and the Legislature he proved to be fully master of the +situation. The growing jealousy entertained by the landed interest +towards the wealthy traders, who were now in ever-increasing numbers +disputing the representation of the counties and provincial boroughs +with the squirearchy, gave birth during the present session to a project +of legislation of a highly <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_145" id="Page_145">[Pg 145]</a></span>reactionary kind. A Bill was brought in for +excluding from the House of Commons every one not possessed of a certain +estate in land. For a county member this property qualification was +fixed at five hundred a year, for a borough member at two hundred. Early +in February the Bill was read a second time, and referred to a select +committee, whose deliberations are rendered memorable by the fact that +an attempt was made in the course of them to antedate an existing +provision of an electoral system by about a century and a quarter. It +was proposed to add a clause enacting that votes should be taken by +ballot, but the proposition was rejected without a division. Duly +revised by the committee the Bill was returned to the House, and it then +became apparent that the pretensions of the landed interest were to meet +with resistance from an unexpected quarter. The Universities of Oxford +and Cambridge raised their voices against a restriction which struck at +individual ability no less than at personal property, and in deference +to their protest a motion was made to except the Universities from the +operation of the Bill. This, however, was rejected by 151 votes to 143, +and a motion subsequently made to except the city of London was not +pressed to a division. The Lords, from disinclination, let us charitably +hope, to embroil themselves with the elective House on a matter of +electoral legislation, passed the Bill without any amendment, and it +came up in due course for the royal assent. It was perhaps the least +invidious of all the opportunities ever offered to William for the +exercise of the veto, and he very wisely resolved to stop the Bill. In +spite, however, of the obviously disinterested character of the +step—the measure being <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_146" id="Page_146">[Pg 146]</a></span>one which touched no royal prerogative +whatever, and which he could have no reason for vetoing save that he +believed its provisions to be opposed to the true interests of the +country—his action did not escape challenge. An attempt was made by a +section of the Tory party to carry a vote of censure upon whatever +Minister had advised him to refuse assent to the Bill. The proposal, +however, was not taken up by the more moderate members of the +Opposition, and was ultimately rejected by the very large majority of +219 to 70—a sufficiently emphatic affirmation of the legitimate +character of at least this exercise of the prerogative of disallowance. +It is of course not impossible, as has been already admitted, that the +recent revulsion of goodwill towards the King may have contributed to +the completeness of this victory, but it seems scarcely necessary to +ascribe much to the operation of any such sentiment. It is pretty clear +that the Bill for the Regulation of Elections was very doubtfully +regarded in many quarters of the House; and it is indeed rather +surprising that in a Parliament such as that returned in 1695, with Whig +influence in a distinct ascendency, it should have been possible to +carry the Bill at all. It must, moreover, be remembered that even if +there had been a more pronounced liking for it in Parliament itself, the +measure was essentially one of that character for which a shrewd member +will not venture to vote except with one eye on his constituents. +Natural as it was for a country gentleman of that day to object to a +Londoner coming down with a valise full of guineas to contest with him +his native county or his ancestral borough, it is not to be supposed +that his objection would be shared by the <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_147" id="Page_147">[Pg 147]</a></span>free and independent electors +of either constituency. To them it might appear by no means undesirable +that "local interest" should be stimulated to judicious liberality by +the competition of the open-handed outsider.</p> + +<p>On the 27th of April the first session of the new Parliament came to an +end, and a fortnight after the prorogation William landed in Holland, +whence he immediately set out to resume the command of the allied forces +in Flanders. His presence, however, was needed rather for purposes of +counsel than command; for, in truth, the long and desperate struggle +with Louis had now reached a stage when even the most enterprising of +captains might well be of opinion that Q. Fabius was the only general +whose tactics were worth studying. At one time it had almost become a +question which of the combatants would be the first to swoon from +exhaustion; but before William's arrival the skilful surprise and +destruction by Athlone and Cohorn of a vast magazine of ammunition and +stores, collected by the French at Groet, had virtually decided that +question against France. England, then in the throes of a monetary +crisis, was sufficiently hard put to it to support the continued strain +of the campaign; but upon France, with three armies afoot in three +hostile countries at once, the demand was far more terrible. She was +virtually too weak to attack in the Netherlands, and William probably +saw no advantage to himself in forcing an engagement. The summer passed +away in marches and counter-marches, and not a blow was exchanged +between Villeroy and the strategist who had plucked Namur out of his +grasp the year before. On the Rhine operations were equally bloodless +and indecisive. In Catalonia there had been <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_148" id="Page_148">[Pg 148]</a></span>some hard fighting, and +Vendome, who had succeeded Noailles, won a dearly-bought victory over +the Spaniards. Throughout the year, indeed, the pen was more busy than +the sword, and the straits in which Louis found himself may be measured +by the energy of his efforts to detach the allies from each other. The +wavering Duke of Savoy was at last definitively won over, his seduction, +it is said, being finally effected by assurances secretly transmitted to +Turin from the Court of Versailles to the effect that James would +inevitably be restored to his throne in consequence of the extraordinary +measures then being concerted for that purpose. The Duke, upon this, +went on pretence of pilgrimage to Loretto, and there signed a secret +treaty with France. Suspicion of his fidelity, however, soon gained +ground, and in the course of the summer he threw off the mask and +declared his intention, in accordance with a clause in the secret +treaty, of establishing a neutrality over all Italy. To this, of course, +the Emperor and the Kings of Spain and England refused to assent; but +the Duke compelled them to submission by an invasion of Milan, and all +Italian resistance to the French power was brought to an end. Louis at +the same time made separate overtures of peace to the Dutch, and with +such success that the States-General formally resolved that the +concessions of France afforded good ground for a treaty. The terms were +communicated to the other members of the confederacy, by some of the +weaker of whom they were accepted, although the Emperor and the King of +Spain united in rejecting them.</p> + +<p>While matters were in this condition William returned to England for the +parliamentary session, and <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_149" id="Page_149">[Pg 149]</a></span>in his speech on the 20th of October to the +two Houses he informed them that overtures of peace had been made by the +enemy. But the language in which he referred to them left no doubt of +his own views. "I am sure," he said, "we shall agree in opinion that the +only way of treating with France is with our swords in our hands." This +is not a method of treating with foreign Powers which finds equal favour +in our own day; but in 1696 there was no great difference among English +parties as to the proper mode of negotiating, at any rate with Louis +XIV. The House of Commons was as sternly distrustful of the French king +as was William himself. Protracted and burdensome as had been the +struggle, they were in no more hurry to catch at Louis's overtures than +he. In their address of reply the Commons recalled the fact that this +was the eighth year that they had assisted his Majesty with large +supplies for carrying on a just and necessary war, and that this war had +cost the nation much blood as well as treasure; but they added that the +benefits procured to religion and liberty were not dearly purchased at +this price, and they pledged themselves to provide not only the +necessary supplies for continuing the war with vigour, but also for the +payment of the public debt, which had been gradually accumulating in +consequence of the deficiencies of revenue. The close of this session +was marked by vehement debates in both Houses on the Bill for the +attainder of Sir John Fenwick. Fenwick, who had been arrested in the +previous summer, and was now lying in the Tower, endeavoured to save his +life by making a confession incriminating Marlborough, Godolphin, +Russell, Shrewsbury, and other Lords, whom he <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_150" id="Page_150">[Pg 150]</a></span>indicated as holding +communications with the exiled king. William, however, who had long been +well aware of the treason of most of these accused servants of his, +declined to notice the charges, and the accuser only sealed his own doom +by making them. A Bill of Attainder was brought in against him by the +Whigs, and, the insufficient evidence in support of it having by a +straining of the law of treason been voted sufficient, passed both +Houses after a series of hot debates in which neither political party +showed to great advantage, and Fenwick was executed.</p> + +<p>Early in 1697 the long struggle between France and the allies showed +signs of drawing to a close. Louis had expressed his willingness to +surrender the conquests made in the war, to restore Lorraine and +Luxembourg to their lawful owners, and to recognise William as King of +England. To these terms William and the States-General were ready enough +to assent; Spain, however, and the Emperor, raised objections; the +latter, as is suggested, on account of his desire to keep up the war +until the death of the ailing Spanish king, so that his own pretensions +to the crown of Spain might have the support of the allied army against +those of the French rival in the succession. Difficulties were +accordingly raised to delay the meeting by a Congress. The Emperor +proposed Aix-la-Chapelle as its place of meeting, and objected to the +French alternative proposal of the Hague. It was, however, finally +agreed that the representation of the allies should assemble at the +Hague, while those of France took up their quarters at Delft, a few +miles off; and that meetings between the two sets of negotiators should +take place at Ryswick, an <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_151" id="Page_151">[Pg 151]</a></span>intermediate village, in a palace belonging +to the Princes of Orange. Here accordingly they met on the 9th of May +1697, England being represented by Pembroke and Villiers, with the poet +Matthew Prior as their secretary, and France by Messieurs Harley, Crecy, +and Caillieres. Kaunitz and De Quiros were the respective +plenipotentiaries of the Empire and Spain. A Swedish minister acted as +mediator. Like other famous Congresses before and since, however, the +Congress of Ryswick made little progress; and after it had been many +weeks in session with no visible result, William resolved to open +negotiations directly with Louis through one of his generals commanding +in the Netherlands. He selected Boufflers as the most eligible for his +purpose, and Portland was directed to solicit a short interview. Leave +to comply with this request was immediately asked and obtained from the +French king, and several conferences took place between the two, +resulting, in less time than the Congress had taken to exchange powers +and settle formalities of precedence and procedure, in the settlement of +the basis of a treaty. Portland's commission was couched in highly +authoritative terms, and Marshal Boufflers's report of them shows most +strikingly how commanding an influence William then exercised in Europe, +and what lofty language one of the least assuming of men regarded it as +entitling him to use. In the French Marshal's account of his first +interview with Portland he recites an assurance conveyed to him by the +latter on the part of England, "that if satisfaction be given him on +points which concern him (the Prince of Orange) personally, he will +oblige the Emperor and the Spaniards to make peace; being satisfied for +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_152" id="Page_152">[Pg 152]</a></span>himself, as well as the States-General, with the offers which your +Majesty has made in the preliminaries, and that if the Emperor and the +Spaniards persist in refusing to make peace, he will conclude it without +them together with the Dutch."<a name="FNanchor_16_16" id="FNanchor_16_16"></a><a href="#Footnote_16_16" class="fnanchor">[16]</a></p> + +<p>The required satisfaction, however, was not obtained without some +difficulty. On William's side two stipulations were made, to which Louis +hesitated to assent; and neither these nor the two counter demands +advanced by the French king were ultimately assented to in the form in +which they were originally proposed. William required first that in the +peace which was to be concluded, and by which Louis was to consent to +recognise him King of England, the French king should "promise and +engage not to favour, directly or indirectly, King James against him." +The French plenipotentiaries at the Hague had already assented to their +master engaging himself not to favour directly or indirectly "the +enemies of the Prince of Orange, acknowledged King of England." William, +however, desired that James should be designated by name. "It is +absolutely necessary," writes Boufflers, reporting Portland's words to +Louis, "for the security of the Prince of Orange, that your Majesty +should engage <i>expressly</i> not to favour directly or indirectly King +James <i>nominatim</i>; and" (this was the second point of contention) "that +he shall go and reside at Rome or elsewhere out of France, provided he +be not near enough to keep up any party in England." Boufflers added +that though the first demand might be waived if Louis had any reluctance +to mention James by name, and that "other equivalent <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_153" id="Page_153">[Pg 153]</a></span>terms" might be +found to give the Prince of Orange the securities he desires, yet that +it was indispensable in order to remove all suspicion that the exiled +king should reside out of France.</p> + +<p>To both of these stipulations Louis demurred. It was inconsistent, he +held, with his honour as a sovereign, and with his duties as a host and +kinsman, to name "the King of England" in the treaty and to engage to +cause him to quit France; but he offered to agree "not to assist +directly or indirectly the enemies of the Prince of Orange without any +exception"; and Boufflers was directed to point out that the last three +words would exclude all suspicion of a restriction in favour of any +person whatsoever, and in fact amount to a virtual designation of James. +Upon this a further clause was engrafted by William, engaging Louis "not +to favour in any manner whatsoever the cabals, secret intrigues, +factions, and rebellions which might occur in England, nor any person or +persons who should excite or foment them," and to this Louis, after +modifying the expression "person or persons" which he regarded +apparently as the equivalent of "James or James's adherents," consented. +An attempt was made by William to obtain an assurance that after peace +was concluded James would be "induced to resolve of his own accord" to +live out of France; but Louis declined to yield even thus far, and the +point was waived. William perhaps believed that he could the better +afford to do so, as he proposed to make his acceptance of one of Louis's +two stipulations dependent upon his obtaining practical satisfaction on +this head. To the demand for the pension of £50,000, to which Mary of +Modena was alleged to be entitled, <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_154" id="Page_154">[Pg 154]</a></span>William had signified his +willingness to allow her any sum to which she could show lawful claim, +but it seems pretty clear that he had resolved to qualify this promise +by the condition that she and her husband should quit St. Germains. The +other demand of Louis—too arrogant to have been seriously urged, and in +all probability only put forward in formal fulfilment of a promise—was +that a general amnesty should be granted to all those who had followed +the fortunes of James, and further, that they should be restored to +their forfeited estates. To this last modest request William replied +that it was not in his power to grant it since the reversal of attainder +was a matter of statute and not of prerogative; to the former he replied +with proper spirit that "as for the general amnesty, besides that his +honour and glory demand that he shall not be forced to it by a treaty of +peace, the safety of his own person requires him not to recall +individuals to England whom he knows to be his personal enemies; but +that as soon as he shall be acknowledged King of England, and in +undisturbed possession by the treaty of peace, he will readily, of his +own free will, pardon those who seem to him disposed to return with good +faith and to live in quietness, behaving as good and loyal subjects." +The demand was of course immediately waived, and the two Powers being +now in accord, it now only remained to bring the rest of the allies into +the agreement. This, however, was not to be done in a moment. Both +Austria and Spain held back, and while they were hesitating new +successes of the French arms brought about an enhancement of the French +terms. Barcelona fell before one of Louis's armies, and the South +American Cartagena before a squadron of his fleet. Upon this his +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_155" id="Page_155">[Pg 155]</a></span>plenipotentiaries were instructed to announce that he intended to keep +Strasburg, and that unless his terms, thus modified, were accepted by +the 10th of September he should hold himself at liberty to modify them +yet further. The combined influence of the reverse and the menace, +assisted by the steady pressure of William's determination, at length +produced the desired effect. At daybreak on the 11th of September +(1697), after a night spent in debate as to the order of procedure, the +Treaty of Ryswick was at last signed as between France and Spain, France +and the United Provinces, and France and England—the Emperor being +allowed till the 1st of November to signify his adhesion. Two days later +the news was known in England, and was there received with universal +rejoicings. William, however, regarded it with no unmixed satisfaction. +"I received last night," he writes to the Pensionary, Heinsius, "your +letter of the preceding day, and your letter of yesterday has been +delivered to me to-day by Lord Villiers. May God be pleased to bless the +peace which has just been concluded, and long continue it by His grace. +Yet I confess that the manner in which it has been concluded inspires me +with some apprehensions for the future."</p> + +<h4>FOOTNOTE:</h4> + +<div class="footnote"><p class="noin"><a name="Footnote_16_16" id="Footnote_16_16"></a><a href="#FNanchor_16_16"><span class="label">[16]</span></a> Grimblot's <i>Letters of William III.</i>, etc., i. 8.</p></div> +<br /> +<br /> +<br /><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_156" id="Page_156">[Pg 156]</a></span> +<br /> + +<hr /> +<br /> +<h2>CHAPTER XIII</h2> + +<h3>1698-1699</h3> + +<div class="blockquot"><p class="hang" style="margin-left: 2em;">Portland's embassy—His life in Paris—The question of the +Spanish Succession—The First Partition Treaty—General +election and meeting of the new Parliament—Its +temper—Opposition to William's military policy—Reduction +of the army.</p></div> + + +<p>One of William's first steps after the conclusion of the peace was to +appoint a strong ambassador to Versailles. Portland was selected, +partly, as it is said, in consequence of his jealousy of the growing +ascendency of his youthful rival Keppel in the favour of William, but +much more, one may suppose, because of his force of character and +intimate acquaintance with European politics. The Ambassador +Extraordinary was intended, as he understood his mission, to hold his +head high at the Court of Louis, and he undoubtedly did so. His retinue +and equipage was of remarkable splendour, and his bearing, especially +towards those who showed any sign of disputing his just pretensions, was +marked by an unflinching dignity.<a name="FNanchor_17_17" id="FNanchor_17_17"></a><a href="#Footnote_17_17" class="fnanchor">[17]</a> He protested bluntly against the +presence of <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_157" id="Page_157">[Pg 157]</a></span>the would-be assassins of William at a Court at which he +was William's representative. He pressed for the removal of James and +his adherents from St. Germains; and on both these matters Louis, while +firmly maintaining the position which he had taken up at the Brabant +negotiation, showed, nevertheless, unmistakable anxiety to conciliate +the resolute ambassador. It was not, however, to deal with points of +this kind that Portland had been sent to Versailles. Another matter of +the greatest European moment was beginning to press, and it was to +endeavour to effect an adjustment of the various conflicting interests +involved in it that William had despatched his carefully-selected +emissary to the French Court. Charles II., King of Spain and the Indies, +and last of the male line of the Emperor Charles V., was known to be +near his end, and at his death the whole of his vast empire in the two +hemispheres would pass to one or other of two powerful reigning Houses, +to neither of which its transfer would be regarded with indifference by +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_158" id="Page_158">[Pg 158]</a></span>Europe at large. The rightful heir of Charles II., if blood alone had +had to be considered, was the Dauphin of France, the son of his sister, +who had married Louis XIV. With the consent of her husband she had at +the time of her marriage renounced for herself and her posterity all +pretensions to the Spanish crown, and her renunciation was duly recorded +in a European Treaty. Failing this line it would be necessary to go back +another generation, and the Emperor Leopold, as the son of Charles's +aunt, stood next in succession. His claim was barred by no renunciation; +but it was no more likely that Louis would quietly allow him to succeed +than that he would submit to the succession of a Bourbon. It was not to +the interests of Europe that either House should acquire such an +enormous accession of territory and power. To William it appeared at any +rate intolerable that the House of Bourbon should do so, and in order to +avert this calamity, as he regarded it, he took one of the most keenly +canvassed steps of his political life in the negotiation and conclusion +of the famous Partition Treaty. There is no likelihood that posterity +will ever arrive at accord upon the policy of this famous transaction, +but before even attempting to consider the unfavourable criticisms +passed upon it, it is absolutely necessary to note one cardinal +characteristic of its nature. To William it was avowedly and essentially +an expedient adopted, to use Aristotle's expression, <span class="Greek" title="kata ton deuteron ploun">κατὰ +τὸν δεύτερον +πλοῦν</span>. It was never regarded or represented by him as more +than the "second-best" thing to be done in a case where the actual best +had been rendered impracticable by circumstances beyond his own control. +He knew that Louis's moderation in the <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_159" id="Page_159">[Pg 159]</a></span>settlement of the terms of +Ryswick had been merely politic; that its main object was to put an end +to the war, and so to break up the forces of a coalition which both he +and his rival knew that it would be a hard matter to get together again; +and that the peace once concluded, Louis would have it in his power to +recruit his military strength, and prepare to take advantage of the +almost daily expected death of Charles II. of Spain to carry out his +long cherished design upon that kingdom. There were two ways of dealing +with this situation, and two only. Either England must be kept under +arms, or the King of England must "transact" with the King of France. +The former of these two courses was denied him by the jealousy of his +English subjects, and he was accordingly forced upon the latter. In +writing to the Pensionary Heinsius he deplores the fact that he cannot +"remain armed," and declares that little reliance as could be placed +upon engagement with France, it was absolutely necessary that such +should be concluded; since otherwise, he writes, "I do not see a +possibility of preventing France from putting herself in immediate +possession of the monarchy of Spain in case the King should happen to +die soon." Obviously, therefore, it would be unfair to judge of the +First Partition Treaty as though the arrangement of it had been +deliberately selected by William from a variety of more or less eligible +expedients. The only mode in which it can be logically or reasonably +attacked is by contending either that the object of the Treaty, the +exclusion of the grandson of Louis from the throne of Spain, was not a +political end of such importance as to be worth bargaining for at all, +or else that the particular <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_160" id="Page_160">[Pg 160]</a></span>bargain to which William agreed was in +itself an improvident one.</p> + +<p>So much premised, let us proceed to examine the provisions of this +memorable instrument. Roughly speaking they would have effected a +division of the heritage of the Spanish king between the Electoral +Prince of Bavaria and the Dauphin of France. The former was to have the +kingdom of Spain, the Spanish Netherlands, and the Spanish possessions +in the New World; to the latter were to pass the two Sicilies and +Sardinia, certain places on and off the coast of Tuscany, and the +Cis-Pyrenæan portion of the Province of Guipuzcoa. Milan was to go to +the Archduke Charles, the second son of the Emperor Leopold. Such was +the arrangement, and whether its terms were to be deemed good or bad for +England, it is at least certain that they were only obtained from the +French king after long and obstinate diplomatic haggling, first between +Portland, William's Ambassador-Extraordinary at Versailles, and the +French Ministers, and afterwards between the Count de Tallard, Louis +XIV.'s ambassador to England, and William himself. The French king was +extremely anxious to secure the Spanish kingdom for his grandson Philip, +Duke of Anjou, and was ready to undertake that the Dauphin and Philip's +elder brother should waive their rights, so as to guard against the +possibility of the French and Spanish monarchies being united under one +sceptre. As to the danger lest a Bourbon, once established at Madrid, +might hand over the Spanish Netherlands to the head of the family, Louis +was willing to protect England and Holland against that danger by +consenting that those provinces <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_161" id="Page_161">[Pg 161]</a></span>should be ceded to the Elector of +Bavaria. William met this proposal, not by a direct negative, but by +raising his terms of assent to it. Not only, he insisted, must the +Spanish Netherlands pass to the Elector of Bavaria, but Louis must give +up some fortified towns on his Flemish frontier, for the better +self-protection of the United Provinces, while England was "compensated" +on the Mediterranean and the Gulf of Mexico. Louis protested on his own +behalf against the former of these proposals, and declared that the +Spaniards would never consent to the latter. At last, unable to obtain +his way with regard to the elevation of one of his grandsons to the +Spanish throne, he assented to the only alternative arrangement which +would prevent Spain from passing to his rival the Emperor, and signified +his willingness to accept the Electoral Prince of Bavaria as the heir to +the Peninsula. The obstinacy with which the points of this treaty were +contested may be measured by the fact that the first interview between +Pomponne and Portland, in which the matter of the Spanish succession was +broached, took place on the 15th of March, and it was not till the 4th +of September that the treaty was signed. It cannot therefore be +contended that William spared pains to obtain what he considered the +best terms from Louis, and having regard to the fact that the King of +Spain was not expected to live out the year, it is plain enough that on +one assumption—that, namely, of the paramount necessity of preventing +the accession of a grandson of Louis to the Spanish throne—the +negotiations could not with safety have been protracted much longer. The +latter, in short, of the two questions which were propounded at the +outset of the examination <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_162" id="Page_162">[Pg 162]</a></span>may be said to depend for its answer upon the +former. Supposing that the exclusion of the Duke of Anjou or the Duke of +Berry from the throne of Spain was a political object worth bargaining +for at all, William cannot, I think, be charged with having paid an +improvident price for it. Nor does it appear to me reasonably arguable +that the object in question was not worth bargaining to obtain. It has +been urged by some critics of this transaction that the apprehensions +roused in those days at the prospect of a Bourbon prince succeeding to +the throne of Charles were exaggerated; that experience has shown the +fallacy of supposing that ties of kindred count for much in determining +the policy of monarchs, and that it would certainly have been better +that the Spanish throne should pass to the descendant of a French king +than that the two Sicilies and other points of vantage on the +Mediterranean should pass to a future French king himself. But those who +so argue rely too much upon general principles and pay too little +attention to the facts of the particular case. One might readily admit +that ties of kindred count for little in determining the policy of +monarchs, and at the same time retain the full conviction that the +subsistence of the relation of grandfather and grandson between the then +King of France—the man and the circumstances being what they were—and +the King of Spain would have been fraught with the most disastrous +consequences for all Europe. There could be no serious doubt that the +Duke of Anjou or the Duke of Berry would be a mere puppet with his +strings pulled from beyond the Pyrenees, and that the whole resources of +his kingdom would at once have been drawn upon by Louis to enable him to +resume the <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_163" id="Page_163">[Pg 163]</a></span>war. Had the French crown rested upon another head, or even +had there been any probability that the new occupant of the Spanish +throne would have time allowed him to outgrow the <i>regni novitas</i> and +strike out a policy of his own, the case would have been different. But +we must judge of the situation by the light of the facts as they were. +It is beside the point to argue that because a grandson of Louis after +all succeeded the Spanish king, and after a desolating war for his +dethronement continued to reign over Spain, and his children after him, +without Europe being "a penny the worse"—it is beside the point, I say, +to argue that an arrangement which operated not amiss for Europe from +1712 onwards would have been tolerable in 1698. Philip V. was well +enough as a king of Spain, after his grandfather's power had been +brought low by a dozen more years of European war, but Philip of Anjou, +the nominee and instrument of Louis XIV., at the close of the previous +century, would have been a weapon pointed at the breast of free and +Protestant Europe. You cannot judge of the strength or keenness of a +dagger by merely estimating its power in the grasp of a failing hand.</p> + +<p>Doubtless, however, the complaints both contemporary and subsequent of +the provisions of the Partition Treaty were to some extent stimulated by +the circumstances of its arrangement. It is well known that William, +acting as his own Foreign Minister, carried his official independence so +far as to conduct the whole of the negotiations with Louis from +beginning to end without any reference to, or at least any effective +consultation of, a single English Minister. Somers, it is true, had been +told before the King's departure for Loo that Lord Portland had <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_164" id="Page_164">[Pg 164]</a></span>been +sounded by Louis with reference to an agreement with England concerning +the Spanish succession; but it was not till the terms were actually +arranged that William wrote to Somers for his opinion upon them, +"leaving it to his judgment to whom else he might think it proper to +impart them," and adding "if it be fit that this negotiation be carried +on there is no time to be lost, and you will send me the full powers +under the Great Seal, with the names in blank, to treat with Count +Tallard." Portland at the same time communicated directly with Vernon, +the then Secretary of State, whose consent was necessary to the imprint +of the Great Seal; and Somers himself confided the affair to several +other Ministers. But it is clear, not only from Somers's own reply to +William, but generally on the face of the whole transaction, that even +if the King's English Ministers had been competent to revise the +agreement, their suggestions would have come too late. Somers's +criticisms, though sensible in themselves, were of the most tentative +character; he excuses himself indeed that his thoughts were so ill put +together, and pleaded the known effect of the waters at Tunbridge Wells, +where he then was, in "discomposing and disturbing the head so as almost +totally to disable one from writing"; but in fact he writes with the +extreme diffidence natural to the "layman" conscious of his incapacity +to advise the expert. The commission of plenipotentiaries was then drawn +out by Secretary Vernon with the names left in blank, and the Chancellor +requested the Secretary for his warrant before affixing the Great Seal. +This, however, Vernon refused to give, and Somers thereupon sealed the +powers with his own hand, taking care, however, to keep the King's +letter as a <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_165" id="Page_165">[Pg 165]</a></span>justification or an excuse for the act. That the whole +proceeding was unconstitutional, according to the fully developed theory +of the constitution, is of course obvious, and it is only a partial and +not a complete defence of William's share in it that the theory in +question was nothing like so fully developed or so firmly established as +it is at the present day. It is all very well to say that "William was +his own Foreign Minister,"—a statement which is repeated by Whig +writers, as though it sufficed to explain any conceivable +irregularity,—but the mere fact of his being unable to complete the +legal execution of a treaty without calling in the assistance of a +Minister (or rather, as it really should have been, if the Chancellor +had not taken upon him to dispense with the Secretary's co-operation, of +two Ministers), must have been a sufficient indication to the King of +the even <i>then</i> constitutional limits of his prerogative. The <i>form</i>, in +short, was eloquent of the <i>fact</i>. It would have been plainly irrational +to suppose that the royal treaty-making power would have been made +exercisable only under the authority of an instrument validated by an +act which none but a Minister or Ministers could perform, unless it were +intended that such Minister or Ministers should be as fully responsible +for the doings of the executive in foreign as in domestic affairs. And +assuredly it cannot be regarded as more than a colourable recognition of +this responsibility to procure the merely mechanical assent of Ministers +to the results of an international agreement, in the negotiations for +which they have not been permitted to take any part. It seems difficult +therefore to contend that William was not in this matter <i>knowingly</i> +over-riding constitutional restrictions, under the conviction probably +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_166" id="Page_166">[Pg 166]</a></span>that the pressing nature of the emergency, and the danger of delaying +the Spanish settlement by deliberations with the English Ministers, +sufficiently justified the irregularity.</p> + +<p>There was that, too, in Somers's letter which would have confirmed him +in the belief that he had done well in agreeing betimes with his +adversary. The Chancellor spoke of the "deadness and want of spirit" +universally prevailing in the nation. None, he said, were disposed to +the thought of entering on a new war; but all seemed to be tired out +with taxes, to a degree beyond what was discerned till it appeared upon +the occasion of the late elections. And, indeed, the lesson of these +elections was too significant to be missed. A great change had passed +over the mind of the country since the return of the Parliament of 1695, +and the overthrow of the Tory ascendency by an electorate thoroughly +roused to a sense of the duty of prosecuting the war, and to that end +supporting the war party. In 1698, although the Tory ranks were not very +largely recruited, nor those of the non-Ministerial Whigs materially +reduced, it is certain that many candidates on both sides had been +compelled to pledge themselves to a policy of peace and retrenchment. +The new Parliament was opened by the King on the 6th of December, and +the temper of the House of Commons was not long in declaring itself. The +Ministerial party succeeded in carrying the election of their Speaker, +Sir Thomas Littleton, but they were utterly powerless to sustain their +master's military policy against the mass of opposition which it had to +encounter. A resolution was adopted cutting down the army to 7000 men, +"and these to consist of his Majesty's <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_167" id="Page_167">[Pg 167]</a></span>natural-born subjects." To +William, whose Ministers had held out hopes to him that a force of at +least 10,000 men would be sanctioned by Parliament, and who personally +held that anything less than double that number would be insufficient, a +resolution which would not only have inexcusably weakened, in his +opinion, the defences of England, but have deprived him even of the +services of those Dutch Guards who had fought with such signal bravery +for the liberties of that country, caused natural and bitter chagrin. He +gave the royal assent to the Bill founded upon this resolution, but he +gave it in a speech through the dignified composure of which his grave +concern and disappointment perceptibly struggle. A later attempt to save +his Dutch Guards, almost pathetic in its character,<a name="FNanchor_18_18" id="FNanchor_18_18"></a><a href="#Footnote_18_18" class="fnanchor">[18]</a> proved +unsuccessful; and, when, in reply to this appeal, the Commons reminded +him that he had promised in 1688 to "send all foreign troops that came +over with him back again," so narrow and ungenerous an insistence on the +strict letter of his pledge must no doubt have added to his +mortification.</p> + +<p>The occasion of this second attempt was an event to be shortly noticed, +which might have been thought likely to dispose the Parliament to a more +liberal view of military necessities; and William has been censured by +his greatest admirer for not having applied to the House for an increase +of the English establishment instead of striving to retain a force of +his countrymen. <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_168" id="Page_168">[Pg 168]</a></span>It is not a matter for regret, however, that this +mistake, if mistake it was, should have been committed; for it enables +us pretty accurately to measure the respective proportions of reason and +prejudice in the conduct of Parliament. So far as the motive of the +House of Commons in these military retrenchments was a purely economical +one—so far even as it implied blindness to those European +considerations which our insular position no more absolved us from +regarding in 1698 than it does to-day—this motive was, if mistaken, +respectable. Even that exaggerated dread of a standing army, which, no +doubt, had more to do with the decision of the parliamentary majority +than any theory, good, bad, or indifferent, of the probable course of +European affairs, would not deserve to be severely judged. But it is +difficult to attribute the refusal of the House of Commons to sanction +William's retention of his body-guard to any worthier motive than mere +jealousy of the foreigner. It was a step as unwise from the political +point of view, and in its bearing on the relations of sovereign and +subject, as on the moral side it was ungracious. One can well understand +that the personal affront involved in it may have been harder for the +King to bear than even the rejection of his general military demands. +Anyhow there seems no doubt that upon learning the decision of the House +in the matter of the army William did seriously contemplate retirement +to Holland, after abdicating in favour of the Princess Anne, and that +nothing but the firmness of Somers prevented him from carrying his +resolution into effect. So at least Somers himself believed; and +Somers's knowledge of the royal mind, as well as of the royal character, +was distinctly superior <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_169" id="Page_169">[Pg 169]</a></span>to that of Burnet, who treated the threat of +withdrawal as not seriously meant. And when, having schooled himself to +submit with dignity and grace to this rebuff, he found himself +churlishly denied the slight personal favour which he subsequently +requested, his bitterness of feeling was, we may well believe, +extreme.<a name="FNanchor_19_19" id="FNanchor_19_19"></a><a href="#Footnote_19_19" class="fnanchor">[19]</a> The whole incident is one which no Englishman of the +present day, whatever his politics, can look back upon without a sense +of shame.</p> + +<p>William, it may be imagined, was not sorry to put an end to a +parliamentary session so fraught with unpleasant incidents. Nor, after +the settlement of the military question, was there much more business to +be done. Its despatch, however, was attended by one occurrence which +deserves notice here as having prepared the way for one of the gravest +political conflicts of the reign. Defeated by the manœuvre above +referred to in their attack upon the Crown grants, the country party +brought their forces to bear upon a position at once more limited and +more assailable. They demanded a commission of inquiry into the disposal +of the Irish forfeitures, and to insure the accomplishment of their +object they resorted to the questionable expedient of "tacking" to a +money Bill which they were sending to the Upper House a clause +authorising the appointment of seven commissioners to carry out the +proposed investigation. To this virtual "ouster" of their jurisdiction +over the question <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_170" id="Page_170">[Pg 170]</a></span>the Lords very naturally objected. They could not +reject the Land Tax Bill, the measure to which this clause had been +tacked, without creating national confusion; and rejection without +amendment was their only constitutional alternative to accepting +it—commissioners' clause, and all. They demurred, but ultimately +yielded, under protest; and William, not as it seems without foreboding +of future trouble, assented to the Bill with its irrelevant rider.</p> + +<p>It was now the month of May, and the Houses, having held uninterrupted +session ever since the 1st of January, had fairly earned their recess. +On the 4th of the month the King came down to Westminster and bade his +Parliament a cold adieu.</p> + +<h4>FOOTNOTES:</h4> + +<div class="footnote"><p class="noin"><a name="Footnote_17_17" id="Footnote_17_17"></a><a href="#FNanchor_17_17"><span class="label">[17]</span></a> It is with a mixture of amusement and admiration that one +reads in Grimblot (i. 220) the account he gives of one of his diplomatic +receptions: "The King had sent the Duke d'Aumont, his first gentleman of +the bedchamber, to compliment me. After this the Duchess of Burgundy +sent the Marquis de Villacerf. They then began to make new pretensions, +requiring me to go and meet him half-way down the steps, as I had done +the former nobleman, and I refused to receive him except at the door of +the antechamber, which is at the top of the stairs. This gave rise to a +lengthened dispute, during which he was standing half-way up the steps, +and I at the top, while messengers passed backwards and forwards between +us. At length I sent him word that, if this did not content him, it +would be best for each of us to go our own way, without my having the +honour of seeing him, for that undoubtedly I should do no more, after +which he came up." Upon this grandee's leaving another difficulty arose. +Portland, although he conducted him back to his carriage, did not wait +to "see him depart," on which the "conductor of ambassadors" made great +complaints. The dispute as to the proper ceremony of reception was +renewed by the next arrival, when the conductor of ambassadors behaved +impertinently in public, "obliging me," says Portland, "to treat him as +became a person who has the honour to represent your Majesty," whereat +the conductor of ambassadors was "confounded and irritated."</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p class="noin"><a name="Footnote_18_18" id="Footnote_18_18"></a><a href="#FNanchor_18_18"><span class="label">[18]</span></a> The message from the King runs thus: "His Majesty is +pleased to let the House know that the necessary preparations are made +for transporting the Guards who came with him into England, and that he +intends to send them away immediately, unless out of consideration for +him the House be disposed to find a way for continuing them longer in +his service, which his Majesty would take very kindly."</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p class="noin"><a name="Footnote_19_19" id="Footnote_19_19"></a><a href="#FNanchor_19_19"><span class="label">[19]</span></a> He writes in a letter to Lord Galway, Jan. 27, 1699: "It +is not possible to be more sensibly touched than I am at my not being +able to do more for the poor refugee officers who have served me with so +much zeal and fidelity. I am afraid the good God will punish the +ingratitude of this nation. Assuredly on all sides my patience is put to +the trial."</p></div> +<br /> +<br /> +<br /><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_171" id="Page_171">[Pg 171]</a></span> +<br /> + +<hr /> +<br /> +<h2>CHAPTER XIV</h2> + +<h3>1699-1700</h3> + +<div class="blockquot"><p class="hang" style="margin-left: 2em;">Death of the Electoral Prince of +Bavaria—Renewed negotiations—Second Partition Treaty—The Irish +forfeitures—The Resumption Bill—Will and death of the King of Spain.</p></div> + + +<p>The political event on which William had founded hopes of re-opening the +army question has been indirectly referred to in the last chapter. This +event, as has been said, was one which might reasonably have been +thought likely to dispose the English Parliament to a more liberal view +of the military necessities of the country by bringing once more into +prominence a European danger which diplomacy had been hitherto believed +to have averted. In the early days of 1699 the Electoral Prince of +Bavaria—the youthful heir-designate of the Spanish monarchy—took his +departure from a troubled world whose confusions were to be formidably +increased by his quitting it. The English Parliament, as we have seen, +refused to allow the Prince's death to modify their policy. But William +could not afford to overlook it; for it, of course, reopened at once the +whole question which had been closed by the First Partition Treaty, and +rendered it necessary to nominate a new successor to the Spanish +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_172" id="Page_172">[Pg 172]</a></span>kingdom and its possessions in the New World. Louis XIV. was the first +to move in the matter. He instructed De Tallard to sound William as to a +new Treaty, and, after one or two candidates had been mentioned and +rejected, it was finally agreed between the French and English +sovereigns that the Archduke Charles, the son of the Emperor Leopold, +should be the future King of Spain and the Indies, and that the +Milanese, which had been allotted to him under the First Treaty, should +go to Louis, by whom it was to be bartered for Lorraine. The arrangement +was complete in all respects except that of having received the sanction +of the Emperor by the summer or early autumn of 1699; but the rumour of +it caused a violent outbreak of indignation in Spain. The Marquis of +Canales, Spanish Ambassador at the English Court, was instructed to +protest, which he did in terms so insolently imperious that William, on +being informed at Loo of the language used by him, at once directed that +the Marquis's passports should be handed to him, and at the same time +recalled our own ambassador at Madrid. By whose means the provisions of +the new Treaty were communicated to the Spanish Court and people is not +certainly known; but considering that one of the parties to whom it had +been submitted rejected it (for the Emperor at the eleventh hour refused +to sign), and, moreover, that another party—the French king—had never, +in all probability, sincerely assented to it, there is no need for much +speculation on this point. Leopold had known and obvious motives for +disclosing it to the unhappy Charles, and Louis is more than suspected +of having private motives for doing so. But whichever of the two was the +medium of <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_173" id="Page_173">[Pg 173]</a></span>communication, Louis was indisputably the gainer. The news +aroused a powerful anti-Austrian feeling in the minds of the Spanish +people, of which the French King, who was far better served at the Court +of Madrid than the Emperor, was not slow to take advantage. From the +autumn of 1699 till the 1st of November 1700, when the few and miserable +days of Charles II. came to an end, the agents of France worked +persistently, and in the end successfully, to overcome the Austrian +leanings of the dying monarch, and to convince him that on grounds of +patriotism, no less than of legal and moral obligation, he was bound to +devise his dominions to his lawful French heir, and away from the Prince +to whom Louis had solemnly agreed with William that they should pass.</p> + +<p>The final consummation of these intrigues, however, was still a year +distant, and meanwhile an incident of extreme interest, and at the time +of exceeding gravity, in English politics, has to be recorded. On the +19th of November Parliament met again, and in a mood which boded ill for +the relations between the sovereign and the third estate of his realm. +The session began with one of the numerous abortive attacks made upon +Somers in the course of his distinguished career, and an equally +unsuccessful attempt was made to procure the disgrace of that perpetual +bugbear of the Tories, Bishop Burnet. But these were merely in the +nature of preliminary skirmishes; it was not long before hostilities +were opened upon William and his Ministers in a more serious way. It +will be remembered that at the close of the last session the Commons +tacked to the Land Tax Bill a clause appointing seven commissioners to +inquire into <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_174" id="Page_174">[Pg 174]</a></span>the Irish forfeitures, and that the Lords, after some +demur to the manner in which the proposal was being forced upon them, +passed the measure. The report of these commissioners, who had been +pursuing their inquiries in Ireland during the recess, was now ready, +and early in the session it was presented to Parliament, signed by four +of the commissioners, the other three dissenting. Disfigured by many +exaggerations and some wilful misstatements, this important document +contained, nevertheless, an amount of discreditable truth sufficient not +only to excite considerable popular feeling against William at the time, +but to inflict some permanent injury on his historical reputation.</p> + +<p>The four commissioners reported that all the lands in the several +counties in Ireland belonging to the forfeited persons amounted, as far +as they could reckon, to 1,060,762 acres, worth £211,623 per annum, and +computed therefrom to be of the capital value of £2,685,138. That some +of these lands had been restored to the old proprietors by virtue of the +Articles of Limerick and Galway, or by his Majesty's favour through +reversal of outlawries, and royal pardons obtained chiefly by +gratifications to such persons as had abused his Majesty's royal bounty +and compassion; and that besides these restitutions, which they thought +to be corruptly procured, there were seventy-six grants and "custodians" +under the Great Seal of Ireland, of which they made a recital—as, for +instance, to the Lord Romney, three grants now in being, containing +49,517 acres; to the Earl of Albemarle, in two grants, 106,633 acres in +possession and reversion; to William Bentinck, Esq., Lord Woodstock +(Portland's eldest son), 135,820 acres of land; to the Earl of Athlone +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_175" id="Page_175">[Pg 175]</a></span>in two grants, 26,480 acres; to the Earl of Galway one grant of 36,148 +acres, etc. That the estates so mentioned did not indeed yield so much +to the grantees as they were valued at, because as most of them had +abused his Majesty on the real value of their estates, so their agents +had imposed upon them, and had either sold or let the greatest part of +these lands at an undervalue; but that after all deductions and +allowances there yet remained £1,699,343: 14s. which they laid before +the Commons as the gross value of the estates forfeited since the 13th +day of February 1689, and not restored. The commissioners went on, in +excess, as it should seem, of their attributions,<a name="FNanchor_20_20" id="FNanchor_20_20"></a><a href="#Footnote_20_20" class="fnanchor">[20]</a> to report that +William had conferred the forfeited Irish estates of the late King +James, estimated at 95,649 acres, worth £25,998 a year, on his mistress, +the Countess of Orkney. Excluding this item, however, the value of the +restorations and royal grants against which the commissioners reported +amounted, it will be seen, to close upon a million sterling.</p> + +<p>It is very probable, indeed it may be said to be certain, that the total +value of these forfeitures was grossly exaggerated by the commissioners; +it is possible that it was to some extent wilfully exaggerated for party +purposes. The lands forfeited in Ireland during the Revolution may have +been worth "nearer half a million sterling than two millions and a +half." It does not seem to me, <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_176" id="Page_176">[Pg 176]</a></span>however, that this is a point of the +importance which Macaulay seems to attach to it. Even if it could be +shown that the proportion of the royal grants to the total forfeitures +was unduly magnified through an over-estimate of the value of the +former, I cannot see that it would affect the merits of the case. The +real gist of the charge against William in respect of these +grants—assuming, that is to say, that he was justified in making them +at all without the sanction of Parliament—is to be sought not in a +comparison of the royal benefactions with the amount of the property at +his disposal, but in an examination of their proportions <i>inter se</i>. +Even if it be shown that he distributed property of the value not of a +million sterling, but of only a fifth of that sum, it remains equally +true in either case, that more than one-tenth of his bounty went to a +single favourite who had little or no public services to show for them, +and very nearly an eighth to a young man whose only claim upon him was +that of being an able and faithful servant's eldest son. The grants to +Albemarle and Woodstock are impossible to defend, and the latter almost +impossible to explain. William had already loaded Portland with +benefits, and to the vast estates he had bestowed upon him in England +his eldest son would, in the natural course of events, succeed. On what +ground, either of justice or even of sentiment, it could have been +thought well to enrich the expectant heir of so much English landed +property with 135,820 acres of forfeited Irish land is a mystery which +has never been satisfactorily explained. As to the grant to Albemarle, +it was of even worse example. Woodstock was at least the son of a +counsellor to whom <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_177" id="Page_177">[Pg 177]</a></span>William owed much, and whom he might conceivably +have regarded himself as rewarding in the person of his heir; but what +had Keppel, a mere favourite, a young courtier with no other +recommendations but his youth, his good looks, and his complaisance, a +personality too closely recalling that of a "minion" of Henri Trois, and +which in the Jacobite libels, not wisely to be thus supplied with +colourable pretexts for their calumnies, was openly so described—what, +one cannot but ask, had Keppel done to deserve a grant of 106,633 acres +of the forfeited Irish land? Compare these two largesses, Woodstock's +and Albemarle's, with those bestowed on Lord Romney, an ex-Secretary of +State, and one of the leaders of the movement which brought William to +England; on Lord Athlone, the stout Dutch soldier who, as General +Ginkel, had given and taken many a hard knock in his master's service; +on Lord Galway, that gallant Marquis de Ruvigny who had turned the flank +of the Irish on the bloody day of Aghrim. Albemarle's, the smaller of +the two, is more than twice that of Romney, nearly thrice that of +Galway, more than four times that of Athlone. It was impossible for +William to contend in the face of this evidence that he had simply been +using the forfeited lands of Irish rebels to reward those public +servants who had done most by valour in the field, or wisdom in the +council-chamber, to establish firmly on the throne of England, the +Prince chosen by the nation; and that therefore he was merely +anticipating the national reward which would have been conferred upon +them, and virtually drawing upon one national fund in relief of +prospective charges upon another. He could not even contend, as we have +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_178" id="Page_178">[Pg 178]</a></span>seen, that this was the <i>main</i> use to which he had put the forfeitures; +for though wisdom and valour had come in for a share of the spoils, +their share was lamentably smaller than that which was won by mere arts +of courtiership. There is, in short, no denying the fact that while +William applied a part of this property to strictly public objects, or, +in other words, to objects to which, but for such application of it, the +public would have to contribute in another shape, he devoted far too +large a portion of it to purposes of purely private benefaction, for +which he would otherwise have had to resort to drafts upon his Civil +List.<a name="FNanchor_21_21" id="FNanchor_21_21"></a><a href="#Footnote_21_21" class="fnanchor">[21]</a></p> + +<p>But even this does not exhaust all the disagreeable elements in the +transaction. Had the Irish forfeitures been simply in the nature of +property "within the order and disposition" of the sovereign, and +impressed with only a constructive trust for the benefit of the nation, +the King's dealings with it would have been open to grave reprehension. +As a matter of fact, how<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_179" id="Page_179">[Pg 179]</a></span>ever, the property in question was the subject +not of a mere constructive trust, but of an express recognition on +William's part of its fiduciary character, and of a distinct promise +that Parliament, as representing the <i>cestui que trust</i>, should have an +opportunity of deciding on the proper mode of its application. On the +5th of January 1691 the King had closed the short autumn with a speech, +in which he assured the Houses that he would not "make any grant of the +forfeited lands in England and Ireland till there be another opportunity +of settling that matter in Parliament, in such manner as shall be +thought most expedient." This undertaking had reference to a Bill which +had actually passed the Commons for applying the Irish forfeitures, and +which only failed to become law because William, who was due at the +Congress then about to meet at the Hague, was compelled to prorogue +Parliament before the Lords had had time to consider the measure. It is +vain to contend that this promise was fulfilled, because several +"opportunities" were given to Parliament to deal with the question—in +the sense that several sessions were allowed to pass without Parliament +moving in the matter—before William himself proceeded to grant away the +forfeited lands. William was not entitled, under the circumstances, to +infer any surrender of parliamentary control over the forfeitures from +mere parliamentary inaction. Such an inference would in any case have +been a somewhat questionable one; but this was a case in which the +wishes of one branch of the Legislature had already been recorded in the +form of a distinct legislative project. The King knew, in short, that +the Commons desired to make Irish rebellion as far as <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_180" id="Page_180">[Pg 180]</a></span>possible pay for +its own suppression; he knew that they looked to the value of the +rebels' lands to afford partial relief to the English tax-payer from the +heavy imposts to which he was being subjected; and when, knowing this, +he proceeded to grant away large tracts of these lands, thus affected to +the national service, at his own will and pleasure, and in many cases to +persons whom the nation would never have consented to endow so +munificently out of its own pocket, he was unquestionably dealing with +his Parliament and people after a fashion which, in the case of a +private individual standing in analogous relation to other parties, +would be severely condemned. If he intended to ignore his promise of +January 1691 altogether, his grants were mere high-handed usurpations of +right; if he relied upon the mere "allowance of opportunities" in the +manner above mentioned as being a fulfilment of that promise, then he +was guilty of something which can only be described in modern +phraseology as sharp practice.</p> + +<p>Undoubtedly the House of Commons might have proceeded with more +moderation than they displayed, but the majority in that House felt that +they had a good, and what was still better, a popular case against the +King and his advisers; they knew that the country was sore with the +weight of taxation, and jealous of the amount of royal favour bestowed +upon foreigners; and they felt that they might rely upon the combined +force of these two sentiments to support them in extreme measures. +Having gained their first triumph in the committal to the Tower of Sir +Richard Levinge, one of the dissentient commissioners who had charged +his colleagues with speaking disrespectfully of the sovereign in +connection with <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_181" id="Page_181">[Pg 181]</a></span>these benefactions, they introduced the famous +Resumption Bill, a measure by which all the royal grants were +invalidated, and the whole of the alienated property resumed to the use +of the State. In the Bill sent up to the Lords from the Lower House in +1690 it had been proposed to reserve a third part of the forfeitures to +the King, and William was not without hopes that this reservation, which +would just about have covered his grants to Woodstock, Albemarle, and +the three other peers whose names have been mentioned above, would be +renewed. The imperious majority, however, refused to hear of any such +modification of their demands. They rejected a clause moved by Ministers +for reserving at least some portion of the forfeitures to the King; and +they carried resolutions to the effect that "the advising, procuring, +and passing of the grants in Ireland had been the occasion of +contracting great debts, and laying heavy burdens upon the people; that +the said grants reflected highly upon the King's honour; and that the +officers and instruments concerned in procuring and passing them had +highly failed in the performance of their duty." These resolutions were +presented to William at Kensington by the Speaker and leaders of the +Opposition. William replied that he had thought himself bound to reward +out of the forfeited property those who had served him well, and +especially those who had borne a principal part in the reduction of +Ireland. The war, he said, had undoubtedly left behind it a heavy debt, +and he should be glad to see that debt reduced by just and effectual +means.</p> + +<p>The answer, though undoubtedly weak enough, seems scarcely open to one +of the criticisms which <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_182" id="Page_182">[Pg 182]</a></span>Macaulay pronounces upon it<a name="FNanchor_22_22" id="FNanchor_22_22"></a><a href="#Footnote_22_22" class="fnanchor">[22]</a>. It would have +been not so much injudicious as absurd on William's part to "hint" that +the Irish forfeitures "could not justly be applied to the discharge of +the public debts." His meaning could only have been that it would not be +just to the grantees to resume their property in order to apply it to +public uses. It would appear, however, that the House of Commons +understood his words in the wider and less defensible sense. The +Resumption Bill was pushed vigorously through the House of Commons, and +in order to paralyze the expected resistance of the Lords, the expedient +of tacking was again resorted to. The Bill was tacked to a Land Tax Bill +for raising two shillings in the pound for the service of the next year, +and then sent to the Upper House. It passed its second reading by a +considerable majority, but in committee and on the third reading several +amendments were carried. It is highly significant, however, that though +William was known to be very solicitous to obtain the confirmation of at +least some of his Irish grants, and though the majority in the Lords in +favour of the amendment may be supposed desirous of doing all that they +reasonably could to gratify him, the Bill as regards his dealings with +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_183" id="Page_183">[Pg 183]</a></span>the Irish forfeitures was left untouched. The majority contented +themselves with modifying certain arbitrary and inequitable provisions +whereby the Lower House had sought to usurp jurisdiction over property +which had never come to the Crown by forfeiture at all, and to grant +estates and sums of money of their own authority, and without the +constitutional intermediation of the Crown, to certain favoured +individuals. Thus amended, the Bill was sent back to the Lower House, +where it met of course with the very reception which the expedient of +tacking was designed, in the event of its coming back with amendments, +to secure for it. Parties had been much divided as to the policy of +tacking the Resumption Bill to a money Bill; but as to the duty of +resisting an attempt on the part of the Lords to amend a Bill sent up to +them in this fashion parties were united. The amendments were rejected +<i>nemine dissentiente</i>, and at the conference which followed the Lords +were informed by the managers of the Commons that the point of +constitutional practice was too well settled to be arguable, and that +the Bill was left in their hands along with the responsibility of all +the serious consequences which must follow its rejection. The Lords +nevertheless for a time stood firm; they resolved by a majority of +thirteen to adhere to their amendments, and on the following day the +Bill was, on a second conference, returned once more to the Commons, by +whom it was once more sent back to the Lords, with an intimation that +the determination of the Lower House was unalterable. This was on the +10th of May, and the whole of that day and night the greatest public +excitement prevailed. The deadlock between the two Houses had reached +such a point that <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_184" id="Page_184">[Pg 184]</a></span>if both refused to give way, and the supplies were +consequently lost, a complete dislocation of the national business, +accompanied in all probability by dangerous popular disturbance, would +have assuredly followed.</p> + +<p>From this peril the country was saved at the critical moment by the good +sense and magnanimity of William. His behaviour was the more creditable +to him because not only was he eager, as has been said, for the +rejection of the Resumption Bill, but he had taken so active a part in +the attempt to bring about that result that surrender must necessarily +subject him to additional humiliation. There can be no doubt from the +account given by Burnet, whose own painful perplexity between the claims +of courtiership and patriotism increases the value of his testimony on +the subject, that William had tried hard to procure the defeat of the +measure. "The King," says the Bishop, "seemed resolved to venture on all +the ill consequences that might follow the losing this Bill, though +these would probably have been fatal. As far as we can judge either +another session of that Parliament or a new one would have banished the +favourites and begun the Bill anew with the addition of obliging the +grantees to refund all the mesne profits. Many in the Lords, that in all +other things were very firm to the King, were for passing the Bill, +notwithstanding the King's earnestness for it, since they apprehended +the ill consequences that were like to follow if it was lost." On the +5th of April he told Portland that if the Bill was not stopped in the +Upper House he should count all lost; and on the same day he declared +that he was resolved not to pass the Bill, and that the only question +was whether he <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_185" id="Page_185">[Pg 185]</a></span>should prorogue the Parliament on that day or on the +following Monday. On or before the 10th of April he had reflected more +maturely on the situation, and with that intuitive recognition of when +to give way, which only strong rulers ever seem to exhibit, and which +the masterful Elizabeth had displayed before him, he saw that the time +had arrived to yield. He took steps to have it conveyed to his adherents +in the Upper House that he desired the Bill to pass; and on the sitting +of the following day, May 11, the Lords withdrew their amendments and +accepted the Bill in its original form. Thus passed away a most perilous +crisis, and William, by the fine temper and moral courage with which he +thus submitted to perhaps the most galling rebuke ever inflicted upon a +monarch by a legislative assembly, must be admitted to have gone far to +atone for the serious error of his previous action. He was, however, and +not unnaturally, of opinion that he had done enough in the cause of the +peace, and the next day, in order to prevent the presentation to him of +an address from the Commons, praying that no person not a native, except +Prince George of Denmark, should be admitted to his Majesty's Councils +in England or Ireland, he came down and prorogued Parliament without a +speech.</p> + +<p>The whole of the year 1700 was destined to abound in fresh troubles for +this sorely-tried and now fast waning life. No sooner had the English +Parliament separated than the Scotch Parliament met; and their first +business was to espouse the cause of their foolish and unlucky +countrymen who had taken part in the famous "Darien expedition," and +were now under detention by the Spanish Government at Carthagena. The +notable <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_186" id="Page_186">[Pg 186]</a></span>scheme in which these men had thus lost their liberty, and so +many thousands of other Scotchmen their property, was originated by an +adventurer of the name of Paterson, and depended for its success on the +double assumption that the territorial owners of the country on which +they proposed to found a trading station for the avowed purpose of +diverting trade from these owners' hands into their own would respect +their occupancy, and that the burning heat and malarious climate of an +equatorial region would spare their lives. Neither of these assumptions +had been realised. The sun and the swamps had thinned the number of the +settlers to a handful, and this remnant had been besieged, forced to +capitulate, and expelled from the isthmus by the forces of Spain. +William promised, in reply to an address from the Edinburgh legislators, +to demand the release of the Carthagena prisoners; but when the Scotch +Parliament proceeded to pass a resolution affirming that the colony in +Darien was a legal and rightful settlement, and that the Parliament +would maintain and support the same, the King thought it high time to +put a check on their proceedings. This he endeavoured to do through the +royal commissioner by means of repeated adjournments carried to such an +extent as to cause riots in Edinburgh, and at last, by dint of +conciliatory replies to their resolutions, and possibly by +gratifications of a more substantial kind, succeeded not only in +pacifying his northern subjects on this matter, but in bringing them, +before the close of the session at the end of the year, into a state of +such loyal complaisance that, unlike their English brethren, the Scotch +legislators voted for keeping on foot the whole of the land forces that +existed in the kingdom when the session began.</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_187" id="Page_187">[Pg 187]</a></span>The time was now fast approaching when William's military policy was to +be justified by events. Throughout the whole of this year the struggle +of rival Powers over the fast decaying body of the unhappy Charles had +gone spiritedly forward at the Court of Madrid. The combatants, however, +were unequally matched. On the side of France were enlisted the services +of Cardinal Portocarrero, who soon succeeded in removing the King's +confessor—an Austrian instrument—and substituting another in the +French interests. The terrors of religion were then brought to bear upon +the wretched sovereign in a strength sufficient to overcome his natural +leanings in the matter of the disposition of his crown and kingdom +towards his own Austrian flesh and blood. They persuaded the unhappy +imbecile that he had been bewitched through Austrian agency; they +persuaded the populace of Madrid that the partisans of Austria had +brought about a famine. Having at last succeeded in utterly discrediting +the rival party, and working upon the superstition of Charles until he +believed that if he ousted his Bourbon heir from the succession he would +be inevitably damned, the French faction finally induced him to sign a +will appointing Philip, Duke of Anjou, universal successor to the +Spanish monarchy. A month afterwards this miserable slave of the priest +and the plotter at last obtained his manumission. He died on the 1st of +November 1700, and William then learnt for the first time that the +months of laborious negotiations spent on the successive framing of two +carefully-drawn treaties had been completely thrown away. For a brief +space of time, indeed, he remained in doubt whether Louis really +intended to play him false, but before the middle of the <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_188" id="Page_188">[Pg 188]</a></span>month of +November all uncertainty was at an end. Louis threw over the Partition +Treaty and adopted the will. The Duke of Anjou was despatched into Spain +with the historic exclamation touching the effacement of the +Pyrenees—mountains certainly not in this instance removed by +"faith,"—and William had the intolerable chagrin of discovering not +only that he had been befooled, but that his English subjects had no +sympathy with him or animosity against the royal swindler who had +tricked him. "The blindness of the people here," he writes sadly to the +Pensionary Heinsius, "is incredible. For though the affair is not +public, yet it was no sooner said that the King of Spain's will was in +favour of the Duke of Anjou, than it was the general opinion that it was +better for England that France should accept the will than fulfil the +Treaty of Partition."</p> + +<h4>FOOTNOTES:</h4> + +<div class="footnote"><p class="noin"><a name="Footnote_20_20" id="Footnote_20_20"></a><a href="#FNanchor_20_20"><span class="label">[20]</span></a> It was justly contended by the dissentient commissioners +that these lands had passed to William by his father-in-law's abdication +in 1688, and did not therefore come properly within the purview of an +inquiry limited to forfeitures occurring since February 13, 1689. The +majority of the commission insisted, however, paradoxically enough, that +James's Irish estates were only forfeited on, and by, his invasion of +Ireland in March of the latter year.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p class="noin"><a name="Footnote_21_21" id="Footnote_21_21"></a><a href="#FNanchor_21_21"><span class="label">[21]</span></a> The grants to Lady Orkney, of which so much was made by +the country party at the time, raised a totally different question on +another level, so to speak, of political morality. These grants were +made out of William's inheritance from his predecessor; and though +Macaulay is no doubt abstractedly right in arguing that William should +have pensioned his mistress out of economies effected in his Civil List +than by alienating his hereditary revenue, the remark is from the +practical point of view somewhat of an anachronism. In our day, when the +lands of the Crown are formally vested in commissioners by the sovereign +in consideration of his Civil List at the commencement of each reign, +the quasi-national character of this property is fixed and emphasised. +But no sovereign before William's time had regarded it in this light, or +recognised any implied restraint upon alienation; and William, with +Charles II.'s grants to his numerous mistresses before his eyes, may +well be excused for thinking his gift to Lady Orkney not only +justifiable but laudably moderate.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p class="noin"><a name="Footnote_22_22" id="Footnote_22_22"></a><a href="#FNanchor_22_22"><span class="label">[22]</span></a> The context of the passage, "The Commons murmured, etc., +'His Majesty tells us,' they said, 'that the debts fall to us, and the +forfeitures to him'" (<i>Hist. Eng.</i> v. 271), appears clearly to show that +Macaulay supposed William to be speaking of the whole of the forfeitures +as not justly applicable to the public debt. His own previous words will +just admit (though not in strict grammar) of the construction that the +King was referring only to the "one-fifth part of these estates" which +had passed to deserving grantees; but if this is to be its construction, +Macaulay's favourite boast that he had written no sentence capable of +being misunderstood would have to be abandoned.</p></div> +<br /> +<br /> +<br /><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_189" id="Page_189">[Pg 189]</a></span> +<br /> + +<hr /> +<br /> +<h2>CHAPTER XV</h2> + +<h3>1701-1702</h3> + +<div class="blockquot"><p class="hang" style="margin-left: 2em;">English indifference on the Spanish question—Death of James +II. and Louis's recognition of the Pretender—Reaction in +England—Dissolution of Parliament—Support of William's +policy by its successor—The Treaties—Accident to +William—His illness and death—Character—The Whig legend +examined—His great qualities as man and ruler—Our debt to +him.</p></div> + + +<p>The insensibility of Englishmen to a danger which weighed heavily on the +mind of William was exactly matched by his own indifference to one which +appeared extremely serious to them. William dreaded the idea of a +Bourbon reigning at Madrid, but he saw no very grave objection, as the +two treaties showed, to Naples and Sicily passing into French hands. +With his English subjects the exact converse was the case. They strongly +deprecated the assignment of the Mediterranean possessions of the +Spaniard to the Dauphin; but they were undisturbed by the sight of the +Duke of Anjou seating himself on the Spanish throne. It has been said +that on their own principles they ought to have disliked the will even +more than the Partition Treaties, because the former document, in +devising <i>all</i> the possessions of Spain to the Duke of Anjou, "gave +precisely the same advantages to France on the Mediterranean" as she +would <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_190" id="Page_190">[Pg 190]</a></span>have obtained under the Treaties. But this argument obviously +begs the whole question against the English view by assigning to the +word "France" a meaning which it was of the essence of that view to +repudiate. The very gist of the English case was that "France" and "the +second son of the French Dauphin barred from the succession to the +French Crown" were not convertible terms. Had Englishmen in general so +regarded them, they would perhaps have been as jealous of the Duke of +Anjou's succession to the Spanish throne as was William himself. They +held, however,—whether rightly or wrongly, and I have already stated my +reason for thinking that at the time and in the circumstances they were +wrong—that the elevation of Louis's grandson to the Spanish throne did +not mean the "solidarity" of France and Spain.<a name="FNanchor_23_23" id="FNanchor_23_23"></a><a href="#Footnote_23_23" class="fnanchor">[23]</a> But while the Duke of +Anjou, considered as the owner of the two Sicilies, did not in their +opinion stand for "France," the Dauphin, who was to have had them under +the Partition Treaties, undeniably did. The heir to the Crown of France +of course is France, not as a matter of opinion, but as a matter of +fact. The English view therefore, however mistaken on the point of +policy, was unassailable on the ground of logic; and its inherent +plausibility, in addition to the national dissatisfaction with the +manner in which the Treaties had been negotiated, would, in all +probability, have made it impossible for William to carry the country +with him in a war policy directed against France.</p> + +<p>But just as, under a discharge from an electric battery, <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_191" id="Page_191">[Pg 191]</a></span>two repugnant +chemical compounds will sometimes rush into sudden combination, so at +this juncture the King and the nation were instantaneously united by the +shock of a gross affront. The hand that liberated the uniting fluid was +that of the Christian king. On the 16th of September 1701 James II. +breathed his last at St. Germains, and, obedient to one of those +impulses, half-chivalrous, half-arrogant, which so often determined his +policy, Louis XIV. declared his recognition of the Prince of Wales as +<i>de jure</i> King of England. No more timely and effective assistance to +the policy of its <i>de facto</i> king could possibly have been rendered. Its +effect upon English public opinion was instantaneous; and when William +returned from Holland on the 4th of November, he found the country in +the temper in which he could most have wished it to be. Still he +hesitated for a while as to whether or not he should dissolve +Parliament. Sunderland, for whose astuteness and profound knowledge of +English politics William entertained a respect unqualified, as was usual +with that cool and cynical observer of men, by any repugnance he might +have felt for the ex-Minister's political profligacy, had been consulted +by him on this point through Somers both before and since the death of +James; and this sagacious counsellor had urgently recommended a +dissolution, predicting that it would result in a signal triumph of the +Whigs. On the 7th of November William laid the question before his Privy +Council, who were divided in opinion, and, acting on his own judgment, +he then determined to dissolve. On the 11th of the month the royal +proclamation to that effect was issued, and the new Parliament summoned +to meet on the 31st of December. The result did not, indeed, <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_192" id="Page_192">[Pg 192]</a></span>completely +bear out Sunderland's prediction, but it proved that a marked change had +taken place in the opinion of the country; for, though the Tories +managed still to hold their own in the smaller boroughs, the Whigs +carried most of the counties and great towns. Their opponents, however, +were strong enough to re-elect Harley to the Speakership, his nomination +being seconded by his afterwards yet more famous political ally, Henry +St. John, the future Lord Bolingbroke. William addressed the Houses in a +speech of unusual length and earnestness, in which he recalled the "high +indignity" offered to himself and the nation by Louis's recognition of +the pretended Prince of Wales as King of England, and the dangers with +which England and Europe were threatened by the elevation of his +grandson to the Spanish throne. To obviate these dangers he had, he told +them, concluded several alliances, and treaties for the conclusion of +others were still pending. He went on to remind them that the eyes of +all Europe were upon this Parliament, and "all matters at a standstill +until their resolution was known. Therefore," said he, "no time ought to +be lost; you have an opportunity, by God's blessing, to secure to you +and your posterity the quiet enjoyment of your religion and liberties, +if you are not wanting to yourselves, but will exert the ancient vigour +of the English nation; but I tell you plainly my opinion is, if you do +not lay hold on this occasion you have no reason to hope for another." +He concluded with an exhortation, almost passionate for him, to lay +aside "the unhappy fatal animosities" which divided and weakened them. +"Let me conjure you to disappoint the only hopes of our <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_193" id="Page_193">[Pg 193]</a></span>enemies by your +unanimity. I have shown, and will always show, how desirous I am to be +the common father of my people; do you in like manner lay aside parties +and divisions; let there be no other distinction heard of among us in +future but of those who are for the Protestant religion and the present +Establishment, and of those who mean a Popish prince and a French +Government."</p> + +<p>This stirring speech produced its due effect. Opposition in +Parliament—in the country it was already inaudible—was completely +silenced. The two Houses sent up addresses assuring the King of their +firm resolve to defend the succession against the pretended Prince of +Wales and all other pretenders whatsoever. The Commons declared +independently—in those days addresses from the two Houses were not as +now identical in terms—that they would to the utmost of their power +enable his Majesty to make good all such alliances as he had made—an +omission from the address of the Upper House which their Lordships +subsequently supplied. Nor did the goodwill of Parliament expend itself +in words. The Commons accepted without a word of protest the four +treaties constituting the new Grand Alliance, though the inequality of +some of their conditions as regarded England, and the self-seeking +motives which actuated one at least of their continental signatories, +were apparent on the face of them. The votes of supply were passed +unanimously, and ere the Parliament had well completed the first +fortnight of its existence a Bill of Attainder against the Prince of +Wales—in which the Lords endeavoured, but in vain, to include Mary of +Modena—had passed both Houses. But the King's <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_194" id="Page_194">[Pg 194]</a></span>assent to this, as also +to an Abjuration Bill directed to the same object, had to be given by +commission; for William was now already sickening to his death. His +always feeble health had become feebler during the winter; his constant +asthma had told heavily upon the condition of his lungs; his legs had +swollen to an extent which led his doctors, though erroneously it would +seem, to suspect dropsy; he had, in fact, arrived at that state of body +in which any accident might be fatal. On Saturday, the 21st of February, +he set out from Kensington on horseback to hunt, according to his weekly +custom, at Hampton Court. On the road his horse stumbled over a +molehill,<a name="FNanchor_24_24" id="FNanchor_24_24"></a><a href="#Footnote_24_24" class="fnanchor">[24]</a> and fell with his rider, who fractured his right +collar-bone. William was taken to Hampton Court, where the bone was set, +and the surgeon, finding him feverish, recommended bleeding. This he +declined, and, contrary to advice, insisted on returning that evening to +Kensington, where it appeared that the setting of the bone had been +displaced by the motion of the carriage, and the operation had to be +repeated. William slept well, and for a few days no signs of mischief +appeared. But, as was afterwards shown by the autopsy, the fall from his +horse had violently detached a diseased portion of his lungs from its +adhesion to the walls of the thoracic cavity, and this had set up +pulmonary inflammation. On the 28th of February he found himself unable +to attend Parliament in person, and accordingly conveyed to the Houses +by way of message his last recommendation of a project <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_195" id="Page_195">[Pg 195]</a></span>which, ever +since the beginning of his reign, he had had much at heart—that, +namely, of effecting a legislative union between England and Scotland. +On the next day alarming symptoms appeared. The assent to the Prince of +Wales's Attainder Bill was given by commission, and a week later, on the +7th of March, when it became necessary to issue another commission for a +similar purpose, William was past the power of subscribing the +sign-manual, which had to be affixed by a stamp. "<i>Je tire vers ma +fin</i>," he murmured to Albemarle, who had arrived from Holland the same +night; and, as the perversity of fate had willed it, he who had from +boyhood sought death everywhere, had not for years perhaps been so +little prepared to meet it. "Sometimes he would have been glad, he told +Portland, to have been delivered out of all his troubles, but he +confessed now he saw another scene, and could wish to live a little +longer." It was another scene indeed—the whole web of his Spanish +policy unravelled, his great enemy once more powerful for mischief, the +whole work of his life to do again!</p> + +<p>He lived through the night, but that was all. Burnet and Tillotson had +gone to him that morning and did not quit him till he died. The +Archbishop prayed with him some time, but he was then so weak that he +could scarcely articulate. "About five o'clock on Saturday morning he +desired the Sacrament, and went through the office with great appearance +of seriousness, but could not express himself; when this was done he +called for the Earl of Albemarle and gave him a charge to take care of +his papers. He thanked M. Auverquerque for his long and faithful +services. He took leave of the <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_196" id="Page_196">[Pg 196]</a></span>Duke of Ormond, and called for the Earl +of Portland, but before he came his voice quite failed; so he took him +by the hand and carried it to his heart with great tenderness. Between +seven and eight o'clock the rattle began; the commendatory prayer was +said for him, and as it ended he died."</p> + +<p>More than one hundred and eighty years have passed since that morning; +but though the fierce political controversies which raged around the +person and character of the dead man, leaving, perhaps, no quality but +his courage unassailed, have long since subsided, some into utter +silence, others into moderation, it is impossible to say that their +disturbing force is altogether spent. A faint echo from those furious +clamours may still be heard mingling with the voice of History; a ripple +from those distant billows still breaks the mirror of her judgment. It +could hardly be otherwise. The principles of which William was in part +the voluntary and in part the unchoosing champion have triumphed so +completely that they find nowadays no avowed opponent, and scarcely even +any secret enemy; but it was William's destiny to have been identified +in the promotion and defence of them with an English political party +whose many excellent qualities as statesmen and citizens have been +always associated with a moral and intellectual temper which, for a +century and a half, has offered a standing provocation to men of every +other political school. Fate made William of Orange a Whig hero, and in +arranging his preliminary condition ordained also by inevitable sequence +his exposure to some measure of the polemical resentments which his +votaries have never failed to concentrate upon themselves. That the +Whigs of his own day should <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_197" id="Page_197">[Pg 197]</a></span>have behaved as they did, on many occasions +exceedingly ill to him, is no more unnatural than that they should have +unduly exaggerated his virtues after his death. Both their ill-treatment +and their excessive eulogy of him were, in different ways, the +expression of the same modest confidence in their own civil deserts. The +Whigs believed themselves entitled not only to an exclusive interest in +a living Whig-made king, but also to as much capital as could be made +out of his posthumous renown. If they behaved ill to him at times during +his life, it was to assert the just claims of the Whig party; if they +over-praised him when dead, it was by way of just tribute to the Whig +virtues.</p> + +<p>Far be it from me to suggest that William of Orange needs any such +artificial additions to his legitimate glory. They are mentioned merely +to account for and excuse the fact that an impartial review of his +career and character needs to be commenced with what might otherwise +seem words of captious disparagement. It is absolutely necessary to +strip off the draperies of partisanship in order to see the real man +beneath; but that truly heroic figure can well afford it.</p> + +<p>William of Orange, I maintain then, is not to be regarded as altogether +that "patriot king," that "sovereign of the people," which it has +pleased his Whig devotees to discover in him, still less as that sort of +anticipatory and prophetic political philosopher for which he passes in +the legend of some Whig constitutionalists. No doubt he had a distinct +popular fibre in his nature. The great-grandson of his great-grandfather +can hardly have been wanting in sympathy with popular aspirations, or in +belief in the might and virtue of <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_198" id="Page_198">[Pg 198]</a></span>popular forces. But such sentiments +have been the birthright of many a man whose instincts were the very +reverse of democratic; and there is no reason to think that William +either foresaw or would have relished that growth of the democratic +element in English government to which he inevitably contributed so +powerful a stimulus. He was not, it must be remembered, a democrat even +in his own country; on the contrary, his strongest impulses were +essentially of aristocratic origin. It was not his Protestant +enthusiasm, though this was ardent enough, nor his love of his country +and his hatred of foreign dictation, though these passions were strong +and sincere enough, which were the dominant influences in moulding his +youthful character. It was pride of ancestry, the memory of William the +Silent, resentment at the fallen fortunes of his house, and resolution +to restore them. These it was which first inspired him with an ambition +essentially personal in its character, and it was not till this ambition +had been gratified by his elevation to higher dignities even than his +forefathers, that the other impulses of birth or training can be said to +have begun to sway him at all. And until that ambition was gratified he +was not only capable of all the virtues of the ambitious, but an adept +in their vices also. He was but sixteen when he taught his mother the +wisdom of disarming the suspicion of the Pensionary De Witt by pretended +cordiality, and earned the criticism of the shrewd French envoy +d'Estrades that he was "a great dissembler, and omitted nothing to gain +his ends." So, too, one can hardly doubt that it was ambition rather +than zeal for liberty and Protestantism that first inspired him <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_199" id="Page_199">[Pg 199]</a></span>with +that design of intervention in England, which must have just taken shape +in his mind shortly after the return of Dykvelt from his mission of +1687. His succession, or rather his wife's succession, was safe enough +if Mary of Modena bore no male issue to James. But she might and did +bear such issue, in a child whose claims could only be set aside by a +revolution; and even had no heir apparent been born to the throne, the +position of William accepting the English crown conjointly with his wife +in his capacity as liberator of the English people would be something +very different from that of a king-consort, which was all he could +otherwise have hoped to be. It is surely not unjust to a man of +William's antecedents to believe that from the hour that he learned the +strength of his party in England, down to the hour when he was presented +with the crown in the banqueting chamber at Whitehall, he had eyes for +little else than the great European future which would open before him +as King of England; and that any hesitations he may have shown in +accepting the sovereignty were as purely politic as those of Cæsar at +the Lupercal.</p> + +<p>As regards his attitude towards English political institutions in +general, and the <i>voluntary</i> element in his share in developing them, +the Whig legend appears to me more purely mythical still. At no time in +his life did William show the slightest personal predilection for or +even faith in parliamentary institutions, still less in party +government. He looked upon the English Parliament as a clumsy and +irritating instrument, blunt at one part, dangerously double-edged at +another, which he was nevertheless bound to work with and make the <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_200" id="Page_200">[Pg 200]</a></span>best +of. That he was the first to try the system of a party ministry and +party government is, as I have essayed to show, a fact of little +significance. He tried it as he tried other means of managing the +apparently otherwise unmanageable, as he had at first tried dividing +offices of State among the leading men of both parties, and as he had +tried and continued to try the method of corruption for the rank and +file. As to any preference of one English party to another there is no +trace of such a feeling in his mind. From the moral point of view, I +imagine, he regarded most of the leaders of both parties with an equal, +and, it may be, with an equally just, contempt; but with his +intellectual appreciations he never allowed his moral judgment to +interfere. He used the unscrupulous Tory Marlborough and the +unscrupulous Whig Sunderland with an impartial indifference to their +political profligacy. He made trial, in fact, of all English public men +and of all political expedients to serve his European ends, which were +sometimes but not always English ends also; and thus it was that though +he experimentalised with the strict party system in order to secure a +Parliament which would support the war energetically in 1695, yet in the +next Parliament, his immediate object being gained, he showed no +disposition to prosecute that experiment on abstract political grounds. +It is impossible to represent a ruler of this kind, however wise and +moderate, as <i>consciously</i> training our parliamentary institutions upon +the peculiar lines of growth which they subsequently followed.</p> + +<p>Yet after all these deductions there remains to William, both as a +European statesman and as a <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_201" id="Page_201">[Pg 201]</a></span>benefactor to our country, an ample margin +of renown. Of his moral and mental stature as a man it is scarcely +necessary to speak. It must be patent to all but the dullest prejudices +of our day as it was to all but the fiercest passions of his own. It is +the highest praise of his high qualities to say that our impression of +them easily survives the reaction from idolatry, and that after we have +thrown aside the magnifying-glass of Whiggism the objects which it was +used to exaggerate still fill the eye. If William had not all the +virtues which belong to the patriot and philosopher, he had all that go +to the making of the hero. Even Macaulay, who has over painted both his +king-craft and his statesmanship, has not laid on the colours of his +heroism with too bold a hand. Sagacious as he undoubtedly was in +counsel, dexterous as he was in the management of men, keen as was his +outlook on European politics, and resourceful as he was in meeting its +exigencies, it is possible to contend that his Whig eulogist has +credited him with far more than the keenness and sagacity, the dexterity +and resource, which he possessed. But such eulogy does not, for it could +not, materially exaggerate his great features as a man—his patience of +delay and disappointment, his fortitude under disaster, his +imperturbable composure in moments of crisis, his lofty magnanimity, +which from its high place seemed literally to overlook rather than to +forgive injuries, his haughty courage, which thought it equal shame to +glance aside at the lurking assassin and to turn away from the open foe. +His character was stern, forbidding, unamiable, contemptuously generous, +as little fitted to attract love as it was assured of commanding +respect; but it bears in every lineament the <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_202" id="Page_202">[Pg 202]</a></span>unmistakable stamp of +greatness. And his achievements were as great as his character. His +record as a ruler pure and simple, as a mere expert in the art of +governing, has never been surpassed, perhaps never equalled, in history. +The showy administrative exploits of a Napoleon with vast armies at his +back, and the pen of a despotism in his hand, appear to me to sink into +insignificance when compared with those of this ruler of four nations—a +constitutional sovereign in England and Scotland, the chief of a +republic in Holland, and a military autocrat, governing by the sword +alone, in Ireland,—who for eleven years successfully directed the +affairs of these alien and often mutually hostile communities, and who +throughout all that time held in one hand the threads of a vast network +of European diplomacy, and in the other the sword which kept the most +formidable of European monarchs at bay. Nor should we omit from the +comparison that he did all this under moral restraints and physical +disadvantages to which Napoleon was a total stranger, impeded by +obligations to law, municipal and international, which Napoleon set +cynically at defiance, and distressed throughout his life by bodily +ailments which never troubled the Corsican's iron frame.</p> + +<p>Nor in what has been written in criticism of the Whig legend would I for +a moment be suspected of undervaluing the debt which Englishmen owe to +William of Orange. It is not necessary to exalt him into a divinely +inspired progenitor of the British Constitution in order to recognise +fully the greatness of the services which he rendered to it. He was not +"Father of the Constitution" in the sense in which the poet is the +father of his poem, or the philosopher of his theory; but assuredly <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_203" id="Page_203">[Pg 203]</a></span>he +was so in the sense in which we say that a child has found a "second +father" in an upright guardian, who, while not, it may be, comprehending +his character, or in sympathy with his spirit, or foreseeing his future, +has yet been his vigilant protector through the perils of childhood, and +has accounted for his patrimony to the uttermost farthing. That William +stood in this relation to our modern English polity throughout his too +short reign, and that he loyally discharged its obligations, is +indisputable. The virtues which enabled him to do so were mainly three, +which are essential to all good and faithful guardianship, whether of +children or constitutions—the virtues of good sense, self-restraint, +and honesty. And the greatest of these three is honesty. William's +practical wisdom always told him the moment when to yield in a struggle +with his Parliament; and when that moment arrived his naturally +passionate temper never failed to answer to the rein. But even at those +moments there would often have been an evil alternative open to him, +from which the fundamental integrity of his nature always turned aside. +He scrupled not to use all the arts of political "management" which were +sanctioned by the lax morality of his day; he exerted his prerogative +freely to gain his ends; but he knew that the compact between him and +his people was that in the last resort the will of the people should +prevail, and this compact he never attempted either to violate or to +evade. Here he was as emphatically a <i>Rè Galantuomo</i>, a "King +Honest-man," as was Victor Emmanuel himself.</p> + +<div style="margin-left: 30%; margin-right: 20%;"><p class="noin"> +"Hos ante effigies majorum pone tuorum,<br /> +Præcedant ipsas illi, te consule, virgas."</p></div> + + +<p>Rulers who have earned this name may justly rank it, <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_204" id="Page_204">[Pg 204]</a></span>if only for its +rarity, above every other title of honour—even though, themselves the +creators or regenerators of nations, they can look back upon the +splendid achievements of the Counts of Nassau, or the long ancestral +glories of the House of Savoy.</p> + +<h4>FOOTNOTES:</h4> + +<div class="footnote"><p class="noin"><a name="Footnote_23_23" id="Footnote_23_23"></a><a href="#FNanchor_23_23"><span class="label">[23]</span></a> That Louis intended it to mean this is pretty obvious from +his remark about the effacement of the Pyrenees.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p class="noin"><a name="Footnote_24_24" id="Footnote_24_24"></a><a href="#FNanchor_24_24"><span class="label">[24]</span></a> The nature of the impediment lives for history in the +Jacobite toast which so grimly reflects the brutal passions of the +time—"To the little gentleman in black velvet that works +underground."</p></div> +<br /> + + +<h3>THE END</h3> +<br /> +<br /> +<h4><i>Printed by</i> <span class="smcap">R. & R. Clark, Limited</span>, <i>Edinburgh</i>.</h4> +<br /> +<br /> +<br /> +<br /> + +<hr /> +<h2>Twelve English Statesmen</h2> + +<p class="cen">Crown 8vo. <i>2s. 6d.</i> each</p> + +<p>⁂ <i>A Series of Short Biographies, not designed to be a complete roll +of famous Statesmen, but to present in historic order the lives and work +of those leading actors in our affairs who by their direct influence +have left an abiding mark on the policy, the institutions, and the +position of Great Britain among States.</i></p> + + +<div class="blockquot"><p><b>WILLIAM THE CONQUEROR.</b> By EDWARD A. FREEMAN, D.C.L., +LL.D., late Regius Professor of Modern History in the +University of Oxford.</p></div> + +<div class="blockquot"><p><b>HENRY II.</b> By Mrs. J. R. GREEN.</p></div> + +<div class="blockquot"><p><b>EDWARD I.</b> By T. F. TOUT, M.A., Professor of History, The +Owens College, Manchester.</p></div> + +<div class="blockquot"><p><b>HENRY VII.</b> By JAMES GAIRDNER.</p></div> + +<div class="blockquot"><p><b>CARDINAL WOLSEY.</b> By Bishop CREIGHTON, D.D., late Dixie +Professor of Ecclesiastical History in the University of +Cambridge.</p></div> + +<div class="blockquot"><p><b>ELIZABETH.</b> By E. S. BEESLY, M.A., Professor of Modern +History, University College, London.</p></div> + +<div class="blockquot"><p><b>OLIVER CROMWELL.</b> By FREDERIC HARRISON.</p></div> + +<div class="blockquot"><p><b>WILLIAM III.</b> By H. D. TRAILL.</p></div> + +<div class="blockquot"><p><b>WALPOLE.</b> By JOHN MORLEY.</p></div> + +<div class="blockquot"><p><b>CHATHAM.</b> By FREDERIC HARRISON.</p></div> + +<div class="blockquot"><p><b>PITT.</b> By Lord ROSEBERY.</p></div> + +<div class="blockquot"><p><b>PEEL.</b> By J. R. THURSFIELD, M.A., late Fellow of Jesus +College, Oxford.</p></div> + + +<h2>English Men of Action Series</h2> + +<p class="cen">Crown 8vo. Cloth. With Portraits. <i>2s. 6d.</i> each</p> + +<div class="blockquot"><p><b>CAMPBELL (COLIN).</b> By ARCHIBALD FORBES.</p></div> + +<div class="blockquot"><p><b>CLIVE.</b> By Sir CHARLES WILSON.</p></div> + +<div class="blockquot"><p><b>COOK (Captain).</b> By Sir WALTER BESANT.</p></div> +<div class="blockquot"><p><b>DAMPIER.</b> By W. CLARK RUSSELL.</p></div> + +<div class="blockquot"><p><b>DRAKE.</b> By JULIAN CORBETT.</p></div> + +<div class="blockquot"><p><b>DUNDONALD.</b> By the Hon. J. W. FORTESCUE.</p></div> + +<div class="blockquot"><p><b>GORDON (General).</b> By Sir W. BUTLER.</p></div> + +<div class="blockquot"><p><b>HASTINGS (Warren).</b> By Sir A. LYALL.</p></div> + +<div class="blockquot"><p><b>HAVELOCK (Sir Henry).</b> By A. FORBES.</p></div> + +<div class="blockquot"><p><b>HENRY V.</b> By the Rev. A. J. CHURCH.</p></div> + +<div class="blockquot"><p><b>LAWRENCE (Lord).</b> By Sir RICHARD TEMPLE.</p></div> + +<div class="blockquot"><p><b>LIVINGSTONE.</b> By THOMAS HUGHES.</p></div> + +<div class="blockquot"><p><b>MONK.</b> By JULIAN CORBETT.</p></div> + +<div class="blockquot"><p><b>MONTROSE.</b> By MOWBRAY MORRIS.</p></div> + +<div class="blockquot"><p><b>NAPIER (Sir Charles).</b> By Sir W. BUTLER.</p></div> + +<div class="blockquot"><p><b>NELSON.</b> By Prof. J. K LAUGHTON.</p></div> + +<div class="blockquot"><p><b>PETERBOROUGH.</b> By W. STEBBING.</p></div> + +<div class="blockquot"><p><b>RALEIGH (Sir Walter).</b> By Sir RENNELL RODD.</p></div> + +<div class="blockquot"><p><b>RODNEY.</b> By DAVID HANNAY.</p></div> +<div class="blockquot"><p><b>SMITH (Captain John).</b> By A. G. BRADLEY.</p></div> + +<div class="blockquot"><p><b>STRAFFORD.</b> By H. D. TRAILL.</p></div> + +<div class="blockquot"><p><b>WARWICK, the King-Maker</b>. By C. W. OMAN.</p></div> + +<div class="blockquot"><p><b>WELLINGTON.</b> By GEORGE HOOPER.</p></div> + +<div class="blockquot"><p><b>WOLFE.</b> By A. G. BRADLEY.</p></div> + +<p class="cen"><span class="smcap">MACMILLAN AND CO., Ltd., LONDON</span></p> +<br /> + +<h2>Foreign Statesmen Series</h2> + +<p class="cen">Edited by <span class="smcap">J. B. Bury</span>, M.A., Regius Professor of Modern History +at Cambridge.</p> + +<p class="cen">Crown 8vo. <i>2s. 6d.</i> each</p> + +<div class="blockquot"><p><b>CHARLES THE GREAT.</b> By <span class="smcap">Thomas Hodgkin</span>, D.C.L., +Author of <i>Italy and Her Invaders</i>, &c. <i>Ready</i></p></div> + +<div class="blockquot"><p><b>PHILIP AUGUSTUS.</b> By Rev. <span class="smcap">W. H. Hutton</span>, Fellow and +Tutor of St. John's College, Oxford. <i>Ready</i></p></div> + +<div class="blockquot"><p><b>WILLIAM THE SILENT.</b> By <span class="smcap">Frederic Harrison</span>. <i>Ready</i></p></div> + +<div class="blockquot"><p><b>PHILIP THE SECOND OF SPAIN.</b> By Major <span class="smcap">Martin Hume</span>. +<i>Ready</i></p></div> + +<div class="blockquot"><p><b>RICHELIEU.</b> By <span class="smcap">R. Lodge</span>, Professor of History in +the University of Edinburgh. <i>Ready</i></p></div> + +<div class="blockquot"><p><b>MARIA THERESA.</b> By Dr. <span class="smcap">J. Franck Bright</span>, D.D. +<i>Ready</i></p></div> + +<div class="blockquot"><p><b>JOSEPH II.</b> By Dr. <span class="smcap">J. Franck Bright</span>, D.D. <i>Ready</i></p></div> + +<div class="blockquot"><p><b>MIRABEAU.</b> By <span class="smcap">P. F. Willert</span>, Fellow of Exeter +College, Oxford. <i>Ready</i></p></div> + +<div class="blockquot"><p><b>COSIMO DE MEDICI.</b> By Miss <span class="smcap">K. D. Ewart</span>. <i>Ready</i></p></div> + +<div class="blockquot"><p><b>CAVOUR.</b> By the Countess <span class="smcap">Martinengo Cesaresco</span>. +<i>Ready</i></p></div> + +<div class="blockquot"><p><b>MAZARIN.</b> By <span class="smcap">Arthur Hassall</span>, Student and Tutor of +Christ Church, Oxford. <i>Ready</i></p></div> + +<div class="blockquot"><p><b>CATHERINE II.</b> By <span class="smcap">J. B. Bury</span>, Regius Professor of +Modern History in the University of Cambridge.</p></div> + +<p class="cen"><span class="smcap">MACMILLAN AND CO., Ltd., LONDON</span></p> +<br /> +<br /> +<br /> +<br /> + +<div class="tr"> +<p class="cen"><a name="TN" id="TN"></a>Transcriber's Note:</p> +<br /> +Typographical errors corrected in the text:<br /> +<br /> +Page 2 Nassua changed to Nassau<br /> +Page 17 Strasburg changed to Strasbourg<br /> +Page 69 renowed changed to renowned<br /> +Page 151 Harlay changed to Harley<br /> +</div> + +<p> </p> +<p> </p> +<hr class="full" /> +<p>***END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK WILLIAM THE THIRD***</p> +<p>******* This file should be named 36895-h.txt or 36895-h.zip *******</p> +<p>This and all associated files of various formats will be found in:<br /> +<a href="http://www.gutenberg.org/dirs/3/6/8/9/36895">http://www.gutenberg.org/3/6/8/9/36895</a></p> +<p>Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed.</p> + +<p>Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. 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You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + + + + +Title: William the Third + + +Author: H. D. Traill + + + +Release Date: July 29, 2011 [eBook #36895] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ISO-646-US (US-ASCII) + + +***START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK WILLIAM THE THIRD*** + + +E-text prepared by Delphine Lettau, Barbara Kosker, and the Online +Distributed Proofreading Team (http://www.pgdp.net) + + + ++------------------------------------------------------+ +| | +| Transcriber's note: | +| | +| Greek words are transliterated and enclosed between | +| plus signs (+like so+). | +| | +| Text enclosed between equal signs is in bold face | +| (=bold=). | +| | ++------------------------------------------------------+ + + + + + +Twelve English Statesmen + +WILLIAM THE THIRD + +[Publisher's logotype] + +WILLIAM THE THIRD + +by + +H. D. TRAILL + + + + + + + +London +Macmillan and Co., Limited +New York: The Macmillan Company +1906 + +All rights reserved + +First Edition, May 1888 +Reprinted August 1888, 1892, 1897, 1902, 1906 + + + + +CONTENTS + + + CHAPTER I + + 1650-1672 + + Birth, ancestry, and early years--State of Dutch parties-- + William's boyhood--His character and ambitions--Hostility of + De Witt and his partisans--Visit to England--Outbreak of the + War of 1672 Page 1 + + + CHAPTER II + + 1672-1678 + + William elected Stadtholder of Holland--Murder of the De Witts-- + Campaign of 1672-3--Successes of the Prince--Declared hereditary + Stadtholder--Progress of the French arms--Marriage with Mary-- + Negotiations of Nimeguen--Conclusion of the Peace--Battle of St. + Denis 9 + + + CHAPTER III + + 1678-1688 + + An interval of repose--Revival of continental troubles--Death of + Charles II.--Expedition of Monmouth--Mission of Dykvelt--James's + growing unpopularity--Invitation to William--Attempted intervention + by France--William's declaration--He sets sail, and is driven back + by storm--Second expedition and landing 17 + + + CHAPTER IV + + 1688 + + Advance to Exeter--Measures of James--Council of the Lords--Their + proposals--The King goes to Salisbury--Defection of Churchill-- + James returns to London--Negotiation--Attempted flight of James-- + His arrest--Advance of William--Entry of Dutch troops into London + --Actual flight of James 30 + + + CHAPTER V + + 1688-1689 + + Characteristics of the English Revolution--Views of the various + parties--The Convention--Proposal to declare the throne vacant-- + The Regency question--The resolution of the Commons--Amendment of + the Lords--The crisis--Attitude of Mary--Announcement of William + --Resolution passed--Declaration of Right--Tender of the Crown 39 + + + CHAPTER VI + + 1689 + + William's part in the Revolution--Convention declared a Parliament + --Oath of Allegiance--Settlement of Civil List--Appropriation + Clause--Toleration and Comprehension--Address of the Commons + inviting the King to declare war 56 + + + CHAPTER VII + + 1689-1690 + + Invasion of Ireland--Campaign of 1689--Parliamentary strife--The + conduct of the war--The Oates Case--The Succession Bill--Attempts + to pass an Indemnity Bill--Rancour of the Whigs--Their factious + opposition to William's Irish plans--Dissolution of Parliament 67 + + + CHAPTER VIII + + 1690-1691 + + Parliament of 1690--Tory majority--Settlement of the royal income + --Case of the Princess Anne--The "Act of Grace"--Detection of + Preston's conspiracy--William's departure for Ireland--Battle of + the Boyne--Battle off Beachy Head--Marlborough's Irish campaign-- + William's departure for the Hague 79 + + + CHAPTER IX + + 1691-1692 + + Campaign of 1691 in the Netherlands--Fall of Mons--Disaffection of + William's councillors--Conclusion of year's campaign--Disgrace and + dismissal of Marlborough--Massacre of Glencoe 93 + + + CHAPTER X + + 1692-1693 + + Gloomy European prospects--Campaign of 1692 in the Netherlands-- + Defeat of Steinkirk--Attempt of Grandval--Session of 1692--Place + Bill and Triennial Bill--Campaign of 1693--William outwitted by + Luxembourg--Defeat of Landen--Session of 1693-94--Louis's + overtures of peace 104 + + + CHAPTER XI + + 1693-1694 + + Formation of the first party Ministry--Reintroduction of the + Triennial Bill and its defeat--Of the Place Bill and its veto + --Causes of the disallowance--Macaulay's account examined-- + Campaign of 1694--Death of Mary 119 + + + CHAPTER XII + + 1695-1697 + + Campaign of 1695--Capture of Namur by the allies--Dissolution of + Parliament--William's "progress"--The elections--New Parliament + --Grants to Portland--The Assassination Plot--Campaign of 1696-- + Fenwick's conspiracy--Negotiations with France--Peace of Ryswick 135 + + + CHAPTER XIII + + 1698-1699 + + Portland's embassy--His life in Paris--The question of the Spanish + Succession--The First Partition Treaty--General election and + meeting of the new Parliament--Its temper--Opposition to William's + military policy--Reduction of the army 156 + + + CHAPTER XIV + + 1699-1700 + + Death of the Electoral Prince of Bavaria--Renewed negotiations-- + Second Partition Treaty--The Irish forfeitures--The Resumption + Bill--Will and death of the King of Spain 171 + + + CHAPTER XV + + 1701-1702 + + English indifference on the Spanish Question--Death of James II. + and Louis's recognition of the Pretender--Reaction in England-- + Dissolution of Parliament--Support of William's policy by its + successor--The Treaties--Accident to William--His illness and + death--Character--The Whig legend examined--His great qualities + as man and ruler--Our debt to him 189 + + + + +CHAPTER I + +1650-1672 + + Birth, ancestry, and early years--State of Dutch parties-- + William's boyhood--His character and ambitions--Hostility + of De Witt and his partisans--Visit to England--Outbreak + of the War of 1672. + + +William Henry, Prince of Orange and Count of Nassau, a ruler destined to +play a greater part in shaping the destinies of modern England than any +of her native sovereigns, was born at the Hague on the 4th of November +1650. By blood and ancestral tradition he was well fitted for the work +to which he was to be called. The descendant of a line of statesmen and +warriors, the scion of a house which more than a century before had been +associated with the most heroic struggle for national freedom that +history records, he could hardly have added stronger hereditary to the +great personal qualifications for the enterprises reserved for him. His +family was one of the most ancient in Europe--reaching back, indeed, for +its origin into the regions of fable. "I will not take upon me," says an +English biographer, writing shortly after his hero's death, "to extend +the Antiquity of the House of Nassau as far as the time of Julius +Caesar, though that Emperor in his first book of Commentaries, _De Bello +Gallico_, says that one Nassau, with his brother Cimberius, led a body +of Germans out of Suabia and settled upon the banks of the Rhine near +Treves, which is the more observable by reason of the Affinity of the +Words, which differ only in the Transposition of one Letter; but I doubt +'tis rather Presumption than Truth for any one to affirm that there is +an Estate upon that very Spot of Ground mentioned by Caesar which belongs +to the Nassovian Family to this Day." Without insisting on so very +ancient and remote an origin as this, we may take it as certain that the +House of Nassau had been established in Europe for some thousand years +at the birth of William. As early as in the thirteenth century it was +honoured with the imperial dignity in the person of Adolph of Nassau. +The title and domains of Orange were added to the family in the +sixteenth century by the marriage of Claude de Chalons, sister and +heiress of the then Prince of Orange, with Henry of Nassau, from whose +son Rene the principality passed by testamentary bequest to the great +Stadtholder of Holland, William, surnamed the Silent, the illustrious +liberator of the United Provinces from the yoke of Spain. The +acquisition of this petty principality--only twelve miles in length by +nine in breadth--was by no means the matter of trivial importance which +its territorial dimensions might imply. Its situation in the very heart +of the dominions of France, the incidents attaching to that situation +and the consequences flowing from it, contributed in their degree to +that complex system of forces by which the course of history is +determined. To William I. succeeded his son Maurice, the bearer of a +name also memorable in the history of the States, a greater soldier and +a statesman of scarcely less ability than his father, though of a far +more chequered fame. Under Maurice the power of the Stadtholder or +Governor was, in spite of the jealousy with which it was regarded by the +burgher party, considerably advanced, and he was not without reason +suspected of the design of making himself an absolute ruler. Dying +without issue, he was succeeded by his brother Frederick Henry, another +renowned captain, under whom the long struggle with Spain was at last +brought to a close by the renunciation, in the Treaty of Westphalia, of +the Spanish claim upon the United Provinces. William II., the son of +Frederick Henry, was born in 1626, and succeeded his father at the age +of twenty-one. Endowed with all the restless activity and ambition of +his uncle, he attempted, in prosecution of the same monarchical designs +as that prince, to seize the city of Amsterdam by a _coup de main_. The +project, however, was defeated, and William, after a troubled reign of +only four years, was fatally attacked by the smallpox, and died on the +27th of October 1650, leaving no issue. Eight days after his death, +however, his widow, Mary, daughter of Charles I., gave premature birth +to the son whose career it is in these pages proposed to trace. + +Seldom has a new-born child been the object of such diverse emotions, +the centre of so many conflicting hopes and fears among its countrymen +as was this infant Prince. To the partisans of the House of Orange he +appeared as the God-sent heir--an earlier _enfant du miracle_ vouchsafed +by Providence to save the great race of William the Silent from +extinction in the male line. To the party of the municipal oligarchy he +presented himself as the probable inheritor rather of the ambitions of +his father and his father's uncle, than of the virtues of his +great-grandfather. The latter party, who for the moment had the upper +hand, were fully resolved that the young Prince should never wield as +much power as that which Prince Frederick Henry had sought during his +four years' reign to abuse. The party of the infant Prince, on the other +hand, a party headed by the Princess Dowager and her mother, made up as +far as possible for the lack of direct and political power by incessant +and indefatigable intrigue; and to their efforts it was that the +Pensionary De Witt, the representative of the municipal party, ascribed, +and not without reason, the war which broke out between the States and +the Rump Parliament in 1651. Its effect, however, was temporarily +disastrous to their ambitions; for, the United Provinces being compelled +to solicit peace from Cromwell, the Lord Protector, who was naturally +opposed to the elevation of a family allied by marriage to the exiled +Stuarts, compelled the States of Holland and West Friesland, as a +condition of his ratifying the articles of peace, to pass a decree that +"they would never elect the Prince or any of his lineage Stadtholder of +their province, nor consent that he or any of his family should be +Captain-General of the forces of the United Provinces." + +Reared from his very cradle amid the animosities of contending factions, +the young Prince learned early those four lessons of statecraft,--to +conceal his designs, to watch his opportunities, to choose his +instruments, and to bide his time. His education, other than that which +he was receiving daily in the stern school of circumstances, he owed to +his mother alone. Under her care he acquired a good knowledge of +mathematics and military science, and learned to speak English, French, +and German almost as fluently as his native tongue. The chiefs of the +municipal party, who became his official guardians, would have willingly +stinted his instruction, if by so doing they might have checked his +aspirations; but the ambition to emulate the fame of his great +predecessors, and to secure the power which they had wielded, took root +within him from his boyish years, and grew steadily with his growth. +Weak and ailing from his childhood, for he shared the too common lot of +those infants who are brought into the world before the appointed months +are run, he took no pleasure, as he possessed no skill, in the ordinary +pastimes of the boy; and, with a mind thus turned inward upon itself, +from an age at which other children have no care or thought but for the +thousand novel interests and attractions of the world without them, he +acquired habits of reserve and thoughtfulness beyond his years. The +religious faith in which he was nurtured was a Calvinism of the +strictest sort. His firm hold of the grim doctrine of predestination +stood him in much the same stead as Napoleon's belief in his destiny, +and long before he arrived at man's estate he had in all probability +convinced himself that the inscrutable counsels of Providence had +designed him for great things. + +Humanly speaking, however, his prospects did not appear to brighten +before him as years went on. At the age of ten he lost his mother, who +had gone to England to visit her brother, just restored to the throne, +and was there carried off by an attack of smallpox. In the same year he +saw his principality of Orange forcibly seized by Louis, who, after +demolishing its fortifications, held possession of it for five years, +surrendering it only in 1665. Then came the war of that year between +England and the Dutch Provinces, a conflict which his party temporarily +conceived the hope of turning to their own profit, but which left them +ultimately in a worse plight than before; for no provisions in the +Prince's interests were insisted on by his uncle, Charles II., in the +Treaty of Peace, and, under the instigation of De Witt, the States of +Holland and West Friesland subsequently passed a perpetual edict +suppressing the office of Stadtholder. A faint effort was made by +Charles II. through Sir William Temple to vindicate the rights of his +nephew, but the efforts of the ambassador were coldly received by the +Pensionary, and the matter dropped. De Witt now pushed his hostility yet +further, and the States resorted to the ignoble and ungrateful measure +of calling upon the young Prince to quit the house at the Hague which, +though technically the property of the States, had been for many years +the official residence of his family. To the Pensionary, who was charged +with the communication of this order, William replied by a spirited +refusal, directing his visitor to inform the States that he would not +quit the house unless removed by force; upon which his persecutors, +apprehensive no doubt of the odium which such a step would excite among +the common people, who were many of them well affected to his historic +family, allowed their demand to lapse. William, now eighteen years of +age, determined to make a counter-move on his own part, and presenting +himself before the assembly of the States of the province of Zealand, +he proposed to them to elect him first noble of that province, a +dignity which they had been wont to confer upon his ancestors at his +then age. The Zealanders complied readily with the request, though they +did not proceed, as had been expected, to elect him to the higher office +of Stadtholder of the province; and except by entitling him to a seat in +the States General as representative of the nobility of Zealand, the +minor honours procured him nothing but the increased jealousy and +suspicions of the party of De Witt. Sir William Temple, then ambassador +at the Hague, with whom the Prince came into contact at this time, +characteristically reports of him in his Letters as a "young Man of more +Parts than ordinary and of the better Sort; that is, not lying in that +kind of Wit which is neither of use to one's self nor to anybody else, +but in good plain Sense which showed Application if he had business that +deserved it; and this with extreme good and agreeable Humour and +Dispositions without any Vice; that he was asleep in bed always at Ten +o'clock; loved Hunting as much as he hated Swearing, and preferred +Cock-ale before any Wine." In the year 1670 he managed after some +diplomatic difficulties to pay a visit to London, where he received the +attentions of a civic banquet, and of an honorary degree at Oxford, and +where too he acquired a very shrewd perception of the King's leanings +towards the religion of Rome. + +But his day was now fast approaching. At the close of the year 1671 was +concluded the ever-infamous Treaty of Dover. Charles transformed +himself, with more than the celerity of the nimblest modern rat, from +the champion of the Protestant faith in Europe into the ally of its +deadliest enemy. Sir William Temple was recalled from the Hague, and the +Triple League between England, the States, and Sweden, which that +skilful envoy had taken so much pains to cement, was broken up. Early in +1672 war was declared by England against the Dutch, and the armies of +Louis, pouring into the United Provinces, became masters of all their +chief strongholds "in as little time," to quote the vigorous comparison +of one of William's biographers, "as travellers usually employ to view +them." The Prince's opportunity had come. + + + + +CHAPTER II + +1672-1678 + + William elected Stadtholder of Holland--Murder of the De Witts + --Campaign of 1672-3--Successes of the Prince--Declared + hereditary Stadtholder--Progress of the French arms--Marriage + with Mary--Negotiations of Nimeguen--Conclusion of the Peace + --Battle of St. Denis. + + +Louis XIV., like other military malefactors before and since, was +himself the creator of the enemy by whom his power was to be shaken to +its foundations. His invasion of the United Provinces, an enterprise +commenced with that contempt of public right in which no other potentate +has ever equalled him, and prosecuted with that barbarity in which only +Oriental conquerors have ever surpassed him, was the means of raising to +power the one European foe by whom he was destined to be successfully +withstood. The municipal party, unduly absorbed in the task of +safeguarding the liberties of their country against the supposed +ambitions of a single fellow-countryman, had wholly neglected the +protection of its very existence against the known ambitions of a +foreign aggressor. Most of their veteran troops had been disbanded; the +greatest posts in their armies were in the hands of unskilled civilians; +cities garrisoned with considerable forces of soldiery opened their +gates and surrendered without firing a gun. Popular indignation rose +high. Upon William, always a favourite among the commonalty, and the +inheritor of a name ennobled not only by civil wisdom but by military +exploits, all eyes were turned. An insurrection in his favour took place +at Dort, and the magistrates of that city, intimidated by the clamour of +the people, passed an ordinance repealing the perpetual edict, and made +him Stadtholder. Other cities followed their example, and the +States-General of the provinces confirmed their decrees. The two De +Witts, John and his brother Cornelius, now the objects of popular +suspicion and hatred, were assassinated in a street riot; and the +people, as if inspired with new courage by the restoration of a Prince +of Orange to a position from which princes of that name had so often led +them to victory, turned fiercely upon their French invaders. Five +thousand of Louis's troops were repulsed before Ardenburg by the bravery +of no more than two hundred burghers, assisted by the women and children +of the town, and one hundred garrison soldiers. The citizens of +Groningen, aided by the spirited students of its university, defended +themselves with equal vigour and good fortune against the warlike Bishop +of Munster, at the head of 30,000 soldiers, compelling him to raise the +siege. It was evident that a Dutch conquest was going to be no mere +military promenade, as had first appeared to promise, and Louis thought +it advisable to negotiate. To the chief of a state so desperately bested +as were the United Provinces at that moment, the terms offered to +William by the French monarch,--no less than the sovereignty of his +country under the protection of England and France,--might well have +appeared tempting. William rejected them with scorn. He would never, he +said, "betray the trust of his country that his ancestors had so long +defended." Solicitations addressed to him in the same sense by England +met with the same reply. To Buckingham, who had pressed them upon him, +and warned him that "if he persisted in his present humour he must +unavoidably see the final ruin of his cause," he made the Spartan answer +that he "had one way still left not to see that ruin completed, which +was to die in the last dyke." + +The winter of 1672-3 had stopped the progress of the French for the +time, but William was unwilling to allow it to arrest his own action. He +laid siege to the town of Woerden, and, though forced by the Duke of +Luxembourg to retreat from it, inflicted heavy losses upon the enemy. +Then, having invested Tongres, captured Walcheren, and demolished Binch, +he himself retired reluctantly into winter quarters. In the following +spring he besieged and took Naerden, and later on in the year achieved a +still more important triumph in the capture of Bonn, which had been put +into the hands of France at the beginning of the war. New honours now +began to be contemplated by his grateful countrymen for their stout +defender. The Stadtholdership of Holland and West Friesland was not only +confirmed to him for life, but was settled upon his heirs male; and on +the same day the like dignity was conferred on him by the States of +Zealand--an example shortly afterwards followed by those of Utrecht. Nor +were his successes without effect upon his enemies. Charles, with whose +subjects the war had never been popular, concluded a peace with him +after these two summers of fighting, and offered his mediation between +the powers still at war, an offer which was accepted by France. Four +years, however, were to elapse, and many souls of brave men to be sent +to Hades, before this mediation took effect in a concluded peace. In the +summer of 1674 was fought the fiercest engagement of the whole war--the +bloody and indecisive battle of Seneff, in which William was pitted +against the renowned Prince of Conde. The young Prince had too much to +gain in reputation not to be eager to provoke a battle, and the old +soldier too much to lose to be willing to accept one if it could be +avoided; but William succeeded in his object. Conde was at first +victorious in an encounter between a portion of the two armies, but he +imprudently brought on a general battle, which, after raging furiously +for a whole day, left both parties to claim the victory--"the allies +because they were last upon the field, and the French on the strength of +the great number of prisoners and standards they had carried off." "But +whoever had the honour," adds Sir William Temple, "both had the loss." +It was on this occasion that Conde paid his famous compliment to the +Prince by describing him as having acted like an old general throughout +the action in every respect save that of having "exposed himself like a +young recruit." + +For yet another four years, as has been said, this struggle continued to +rage, and, as it raged, to store up in his heart that exhaustless fund +of resentment against Louis which underwent hardly any depletion till +the day of his death. Several times were attempts made to detach William +from his Spanish allies and to induce him to conclude a separate peace, +but he remained firm against all such solicitations of betrayal. In vain +did Arlington, specially commissioned for that purpose, endeavour to +tempt him to the desertion of his allies by the offer of an English +matrimonial alliance. William simply replied that his fortunes were not +in a condition for him to think of a wife. Louis, however, was extremely +desirous of peace on any honourable terms, and William, to meet him +half-way, put forward a counter-proposal of a marriage between the King +of Spain and the eldest daughter of the Duke of Orleans, to whom France +should give in dowry the late conquered places in Flanders. This +ingenious proposal for reconciling the vindication of Spanish and Dutch +interests on the Flemish frontier with the maintenance of French +military honour, can scarcely have been made with any other purpose than +that of putting France in the wrong. William knew probably that it would +not square with Louis's existing hopes and pretensions, and that whether +Charles pressed it upon his cousin or not, it was pretty certain that no +more would be heard of it. For the present, moreover, he was under no +pressure to make a peace at all. The United Provinces had recovered +their confidence and hopefulness, and were full of admiration for and +attachment to their young leader. He had been actually offered the +sovereignty of Guelderland, and though his politic moderation induced +him to refuse it, opinion among the other provinces was divided as to +the propriety of his rejecting the offer. Nothing, however, could have +more strikingly illustrated the commanding position which he had +attained among his countrymen than the complete paralysis which +overcame them in 1675, during the fortunately brief period of the +Prince's suffering from a dangerous attack of smallpox. From this +disease, so fatal to his race, he recovered with apparent promptitude, +but it is only too probable that it left deep traces behind it on his +congenitally feeble frame. + +After much dispute the scene of the peace negotiations had been fixed at +Nimeguen, and the Congress met there in the month of July 1676. But the +diplomatists there were still to deliberate for two years while armies +were fighting; and if William could have prevented it, the peace would +not have been made even as soon as it was. The next two years, however, +were on the whole years of success for France and of defeat for the +allies; and early in 1677 William, of his own accord, revived a project +to which, when previously broached to him, he had refused to listen. The +terms submitted to him during the deliberations at Nimeguen were +intolerable, and yet, though he obstinately refused to accept them, town +after town was falling before the French arms, and his country was at +last beginning to weary of the struggle. If he must at last be forced to +assent to distasteful conditions, why not, as the price of his assent, +obtain for himself a matrimonial alliance which, besides bringing him a +step nearer to the English throne, would immensely strengthen his +position as a representative of the Protestant cause in Europe. A year +before he had sounded Temple as to a proposal for the hand of his cousin +Mary, the Duke of York's eldest daughter; and had been encouraged by +that ambassador to hope for success in his suit. He now more formally +pressed it, selecting the moment with considerable astuteness. Neither +Charles nor James had any liking for the match, but the King was in the +midst of a struggle with his Parliament; his subserviency to Louis was +inflaming popular resentment against him, and a marriage of his niece to +William, more especially if it could be made the means of bringing about +a peace, appeared to promise the only means of extricating himself from +his difficulties. Danby, his minister, moreover, was just at that moment +trembling for his head, and was prepared to exert himself to the utmost +to save it by the only means available--the detachment of his master +from the French alliance. William was reluctantly invited to England, +and it is clear, in the whole history of the affair, that he felt +himself from the moment of his arrival to be _dominus contractus_. With +respect to the question whether the business of the marriage should be +arranged before that of the peace or _vice versa_, William insisted upon +his own order of procedure, and procured its adoption. Charles consented +to the marriage, and compelled the assent of his brother. The +States-General, communicated with by express, immediately signified +their approval; and William, who had fortunately found the person and +manners of his cousin highly attractive to him, was married hurriedly +and privately at eleven o'clock on the night of the 4th of November +1677, the anniversary of his birth. The King of England did his best to +reconcile his brother of France to a match, the news of which, our +ambassador at the French Court told Danby, he received "as he would have +done the loss of an army," by representing it as an important step +towards a peace; but William returned home with his bride, pledged only +to his uncle to accept a basis of peace which was to a large extent, if +not entirely, of his own formulation, and far more liberal to the allies +than anything which France had proposed. Louis, however, was to get his +own way after all. The United Provinces were now heartily sick of the +war, and were, moreover, not uninfluenced by a party hostile to William, +who felt or feigned apprehension of his designs upon the liberties of +the Republic. The States-General accepted the articles of France, and +having by their constitution the absolute power of peace and war, they +were able, on the 11th of August, to conclude a treaty over William's +head. Three days after the Prince, unaware, officially at least, that +the signatures had been actually affixed to the treaty, made a dash upon +the army of Luxembourg, then besieging Mons, and after a desperate +encounter secured one of the most brilliant successes of the war. The +next morning, however, advices arrived from the Hague of the conclusion +of the peace, and William had the mortification of feeling that the +fruits of a victory which had opened a way for the allies into the +country of their enemy were to remain ungathered. + + + + +CHAPTER III + +1678-1688 + + An interval of repose--Revival of continental troubles--Death + of Charles II.--Expedition of Monmouth--Mission of Dykvelt + --James's growing unpopularity--Invitation to William-- + Attempted intervention by France--William's declaration--He + sets sail, and is driven back by storm--Second expedition + and landing. + + +For the next six or seven years the life of the Prince of Orange was to +be unmarked by any striking external incidents. He was occupied with all +his wonted patience in the reparation of the mischiefs of the Treaty of +Nimeguen, and in the laborious construction of that great European +league by means of which he was afterwards destined to arrest the course +of French aggression. In this undertaking, and in watching and +retaliating upon the encroachments which Louis XIV., almost on the +morrow of the treaty, began making upon its provisions, William was +sufficiently employed. In 1684 these encroachments became intolerable. +Louis having vainly demanded of the Spaniards certain towns in Flanders, +on the pretext of their being rightful dependencies on places ceded to +him by the Treaty of Nimeguen, seized Strasbourg and besieged Luxembourg +in physical enforcement of his claim. Spain declared war, and William, +though thwarted by the States (mainly through the instrumentality of +the city of Amsterdam, which was always ill-disposed towards him), and +denied the levy of 16,000 men which he had asked for, took the field +notwithstanding in support of his Spanish ally. The united forces, +however, were too weak to effect much. Luxembourg speedily surrendered, +and as the result a twenty years' truce, on terms not very favourable +for William, was concluded with France. + +During this period, as always, affairs in England no doubt demanded +general vigilance; but it was not till 1685 that they showed signs of +becoming critical. The death of Charles, and the known designs of +Monmouth, placed William in a very delicate position. During Charles's +life-time he had extended his protection to the exiled Duke, and had +even insisted so punctiliously on proper respect being shown to him, +that a difference had arisen between William and the English Court with +reference to the Duke's receiving salutes from the English troops, and +was actually unadjusted at Charles's death. Upon James's accession, +however, either to clear himself of all suspicion of abetting a +pretender to the throne, or, as some have asserted, to thwart the new +king's design of having his nephew seized and sent a prisoner to +England, William procured his departure from Dutch territory. Monmouth +retired to Brussels, but at the instance of James, who wrote a letter to +the Governor of the Spanish Netherlands charging him with high treason, +he was ordered by that functionary to quit the King of Spain's +dominions, and returned to Holland. Then followed his ill-fated +enterprise, throughout the brief course of which William maintained an +attitude of strict loyalty towards his father-in-law. He not only +despatched the six English and Scotch regiments in the Dutch service to +assist in suppressing the insurrection, but he offered, if James wished, +to take command of the royal troops in person. The offer was declined, +very likely from motives of suspicion by the King, but it is impossible +to suggest any plausible reason for questioning its _bona fides_. The +idle story that it was prompted by William's disgust at Monmouth's +proclaiming himself king, in breach of a promise to raise William +himself to the throne, bears absurdity on its face. The Princess stood +next in succession to the throne as it was; and if the Prince had +conceived a project of anticipating his wife's inheritance, he certainly +would not have entrusted the execution of that project to the feeble +hands and flighty brain of Monmouth. + +But two years had scarcely passed before it really became necessary for +him to look after the interests of her reversion. As early as the spring +of 1687 it was beginning to be suspected by men of foresight, both in +England and in Holland, that James II.'s position was precarious. No +one, indeed, who was capable of forming a correct estimate of his +character and capacities could find in them any guarantees of prolonged +rule. He was as obstinate and insincere as his father, as selfish and +unscrupulous as his brother, while he was destitute alike of the +former's power of enlisting the devotion of individuals, and of the +latter's easy popularity with the common people. It would be unjust to +him not to admit that many of his gravest difficulties were prepared for +him in his brother's time, if not by his brother's means; but it cannot +be denied that he had made astonishing haste to convert these grave +difficulties into the most formidable dangers. In little more than two +years from his accession in February 1685, his nephew found it expedient +to send over an emissary to England for the purpose of sounding English +political leaders, not as yet, indeed, with any definitely-formed design +of intervening by force in English affairs, but rather probably that, in +the event of the King rendering himself "impossible," the people might +know where to look for a substitute, and might understand that the +heiress-presumptive and her consort were not only the most natural, but, +as a matter of fact, the most eligible choice for the people to make in +the circumstances. Dykvelt, a judicious diplomatist, made the best use +of his time, and while continuing to give no just ground of remonstrance +to James, to whom he was of course nominally accredited, he managed to +bring back information and assurances of much value from many English +politicians of eminence. + +Meantime, and while James was still industriously undermining his +throne, his relations with his destined successor were becoming more +strained. A dispute arose between them with reference to the six English +regiments lent to the States under treaty. The King made a demand that +these regiments should be officered by Catholics--a claim put forward +either with the object of insuring their fidelity to him in case of +future rupture with Holland, or else merely to invite refusal and create +a pretext for insisting on their recall. At any rate the refusal came, +and on James's demanding the return of the troops, the States refused +this also, appealing to the terms of the treaty as only authorising the +King of England to require restitution of these forces in the event of +his being actually engaged in warfare with a foreign foe. An acrimonious +correspondence ensued between the two governments; but James failed to +move the States from their firm attitude. Equally unsuccessful was he in +an attempt to inveigle the Prince into an approval of that policy of +pretended toleration by which he was seeking to further the interests of +the Catholic at the expense of those of the Protestant religion in +England. A Scots lawyer named Stuart, who had taken refuge in Holland +from the religious persecution during the late reign, having made, or +been bribed to make, his submission to the royal authority, was procured +to open a correspondence with the Grand Pensionary Fagel, in which he +pressed the latter to advise the Prince of Orange to support his uncle's +policy, declaring that James would not repeal the penal laws unless the +tests were repealed also. Fagel for some time returned no answer, but at +last, finding the rumour in circulation that the Prince had associated +himself with the King's measures, he wrote a reply, which had no doubt +been drafted by William, to the refugee's request. In this remarkably +politic document the Prince contrived to hold the balance equally +between the English Protestants, with whom he was particularly anxious +to stand well, and the Catholic continental sovereigns, whom in his +struggle with France he could not afford to offend. While maintaining +his former attitude with regard to the tests, William declared that he +would gladly see all other grievances on the part of the English +Catholics removed. He would have no man subjected to punishment for his +opinions, but--and on this point he instanced the practice of the +States-General themselves with respect to Roman Catholics--he was not +prepared to remove all official disabilities founded on religious +opinion. This letter was forwarded by Stuart to the King, and was by him +considered in council. Burnet declares that all the lay papists of +England who were not engaged in the intrigues of the priests earnestly +pressed him to accept the Prince's terms as being what would render them +safe and easy for the future; but the King as usual was obstinate, and +no resolution was taken on the matter. + +During most of the remainder of this year the King was filling up the +measure of his political offences. From March till October the dispute +with Magdalen College had raged, and the breach between James and the +once devoted Church of England proportionately widened. But at the end +of the year 1687 a momentous announcement was made to the Court. The +Queen was pronounced to be pregnant, and in July of the following year +she was delivered of a male child. That an infant brought into the world +at so opportune a moment should have been loudly alleged to be +supposititious by the inflamed political partisans of the time was +naturally to be expected. A word or two more will be said on that point +hereafter; it is here only necessary to remark that whether William +shared the suspicions of his partisans or not his outward behaviour on +the occasion was irreproachable. He congratulated his father-in-law on +the auspicious event; and the infant prince was duly prayed for in his +private chapel at the Hague, until the protest hereafter to be referred +to was made against the ceremony by his English partisans. Meanwhile the +events of the eventful year 1688 had been ripening fast to their +destined issue. The end of April had witnessed the second promulgation +of the Declaration of Indulgence, and the ferment occasioned by that new +assertion of the dispensing power. In July, in almost exact coincidence +of time with the Queen's accouchement, came the memorable trial of the +Seven Bishops, which gave the first demonstration of the full force of +that popular animosity which James's rule had provoked. Some months +before,[1] however, Edward Russell, nephew of the Earl of Bedford and +cousin of Algernon Sidney's fellow-victim, had sought the Hague with +proposals to William to make an armed descent upon England, as +vindication of English liberties and the Protestant religion.[2] William +had cautiously required a signed invitation from at least a few +representative statesmen before committing himself to such an +enterprise, and on the day of the acquittal of the Seven Bishops a +paper, signed in cipher by Lords Shrewsbury, Devonshire, Danby, and +Lumley, by Compton, Bishop of Northampton, by Edward Russell, and by +Henry Sidney, brother of Algernon, was conveyed by Admiral Herbert to +the Hague. William was now furnished with the required security for +English assistance in the projected undertaking, but the task before him +was still one of extreme difficulty. He had to allay the natural +disquietudes of the Catholic supporters of his continental policy +without alarming his Protestant friends in England; to win over the +States-General, not by any means universally favourable either to his +designs against James or to his attitude towards Louis (Amsterdam, for +instance, had sided with the former monarch in his dispute with William +about the return of the English regiments); and, above all, he had to +make his naval and military preparations for a descent upon England +without exciting suspicions, or provoking an anticipatory attack. That +he managed matters with much address is evident from the result, but it +is no less clear that luck was on his side. A quarrel of the French king +with the Pope, on a question of diplomatic extra-territorial rights in +the papal city, and his arrogant interference in the election of the +Elector of Cologne, had arrayed against Louis the spiritual and temporal +forces of Catholicism, represented respectively by the Papacy and the +Empire; his ill-timed persecutions of Protestants, and certain +prohibitive measures adopted by him against Dutch trade, had the effect +of alienating his partisans in the States-General. In the meanwhile the +combined blindness and obstinacy of James permitted William to prosecute +his military preparations unmolested, if not unsuspected. These +preparations were very extensive and conspicuous, and seem to have had +their commencement at an earlier date than is consistent with Burnet's +theory referred to in the note on a previous page. It was not, however, +till the summer was beginning to give place to autumn that they began to +excite any very distinct suspicions as to their object. The Cologne +quarrel formed a plausible excuse enough for them; for if Louis, as +events seemed to threaten, were to occupy the Rhine provinces with an +army, it would be obviously necessary for Holland to stand on guard. By +the middle of August the French king had become uneasy, and despatched a +special envoy in the person of M. Bonrepos to awaken James to a sense of +his danger. He had authority, according to Burnet (whom, however, +Macaulay, who mostly follows him, on this point contradicts[3]), to +offer James not only naval but military assistance to repel the invasion +with which he believed him to be threatened. Bonrepos was directed by +his master to promise the King of England that ten or fifteen thousand +(others, according to Ralph, say thirty thousand) men should be landed +at Portsmouth if required, and asked that that place should be put into +his hands to keep the communication between the two kingdoms. +Sunderland, acting perhaps _bona fide_, but more probably not, most +earnestly counselled James to reject the offer, and it was rejected +accordingly, the King's characteristic imbecility of judgment being +never more characteristically shown than in his unwillingness to offend +the patriotic prejudices of his subjects by accepting an offer which, +had he been aware of their true feelings towards him, he would have +recognised as his last chance of saving his crown and kingdom. At this +juncture Ronquillo, the Spanish ambassador, went out of his way to +assure James of what he probably knew to be false, and certainly had no +reason to believe true--namely, that no descent upon England was in +contemplation on the part of William. On an early day in September, +however, Albeville was despatched to the Hague with instructions to +present a memorandum of complaint on the subject of the Dutch +preparations; and the day following d'Avaux delivered, on the part of +Louis, a threatening note to the States, in which he warned them to +desist from their designs upon a monarch to whom he was bound by "such +ties of friendship and alliance" as would oblige him, if James were +attacked, to come to his assistance. That Louis's motive in taking this +step was to commit his brother of England to the alliance which he +pretended to exist it is almost impossible to doubt; but James, more and +more bent upon repudiating the assistance of France the more necessary +it became to him, did his utmost to assure the States that there was +nothing in the nature of an alliance between himself and Louis. William, +however, and his partisans in the States-General, asked nothing better +than this excuse for continuing their preparations, and the Dutch +armament was actively pushed forward. In October the final alienation of +the Dutch friends of France was brought about by Louis's despatching an +army under the Dauphin to besiege Philipsburg, and simultaneously +issuing manifestos against the Emperor and the Pope. Avignon had been +seized by him the day before the siege of Philipsburg was opened; and +the attack on the latter place was followed by the rapid seizure of most +of the important towns of the Palatinate. + +On the 10th of October, matters now being ripe for such a step, William, +in conjunction with some of his English advisers, put forth his famous +declaration. Starting with a preamble to the effect that the observance +of laws is necessary to the happiness of states, the instrument proceeds +to enumerate fifteen particulars in which the laws of England had been +set at naught. The most important of these were--(1) the exercise of the +dispensing power; (2) the corruption, coercion, and packing of the +judicial bench; (3) the violation of the test laws by the appointment of +papists to offices (particularly judicial and military offices, and the +administration of Ireland), and generally the arbitrary and illegal +measures resorted to by James for the propagation of the Catholic +religion; (4) the establishment and action of the Court of High +Commission; (5) the infringement of some municipal charters, and the +procuring of the surrender of others; (6) interference with elections by +turning out of all employment such as refused to vote as they were +required; and (7) the grave suspicion which had arisen that the Prince +of Wales was not born of the Queen, which as yet nothing had been done +to remove. Having set forth these grievances, the Prince's manifesto +went on to recite the close interest which he and his consort had in +this matter as next in succession to the crown, and the earnest +solicitations which had been made to him by many lords spiritual and +temporal, and other English subjects of all ranks, to interpose, and +concluded by affirming in a very distinct and solemn manner that the +sole object of the expedition then preparing was to obtain the +assembling of a free and lawful Parliament, to which the Prince pledged +himself to refer all questions concerning the due execution of the laws, +and the maintenance of the Protestant religion, and the conclusion of an +agreement between the Church of England and the Dissenters, as also the +inquiry into the birth of the "pretended Prince of Wales"; and that this +object being attained, the Prince would, as soon as the state of the +nation should permit of it, send home his foreign forces. + +About a week after, on the 16th of October, all things being now in +readiness, the Prince took solemn leave of the States-General, thanked +them for their past kindness to him, called them to witness that the +motives of his enterprise were solely those set forth in his +declaration, namely, the vindication of the liberties of England, and +the defence of the Protestant religion, and commended his wife to their +care. The scene was an affecting one, and many among the assembly were +melted to tears; only the Prince himself, says Burnet, "continued firm +in his usual gravity and phlegm." Two days later the States came to a +formal resolution to assist the Prince of Orange with ships and forces +on his expedition to England, having heard his explanations thereof and +found them satisfactory; and authorised their ministers at the various +European Courts to make use of this resolution in whatever way they +might find most convenient. + +On the 19th William and his armament set sail from Helvoetsluys, but was +met on the following day by a violent storm which forced him to put back +on the 21st.[4] On the 1st of November the fleet put to sea a second +time, and for the first twelve hours held its course towards the +north-west. It was calculated that thus the scouting vessels sent out by +Dartmouth would carry back word that the landing might be expected to +take place on the Yorkshire coast; and, this ruse successfully effected, +the fleet tacked and sailed southward for the Channel. William was +naturally most desirous to avoid a conflict with the English fleet, and +the heavy weather which prevented Dartmouth from leaving the Thames +enabled him to attain his object. His fleet passed the Straits of Dover +at midday of the 3d of November, and made for Torbay, where it had been +determined to land. In the haze, however, of the morning of the 5th of +November the pilot overshot the mark, and took the fleet some miles to +the west. Its situation became critical. Plymouth was the next port, and +of Lord Bath, who there commanded the King's forces, William was by no +means sure. From the east the royal fleet under Dartmouth was believed +to be approaching. Russell, who had told Burnet that "all was over," and +that he might "go to prayers," was just upon taking boat for the +Prince's ship when the "Protestant wind," as the long prayed-for +easterly gale had hitherto been called, having now by force of +circumstances become a breeze of a distinctly Catholic tendency, was, as +all good Protestants of that day believed, providentially lulled. A wind +of the right direction and denomination sprang up shortly after, and in +four hours' time, by noon of the 5th of November, the Prince's fleet was +wafted safely into Torbay. + +FOOTNOTES: + +[1] In April or May. Macaulay (after Burnet) says May; and the point is +of some importance, because if, as Ralph maintains and proves by +reference to the date of the Elector of Brandenburg's death (an event +referred to by Burnet as still prospective at the date of the conference +with Russell), this interview really took place in April, it does prove, +as Ralph says, that "measures were forming in England against the King +and embraced in Holland before the second Declaration of Indulgence was +published, or the Order in Council which was founded thereon, or the +Prosecution of the Bishops was thought of; which his lordship (Burnet) +holds of such weight for the justification of those measures." Ralph i. +998. + +[2] One of Russell's arguments for immediate action was that James's +soldiers, "though _bad Englishmen_ and _worse Christians_, were as yet +such _good Protestants_ that neither were they attached to His Majesty, +nor could His Majesty depend upon them."--Burnet _ap._ Ralph, _Hist._ i. +997. + +[3] It is difficult to see why. Sunderland, in his _Apology_, distinctly +says, "I opposed to death the acceptance of them (the ships) as well as +any assistance of men, and I can most truly say that I was the principal +means of hindering both." Sunderland, no doubt, was not the most +veracious of men; but one does not see his precise motive for lying on +this matter. + +[4] To make some capital out of the mischance the Haarlem and Amsterdam +Gazettes were ordered (Ralph declares) "to set forth a lamentable +relation of the losses occasioned by it," losses which, it seems, +included "nine men of war, a thousand horses, and Dr. Burnet." + + + + +CHAPTER IV + +1688 + + Advance to Exeter--Measures of James--Council of the Lords-- + Their proposals--The King goes to Salisbury--Defection of + Churchill--James returns to London--Negotiation--Attempted + flight of James--His arrest--Advance of William--Entry of + Dutch troops into London--Actual flight of James. + + +The spot was in one respect well, in another ill chosen for a descent. +Nowhere, indeed, was James's tyranny more detested than in that quarter +of England in which William now found himself, but nowhere also was it +more feared. It was the country of the men who had risen for Monmouth +and fought at Sedgemoor, but it was the country too of the men who had +trembled before Jeffreys, and whose blood had given its name to his +terrible Assize. The reception which William met with was in fact +determined by a balance of these considerations. He was welcomed with +abundance of popular sympathy, but with little overt popular support. +The gentry and peasantry rejoiced at the sight of his standard, but were +slow in gathering to it. His march to Exeter was something like a +triumph, but it seemed at first, and indeed for some days after he had +fixed his quarters there, that he was to get nothing from the people but +their good wishes. That this delay in supporting him gave much +disappointment and even some anxiety to William is certain. He was too +politic to make any public manifestation of feelings, the disclosure of +which might only have served to aggravate their cause; but in private he +complained indignantly of the slackness of his promised adherents, and +even talked--though here we may permit ourselves to doubt his +seriousness--of abandoning his enterprise and returning to Holland. At +the end of a week, however, important partisans of his cause began to +make their appearance. Lord Colchester, a friend of Monmouth's, was the +first to join him; Edward Russell, a son of the Earl of Bedford, +followed; Lord Abingdon, a recruit from the other side of politics, was +the next to give his adhesion to William; and almost at the same moment +the cause of James sustained the most significant repudiation it had yet +undergone in the desertion of Lord Cornbury, the eldest son of Lord +Clarendon, who, after an unsuccessful attempt to bring over with him the +three regiments of which he was the commander, deserted them with a few +followers and made his way to William's quarters. + +In London, ever since the news of the Prince's landing, considerable +agitation had prevailed, and some actual rioting taken place. But the +royal authority was still upheld, and it was evident that the action of +the capital, reversing the order of revolutionary proceedings to which +France has now accustomed us, would await the course of events in the +provinces. As for the King, he was, characteristically enough, as much +reassured by a week's respite from bad news as he had been disturbed by +the tidings of his nephew's landing; but the intelligence of Cornbury's +defection threw him into a state of genuine alarm. Having convoked and +addressed the principal officers then in London, from whom he received +the most earnest professions of loyalty, he prepared to set out to meet +the invader at Salisbury, when he was waited upon by a deputation of the +Lords, praying him to call a Parliament and to open a negotiation with +the Prince of Orange. James, however, to whom no measure ever presented +itself as advisable at the proper moment for adopting it, rejected their +advice. His reason was an excellent one--for any king in a totally +different position from his. He said, and with much truth, that no +Parliament could be freely chosen for a country with an invading army +encamped on its soil; but the question which a clearer-sighted sovereign +would have asked himself was not whether the parliamentary elector would +be a free agent, but whether he himself was. It was eminently probable +that the convocation of a Parliament would not save his throne, but it +was quite certain that nothing else would. Nor had James the excuse of +pride for rejecting the Peers' advice; he was to show in a very short +time that no such account of his conduct could be sustained. Some +monarchs might have preferred to lose a crown rather than be forced into +political concession under coercion of an invading army. James was quite +willing to pay that or any other price to save his crown, only he was +impenetrable to the proof that it was necessary at that moment. He set +out for his destined headquarters, and reached them on the 19th of +November; but by the time he established himself at Salisbury the real +royal court had collected itself at Exeter. William was haranguing the +"friends and fellow Protestants" who had gathered to his banner, and +continually receiving fresh adhesions, among which that of Lord Bath, +the commander of the royal forces at Plymouth, was the most important. +Meanwhile, the northern population of the kingdom, among whom William +had been expected to present himself first, were up in arms. York and +Nottingham were the chief centres of insurrection, and to one or the +other of them many of the great peers and landowners of the north were +already making their way. Placed thus between two fires, it was evident +that immediate action was necessary on James's part to prevent their +meeting and engulfing him. As it was no less evidently to William's +interest to defer a conflict as long as possible, he succeeded in +avoiding anything save mere skirmishes between outposts, until the +occurrence of an event for which he was probably prepared, and which he +had good reason to hope would insure the triumph of his cause without +any serious fighting at all. This was no less an event than the +desertion of Churchill, who, if, as is likely enough, he had been up to +this point doubting to which side his interests pointed--the only form +of indecision he was liable to--had by this time satisfied himself that +James's cause was lost. Alarmed by rumours of disaffection in his army, +James's eagerness for an encounter with William had now entirely +disappeared. He talked of retreating, but Churchill strongly urged an +advance. Whether, if his counsels had prevailed, he would have taken +over the troops under his command to William, or whether he would have +awaited the issue of battle in order to obtain still clearer light on +the only question that interested him, must for ever remain uncertain. +James resolved to fall back, and Churchill resolved not to accompany +him. He quitted the royal camp that night, leaving behind him a letter, +in which he declared it impossible for him to fight against the cause of +the Protestant religion, and presented himself next day at the quarters +of the Prince of Orange. His flight threw James into extreme +consternation. A precipitate retreat was ordered, and the royal +standard, now losing more and more followers every day, was soon being +hurried back to London. Prince George of Denmark, who lives in history +as _Est-il possible?_ abandoned his father-in-law at Andover, and James +returned to Whitehall to find that his younger daughter had followed her +husband's example. "God help me!" the wretched King exclaimed; "my own +children have forsaken me." A man so accustomed to subordinate all the +kindlier instincts of human nature to the precepts of his religion might +have recollected that Anne had only to identify the interests of +Anglican Protestantism with the cause of Christ in order to find +excellent Scriptural authority for turning her back upon her father. + +It being now too late to hope for an accommodation with his people and +their invited champion, James began to think of arranging one. He +summoned a council of the Lords spiritual and temporal then in London, +and signified his willingness to "agree with his adversary" slowly, +and when no longer "in the way with him." He was ready now to +take the advice which had been tendered him before he started for +Salisbury--namely, to summon a Parliament and open negotiations with +William. It was now, however, pointed out to him that, his position +having become worse by delay, he must make an advance on his original +offers by dismissing all Catholics from office, breaking off his +relations with France, and promising an amnesty to all political +opponents; but as this or some similar enlargement of the original terms +of concession submitted to him unmistakably recommended itself to common +sense, the King would not hear of it. He would summon a Parliament, and +at once did so by directing Jeffreys to issue writs convoking that body +for the 13th of January. He would negotiate with William, and he named +Nottingham, Halifax, and Godolphin as his commissioners for that +purpose. But more than this he at first declined to do. On further +reflection, however, it occurred to him that the pang of giving these +distasteful pledges might be much mitigated by a secret resolve to break +them. He therefore issued a proclamation granting a free pardon to all +who were in rebellion against him, and declaring them eligible as +members of the forthcoming Parliament. At the same time he gave an +earnest of his willingness to conform to the law excluding papists from +office by removing the Catholic Lieutenant of the Tower. Again, at the +same time, and as the reverse of an "earnest" of anything, he informed +the French Ambassador that the negotiation with William was "a mere +feint," and that all he wanted was to gain time "to ship off his wife +and the Prince of Wales." There was undoubtedly a good deal of his royal +and unfortunate father about James II. He seems, indeed, to have +inherited almost all Charles's moral qualities except his courage. These +he "threw back" to his grandfather--not a fortunate illustration of the +biological principle of atavism. + +Infected with the duplicity and unredeemed by the bravery of Charles I., +the close of his reign is naturally less romantic than his father's. +Kings who fail in business undoubtedly owe it to their historical +reputation to perish on the scaffold or the battlefield. A royal martyr +is a much more impressive object than a royal levanter. It is better to +"ascend to Heaven" as "the son of St. Louis" than to take ship for Dover +as "Mr. Smith." The last three weeks of James's reign are weeks of +painful ignominy. His plan of spiriting away the infant Prince of Wales +was defeated by Dartmouth, the admiral on whom he had relied to execute +it, but who steadfastly refused to lend a hand to the project. William's +army advanced from Exeter to Salisbury, and from Salisbury to +Hungerford, where it had been arranged that the royal commissioners +should meet the Prince. The result of the negotiation was favourable +beyond anything James had a right to expect. The Prince accepted his +father-in-law's offer to refer all questions in dispute to the +Parliament about to be assembled, stipulating only that the capital +should be relieved from military pressure on either side; that James +should, as a security against his inviting French aid, place Portsmouth +under the command of an officer in whom both sides had confidence; and +that, while London was denuded of troops, the Tower--as also Tilbury +Fort--should be garrisoned by the city of London. It is by no means +impossible that James might have saved a crown, however shorn of its +prerogatives, had he accepted these terms. But he was bent on attempting +to regain by foreign arms that full despotic authority which he could +not retain by his own. He contrived, with the assistance of the +chivalrous and eccentric Frenchman Lauzun, to get the Queen and Prince +of Wales conveyed safely to France; and twenty-four hours afterwards, +on the night of the 11th of December, he endeavoured to follow them, but +he was recognised at the Isle of Sheppey, whence he was about to embark, +and his flight arrested. In London, where the royal forces had, in +obedience to James's parting orders, been disbanded by their +commander-in-chief, some forty-eight hours of very dangerous panic +ensued upon the King's departure; but a provisional government was +hastily formed by a committee of temporal and spiritual peers, and +measures promptly taken by them for the maintenance of order. On hearing +of the capture of James, they immediately despatched Feversham with a +troop of Life Guards to escort him back to London. Here he was received +with some marks of popular commiseration, which he mistook for reviving +popular favour, and, regaining confidence, he sent Feversham to Windsor +as the bearer of a letter to the Prince of Orange, expressing a desire +for a personal conference with him at St. James's Palace, which he +offered to fit up for the Prince's accommodation. William, however, as +one may now see plainly, was bent on creating a vacancy of the throne. +He no doubt keenly regretted the officiousness of the sailors who had +defeated James's first attempt at flight, and resolved to do all in his +power short of downright physical coercion to induce him to repeat the +attempt. He arrested Feversham for want of a military safe conduct, and +replied to James's letter by declining the conference, and desiring him +to remain at Rochester. The King had by this time reached Whitehall; +but, disquieted by the sternness of William's message, and by the arrest +of his officer, his nerve began once more to fail him. On the night of +the 18th three or four battalions of William's infantry and a squadron +of horse marched down to Whitehall, and, the English Guards being +withdrawn by the King's orders and to the great regret of their stout +old commander, Lord Craven, took practical possession of the palace. In +the small hours of the morning Halifax and two other lords arrived from +Windsor with a recommendation to James to retire to Ham. Ostensibly +delivered in the name of his own Peers, James felt satisfied that it was +really a hint from William. He proposed to substitute Rochester for Ham, +and the substitution was accepted by William with a readiness which +significantly showed his desire to facilitate his uncle's flight. Early +the next morning James, accompanied by Lords Aylesbury, Lichfield, +Arran, and Dumbarton--peers whose names deserve if only as a matter of +curiosity to be recorded,[5]--set out for Rochester; and four days +afterwards, with motives which have been variously estimated, but in +which fear for his life or liberty and hopes of foreign assistance +towards the recovery of his kingdom played perhaps about an equal part, +he again resolved to quit the kingdom. A letter from his +Queen--intercepted indeed, but which William took care to have conveyed +to him--confirmed his resolution. Between two and three o'clock on the +morning of the 23d he embarked on board a frigate on the Medway, and, +finding the wind favourable, landed after a speedy voyage at Ambleteuse, +whence he proceeded to St. Germains. + +FOOTNOTE: + +[5] It is true that a large number of courtiers quitted Whitehall at the +same time, making the palace, as Ralph says, "like a Desart." But the +large majority of them got no further than St. James's. + + + + +CHAPTER V + +1688-1689 + + Characteristics of the English Revolution--Views of the + various parties--The Convention--Proposal to declare the + throne vacant--The Regency question--The resolution of the + Commons--Amendment of the Lords--The crisis--Attitude of + Mary--Announcement of William--Resolution passed--Declaration + of Right--Tender of the crown. + + +It is significant of the peaceful and, so to speak, constitutional +character of our English Revolution that by far its most momentous +scenes were enacted within the four walls of the meeting-places of +deliberative assemblies, and find their chronicle in the dry record of +votes and resolutions. We have no "days," in the French sense of the +word, or hardly any, to commemorate. The gradual accomplishment of the +political work of 1688-89 is not marked and emphasised like that of +1789-92 at every stage by some out-door event of the picturesque, the +stirring, or the terrible kind--such for instance as those by which the +14th of July, the 6th of October, the 10th of August, and in a darker +order of memories, the 2d of September, have been made landmarks in the +revolutionary history of France. On every one of the days thus singled +out for glorious or for shameful remembrance, some irrevocable step was +taken--some new position gained by the advancing forces of French +democracy from which there was no retreat. We in England have no +anniversaries of the kind. We may remember, though we have ceased to +celebrate in our churches, the day in which William first set foot on +our shores; but we feel that after all it was not an "event" in the +sense of that other great Protestant deliverance with which in +month-date it so fortunately coincided, and for which the Anglican +liturgy economically set apart a common form of thanksgiving. The +discovery of the Gunpowder Plot was an incident having results of the +most permanent and unalterable character. It made all the difference +between the safety and the destruction of the Sovereign and the three +Estates of the Realm. Again, the execution of Charles I. determined +something, by committing the country to the military autocracy of +Cromwell and the powerful reaction of the Restoration. But this cannot +be said of the landing of the Prince of Orange at Torbay--the mere +opening of a drama which might have had any one of half a dozen +_denouments_; it can hardly even be said of the second and definitive +flight of James. The 23d of December 1688 was in one sense no more of an +"epoch-making" day than the 5th of November in the same year. It is true +that the sovereign's abandonment of his throne and country became +something more than a striking dramatic event; it was elevated into an +act of profound political import. It had or was invested with inward and +most momentous legal significance, in addition to its outward historical +prominence. But for all that it determined nothing at the moment of its +occurrence but the future of a single man. It is quite conceivable that +the mere flight of James II. should have settled no more than his own +incapacitation--that it should not even have brought about the exclusion +of his son from the succession, still less have led to the formal +recognition of a new principle in the English Constitution. True it is +that all these consequences were deducible from it as matter of +argument, and flowed from it in fact. True it is that, when James stole +down the Medway in the early morning of the 23d of December, he was +taking a step which was capable of being turned by the friends of +liberty and good government, or his own enemies,--and it was difficult +to be one without being the other,--to the disherison of his son, and +the far-reaching substitution of a statutory for a common-law monarchy. +But no less true is it that these results were very far from being +necessary or automatic in their character; that, on the contrary, they +hung for some critical days in the balance, and that the active +co-operation of human qualities in its very conspicuous and not too +common forms of courage, foresight, and political dexterity, was needed +in the last resort to secure them. It is for this reason that our +"days," our anniversaries of such merely external incidents as William's +landing or James's departure are, comparatively speaking, so +unimportant. No such incident either made or insured the making of our +existing English Constitution. The events which really made it passed, +as I have said, within the walls of two deliberative assemblies, between +January 23 and February 13, 1689, and its making was not actually +assured until this period was well-nigh expired. + +How important was the political work compressed within these three +weeks will be at once apparent if now, having noted how little was +settled by the mere flight of James II., we go on to consider how great +was the variety of its possible results. James had ceased to be king _de +facto_, that was all; and the English people were pretty unanimous in +their determination that he should never be king _de facto_ again. But +was he still king _de jure_? If not, if he was not legally sovereign, +was any one? And if so, who? Upon each of these last three questions +there was room for difference of opinion, and upon at least two of them +opinion was in fact divided. A considerable section of the Tory party +were of opinion that James, although he had _de facto_ ceased to reign, +was still the only lawful king of England, in whose name, at any rate, +all royal authority should be exercised, and all royal acts of state +performed. To these men, therefore, the only legal and constitutional +solution of the problem appeared to be the creation of a Regency. They +were for raising William to the position of Regent, and empowering him +to preside over the actual government of the country in this capacity +during the life of his father-in-law. + +A second section of the Tory party held, on the other hand, that James +having by his own act ceased to govern, had also ceased to reign. By +deliberately laying aside the sceptre he had brought about a demise of +the crown. It had simply devolved upon the person next in succession, +and that person was, they declared, the Princess Mary. There was no need +therefore for the creation of a Regent, and still less for the more +extreme and wholly unprecedented step of appointing a new sovereign. All +that was necessary was a mere formal recognition by the country of the +bare legal facts of the case. According to this party the Princess Mary +was in truth at that moment the lawful Queen of England, and nothing +more was needed than a national acknowledgment of her title. + +To both of these doctrines the Whig party were equally opposed. They +held in opposition to the former, that James had ceased to reign, and in +opposition to the latter, that the crown had been not demised but simply +forfeited. The King's destruction of his own right could not have, and +had not had, the effect of transmitting them to any one else whomsoever. +They resided at that moment, whatever constitutional fictions might aver +to the contrary, in no one; and a special expression of the national +will, a special exertion of the national power, would be required in +favour of some designated successors to these rights before anybody +could be regarded, whether in fact or law, as invested with them. + +Apart from all political prepossessions there can, I think, be no +serious dispute as to which was the most logical and tenable contention +of the three; and that this was distinctly that of the Whigs. The Tories +who contended that James had lost his right to the personal exercise of +the royal authority, while yet retaining so much of that authority that +any one who exercised it in his stead must be supposed to do so as his +deputy, were involved in a hopeless contradiction. In assuming to +appoint such deputy to act for a person whom they still persisted in +regarding as king _de jure_, they were themselves obviously usurping a +portion of that very _jus_ which they professed to respect. True, they +attempted to get over this objection by urging that James had placed +himself under a disability to exercise his royal authority, but they +could point to nothing in the facts of the case to support their +contention. Disability to exercise royal authority could, in the view of +the Constitution, arise from one cause alone, the same cause from which +in the view of the common law arises the disability to exercise civil +rights. The disabled King, like the disabled subject, must have become +mentally incapacitated; and James's incapacitation for the work of +government was purely moral. Setting aside the deposition and execution +of his father, which even the Whigs did not endeavour to elevate into a +regular precedent, there was no constitutional sanction for the +withdrawal of the reins of state from the hands of the monarch, on any +ground save that of insanity. Once extend this, and admit that a king +who is merely bad may be treated as though he were mad, and the Whig +doctrine is thereby absolutely conceded. As to the practical +inconveniences of a Regency exercised in the name of an actively hostile +sovereign--a sovereign who would have been sometimes in arms against his +own nominal authority, and always plotting its overthrow--they would of +course have been both grave and numerous. But it is less surprising that +the Regency party of that day should have ignored them than that they +should have been so indifferent to the complete surrender of their +political principles which was involved in the proposal to which they +committed themselves. + +More logical in form, but equally untenable in fact, was the position +assumed by the other section of the Tory party. There was perhaps +nothing altogether irreconcilable with their principles in the theory +that a voluntary abandonment of the throne might operate as a demise of +the crown; but coolly to assert a right to pass over the infant Prince +of Wales on the strength of the mere idle story that he was a +supposititious child[6] was a pretension which, especially as put +forward by men who were such sticklers for constitutional fictions as to +insist that there must at any given moment be some one person or other +entitled to wear the English crown, appears little short of +preposterous. + +The Whig theory of the situation rejected the fictions of both branches +of the Tory party with equal decision. There was no need, according to +the Whigs, for the country to bewilder itself in efforts to distinguish +between _de jure_ and _de facto_ sovereignty, still less to resort to +the far-fetched expedient of assuming a demise of the crown in order to +prevent the former kind of sovereignty from undergoing interruption. A +king, they held, might lose his title to the crown by a voluntary +abandonment of the throne; and he might lose that title without anybody +succeeding to it. Indeed, since the English crown devolved according to +the ordinary English laws of succession, it was impossible that anybody +should succeed to it by mere _operation of law_ during its former +wearer's life-time. If it was a principle of constitutional law that at +any given moment there must be some lawful king or queen of England in +existence, it was no less a principle of the common law that _nemo est +haeres viventis_. James, therefore, had according to the Whig theory +ceased to be sovereign, and no one else had become sovereign in his +stead: the throne was vacant. Being vacant it was for the Convention to +fill it, and the members of that body were both entitled and bound to +select the fittest successor to it, unconstrained, though not +necessarily uninfluenced, by the claims of successorship which would +have vested in this, that, or the other person under an ordinary demise +of the crown. + +That this was the most logical and self-consistent view of the situation +appears to me undeniable; but it is a singular illustration of the +manner in which events may transpose the relative proportions of +principles that this Whig corollary from the abdication of James +appeared to the statesmen of the time, and even it should seem to +Macaulay, a century and a half after them, to be a more pregnant +assertion of democratic doctrine, and a bolder step in its application, +than that expressed in the earlier proposition that James had ceased to +reign. Nowadays the difference between the Tories who contended that the +crown had been demised, and the Whigs who insisted that the throne was +vacant, hardly arrests the student for an instant. He is disposed to +brush the Tory fiction aside as alike irrational and unnecessary. The +real passage of the Rubicon took place in his view of the matter when it +was declared that James had ceased to be _de jure_ king, and no +subsequent assertion of popular rights in the choice of a successor +could possibly be stronger or more important than that declaration +itself. Yet whereas the Convention accepted the first of these +propositions _nemine contradicente_, the second was only adopted after +having been once actually rejected, and was in fact the subject of so +sharp a conflict of opinion as to threaten irreconcilable deadlock +between the two branches of the constituent body.[7] + +The Convention met on the 22d of January, when Halifax was chosen +president in the Lords; Powle, Speaker of the Commons. A letter from +William, read in both Houses, informed their members that he had +endeavoured to the best of his power to discharge the trust reposed in +him, and that it now rested with the Convention to lay the foundation of +a firm security for their religion, laws, and liberties. The Prince then +went on to refer to the dangerous condition of the Protestants in +Ireland and the present state of things abroad, which obliged him to +tell them that next to the danger of unreasonable divisions among +themselves, nothing could be so fatal as too great a delay in their +consultations. And he further intimated that as England was already +bound by treaty to help the Dutch in such exigencies as, deprived of the +troops which he had brought over, and threatened with war by Louis XIV., +they might easily be reduced to, so he felt confident that the cheerful +concurrence of the Dutch in preserving this kingdom would meet with all +the returns of friendship from Protestants and Englishmen whenever their +own condition should require assistance. To this the two Houses replied +with an address thanking the Prince for his great care in the +administration of the affairs of the kingdom to this time, and formally +continuing to him the same commission,[8] recommending to his particular +care the present state of Ireland. William's answer to this address was +characteristic both of his temperament and his preoccupation. "My lords +and gentlemen," he said, "I am glad that what I have done hath pleased +you; and since you desire me to continue the administration of affairs, +I am willing to accept it. I must recommend to you the consideration of +affairs abroad which makes it fit for you to expedite your business, not +only for making a settlement at home on a good foundation, but for the +safety of Europe." On the 28th the Commons resolved themselves into a +committee of the whole House, and Richard Hampden, son of the great +John, was voted into the chair. The honour of having been the first to +speak the word which was on everybody's lips belongs to Gilbert Dolben, +son of a late Archbishop of York, who "made a long speech tending to +prove that the King's deserting his kingdom without appointing any +person to administer the government amounted in reason and judgment of +law to a demise." Sir Robert Howard, one of the members for Castle +Rising, went a step further, and asserted that the throne, was vacant. +The extreme Tories made a vain effort to procure an adjournment, but the +combination against them of Whigs and their own moderates was too strong +for them, and after a long and stormy debate the House resolved "That +King James II., having endeavoured to subvert the constitution by +breaking the original contract between the King and people, and by the +advice of Jesuits and other wicked persons having violated the +fundamental laws and withdrawn himself out of the kingdom, has abdicated +the government, and that the throne is thereby vacant." + +This resolution was at once sent up to the Lords. Before, however, they +could proceed to consider it, another message arrived from the Commons +to the effect that they had just voted it inconsistent with the safety +and welfare of this Protestant nation to be governed by a Popish king. +To this resolution the Peers assented with a readiness which showed in +advance that James had no party in the Upper House, and that the utmost +length to which the Tories in that body were prepared to go was to +support the proposal of a Regency. The first resolution of the Commons +was then put aside in order that this proposal might be discussed. It +was Archbishop Sancroft's plan, who, however, did not make his +appearance to advocate it, and in his absence it was supported by +Rochester and Nottingham, while Halifax and Danby led the opposition to +it. After a day's debate it was lost by the narrow majority of two, +forty-nine peers declaring in its favour, and fifty-one against it. The +Lords then went into Committee on the Commons' resolution, and at once +proceeded, as was natural enough, to dispute the clause in its preamble +which referred to the original contract between the King and the people. +No Tory of course could really have subscribed to the doctrine implied +in these words; but it was doubtless as hard in those days as in these +to interest an assembly of English politicians in affirmations of +abstract political principle, and some Tories probably thought it not +worth while to multiply causes of dissent with the Lower House by +attacking a purely academic recital of their resolution. Anyhow, the +numbers of the minority slightly fell off, only forty-six peers +objecting to the phrase, while fifty-three voted that it should stand. +The word "deserted" was then substituted without a division for the word +"abdicated," and the hour being late, the Lords adjourned. + +The real battle, of course, was now at hand, and to any one who assents +to the foregoing criticisms it will be evident that it was far less of a +conflict on a point of constitutional principle, and far more of a +struggle between the parties of two distinct--one cannot call them +rival--claimants to the throne than high-flying Whig writers are +accustomed to represent it. It would of course, be too much to say that +the Whigs insisted on declaring the vacancy of the throne, _only_ +because they wished to place William on it, and that the Tories +contended for a demise of the crown, _only_ because they wished an +English princess to succeed to the throne rather than a Dutch prince. +Still, it is pretty certain that, but for this conflict of preferences, +the two political parties, who had made so little difficulty of agreeing +in the declaration that James had ceased to reign, would never have +found it so hard to concur in its almost necessary sequence that the +throne was vacant. The debate on the last clause of the resolution +began, and it soon became apparent that the Whigs were outnumbered. The +forty-nine peers who had supported the proposal of a Regency, which +implied that the royal title was still in James, were bound, of course, +to oppose the proposition that the throne was vacant; and they were +reinforced by several peers who held that that title had already +devolved upon Mary. An attempt to compromise the dispute by omitting the +words pronouncing the throne vacant, and inserting words which merely +proclaimed the Prince and Princess of Orange King and Queen, was +rejected by fifty-two votes to forty-seven[9]; and the original clause +was then put and negatived by fifty-five votes to forty-one. + +Thus amended by the substitution of "deserted" for "abdicated," and the +omission of the words "and that the throne is thereby vacant," the +resolution was sent back to the Commons, who instantly and without a +division disagreed with the amendments. The situation was now becoming +critical. The prospect of a deadlock between the two branches of the +Convention threw London into a ferment; crowds assembled in Palace Yard; +petitions were presented in that tumultuous fashion which converts +supplication into menace. To their common credit, however, both parties +united in resistance to these attempts at popular coercion; and William +himself interposed to enjoin a stricter police of the capital. On +Monday, the 4th of February, the Lords resolved to insist on their +amendments; on the following day the Commons reaffirmed their +disagreement with them by 282 votes to 151. A free Conference between +the two Houses was then arranged, and met on the following day. + +But the dispute, like many another in our political history, had +meanwhile been settled out of court. Between the date of the Peers' vote +and the Conference Mary had communicated to Danby her high displeasure +at the conduct of those who were setting up her claims in opposition to +those of her husband; and William, who had previously maintained an +unbroken silence, now made, unsolicited, a declaration of a most +important, and indeed of a conclusive kind. If the Convention, he said, +chose to adopt the plan of a Regency, he had nothing to say against it, +only they must look out for some other person to fill the office, for he +himself would not consent to do so. As to the alternative proposal of +putting Mary on the throne and allowing him to reign by her courtesy, +"No man," he said, "can esteem a woman more than I do the Princess; but +I am so made that I cannot think of holding anything by apron-strings; +nor can I think it reasonable to have any share in the government unless +it be put in my own person, and that for the term of my life. If you +think fit to settle it otherwise I will not oppose you, but will go back +to Holland and meddle no more in your affairs." These few sentences of +plain speaking swept away the clouds of intrigue and pedantry as by a +wholesome gust of wind. Both political parties at once perceived that +there was but one possible issue from the situation. The Conference was +duly held, and the constitutional question was, with great display of +now unnecessary learning, solemnly debated; but the managers for the two +Houses met only to register a foregone conclusion. The word "abdicated" +was restored; the vacancy of the throne was voted by sixty-two votes to +forty-seven; and it was immediately proposed and carried without a +division that the Prince and Princess of Orange should be declared King +and Queen of England. + +It now only remained to give formal effect to this resolution, and in so +doing to settle the conditions whereon the crown, which the Convention +had now distinctly recognised itself as conferring upon the Prince and +Princess, should be conferred. A Committee appointed by the Commons to +consider what safeguards should be taken against the aggressions of +future sovereigns had made a report in which they recommended not only a +solemn enunciation of ancient constitutional principles, but the +enactment of new laws. The Commons, however, having regard to the +importance of prompt action, judiciously resolved on carrying out only +the first part of the programme. They determined to preface their tender +of the crown to William and Mary by a recital of the royal encroachments +of the past reigns, and a formal assertion of the constitutional +principles against which such encroachments had offended. This document, +drafted by a Committee of which the celebrated Somers, then a +scarcely-known young advocate, was the chairman, was the famous +DECLARATION OF RIGHT. + +The grievances which it recapitulated in its earlier portion, fourteen +in number, were as follows:--(1) the royal pretension to dispense with +and suspend laws without consent of Parliament; (2) the punishment of +subjects, as in the Seven Bishops' case, for petitioning the Crown; (3) +the establishment of the illegal Court of High Commission for +ecclesiastical affairs; (4) the levy of taxes without the consent of +Parliament; (5) the maintenance of a standing army in time of peace +without the same consent; (6) the disarmament of Protestants while +Papists were both armed and employed contrary to law; (7) the violation +of the freedom of election; (8) the prosecution in the King's Bench of +suits only cognisable in Parliament; (9) the return of partial and +corrupt juries; (10) the requisition of excessive bail; (11) the +imposition of excessive fines; (12) the infliction of illegal and cruel +punishments; (13) the grants of the estates of accused persons before +conviction. Then, after solemnly reaffirming the popular rights from +which these abuses of the prerogative derogated, the Declaration goes on +to recite that, having an "entire confidence" William would "preserve +them from the violation of the rights which they have here asserted, the +Three Estates do resolve that William and Mary, Prince and Princess of +Orange, be and be declared King and Queen ... to hold the Crown and +Royal Dignity ... to them the said Prince and Princess during their +Lives and the Life of the Survivor of them; and the sole and full +exercise of the Royal Power be only in and exercised by the said Prince +of Orange, in the Names of the said Prince and Princess during their +Lives, and after their Deceases, the said Crown and Royal Dignity of the +said Kingdoms and Dominions to the Heirs of the Body of the said +Princess; and, for default of such Issue, to the Princess Anne of +Denmark and the Heirs of her Body; and, for default of such Issue, to +the Issue of the said Prince of Orange." Then followed an alteration +required by the scrupulous conscience of Nottingham in the terms of the +Oath of Allegiance. + +On the 12th of February Mary arrived from Holland. On the following day, +in the Banqueting House at Whitehall, the Prince and Princess of Orange +were waited on by both Houses of Convention in a body. The Declaration +was read by the Clerk of the Crown; the sovereignty solemnly tendered to +them by Halifax, in the name of the Estates; and on the same day they +were proclaimed King and Queen in the usual places in the cities of +London and Westminster. + +FOOTNOTES: + +[6] _How_ idle this story was may best be judged by studying the +so-called evidence in its favour, as set forth in the pages of that +writer who, more perhaps than any other chronicler of the events of that +period, would have liked to establish its truth. No one, I think, can +read Burnet's account of the Queen's accouchement, so completely +demonstrating as it does the _impossibility_ of the alleged fraud, +without wondering at the strength of the partisanship and popular +prejudice which could for a moment have believed in its perpetration. + +[7] The fact that the _practical_ cause of this sharp conflict was the +rivalry between the partisans of William and those of Mary is only a +partial explanation of the phenomenon referred to in the text. It is a +reason for the Convention having debated the Whig corollary so much, but +not for their debating the Whig-Tory original proposition so little. Of +course the _practical_ explanation is the simple one, that James had +made himself impossible. Both parties concurred so readily in that +opinion that they applied it without either of them pausing to consider +its scope as a precedent, and that, quite apart from all controversies +as to regency, demise of the crown, vacancy of the throne, or what not, +the first instance in which a people pronounced _any_ king +impossible--such king being of sound mind, and still asserting his +sovereignty--let in the whole modern democratic theory. + +[8] It is somewhat singular that Macaulay should have taken no notice of +an address which really constituted William's sole legal, or quasi legal +title to the administration of affairs between the assembling of the +Convention (which necessarily revoked his original commission) and the +conclusion of its king-making labours. + +[9] The offer and rejection of this compromise appears to me to be +additional proof of the proposition advanced in the text--viz. that both +Whigs and Tories were far more solicitous for the success of their +candidate than for the triumph of their principles. Macaulay, it is +true, contends, as from his point of view he was bound to do, that the +Whigs made no concession of principle in proposing their compromise; for +if, he argues, the Convention could elect William and Mary there must +have been a vacancy of the throne. But surely the resolution as amended +might have been treated as merely _declaratory_ of Mary's title, and +elective only so far as it associated William with her on a throne which +had become his wife's by succession, and so would never have been +vacated at all. No; it was a genuine and not a fictitious surrender of +Whig principle; and while it proved that the Whigs were prepared to +offer any such concession as would make William King, its rejection +proved that the Tories cared for no such concession as did not leave +Mary sole Queen. The gain of votes which the Whigs secured by the +compromise probably represents the proportion of peers who really cared +for the abstract principle apart from the concrete facts. + + + + +CHAPTER VI + +1689 + + William's part in the Revolution--Convention declared a + Parliament--Oath of Allegiance--Settlement of Civil List + --Appropriation Clause--Toleration and Comprehension-- + Address of the Commons inviting the King to declare war. + + +Thus prudently and calmly was effected our great English Revolution. +Both as an event and as an achievement we have equal cause to review its +history with pleasure; for if in some aspects it testifies to the good +fortune of our nation, it reflects credit in others on the good +qualities of our people. I have endeavoured in the last chapter to point +out that the modern Whig view of the Revolution as a great conflict +between two opposing schools of constitutional doctors, resulting in the +victory of the more liberal one, is largely legendary; that the struggle +between Whigs and Tories resolved itself almost entirely into a dispute +of preferences as between two alternative candidates for the throne; and +that both parties showed themselves alike prepared to waive the +principles which they severally held on condition of attaining their +practical end--the success of their favoured candidate. But this does +not in any way detract either from the value of the Revolution or from +the merits of its authors; while it otherwise only serves to conform it +to the normal type of English political work. All our great +constitutional precedents are the parents of principle rather than its +offspring; we deduce our theories from accomplished facts of our own +creation, the creation of such accomplished facts being itself +determined by no theoretical considerations, but by certain practical +exigencies of the moment. Few Englishmen will think any worse of the +Whig because, although firmly wedded to the principle of national +sovereignty, he would have been willing to lose the opportunity of +expressly affirming it so long as he could by any means place William of +Orange, with full regal power, on the throne. Nor will they be any more +disposed to condemn the Tory in that when he found himself compelled to +give way on the practical point of the succession, he did not think it +worth while to quarrel with the assertions or implications of Whig +principle contained in the resolution by which the transfer was +effected. On the contrary, the temper and habits of mind thus jointly +illustrated are national characteristics on which we especially and not +unreasonably pride ourselves. + +For the purposes of a precedent, too, the transaction could hardly have +come more happily off. Even a Tory of to-day will admit that it was good +for the future development of our constitutional life that the Whig +principles of "national sovereignty," "original contract between king +and people," and all the rest of it, should then and there receive +unmistakable recognition and irrevocable ratification; and this beyond +question they did receive. No hair-splittings about desertion or +abdication[10] could obscure the two plain facts, that the nation +_deposed_ James II., and by a distinct assertion of inherent, or +assumption of new, authority--it matters not which--_made_ a new king +out of a man who, but for such assertion or assumption of authority, +could never have become more than the consort of a queen. + +As regards the new King himself, his behaviour at this great crisis in +his own fortunes and the destiny of two nations deserves, at any rate, +the credit of honesty and straightforwardness. We shall not really add +to that honour by seeking any more showy motives than those which lie on +the face of his conduct. The mere masculine repugnance of the man of +action to lower the spear before the distaff would in any case probably +have induced him to reject the proposal of the Tory lords. But apart +from this, his shrewd knowledge of men and clear insight into politics +assured him that he had only to refuse the false position in order to +compel the offer of the true one. He might have been all else that he +was--the devoted son of Holland; the true, if unimpassioned, friend of +England; the implacable enemy of the French king and his designs; the +ardent champion of Protestantism and the liberties of Europe;--and yet +only been the more tempted in every one of these by a place on the steps +of a powerful throne, and an influence which even from that situation he +might have wielded to the attainment of many great ends. He was saved +from accepting it solely by his pride, his ambition, and his +perspicacity. He resented the thought of holding power as his wife's +lieutenant, and he saw that he had only to refuse that post in order to +make himself a necessity as king. + +The first act of the new sovereign was to summon and swear a Privy +Council, and to nominate a Ministry. In the then infancy of our modern +Constitution it was not, as it now is, incumbent upon the sovereign to +select the Ministers from one particular party. It was competent to him, +and William deemed it expedient for him, to tender office to the +representatives of both political connections. Danby, a Tory by +principle, though he had sided with the Whigs in opposing the Regency +scheme, and only broke away from them on the question of declaring the +throne vacant, was made President of the Council. Halifax, a Trimmer +indeed, but of closer affinities with Whiggery than with Toryism, and +the chief upholder of the Whig doctrine on the question of the +succession, became Lord Privy Seal. Nottingham, a Tory up to almost any +point short of passive obedience, received the seals of one +Secretaryship of State; upon Shrewsbury, a Whig, were bestowed those of +the other. The Treasury and the Admiralty were committed to the +Administration of Boards--the former under the presidency of Admiral +Herbert, the latter under that of Charles Mordaunt, afterwards the +famous and eccentric Earl of Peterborough. By an exercise of the royal +authority, willingly acquiesced in at the time by the nation, but +destined to entail more momentous national consequences than any of his +subjects foresaw, King William retained in his own hands the exclusive +direction of foreign affairs. The Great Seal was placed in commission. + +The first question propounded to the Privy Council was whether the +Convention should be declared a lawful Parliament, or dissolved and a +fresh Parliament summoned in the regular manner by royal writ. The +Council advised the former course, and a Bill declaring the Convention a +Parliament was at once introduced and passed through the House of Lords. +It was opposed in the Commons by the Tories, who hoped that a general +election might strengthen their numbers; but the resistance--founded as +it was upon mere technical considerations, and with historical precedent +against it--was never very formidable; and the Bill passed the Lower +House in a few days, and became law. Among its clauses was one providing +that no one should, after the 1st of March then next ensuing, sit or +vote in either House of Parliament without taking the oaths of +allegiance to the new King and Queen, and the Jacobites and ultra-Tories +conceived the hope that many peers, bishops, and commoners would find it +impossible to reconcile their consciences to this test. As a matter of +fact the non-jurors, except among the Episcopal body, to whom Archbishop +Sancroft set the example of recusancy, were comparatively few. Even +later, when the oath was tendered to the clergy at large, the number of +those who found themselves conscientiously unable to take it was but +one-twentieth of the whole body.[11] + +In the interval, however, between the passing of the Act and the day +fixed for submission to the test, the great question of the royal +revenues was taken up and decided. Certain proceeds of taxation were in +those days granted to the Crown either for a fixed term of years or for +life. The former, being on the face of them annexed to the regal office, +were of course transferable without much difficulty or dispute to the +new incumbent of that office; but doubts naturally arose as to the exact +legal status of the latter kind of imposts. Some were for interpreting +the word "life" as virtually meaning reign, upon which construction the +right to exact these taxes had lapsed by the deposition of the sovereign +to whom they were granted. Others insisted on an interpretation stricter +in one sense and laxer in another, and argued that though William had +become entitled to these revenues as King he could only enjoy them +during the life of James. In other words, in order to avoid taking +liberties with the word "life," they were prepared to behave with far +more unbridled license to the word "king." The practical inconvenience +of settling revenues on William during the life of James may or may not +have weighed more with the Parliament than the theoretical anomaly of +treating the former as sovereign for one purpose and the latter as such +for another; but anyhow it was tacitly agreed to treat the grant to +James as annulled by his so-called abdication. The Commons then voted +the sum of L1,200,000 for the current year, one half to be appropriated +to the civil list, the other half to the defences of the +country--mainly, of course, in other words, to the prosecution of the +impending war in Ireland. At the first sitting of Parliament, after the +prorogation, which took place some months afterwards, the Royal Speech +from the Throne contained an announcement to the Commons that in order +that they might be satisfied how the money had been laid out which they +had already given, his Majesty had directed the accounts to be laid +before them whenever they should think fit to call for them. The +privilege thus practically acknowledged may no doubt be, as some +constitutional lawyers have contended, coeval with the constitution; but +it had been so intermittently respected that its unvarying recognition +from this time forward is justly reckoned as one of the chief gains +which accrued to our parliamentary system from the Revolution. It seems, +however, to have been only in the Stat., 9 and 10 Will. III. c. 44, that +there appears an appropriation clause of the modern type apportioning +all the supplies of the session to the services for which they were +provided. + +But while these delicate matters of royal rights and official income +were being disposed of, the King was commendably anxious to show himself +at once in some other light than that of an applicant for parliamentary +aids. As early as the 1st of March he sent a special message to the +Commons calling their attention to the "grievous burden" of the +unpopular hearth-tax, and signifying that assent either "to the +regulation of it, or to the taking of it wholly away," not doubting but +the Commons would take care of his revenue in some other way. This +judicious proposal gave great satisfaction. The Commons replied in +terms of warm acknowledgment, and the city of London presented to him an +address of thanks. He interposed, however, with less success and perhaps +with less judgment in the religious disputes by which the country was +divided. The traditions, alike of his nation and his house, may well +have encouraged him to aspire to the great office of moderator and +mediator between contending sects; but it is doubtful whether such a +post could under any circumstances have been within the reach of a Dutch +Calvinist. For the imperfect and illogically-regulated relief accorded +by the Toleration Act to most of the dissenting denominations the +country was prepared; but neither the occasion nor the idea of the +Comprehension Bill--a measure for widening the entrance to the Church of +England at the very moment when those who had chosen to remain outside +were being encouraged by a relieving Act to remain there--was in itself +a happy one. Churchmen were, from their own point of view, entitled to +argue that the two measures proceeded upon two opposite and conflicting +theories of state policy; that toleration, properly understood and +applied, would render comprehension superfluous, and had indeed been +accepted by the Church with that very object; and that it was but a poor +return for her surrender of her ancient claim to compel schismatics into +her fold, that she should be required unduly to extend its limits for +the purpose of embracing them. It is probable enough that William's eye +for an ecclesiastical scruple was not quite as keen as his insight into +the principles of civil government and the workings of European policy, +for he seems to have been surprised and disappointed at finding that +Churchmen and Dissenters, though the Toleration Act was accepted by the +former without serious difficulty and by the latter with hearty +rejoicings, would neither of them so much as look at his scheme of +comprehension. He evidently understood neither the "dissidence of +dissent" nor the Anglicanism of the Anglican Communion. The +Comprehension Bill had a troubled time of it even in the House of Lords, +where it was first introduced, and after some debate in the House of +Commons it was shelved. As vainly did William attempt to compose the +feud between the Whig and Tory Churchman and Nonconformist by offering, +so to speak, a bribe to each of them to tolerate the other. The new oath +of allegiance, framed by Parliament for itself, required to be extended +to all those classes of persons who had been compelled to take one. +Legislation was commenced for that purpose concurrently with the debates +over the Comprehension Bill, and the King, according to Burnet, saw +here, as he thought, an opportunity of bringing the disputants to a +mutually beneficial compromise. In his speech to the Commons on the 16th +of March, he signified his wish that in the pending legislation "they +would leave room for the admission of all Protestants that were willing +and able to serve"--a suggestion which, of course, was directly aimed at +the tests then excluding Dissenters from office. And while he pressed +this measure of relief upon the Tories, he at the same time invited the +Whigs to make a concession to their adversaries by absolving, as he was +willing to do, the existing beneficed clergy from the necessity of +taking the new oath of allegiance. He begged of the one party not to +compel the Nonconformist to choose between offence against conscience +and exclusion from civil office, and of the other party not to compel a +clergyman to choose between offence against conscience and expulsion +from ecclesiastical office; and he imagined that each would find their +account in consenting. But no. The Whig was determined to force the oath +upon the parson; the Tory was resolved to force the test upon the +dissenter. No provision of relief for Nonconformists was introduced into +the Comprehension Bill, and the measure itself was shortly afterwards +dropped. The Oaths Bill passed in a form which compelled every beneficed +clergyman to swear allegiance to the new King and Queen by the 1st of +August 1689, on pain of suspension, to be followed on the 1st of +February 1690, in the event of the non-juror remaining contumacious, by +deprivation. + +History has done justice to these well-meaning efforts of William; but +the political virtue which for the moment was its own reward, must, one +imagines, have been felt by him as painfully unremunerative. He could +not have expected to be personally popular, and he was not, though +Macaulay, in his desire for strong pictorial effect, has surely +exaggerated his unpopularity. But he, no doubt, counted upon wielding a +greater civil influence at the outset of his career than he in fact +discovered to be his, and must have learned, with some chagrin, that he +had failed to realise the vehemence of those English party conflicts in +which not even the ablest and best intentioned of mediators can +interpose without disappointment until he has mastered all the secrets +of their intensity. On the whole, one can easily understand the feeling +of satisfaction with which he hailed the coming of the hour when he, +with whom the instincts of the European statesman and soldier were +always dominant over these of the domestic administrator, was once more +summoned to activity in one of the two arts in which he shone. On the +19th of April the Commons presented an address to the Crown, in which, +after reciting the various acts of hostility committed by Louis XIV. +against their country, "particularly the present invasion of Ireland," +they assured William that when he "should think fit to enter into a war +against the French king, they would give him such assistance in a +parliamentary way as to enable him to support and go through with the +same." To this invitation from his Parliament William returned an answer +of ready acquiescence, while to those about him he exclaimed, with +unwonted animation, "This is the first day of my reign." + +FOOTNOTES: + +[10] There are but two ways in which a sovereign can, while alive, and +_compos mentis_, become divested of his regal attributes and +authority--by abdication and by deposition; and it is impossible to +define abdication satisfactorily by any form of words which does not +involve the idea of a _voluntary_ act. Even if a voluntary abandonment +or "desertion of the Government" amounted to abdication, it would not +help the case. James's flight from England in 1688 was no more voluntary +than the flight of his brother, then king _de jure_, after Worcester in +1651. Both flights were taken under what was or was conceived to be +_force majeure_. + +[11] This, however, it should be conceded, was really, of the two, a +more respectable proportion; for the clergy had a sterner alternative +before them than the bishops, peers, or members of the Lower House. The +latter had only status at stake--the former, in most cases, their means +of subsistence. + + + + +CHAPTER VII + +1689-1690 + + Invasion of Ireland--Campaign of 1689--Parliamentary strife + --The conduct of the war--The Oates Case--The Succession Bill + --Attempts to pass an Indemnity Bill--Rancour of the Whigs-- + Their factious opposition to William's Irish plans-- + Dissolution of Parliament. + + +An address from Parliament praying the sovereign to declare war against +a foreign state is far from a common incident in our history; and even +in this instance the initiative then taken by the Commons was one of +form rather than of fact. The descent of James upon Ireland, under the +convoy of a French fleet of fifteen sail of the line, and accompanied by +a force of 2500 French soldiers, amounted to an act of war on the part +of France, if ever such an act was committed by one nation upon another; +and it was not till more than a month after the perpetration of this +outrage that the address referred to in the last chapter was presented +to the King. James landed at Kinsale on the 12th of March; the address +to the King is dated, as has been said, on the 19th of April. England, +moreover, was not the first of the coalition of Powers which the patient +diplomacy of William had formed against Louis to take action against the +common enemy. The declaration of the German Diet had appeared in +February, and that of the States-General in March. + +On the 24th of March James entered Dublin, which, in common with all the +other cities of the three southern provinces of Ireland, had declared +for his cause; but after only three weeks' stay in the capital it was +decided, against the advice of his chief French counsellor, d'Avaux, who +with the Lord Deputy Tyrconnel, and the Irish Catholic party in general, +were for keeping him among the Celtic population of the island, that he +should go northward and take command of the royal army in Ulster. He +accordingly set out on the 14th of April, and after some further +hesitations caused by conflicting reports as to the results of a +skirmish between the Protestants and a body of his own men at Strabane, +arrived a few days later among his troops, who were quartered a few +miles south of Londonderry, a city which, with Inniskillen, had formed +the rallying point for the Protestant minority when the outbreak of the +Revolution, awakening the hopes of the Catholic population, appeared to +threaten the "English garrison" with a repetition of the horrors of +1641. Here it had been fully expected by James's more sanguine +counsellors that he would be, if not loyally, at any rate submissively +received. The appearance of their lawful sovereign before their walls +would at any rate, it was thought, confirm the wavering allegiance of +the military under the command of the Governor, Colonel Lundy. As a +matter of fact, it only served to arouse a spirit of determined +resistance in the townsmen, to unite the soldiery in the same cause, and +to precipitate the flight of the Jacobite governor. James and his +retinue, on approaching the gate, were fired on from the nearest +bastion; a subsequent demand for surrender was contemptuously rejected, +and after a few days' delay before the town its rejected sovereign set +off in chagrin and disappointment to return to Dublin, leaving +Londonderry to prepare for that heroic defence of three months against +the combined forces of war, disease, and famine, which has made her name +famous among the cities of the world. James's first act on his return to +the capital was to summon a Parliament, and a Parliament, of a sort, +responded to the summons. That is to say, out of a hundred temporal +peers then in Ireland, fourteen, of whom ten were Catholics, obeyed the +summons, while the fidelity at any rate of the faithful Commons was +guaranteed by the fact that only six out of the total number of two +hundred and fifty were Protestants. Having assembled, they promptly +proceeded to attest this virtue by the wholesale confiscation of the +lands of Protestants, and the proscription of their heads. Ulster, +however, was still unreduced, and while that was so, denunciatory and +spoliatory decrees might well turn out to be mere waste paper. The +dashing Inniskilleners--the cavalry, so to speak, of that Protestant +army in which Londonderry played the part of the immovable square of +infantry--had actually meditated, though they never carried out, an +attempt to relieve their beleaguered sister city, and at Newtown Butler +they were able to render signal service to their cause by the defeat of +General Macarthy and 6000 Irish. By the end of July Londonderry had been +relieved; early in August Marshal Schomberg, then one of the most +renowned of European generals, landed at Carrickfergus with 16,000 men, +and it became evident even to the most hopeful of James's adherents +that the northern province was lost to him irretrievably. + +William meanwhile still remained in London busied with the task, at once +delicate and laborious, of administering the government of a distrustful +and almost unfriendly people through the agency of two bitterly divided +factions. The parliamentary session had become more prolific of quarrels +and more barren of counsel as it proceeded. The two Houses and the two +parties had agreed with little difficulty to do justice to some of the +admitted victims of the oppression practised under the last two +sovereigns. The attainders of Sidney, Russell, and others were reversed +without recorded dissent, but the case of Oates gave rise to acute +conflict between the Lords and Commons--a conflict in which, though the +conduct of the former assembly was undoubtedly arbitrary, the temper, +or, at any rate, the motives of the latter appear by no means worthy of +the unqualified praise bestowed upon them by the great Whig historian. +Undoubtedly the Peers were without justification in refusing to reverse +a sentence which the judges had solemnly pronounced illegal; but it is +ridiculous to represent the Commons, as a body of judicially minded +legislators, doing violence to their natural sentiments in their +determination to obtain justice for Oates. Such a theory is at once +refuted by the fact that, after his release under royal pardon, his +personal adherents in the Commons proved numerous enough to disgrace +their party and their country by procuring a pension of three hundred a +year for perhaps the most infamous wretch who ever disgraced human +nature. The dispute is of importance because it has been suggested that +to the bitterness of feeling engendered by it was due the subsequent +quarrel between the two Houses over the succession clauses in the Bill +of Rights. At the end of this famous enactment--the statutory +affirmation of the claims formulated by the Convention in the +Declaration of Right--it had been proposed at William's suggestion that +to the several enumerated reversions of the British Crown a further +remainder should be added. In the Declaration, as will be remembered, +the crown was settled, after the death of the King or Queen, upon the +survivor, and after the death of such survivor upon the heirs of Mary, +failing whom upon Anne and her heirs, failing whom upon the issue of +William by any other wife than Mary. It appearing by no means +improbable, having regard to the fact that the King and Queen were +childless, and that Anne had repeatedly failed to rear the children to +whom she had given birth, that there might be a failure of all the named +reversioners, and that the otherwise legal right of some Catholic prince +might thereupon come into conflict with the statutory exclusion of +Catholic sovereigns, William proposed to entail the crown after the last +mentioned limitation upon an undoubted Protestant, Sophia of Hanover, +granddaughter of James I., and her issue, being Protestants. That the +proposal was a well-conceived one is evidenced by the fact that it was +actually adopted by Parliament in the succeeding reign; but though the +Lords to whom it was submitted by Burnet accepted it unanimously, the +Commons would have none of it. The irritation left by the Oates quarrel +may in part have accounted for this, but Macaulay attributes too +childish a temper to the Lower House in implying as he does that +ill-humour is the sole explanation of their resistance. They in fact +alleged several grounds of objection of unequal weight, but of which one +at least has every appearance of _bona fides_, viz. that the mentioning +of the House of Hanover would give an opportunity to foreigners of +intermeddling too far in the affairs of the nation. But whatever the +excuse, we can readily imagine that William regarded the action of the +Commons as purely factious, and although the birth at this juncture of +another son and heir to the Princess Anne deprived the succession +dispute of its urgency, the cool-headed Dutchman can hardly but have +been impressed with the keenness of that political strife which could +keep the two branches of the legislature asunder when the cost of their +dissension was the postponement of the greatest statutory assertion of +their liberties since Magna Charta. For as a consequence of the +irreconcilable dispute on the succession clause, the Bill of Rights had +of course to be dropped; and between this date and the 20th of August, +when Parliament was prorogued, the breach between William and the Whigs +was still further widened by the rancour with which they pursued their +political enemies, and resisted the attempts of the King to procure a +statutory amnesty for past political offences. Impartiality was easier +of course for him than them, but William's natural affinities of mind +and politics cannot but have been rather with the Whigs than the Tories, +and the steadiness of purpose with which he persisted in his patriotic +though hopeless attempt at combining representatives of both political +parties in his councils is, upon any view of the matter, highly +honourable to him. It was the Whigs who from the first made the +experiment hopeless, and who finally determined its failure. We owe them +the English Constitution, but we owe them also, at any rate in the rigid +inflexible shape which it has since assumed, that _genius vultu +mutabilis albus et ater_, the English party-system. + +Parliament met again after a two months' recess on the 19th of October, +and seemed at first disposed to act with somewhat more of unity in +support of the Executive. They unanimously affirmed their determination +to assist the King in the reconquest of Ireland, and in a vigorous +prosecution of the war with France, for which purposes they voted an +extraordinary supply of two millions, a portion of which it was at first +proposed, on principles which the enactors of the Bill of Rights (passed +this session without William's suggested amendment) had inherited in a +slightly modified form from the signatory of Magna Charta, to raise by a +special tax upon Jews. Supplies voted, however, disunion recommenced. +The Whigs had come back from their short holiday more bloodthirsty than +ever. Beginning with a legitimate cause of complaint against the +administration in respect of the mismanagement of the war in Ireland, +where the whole organisation of the commissariat seems to have been +almost of a Crimean inefficiency, they easily converted this just +grievance into a general protest against the presence of Tories in the +Government. An attempt was made to induce William to say by whose advice +he had employed Henry Shales, the knavish Commissary-General, to whom +the scandal was mainly if not wholly due--the object of course being to +found an accusation against some one or other of the Tory officials to +whom Shales's retention in his post was assumed to be due. It would +have been enough for William to reply that he found the man Commissary +on his accession, and simply continued him in office. He refused to +gratify the malicious curiosity of the address presented to him on the +subject, though he assented very readily to another for the appointment +of a commission to examine into the state of affairs in Ireland. + +The Tories were next destined to cross the sorely-troubled king by the +resistance which they offered to him on a delicate question connected +with the provision for his sister-in-law. On the vote of the Civil List, +and the question arising under it as to the establishment of the +Princess Anne, it had been originally proposed by William that he +himself should undertake this charge out of his own revenues; but +through the instrumentality of the Churchills a strong party was formed +among the Tories to insist upon Anne having a settlement independent of +the Crown. Seventy thousand a year was the (for those days) extravagant +sum which they demanded, and which proved too much even for an indulgent +House of Commons to grant. The vote was reduced to L50,000, and though +William's dislike to the idea of a parliamentary settlement upon his +sister-in-law induced him to raise his own original offer of L30,000 to +L50,000 Anne still held out, and a yearly income of the amount last +mentioned was accordingly secured to her for life by Act of Parliament. +In none of the parts played by the various actors in this little +political drama (the sequel to which was the permanent estrangement of +the Queen and King from the Princess) is it easy to discern the +promptings of any public principle, or indeed of any decorously +avowable motive whatever. The Tories would seem to have been wholly +swayed either by party and ecclesiastical prepossessions, or by personal +interests of a lower kind--either by sentimental sympathy with a High +Churchwoman, or by a practical eye to the Marlborough gold. As to +William it was eminently natural that he should wish to retain at least +_one_ string of this puppet of the Churchills in his own hands; as +natural as that the Churchills themselves should wish to deprive him of +it, and that the puppet herself should respond to the vigorous pulling +of the strings which they already held. Neither of the two latter +parties would probably have cared to allege any public motive for their +behaviour in the transaction. It is to be presumed, however, that +William would have done so if he could; and it is at least noteworthy +that the only objection which he seems to have taken to Anne's +parliamentary settlement affords no logical support to his own +alternative proposal. That Anne should have her income settled on her +for life, while his was only voted to him annually, was doubtless a just +ground of complaint; but the proper redress of the anomaly would have +been to subject his sister-in-law's income like his own to the annual +revision of the House of Commons. The fact that the King was dependent +upon Parliament could be no reason for making the Princess dependent not +upon Parliament, but upon the King. + +Meanwhile the session wore on, and William's cherished project of an Act +of Indemnity was no nearer realisation. He had earnestly recommended it +to Parliament in the Speech from the Throne, but nothing was further +from the hearts of the dominant party in the Commons than the idea of +amnesty. They seemed bent on assuring themselves the tranquil exit of +Marshal Narvaez, who died in peace with all mankind by dint of leaving +himself no enemies to forgive. An Indemnity Bill was for form's sake +brought in at the beginning of November, but no progress was made with +it. Proscription took the place of purgation. Lords Salisbury and +Peterborough, Sir Edward Hales, and others, were marked out for +impeachment and summoned according to their status to the bar of one or +the other House. The Lords appointed a committee to inquire into the +judicial murders of Russell and Sidney, and Sir Dudley North and Lord +Halifax were cited before this body to answer for their shares, real or +alleged, in these dark transactions. John Hampden, a grandson of the +greater John, was conspicuous for the violence of his hostility to the +official Tories, and by his instrumentality a committee was appointed to +prepare an address to the King to remove the authors of the late +failures and to appoint "unsuspected persons" to the management of +affairs. The address, however, presented by Hampden was sharply +criticised for the violence of its language, and the House of Commons +ultimately laid it aside. So plainly, indeed, was the Whig party now +losing ground in that House, and so grave had become their apprehensions +of declining popularity in the country, that with a view of at least +recovering their position at the polling-booths they resolved upon one +of the boldest and most unscrupulous strokes of party tactics which our +history records. Into a Bill then before the House for restoring the +charters to these corporations which had surrendered them to the Crown, +they introduced a clause excluding from municipal office all persons who +had been implicated in the surrenders of such charters--or, in other +words, all Tories, thus designing to fill the municipalities with Whig +office-bearers and to secure the control of the elections to the Whig +party. Smuggled into the Bill in a House half depleted of its members by +the approach of Christmas, it needed a vigorous whip of the Tories to +procure the rejection of this clause by a narrow majority; and William's +disgust at this manoeuvre was further intensified by the attachment to +his much-desired Indemnity Bill of a bill of pains and penalties against +political delinquents. So acute at this moment became his chagrin and +disappointment at the condition of English politics that he was strongly +tempted to wash his hands of the whole distasteful and thankless +business, and he was with difficulty prevailed upon by his ministers to +abandon his design of bidding adieu to the country which he had come to +deliver and retiring to his native land. Dissuaded from this, he +resolved that he would at least reduce Ireland to submission if he had +failed to compose the quarrels of his Parliament; and he let it be known +that he was about to quit the capital for the headquarters of his army +in Ulster. But against this, too, the Whigs vehemently protested. An +address deprecatory of the project was said to be preparing; and +William, his patience exhausted by this last sally of faction, +determined to appeal to the good sense and patriotism of the country. + +Accordingly, on the 27th of January, after having in a speech from the +throne announced his resolve to go to Ireland in person, "and with the +blessing of God Almighty endeavour to reduce that kingdom, that it may +no longer be a charge to this," the King, to the high satisfaction of +the Tories and the proportional discomfiture of the Whigs, proceeded to +prorogue Parliament with a view to its early dissolution. + + + + +CHAPTER VIII + +1690-1691 + + Parliament of 1690--Tory majority--Settlement of the royal + income--Case of the Princess Anne--The "Act of Grace"-- + Detection of Preston's conspiracy--William's departure + for Ireland--Battle of the Boyne--Battle of Beachy Head-- + Marlborough's Irish campaign--Session of 1690. + + +The elections were contested with the utmost energy of party spirit. +Both Whigs and Tories strove their hardest for the victory, but the +policy of the King's appeal to the country was justified by the success +of the latter. A Tory majority was returned to the House of Commons, and +William felt that there was now at last a fair prospect of his +effectually mediating between factions. To have replaced a party to whom +he owed everything by a party who owed everything to him was undoubtedly +a great step towards the attainment of his ends. He had at least secured +a majority who could affect no right to dictate his policy, and had +reduced those who could and did advance this pretension to a minority. +His first act was to remodel his Ministry. Halifax resigned the Privy +Seal, which was placed in commission; Danby, who had been raised at the +distribution of honours accompanying the coronation to the Marquisate of +Caermarthen, became Lord President; Sir John Lowther, First Lord of the +Treasury--not then, as now, the chief office in the Administration. +Whigs and Tories were still mingled in the Government, but no longer in +the old proportions. + +On the 20th of March the new Parliament met, and the King addressed it +in a speech in which he announced his intention of proceeding to Ireland +as soon as might be, and recommended to the prompt attention of the two +Houses the question of the settlement of the royal revenue and of the +enactment of an amnesty. In the former of these matters their action was +more conformable to sound constitutional principle than agreeable to the +King. In addition to the hereditary revenues which had passed with the +crown to William and Mary, the Commons would only agree to settle +absolutely upon the King and Queen about one third of the fiscal +revenues which had been assured to the last two sovereigns for the term +of their lives. That portion of the excise, estimated at L300,000, which +had been settled upon James II. for life, was now settled upon William +and Mary for their joint and separate lives. But, on the other hand, the +customs duties, amounting to L600,000, which had been settled for life +on Charles and James successively, were granted to the Crown for a term +of only four years. This restriction, in which Whigs and Tories +concurred, was not unnaturally displeasing to a sovereign who justly +valued himself on the ability, integrity, and thrift which made him, as +he conceived, at once the most efficient and the most trustworthy +steward of the national resources; but that he should have resented the +action of Parliament in this matter not merely as a limitation upon the +free play of his policy, but as a personal slight to himself, +instructively illustrates the very limited extent to which the +principles of the British Constitution, as we now know it, had +established themselves in the joint recognition of the sovereign and the +legislature. If there was one principle more inevitably implied in the +Revolution that William had headed than another, it was that no personal +claims of any individual sovereign could be allowed either to suspend or +in any degree to qualify the general rule of parliamentary control. Had +William contended, whether reasonably or unreasonably, that the +restraint placed on him by Parliament was more severe than needed to be +imposed upon _any_ sovereign, his position would have been a defensible +one; but his complaint, as Burnet testifies, was that the Commons were +showing an undue and ungenerous jealousy of their particular sovereign +for the time being. His claim to enjoy the same amount of freedom as his +predecessor had abused was founded simply on the fact that James was +James and that he was William; and that was obviously one of these +circumstances of which the administrators of a general rule, intended to +apply to any number of future Jameses and Williams, could not possibly +take into account. Had this general rule been recognised with anything +approaching to its acceptance in these days, it is impossible to suppose +that so clear and fair an intelligence as William's could have missed +its application to himself. + +No doubt it may have caused him some irritation to observe with what +rapidity the coalition of Whigs and Tories, which had formed for the +purpose of limiting his independence, dissolved again when that work +was done. In a few weeks the two parties were as fiercely at odds as +ever upon a Whig Abjuration Bill, the main object of which, though in +one quite indefensible clause it went far beyond this, was to impose a +test which the official Tories could not swallow, and so to drive them +from office. It was not enough that a man should have sworn allegiance +to King William; he must also expressly abjure allegiance to King James. +Who knew but that he might have taken the former oath in some +non-natural sense or with some mental reservations? And though the +answer seemed obvious that he might take the latter in the same sense +and with the same reservations, the Bill was prosecuted to its rejection +in the House of Commons by a majority of thirty-three. An Abjuration +Bill of a somewhat less stringent kind was then introduced into the +House of Lords, the debate upon which William personally attended. He +had let it be known, however, that he was opposed to the former measure, +and it is probable that he had no great liking for the latter. Anyhow, +it underwent so much mutilation in committee that its authors did not +care to persevere with it. + +The Tory majority, however, was soon after employed to an even more +useful purpose in the final accomplishment of William's policy of +pacification. Resolved that on this occasion the measure of indemnity +should not be defeated by delay, the King submitted it personally to the +Upper House in the form of an Act of Grace for political offences--a +proceeding which, according to constitutional practice, abridged its +deliberative stages in each House of Parliament to a single reading. +Introduced under such auspices, and assured of the support of a party +always dominant in the Upper House, and now possessing a majority in the +Lower, it passed without any opposition into law, and is undoubtedly +entitled to take its place among the most honourable and statesmanlike +acts of William's career. Its value as a political precedent was +scarcely capable of exaggeration even by Macaulay; and if he somewhat +inordinately applauds the enlightened clemency which it was as easy for +any brave and dispassionate foreigner to recommend as it was difficult +for English parties embittered by the mutual wrongs of a generation of +conflict to accept, it would be falling into the converse error to +insist on any serious qualification of the historian's praises. +William's great qualities were his own; they must at least divide the +credit of his high-minded and sagacious policy with the accident of his +antecedents in his own country and of his position in ours; nor would it +be gracious to attempt too nice an apportionment of the shares. + +Impatience to proceed to Ireland had probably something to do with the +expeditious form of procedure adopted by the King in the case of the +Indemnity Act. On the 20th of May it became law. On the same day William +informed the Houses that his departure for the seat of war could be +delayed no longer; and after having given his assent to an Act +empowering the Queen to administer the government during his absence, he +prorogued Parliament until the 14th of July. Then, having appointed from +the list of Privy Councillors a small interior Council of Nine to advise +the Queen, and having delayed no longer than was necessary to place in +their hands the threads of a newly-discovered conspiracy,[12] William +took a tender farewell of his wife, and set forth on the strange errand +of defeating the army, if not destroying the life, of his wife's father. +"God send," he exclaimed, "that no harm may come to him." His anxiety on +this score for the Queen's sake was painful; but otherwise, though he +belonged to that order of brave men whose spirits are fortified rather +than exhilarated by danger, he was cheered by the approach of the hour +of action. Ireland in the hands of a hostile army, the shores of England +threatened by a hostile fleet, a dangerous conspiracy only detected on +the eve of success, a formidable insurrection imminent in the country he +was leaving behind him, he could still say to Burnet--"As for me, but +for one thing I should enjoy the prospect of being on horseback and +under canvas again. For I am sure that I am fitter to direct a campaign +than to manage your Houses of Lords and Commons." + +On the 14th of June he landed at Carrickfergus, and immediately set out +for Belfast to take over the command from Schomberg. All Ulster rose +with enthusiasm to receive him, and the soldiers, whom treachery and +incompetency had been sacrificing by the hundred to the ravages of +disease and privation, took heart once more. After ten days spent in +concentrating his forces at Loughbrickland, William started southward +at the head of 36,000 men. Two days after his nephew's landing James had +left Dublin to lead his troops to Dundalk with the view either of giving +battle at that point, or merely, as has been suggested, of eating up the +country between the capital and the invading army, so as to impede its +advance by difficulties of supply. But if the former were the original +object of the movement it was soon abandoned. When William's army +approached Dundalk James fell back upon Ardee; and the former still +pressing southwards, the latter still continued his retreat, until the +pursuer was brought to a halt on the morning of the 30th of June by the +halt of the pursued, and the English and Irish armies at last looked +each other in the face across the now historic waters of the Boyne. +Lauzun, who had succeeded De Rosen in the command of James's forces, was +a courtier rather than a general, but the position he had here taken up, +behind entrenchments and with a river in front, was strategically a +strong one--so strong indeed that the veteran Schomberg doubted his +master's wisdom in resolving upon an immediate attack. But William, as +he had told the Ulster men, had not come to Ireland to "let the grass +grow under his feet." He had the advantage in numbers; the advantage in +generalship; above all, the advantage in the quality of his troops, who, +if but few of them were as good as the trained French soldiers of his +adversary, were none of them so bad as the rapparee Irish levies who +formed the bulk of James's forces. The day passed in an exchange of +shots across the river, from one of which William had well-nigh lost his +life. Having sat down to breakfast somewhat close to the brink of the +Boyne, he attracted the attention of the Irish sentries on the opposite +shore. Two field-pieces were planted opposite to him, and, on his rising +and remounting his horse, were discharged at the group of which he was +the centre. The first shot killed a man and two horses at some distance +from him; the second, better aimed, struck the river bank and grazed the +King's shoulder in its ricochet, inflicting a slight flesh wound. His +staff thronged anxiously about him, but William, in his usual dry and +stoical fashion, relieved their fears. He was unharmed, he told them, +but "there was no need for any bullet to come nearer." His wound was +dressed, and he remained in the saddle till nightfall. At nine o'clock +he held a council of war, and, against the advice of Schomberg, declared +his determination of effecting a passage of the river on the following +day. Unable to dissuade his master from the rash project, as he deemed +it, the veteran general urged that at least a portion of the army should +be sent up the stream at midnight to Slane Bridge, and crossing it at +that point, should be in readiness either to assist them in the event of +their attack being unsuccessful, by a diversion in the rear of James's +army, or, in case the river should have been carried, to cut off the +retreat of the Irish by the pass of Duleek. This plan, which, if +adopted, would probably, as one of William's biographers points out, +have ended the campaign at a stroke, was rejected: why, does not very +clearly appear. The tactics were such as might have been thought likely +to commend themselves to William, and he could apparently have well +spared the men to execute them. It is said by the biographer above +referred to that the plan was opposed "by the Dutch generals"; but it +is not impossible that the objection may have really come from the King +himself, and have been founded not on strategical but on political +considerations. William, as we know, was especially solicitous about his +father-in-law's life, and not perhaps suspecting how well it would be +cared for by its owner, whom he must have remembered to have once been +brave, he may have rejected Schomberg's scheme for its very +completeness, and because he not unnaturally assumed that in cutting off +the retreat of James's army he would be cutting off the retreat of James +himself. The too complimentary assumption that the royal general would +be last rather than first in the flight had yet to be rebutted by +events. But whatever the reason, the Marshal's plan was rejected; he +retired, chagrined and hurt, from the council, and the last night of the +old soldier's life was spent, it is melancholy to think, in displeasure +with the master whom he had so long and faithfully served. + +The morning of the 1st of July broke fair, and a little after sunrise +the English army advanced in three divisions to the attack. The right +under the younger Schomberg, assisted by the Earl of Portland and James +Douglas, was detailed for the same operation which the Marshal would +have had executed four hours earlier, and by a surprise. Having marched +a few miles up the river to Slane Bridge, and finding there but one +regiment of Irish dragoons, they easily beat them back, crossed the +bridge, and made good their footing on the southern bank of the Boyne. +Lauzun, apprehensive for his command of the pass of Duleek, had detached +the best of his troops--his own countrymen--to resist the further +advance of the English right; and the centre and left of William's army +were opposed at the lower fords by the Irish Catholics alone. Between +them and the Dutch Guards, the French Huguenots, the men of Londonderry +and Inniskillen, it was _impar congressus_ indeed.[13] Schomberg in +command of the centre took the water at the ford of Old Bridge. William +at the head of the left wing, consisting entirely of cavalry, made for a +more difficult and dangerous crossing lower down. At one point only does +the passage of the river appear to have been for more than a moment +doubtful. The Danes and Huguenots under Cambon and Caillemot were set +upon in the act of landing by the Irish cavalry under Richard Hamilton; +the former were driven back again into the water, and the latter, +unarmed with pikes, began to give ground. The conflict raged hotly for a +short space at the southern exit of the ford; Caillemot fell mortally +wounded; the whole brigade was wavering; when old Schomberg, who had +been watching the action from the northern bank, dashed impetuously into +the river. "_Allons, Messieurs!_" he cried to the Huguenots, as he +pointed to the French Catholics in James's ranks, "_voila vos +persecuteurs!_" As he uttered the words a small band of Irish horsemen +came galloping in upon the main body, the Huguenots, mistaking them for +friends, having allowed them to pass. In the confused melee which +followed the Marshal was surrounded; he received two sabre cuts on his +head, and a musket shot, said in one account to have been fired in a +fatal mistake "by one of his own men," laid him dead upon the ground. +The arrival of William, who had with difficulty forced his way across +through the strongly flowing tide, at once decided the doubtful +struggle. "Men of Inniskillen, what will you do for me?" was his +inspiriting question to the sorely pressed Protestants of Ulster; and +drawing his sword with an arm yet stiff from the wound of the previous +morning, he led his Dutch Guards and Inniskilleners against the still +unbroken Irish centre. Ulstermen and Hollanders vied with each other in +steadiness and valour; Schomberg's cavalry came opportunely to their +support; De Ginkell's horse effected as timely a diversion on the +enemy's left. Hamilton and his riders being thus driven back, the heart +of the defence was broken, and after one more brief stand at Plottin +Castle, where the Inniskilleners were temporarily checked and had again +to be rallied, and where Hamilton was wounded and made prisoner, the +defeat of the Irish army became a rout, and their retreat a flight. +James, who had watched the battle from the hill of Donore till it went +against him, had already hurried through the pass of Duleek, and was +making the best of his way to Dublin. His army, now a broken and +confused mass of fugitives, struggled after him through the defile. The +battle of the Boyne was won. + +The victory, though not so immediately decisive as it might have been if +Schomberg's plan had been adopted, was practically fatal to the Jacobite +cause. Drogheda surrendered the next day. James, who had reached Dublin +on the evening of the battle, quitted it the day after for ever. On the +3d of July he reached Waterford, whence he embarked on board a French +frigate and sailed for Brest. Lauzun and Tyrconnel collected their +straggling forces as best they could, and, evacuating the Irish capital +immediately after James's flight, marched westward with the design of +reorganising resistance at such still remaining strongholds of the +deposed monarch as Limerick and Athlone. + +William fixed his headquarters at Finglas, near Dublin, but enjoyed no +long period of unmixed satisfaction with his victory. The day before the +two armies closed upon the Boyne, the French fleet, under De Tourville, +had encountered what should have been the combined fleets of England and +the States off Beachy Head, but by the supineness or treachery of the +English Admiral the Dutch had been left to bear the brunt of the battle +alone. After hours of hard fighting they drew off with the worst of the +encounter, and Admiral Herbert, destroying some of the Dutch ships, and +taking the rest in tow, sailed up the Thames, leaving the enemy in +undisputed possession of the Channel. The news of this defeat, and of +the alarm for our unprotected coasts which it had occasioned in London, +reached William on the 27th of July at Carrick-on-Suir, where he was +encamped, after having reduced Waterford. He immediately hurried to +Dublin with the intention of embarking to England; but, reassured by +later advices informing him that the French attempt at a descent on the +Devonshire coast had proved a failure, he returned to headquarters, and +hastened to prosecute the campaign. The glory of the Boyne, however, was +destined to be somewhat dimmed before many weeks were past. At Limerick +the Celtic Irish showed, with the variability of their unstable race, +that they could fight bravely when "i' th' humour." Sarsfield, left in +command by the departure in disgust of Lauzun and Tyrconnel, approved +himself a leader of vigour and resource. He intercepted and destroyed +William's heavier battering-train before it could reach him. The +besieged of Limerick, fighting with a desperate courage, which even +their women imitated, beat back an assault of the English forces with +much bloodshed, and on the 30th of August, fearing the ravages of +disease with the approach of the autumnal rains, William raised the +siege of the city and returned to England. The campaign thus left +undecided was to be taken in hand by a greater commander than himself. +Landing in Ireland some three weeks later, the Earl of Marlborough gave +promise of his future military prowess in the remarkable speed and +success of his operations. In five weeks after leaving Portsmouth he had +taken Cork and Kinsale, and had not his fast sickening army constrained +his retirement, would probably have settled the whole Irish business out +of hand. He returned to London to receive from William, who, besides +being incapable of jealousy, was in the habit of underrating his own +generalship, the graceful compliment that "no officer living who has +seen so little service as my Lord Marlborough is so fit for great +commands." + +On the 2d of November the King once more met his Parliament, and under +more favourable auspices than ever before during his reign. The imminent +dangers to which the nation had been exposed had brought about a +temporary truce between parties; the skill, energy, and valour with +which the King had borne his part in averting them had, moreover, united +them in a common sentiment of admiration and gratitude. Thanks were +voted both to William, and separately to Mary, who had indeed well +merited them by the spirit and vigour which she had displayed during the +critical days that followed the defeat of Beachy Head. Supplies of +unusual magnitude were voted with unusual readiness, and the short +session, marked only by an abortive bill for confiscating the property +of Jacobites, passed tranquilly away. On the 5th of January William +thanked the Houses for their supplies, and assuring them, in words on +which later events were to place an awkward commentary, that he would +not grant away any of the forfeited property in Ireland till they had +had an opportunity of declaring their wishes in that matter, he +adjourned Parliament, and on the following day he quitted London to +return for the first time in two years to his native country. + +FOOTNOTES: + +[12] The conspiracy known as Preston's--a plan of inviting the French +king to land troops in England, and offering to second his efforts by an +insurrection, and, if possible, the treacherous surrender of the whole +or a part of the British fleet. Clarendon and Dartmouth, with other more +or less eminent personages, were implicated in it, including, at least +as was suspected, the Quaker, William Penn. The conspirators were +betrayed by an accomplice, and some of them sent to the Tower. Lord +Preston, a Scotch peer, a ringleader of the conspiracy, was tried and +convicted for high treason, but subsequently pardoned. + +[13] James's ungenerous reproaches of his defeated troops, and the many +French complaints quoted by Macaulay might not in themselves prove +conclusively that the Irish showed greater _natural_ cowardice, as +distinguished from mere military unsteadiness, than other undisciplined +levies. But the mere fact that with all their advantages of position, +commanding a river which their adversaries had to cross, they made, with +the exception of Hamilton's horse, so miserable an exhibition of +themselves, is a clear enough indication of personal deficiencies. It is +only fair to remember, however, that the generalship of James's army was +beneath contempt. To leave a bridge a few miles above their position +unprotected by artillery, and indeed with only a single regiment of +cavalry available for resisting its being crossed by a hostile army, is +surely the last word of tactical ineptitude. + + + + +CHAPTER IX + +1691-1692 + + Campaign of 1691 in the Netherlands--Fall of Mons--Disaffection + of William's councillors--Conclusion of year's campaign-- + Disgrace and dismissal of Marlborough--Massacre of Glencoe. + + +The night of William's arrival off the coast of Holland was wild and +stormy; but impatient to be ashore, he quitted the ship which had +carried him for an open boat, and after a night of extreme danger and +hardship, which he passed through with his usual fearlessness and +stoicism, effected a landing. His welcome among his people was +enthusiastic, and his reception by the assembled notables--electors, +princes, dukes, and ministers-plenipotentiary then assembled in +Congress--at the Hague was signally respectful. Those among them in whom +the statesman was strongest were no doubt chiefly impressed by his +successful elevation of himself to a powerful throne; while to the high +aristocratic and monarchical party among them it was sufficient that he +filled it by a title at least good enough to relieve him of the reproach +of mere high-handed usurpation. Each, after his manner, did homage to +the qualities of character, or the accidents of birth, which are +respectively implied in the two meanings of the word "succeed"; over +both alike, however, the ascendency of William was now in all +probability much more firmly established. As wielding the power of +England he was in a material sense, though not perhaps in any very +imposing degree, stronger than he had been; but the accession to his +moral prestige from his remarkable achievements, in the field and in the +council, of the two previous years was doubtless very great. The banded +enemies of the French monarch looked undoubtedly with new feelings upon +the head of their coalition. + +William addressed the Congress at its opening in a stirring speech in +which he impressed on them the necessity of union in counsel and +promptitude in action; and with such effect that the Congress resolved +to oppose Louis with an army of 220,000 men, to which William, acting as +his own war minister--a function which he assumed as constantly as that +of the conduct of foreign affairs--engaged to contribute a contingent of +20,000. While the Congress, however, were talking their enemy was +acting. A heavy blow was dealt at the confederacy by the capture of +Mons, which surrendered to the vigorous siege of the French, commanded +by the King in person, within a few weeks of the separation of the +Congress. On the news of its danger William collected a force with all +speed for its relief, but he was too late to save it; and the short +period of suspension of hostilities which followed upon this disaster he +took advantage of to return to England. His presence there was really +more needed than he at the time imagined, for it is probable that at no +time during the early years of his reign had he so much reason to +distrust the fidelity of so many of his most highly placed servants. To +review the intrigues with the exiled monarch, in which men like +Marlborough, Russell, Godolphin, and Shrewsbury were at this moment +either voluntarily engaged, or being successfully pressed to join, is +altogether beyond the scope of this volume. But it may be worth while to +interpose one observation here on what appears to me to be a common, +and, in a certain sense, a mitigating feature of all these duplicities. +They differ no doubt to a certain extent in depth of moral turpitude one +from another, just as the moral characters and motives of those who +committed them so differed. The devouring ambition which actuated +Marlborough, the disappointed Whiggism which was the dominant impulse +with Russell, gave place in a man like Godolphin to mere distrust of the +future, and anxiety to provide against the incalculable. But it is only +fair to recollect that this last, and for statesmen of that age, most +venial motive of action, most probably played a considerable part in all +their double-dealing. None of them considered William's position +assured. All perceived that he had so far failed, and all doubted +whether he would ever succeed, in winning the affection of the people. +Whether he would succeed in the experiment of governing by his factious +and deeply-divided Parliament was, to say the least of it, a question of +the gravest uncertainty; and they governed their conduct accordingly. It +is not necessary to suppose that because an individual statesman in +William's service maintained communication with James's agents with more +or less vague promises of assistance he contemplated any downright +betrayal of William's cause. In most cases his deceit was rather of that +negative sort which seeks to make to itself friends betimes of the +mammon of unrighteousness. The deceiver was anxious in the event of a +counter-revolution to stand well with the restored monarch, and +intended no further treachery to his existing master than is necessarily +involved in the attempt to serve two masters at once. + +In May 1691 William returned to Flanders taking Marlborough with him. +The day of that great soldier had not yet come, but though invested with +no military command, it should seem that he attended councils of war +where his great abilities as a general attracted the notice and +admiration of experts. In June the business of campaigning was +recommenced in the leisurely and ceremonious manner peculiar to the age, +and with that strict attention to the limits of the "season" which in +our own day is only bestowed upon the gaieties of London and the sports +of the country. From early in June until the arrival of what may be +called the "close-time," towards the end of September, the armies of +France and of the allies continued to perform their stately military +minuet to the high satisfaction of their commanders, but without +suffering or inflicting on one another any serious blows. + +On the 19th of October William arrived in England, and three days later +he opened Parliament. The circumstances under which he met the Houses +were on the whole favourable, and the mood of the Sovereign and +Legislature was one of mutual good humour. It is true that the campaign +in the Netherlands had been ineffectual, but its failure was more than +balanced by successes nearer home. Ireland had been subdued and +pacified, the navy of England had recovered its ascendency in the +Channel. The King's speech to the two Houses elicited a warm reply, and +the large supplies which he had still to demand for the prosecution of +continental warfare was granted to him without demur. Nor was the +session in other respects one of much difficulty for the King. The House +of Commons indeed renewed its complaints of the magnitude of official +salaries and fees, but, showing little or no capacity to discriminate +between legitimate remuneration for public services and mere corrupt +abuses, they naturally failed to agree upon any measure of reform. The +Bill for regulating trials for high treason--a measure destined to be a +subject of long contention between the two Houses--was introduced for +the first time this session, and, passing the Commons, underwent in the +House of Lords an amendment to which the Lower House refused to assent. +On the merits of the case it ought undoubtedly to have been adopted, but +it happened to touch the royal prerogative, and the Commons made this +the excuse for gratifying their not unreasonable jealousy of the +exclusive privileges in the matter of justiciability which were +possessed by the Peers. They showed no hesitation a little later on in +making a distinct encroachment on the royal rights by imposing the +salaries of the judges as a permanent charge upon the hereditary +revenues of the Crown without the sovereign's consent. On this Bill +William exercised for the first time his right of veto. That such first +employment of it should have been on a matter touching his own +interests, and at the same time affecting the independence of the +judicial bench, was unfortunate; but it is impossible to complain of his +exerting his constitutional authority in this case to arrest a measure +of such a kind as would not, even in our more advanced days, be +introduced without the express assent of the Crown. The "event" of the +year 1691 was undoubtedly the political intrigue, the discovery of which +led to the dismissal and disgrace of Marlborough. That indefatigable +plotter, who was still holding active communication with St. Germains, +undertook to move an address in the House of Lords requesting that all +foreigners might be dismissed from the service of the Crown. It was said +and believed that his object in doing this was to inflame the national +and professional jealousies of the country and the army against the +Dutch officers in William's service, so that in the event of William +declining to act upon the advice of his Parliament, he would find both +the people and the soldiery prepared to support him in an ulterior +design of deposing the King and placing Anne upon the throne, with +himself as mayor of the palace. The plot, however, if plot there was, +fell through; and assuming it to have been really conceived, the natural +resentment with which it inspired William would of course sufficiently +account for the disgrace and dismissal of Marlborough which followed +immediately afterwards.[14] The attempt of the half-lunatic, +half-villain Fuller to repeat the exploits of Oates, with a trumped-up +and promptly disproved charge of conspiracy against many prominent +personages, inspired doubts in the public mind as to whether there had +ever been any Scotch plot at all. + +Here, too,--that is, among the record of the events of the winter of +1691 and the spring of 1692,--seems the most fitting place to take +notice of a strange and terrible incident, which, though of little +importance from the historical point of view, could on no account be +omitted from a biography of William III. On the 13th of February 1692, +at five o'clock in the morning, was perpetrated, under circumstances of +signal perfidy and barbarity, the crime known as the Massacre of +Glencoe--the surprise and slaughter of the chief and thirty-eight men of +the Macdonalds by two companies of soldiers, who had been quartered upon +the clan for the preconcerted purpose of their extirpation, under the +command of Captain Campbell of Glenlyon. It is not necessary, and would +here be impossible, to give more than a highly condensed account of the +intrigues, amounting almost to conspiracy, among various enemies of the +ill-fated clan, which preceded the massacre. Suffice it to say that +private revenge combined with public policy to suggest the act. It was +the joint work of the Earls of Breadalbane and Argyle--hereditary foes +of the Macdonalds--and of the Secretary of State for Scotland, Sir John +Dalrymple, Master of Stair; but the order upon which this official +assumed to act was signed and countersigned by the King himself. It was +in these words: "As for MacIan of Glencoe and that tribe, if they can be +distinguished from the other Highlanders, it will be proper for the +vindication of public justice to extirpate that set of thieves." The +"other Highlanders" from whom they were to be distinguished had, in +accordance with a proclamation issued in the autumn of the previous +year, made formal submission to the Government and taken the oath of +allegiance to the sovereign before the 1st of January 1692. This, by an +accident, MacIan had failed to do. He had presented himself on the 31st +of December 1691 to the officer in command at Fort William; but, being +informed by him that he had no power to administer the oaths, the old +chief was obliged to betake himself to Inverary, to be there sworn by +the Sheriff of Argyleshire, Sir Colin Campbell of Ardkinglass, who, +although the submitted Highlander did not arrive there till the 6th of +January, consented, after some demur, to administer to him the oaths. A +certificate setting forth the circumstances was transmitted to the +Council at Edinburgh, but was there cancelled for irregularity; and the +fact of MacIan's tardy submission does not appear to have been--indeed, +we may affirm with confidence that it never was--brought to the +knowledge of the King. Acting, however, on the pretended authority of +the royal order, the Master of Stair gave directions to the military +authorities that "the thieving tribe of Glencoe be rooted out to +purpose"; adding in a later despatch to the commander of Fort William: +"Pray, when the thing concerning Glencoe is resolved let it be secret +and sudden; better not meddle with them than not to purpose;" and again, +in a still later communication: "I hope the soldiers will not trouble +the Government with prisoners." Acting on these sinister injunctions, +Captain Campbell of Glenlyon marched his men to Glencoe, and, pretending +that he came as a friend and not as an enemy, quartered them upon the +Macdonalds, by whom they were cordially received and hospitably +entertained. After a twelve days' sojourn among the clan, Glenlyon +received orders from his superior officer to proceed to his bloody work, +and at five in the morning of the 13th of February the soldiers fell +upon their unsuspecting hosts in their sleep. The massacre, however, was +less skilfully executed than it had been cunningly planned. The greater +portion of the Macdonalds, including the sons of the chief, effected +their escape; but MacIan himself, with his wife and thirty-eight of his +clansmen, including some women and children, were ruthlessly murdered. +As many more, in all probability, fell victims to the rigours of a +Highland winter in their attempted flight. In those days of slow +communication it was long before the story of the savage deed became +known, or at least before it was recognised as possessing a more +trustworthy character than the ordinary Jacobite fables of the day; and +it was eagerly caught up, of course, by the political enemies of the +King and the Government. History has acquitted William of all complicity +with the crime in the precise form in which it was committed, as indeed +it would only be reasonable to acquit any ruler possessing, we will not +say common humanity, but the common instincts of the soldier. But +Burnet's attempt to exonerate his master on the plea of having signed +the order of "extirpation" through inadvertence, and Macaulay's +half-suggestion that it was his general incuriousness in Scotch affairs +which made him Stair's unquestioning instrument in the matter, must be +alike dismissed. It was not William's practice to affix his signature to +public documents of which he knew not the purport; and the mere fact +that the Macdonalds of Glencoe were excepted by name from the submitted +clans, and with the careful proviso that the proposed measure should +only be taken against them "if they could well be separated from the +rest," seems to afford sufficient proof that to this particular matter +of Scotch administration, at any rate, his attention was specially +called. + +There is, in short, no good reason to doubt that when William signed the +order for the "extirpation" of the Macdonalds he meant them to be +extirpated. He treated his act as equivalent to the issue of one of +those "letters of fire and sword" which in those wild days of Highland +history formed a recognised instrument of police. He would undoubtedly +have been quite prepared to hear that a regiment had been marched into +the valley of Glencoe, had put the contumacious clansmen (as he believed +them to be) to the sword, and left their village a heap of smoking +ruins. As undoubtedly he was _not_ prepared to hear that a body of +soldiers had quartered themselves on the clan under pretence of amity, +and had treacherously slaughtered them at unawares. But though it is +likely enough that when he did hear of this he was disgusted with the +unsoldierly cowardice of the proceeding, we should mistake both the man +and the time in supposing that he viewed it with the horror and +detestation which in our own days it excites. He regarded it, so far as +one can judge, as a mere blundering excess of duty and nothing more. +Four years later, when an inquiry was instituted into the matter by the +Scotch Parliament, he showed no disposition to press it forward;[15] and +later on, when a commission reported that the affair of Glencoe was a +murder for which the Master of Stair was primarily responsible, he +steadily declined to inflict any further penalty on the chief culprit +than he had already suffered in his dismissal from office. Burnet's +excuse for William that he was alarmed at finding how many men it would +be necessary for him to punish for the massacre is, as Macaulay rightly +says, no justification for his screening the one criminal whose case was +so easily distinguishable from the others, and whose guilt was so much +more heinous than theirs. It is idle, in short, to deny that in the +matter of the Glencoe Massacre William incurred something of the +responsibility of an accessory after the fact. + +FOOTNOTES: + +[14] The whole affair is still surrounded with obscurity. At least half +a dozen conflicting explanations of Marlborough's fall are in existence, +and from the same hand--that of Burnet. It cannot be said that the +conspiracy theory, which Macaulay of course adopts, is in itself at all +improbable. + +[15] Macaulay, in that injudicious spirit of special pleading which is +often so damaging to his hero, says that the King, "who knew little and +cared little" about Scotland, "_forgot_ to urge the commissioners." As +if a king would be likely to "forget" an inquiry as to whether one of +his secretaries of state had or had not been guilty of murder. + + + + +CHAPTER X + +1692-1693 + + Gloomy European prospects--Campaign of 1692 in the + Netherlands--Defeat of Steinkirk--Attempt of Grandval + --Session of 1692--Place Bill and Triennial Bill-- + Campaign of 1693--William outwitted by Luxembourg-- + Defeat of Landen--Session of 1693-94--Louis's + overtures of peace. + + +Never perhaps in the whole course of his unresting life were the +energies of William more severely taxed, and never did his great moral +and intellectual qualities shine forth with a brighter lustre, than in +the years 1692-93. The great victory of La Hogue and the destruction of +the flower of the French fleet did, it is true, relieve England of any +immediate dread either of insurrection or invasion, and so far the +prospect before him acquired a slight improvement towards the summer of +1692. But this was the only gleam of light in the horizon; elsewhere the +darkness gathered more thickly than ever as the months rolled on. The +years 1692 and 1693 were years of diplomatic difficulties and military +reverses--the one encountered with unerring sagacity and untiring +patience, the other sustained with a noble fortitude. The great +coalition of Powers which he had succeeded in forming to resist the +ambition of Louis was never nearer dissolution than in the spring of +1692. The Scandinavian states, who had held aloof from it from the +first, were now rapidly changing the benevolence of their neutrality +into something not easily distinguishable from its reverse. The new Pope +Innocent XII. showed himself far less amicably disposed towards William +than his two predecessors. The decrepitude of Spain and the arrogant +self-will of Austria were displaying themselves more conspicuously than +ever. Savoy was ruled by a duke who was more than half suspected of +being a traitor. Out of materials so rotten and so ill-assorted as these +had the one statesman of the whole group to build up and maintain the +barrier which he was bent on erecting against the inroads of France. By +what incessant toil and unfailing tact, with what insistences here and +concessions there, with what appeals to the vanity of this potentate, +the bigotry of that, the cupidity of the third, and the apprehensions of +all, he succeeded in keeping them side by side and with their faces to +the common enemy it would be impossible to describe, in a manner at all +worthy of the subject, within the space at my command. Suffice it to say +that William did succeed in saving the league from dissolution, and in +getting their armies once more into the field. But not, unfortunately, +to any purpose. The campaign of the present year was destined to repeat +the errors of the last, and these errors were to be paid for at a +heavier cost. Mons had fallen in 1691, through the delays and +mismanagement of the allied armies; and in 1692 a greater fortress than +Mons was to share its fate. The French king was bent upon the capture of +the great stronghold of Namur, and the enemy, as in the case of Mons, +were too slow in their movements and too ineffective in their +dispositions to prevent it. Marching to the assault of the doomed city, +with a magnificence of courtly pageantry which had never before been +witnessed in warfare, Louis sat down before Namur, and in eight days its +faint-hearted governor, the nominee of the Spanish viceroy of the +Netherlands, surrendered at discretion. Having accomplished, or rather +having graciously condescended to witness the accomplishment of this +feat of arms, Louis returned to Versailles, leaving his army under the +command of Luxembourg. The fall of Namur was a severe blow to the hopes +of William, but yet worse disasters were in store for him. He was now +pitted against one who enjoyed the reputation of the greatest general of +the age, and William, a fair but by no means brilliant strategist, was +unequal to the contest with his accomplished adversary. Luxembourg lay +at Steinkirk, and William approaching him from a place named Lambeque, +opened his attack upon him by a well-conceived surprise which promised +at first to throw the French army into complete disorder. Luxembourg's +resource and energy, however, were equal to the emergency. He rallied +and steadied his troops with astonishing speed, and the nature of the +ground preventing the allies from advancing as rapidly as they had +expected, they found the enemy in a posture to receive them. The British +forces were in the front, commanded by Count Solmes, the division of +Mackay, a name now honourable for many generations in the annals of +continental, no less than of Scottish warfare, leading the way. These +heroes, for so, though as yet untried soldiers, they approved +themselves, were to have been supported by Count Solmes with a strong +body of cavalry and infantry, but at the critical moment he failed them +miserably, and his failure decided the fortunes of the day. After a +desperate struggle, in which they long sustained the attack of the +French household troops, the flower of Louis's army, Mackay's division +began to give way. But no effective help arrived from Solmes. His +cavalry could not act from the nature of the ground, and he refused to +devote his infantry to what he declared was useless slaughter. The +division was practically annihilated. Its five regiments, "Cutts's, +Mackay's, Angus's, Graham's, and Leven's, all," as Corporal Trim relates +pathetically, "cut to pieces, and so had the English Life-guards been +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." Bitter was +the resentment in the English army at the desertion of these gallant +troops by Count de Solmes, and William gave vent to one of his rare +outbursts of anger at the sight. We have it indeed on the authority +above quoted--unimpeachable as first-hand tradition, for Sterne had +heard the story of these wars at the knees of an eye-witness of and +actor in them--that the King "would not suffer the Count to come into +his presence for many months after." The destruction of Mackay's +division had indeed decided the issue of the struggle. Luxembourg's army +was being rapidly strengthened by reinforcements from that of Boufflers, +and there was nothing for it but retreat. The loss on both sides had +been great, but the moral effect of the victory was still greater. +William's reputation for generalship, perhaps unduly raised by his +recent exploits in Ireland, underwent a serious decline. The French were +exultant at the demonstration of his inferiority to Luxembourg, and the +victory of Steinkirk inflamed the national pride to an overweening +degree. + +William's popularity with his own army and people, however, was at this +time about to receive one of those friendly "lifts" which his more +unscrupulous enemies were continually giving it throughout his life. +Grandval, a French officer, undertook, at the instigation it is said of +Barbesieux, the French Minister, and with the connivance of James II., +to assassinate him, and set out with that purpose, accompanied by two +accomplices, for the camp of the allies. Both of these men, however, +appear, with an originality and independence of initiative not often +found among traitors, to have played him false simultaneously, yet +without any collusion with each other. Grandval had not been long in the +Netherlands before he was arrested, brought to trial before a +court-martial, and, on his own confession, sentenced to death. His +statement, attested by the officers constituting the court-martial, was +published immediately after his execution, and the world then learnt +that the dying man's meditated crime was, according to his solemn +asseveration, suggested to him by a minister then, and after the +exposure still retained, in the service of Louis XIV.; and that James +had signified to him at an interview at St. Germains that he had been +informed of the "business" on which he was setting out, and that if +Grandval and his companions rendered him that service "they should never +want." Neither the French king nor his Minister ever made any reply to +Grandval's confession; but James, though he put forth no public +disclaimer, denied on this as on other occasions that he had ever +participated in any of the schemes for killing William. Probably the +projectors of such schemes were careful never to mention the ugly word +assassination in the royal ears, so that it might always be possible for +his ex-Majesty to assume that nothing was contemplated but William's +"taking-off" in a less serious than the Shakspearean sense. Plots to +kidnap the "usurper" were almost as commonly broached as plots to +assassinate him; and it was convenient that exalted personages should be +able to persuade others, if not themselves, that they were thinking only +of seizing William's person when their humbler instruments were in +reality bent upon taking his life. + +Towards the end of October William arrived in England, and was received +with an amount of popular acclamation to which the crime of Grandval had +contributed more than his own military prowess. In a few days Parliament +met, and the King addressed the two Houses in a judicious speech, in +which he congratulated them on their great naval victory, condoled with +them on their military reverses, referred with concern to the distress +occasioned by the failure of the last harvest, and informed them in +effect that yet more money would be required for the effective +prosecution of the war. The address in reply was amiable enough, but the +Parliament, as the event soon proved, was in no very manageable mood. +The confusion of parties caused by William's perseverance in his +well-meant attempt at mixed government was now at its height, and the +state of things created was undoubtedly not favourable either to +executive or legislative efficiency. An assembly divided as was the then +House of Commons by two intersecting lines of cleavage, with its Whig +and Tory demarcation, traversed by a cross division into "court party" +and "country party," was obviously not a body likely to display much +unity and vigour. Jealousy of officialism forbade ministers to reckon on +the consentaneous support even of members of their own way of political +thinking, while on the other hand party differences prevented the +formation of a strong opposition. + +The session of 1692 was, however, fruitful both in legislative +achievement and in successful legislative effort. In this year was made +that valuation for the land-tax, which subsisted until the tax itself +was made perpetual and redeemable more than a century afterwards in +1798; and the first loan of one million sterling, contracted by the +Government in the name of a National Debt, which has now increased to +almost a thousand times that amount. But the measures with which the +biographer of William is more directly concerned were the Place Bill and +the Triennial Bill. Of both of these legislative projects I shall have +more to say hereafter. Here let it be enough to note that the former was +lost in the House of Lords by a majority of three votes; and that the +latter after passing both Houses was held in suspense by William until +just the eve of the prorogation, and then vetoed. The occasion is one of +special interest to English literature, as it was in reference to this +Bill that the King consulted Sir William Temple, whose strong advice to +his master to assent to the Bill was conveyed through the medium of his +young secretary Jonathan Swift. After making several ministerial +changes, including as the most important the elevation of Lord Somers to +the Chancellorship, William prorogued Parliament, and once more, in the +perpetual succession of the toils of war to the labours of Government, +betook himself to the Netherlands. The outlook of the continental +struggle had not improved; and the task before him, both diplomatic and +military, was as formidable as ever. He had as usual petty quarrels to +compose among the allied Powers, and wounded vanities to soothe, to +animate the energies of the lagging, and to keep an eye on the movements +of the false. The effort in which he was the least successful was the +last mentioned but one; he was unable with all his efforts to collect a +force equal to that of Luxembourg. He managed, however, to take the +field in greater strength than he had mustered on some previous years, +and as Louis had now again put himself, with the usual elaboration of +gorgeous ceremony, at the head of his army, William promised himself the +satisfaction of looking his lifelong enemy once more in the face upon a +battlefield. Louis, however, whether from personal cowardice or from +having really contracted under the influence of perpetual adulation a +sort of religious reverence for his own life, had none of William's +military ardour. He liked directing sieges, but had no taste for +commanding in pitched battles. In other words, he preferred those +operations of war in which the most adventurous of generals must +necessarily remain in the rear to those in which the most cautious of +generals may find himself imperatively called upon to go to the front. +He had hoped that the more agreeable form of warfare would be provided +for him, and that he would have an opportunity of taking Liege or +Brussels as he had taken Ghent. When, however, he found William posted +in his path with a considerable if numerically inferior army, his +martial ardour underwent a rapid reduction of temperature, and he at +once signified his intention of returning to Versailles. The +disappointment of Luxembourg, who had assured him of certain victory +over William, was aggravated by the fact that the King insisted on +detaching Boufflers with a portion of the army of the Netherlands to +reinforce the troops in the Palatinate; which movement having been +effected, he went home to Madame de Maintenon. + +Luxembourg, however, though reduced in strength, had still the advantage +over William in point of numbers, and he succeeded in further increasing +the disparity by a feint in the direction of Liege, which deceived +William into despatching more than twenty thousand men of his army to +protect that city from attack. He was thus left with only fifty thousand +men to oppose a force exceeding his own by more than half. His position, +however, on the bank of the Gette was a naturally strong one, and by +extraordinary efforts with the spade he succeeded in adding most +formidably to its strength. On the morning of the 19th of July the men +of Luxembourg's army found themselves confronted by a powerful line of +earthworks manned by a brave and steady foe. Relying, however, upon a +numerical superiority which he rightly regarded as more than +counterbalancing William's advantages of position, Luxembourg at an +early hour of the morning gave orders for the attack, and the two armies +closed in a struggle more bloody and obstinate than that of Steinkirk. +For eight hours the battle raged fiercely along the whole line, but most +fiercely round the village of Neerwinden on the English right. This, the +position of most strategic importance on the field, was disputed with +extraordinary fury. Twice did the French troops succeed in making +themselves masters of it, and twice were they driven out by the allies, +leaving their dead in heaps behind them. At last the household troops, +who had done such service at Steinkirk, were sent against this village; +it was captured a third time, and this time it was held. William +weakened his centre and left in desperate attempts to retake it, but in +vain; and at last, as the day was wearing towards the evening, the line +of the allies gave way. The French troops poured into and over the +entrenchments; the position was captured; nothing remained for the +commander of the beaten army but to arrest disorganisation and save +retreat from becoming flight. To the moral appeal of the situation +William's great nature might be trusted to respond, and it seems to have +equally stimulated his strategic capacities. The praise of his famous +opponent is sufficient testimony to his skilful conduct of the military +operation; the memory of his fiery valour was perpetuated in the +traditions of the English army. No doubt it was from some old messmate +of Roger Sterne's that the future author of _Tristram Shandy_ gathered +the materials of that vivid picture of the retreat across the bridge of +Neerspeeken which he has put into the mouth of My Uncle Toby. "The +King," Trim reminds his master, "was pressed hard, as your honour knows, +on every side of him." "Gallant mortal," cried my Uncle Toby, caught up +with enthusiasm, "this moment, now that all is lost, I see him galloping +across me, corporal, to the left, to bring up the remains of the English +horse along with him to support the right and tear the laurel from +Luxembourg's brows if yet 'tis possible. I see him with the knot of his +scarf just shot off, infusing fresh spirits into poor Galway's regiment, +riding along the line, then wheeling about and charging Conti at the +head of it. Brave! brave! by heaven! He deserves a crown!" + +With Galway's regiments, we learn from the same tradition, were those of +"Wyndham and Lumley." Talmash "brought off the foot with great prudence; +but the number of wounded was prodigious, and no one had time to think +of anything but his own safety." It is indeed pretty evident that only +William's cool heroism saved his army from annihilation. Solmes, the +_faineant_ of Steinkirk, was left dead on the field. Galway himself, the +refugee Ravigny, was taken prisoner; Sarsfield on the other side +received a mortal wound. It was by far the deadliest battle of the whole +war, and it is difficult to understand why a blow so crushing should +have been so slackly followed up. One cannot help thinking what a French +army and a French general would have made of such a defeat inflicted +upon the troops of a continental coalition on such a battlefield some +hundred years later. But the terrible rapidity of those movements with +which, as with hammerstrokes, Napoleon was wont to drive home the nail +of victory was then unknown to warfare. Town upon town would probably +have fallen after Landen had the fruits of the victory been seized, as +they would have been at a later day. But, either through the indolence +of Luxembourg or the comparative immobility of a seventeenth-century +army, William obtained a priceless respite. He was rejoined by the +troops whom the enemy had so fatally decoyed to Liege; and three weeks +after his defeat he was once more at the head of an army stronger than +he had commanded at Landen. The danger to the allied cause was past. +Luxembourg besieged and took Charleroi for sole trophy of his great +victory, and the campaign closed for the year. + +On the 31st of October William landed in England, and prepared for a +meeting with his Parliament, to which he could hardly have looked +forward with much pleasure. He had a bad account to give and receive. +Over the whole Continent, in Spain, Germany, and Italy, as well as +Flanders, the allies had met with adverse fortune; at sea the vast +"Smyrna fleet" of merchantmen, four hundred strong, had, through the +incapacity of our naval commanders, been surprised in the Bay of Lagos +by the combined Brest and Toulouse fleets of France, and, its +imprudently reduced convoy of twenty English and Dutch sail having been +easily mastered, nearly three-fourths of it suffered capture or +destruction. His Parliament, however, met him as a matter of fact in a +commendably patriotic mood. William made no attempt to ignore the +serious losses which the nation had incurred by land and sea, though of +the former he said (not perhaps with perfect impartiality towards his +own tactical errors) that "they were only occasioned by the great +numbers of our enemies, which exceeded ours in all places"; while the +latter he described as "having brought great disgrace upon the nation." +And, admitting that the charges of the war had already been very great, +"I am yet persuaded," he added, "that the experience of the summer is +sufficient to convince us all that to arrive at a good end of it there +will be a necessity of increasing our forces both by sea and land." The +reply of the Commons was cordial, and manifested no hesitation as to +granting the increased supplies; and their patriotic spirit encouraged +William to hold his ground on a question in which the minds of the +allies were just now about to be exercised. Louis XIV., insatiable in +war as he had hitherto been, was beginning to feel that he, and still +more that France, had had enough of the struggle. Five years of +hostilities carried on in half a dozen quarters of Europe, with a +failure of the French harvest and the vintage, had almost prostrated the +country. Distress was rife in the provinces; even that most patient of +people showed signs of disaffection. Louis made private overtures to the +States-General with the intention, of course, of his proposals being +brought to the ear of William. Through the neutral King of Denmark he +signified his willingness to restore all the conquests he had made +during the present war, to renounce his pretensions to the Low +Countries, and to agree that the Elector of Bavaria should have the +Spanish Netherlands in case of the death of the King of Spain, and that +the commercial arrangements of Europe should be put on their old +footing. The great _crux_ of the negotiations, and of all negotiations +with a similar object, was, and was known to be, the question of the +recognition or non-recognition of the _de facto_ King and Queen of +England. On this question, so far as we can now judge, the mouth-pieces +of Louis gave forth an uncertain sound. The King of Denmark told the +allies that he was making efforts to induce the King of France to waive +the demand for the restoration of James; the French Ambassador hinted at +a compromise. This, it has been suggested, was that "James should waive +his rights, and that the Prince of Wales should be sent to England, be +bred a Protestant, and, being adopted by William and Mary, be declared +his heir." To such an arrangement Macaulay thinks that William would +probably have had no objection, but that he "neither would nor could +have made it a condition of peace with France, since the question who +should reign in England was to be decided by England alone." Undoubtedly +William "could" not have independently assented to a condition which, to +acquire the least validity, would have necessitated the statutory +revision of the succession settlement, as effected by the Convention and +ratified by the Convention Parliament; but there does not seem to be +much evidence that he would have assented to the condition if he could. +There is no trace of any endeavour on his part to sound the chiefs of +his parliamentary parties on the subject, and I cannot but think it far +more likely that neither in this nor in any other matter of foreign +policy was William at all disposed to share any of his discretionary +powers in his capacity of virtual Foreign Minister with his Parliament, +so long as he could obtain what he wanted from that body without +admitting it any more fully to his confidence. His rejection of Louis's +overtures, including this offer of compromise, if it was made, was +probably not dictated by any high constitutional considerations at all. +He thought, and rightly, that pacific advances made by so haughty an +enemy indicated greater exhaustion than had been suspected, and +reckoning justly that another year or two of fighting would get him +better terms still, he decided that another year or two of fighting +there should be. The supplies had been cheerfully voted him, and that +was enough. That the Parliament which had voted them had any paramount +right to decide whether they would go on voting money or accept Louis's +terms almost certainly never entered his mind. To suppose that it did is +to attribute to him a theory of the constitution anachronistic by fully +fifty years. That such a theory is more or less designedly attributed to +him in the above-quoted passage from Macaulay appears unquestionable; +and the Whig historian's anticipation of history in this respect is of a +piece with his exaggeration of the permanent significance of the +constitutional changes which fall to be treated of in the next chapter. + + + + +CHAPTER XI + +1693-1694 + + Formation of the first party Ministry--Reintroduction of + the Triennial Bill and its defeat--Of the Place Bill and + its veto--Causes of the disallowance--Macaulay's account + examined--Campaign of 1694--Death of Mary. + + +I am now to speak of one of the most important, as it is sometimes +regarded, of all the steps made under William's auspices in the +development of our parliamentary polity--a step represented as even more +influential in fixing and determining that system of strict party +government under which the nation is thriving or declining at the +present era than even the Revolution itself--the formation of the first +Ministry of the modern type. "No writer," says Macaulay in speaking of +it, "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 chance and +partly of wisdom--not however of that highest wisdom that 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 +everybody 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 these 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 these leaders, and had learned +to move like one man at the word of command." + +There are perhaps not many passages of the famous history in which its +author's love of dramatic antithesis has displayed itself in a statement +more likely to mislead the student. Because the change which took place +in the relation of Ministers of the Crown between 1693 and 1696 was a +striking one Macaulay cannot resist the temptation of describing it as +though it were a final one. In 1693 Ministers in disagreement with each +other, in 1696 Ministers in accord with each other--the suggestion of +course being that they "lived happily ever afterwards." Certainly no one +previously unacquainted with the facts would suppose from this account +of them that the first politically homogeneous Ministry was a purely +experimental one, and that the experiment was not repeated by William, +and never even attempted by his successor, under whom the old system +prevailed, though with gradual modification, throughout her reign; that +on many later occasions in our history the men in the chief offices of +the Government were to be found "caballing" and sometimes even +"haranguing" against each other; and, in short, that it was not till far +on in the next century that the idea of Ministers being men of like +political opinions "bound together by public and private ties," and +supported by a majority "arrayed in good order under them, and moving +like one man at the word of command," became uniformly and permanently +associated with the constitution. Yet this is in fact the case. The +"lower political wisdom meeting daily exigencies by daily expedients" +did not devise an arrangement calculated to endure for all time; and no +one ought to have been more surprised than Macaulay if it had. It met a +particular exigency by a particular expedient, and as that particular +exigency did not uniformly recur, the particular expedient naturally did +not at once stereotype itself in our parliamentary polity. The pure Whig +Government of 1696 attained the object of its formation, namely, to +carry out his war policy, and passed away. William's later ministries +were of a mixed character; the ministries of Anne were partly Whig and +partly Tory; and the political unity which prevailed in the Walpole +Administration was succeeded by a return to the old practice under +Pulteney. It was not, as has been said, until well on in the century +that it became an admitted political axiom that Cabinets should be +constructed upon some bases of political union agreed upon by the +members composing the same when they accept office together. + +But though it is delusive to represent a mere political experiment as +the consummation of a great constitutional change, yet an experiment by +which such change was foreshadowed cannot of course be otherwise than +deeply interesting. And such undoubtedly is the character of the +ministerial reconstruction which took place in 1693. The particular +exigency which the expedient was designed to meet is almost patent on +the face of the European situation, as it must have presented itself to +a statesman of William's views and with William's policy at heart. The +one fact that the Whigs were in favour of a vigorous prosecution of the +war with Louis on its continental theatre, while the Tories favoured the +husbanding of English military resources and the maintenance of a +defensive attitude behind our "silver streak," and under the protection +of our navy, would undoubtedly have sufficed of itself to determine +William's choice of the former party. In all other respects he probably +regarded both English parties at this as at all other times of his life +with equal indifference--if indeed one should not say with equal +aversion. He could have no love for men who, like the Whigs, regarded +him as a king of their own making, or who, like the Tories, considered +him no king, in the full sense of the word, at all. Whichever of the two +English parties were more willing to assist his efforts for a country +which he loved far better than England was virtually assured of his +favour; and though no doubt he believed honestly enough that the +interests not only of continental Europe, but of insular England, were +identified with those of the United Provinces--though no doubt he +honestly regarded Holland as only the vanguard of European and English +liberties, menaced by the insatiable ambition of Louis--yet it is +impossible to credit him, or any other mortal man in the same situation, +with the capacity of impartial judgment on any point at which the +interests of England and those of Holland might have diverged. Nor is +it, I think, unjust to add that even when the balance of English +advantage might have appeared to William himself to incline somewhat +against any contemplated course of conduct, he would perhaps have held +himself justified in proceeding from contemplation to action. He was in +all probability firmly, and one cannot say unreasonably, possessed with +the idea that England was largely his debtor and the debtor of his +country; and that she should, at least within reason, make sacrifices +for the protection of that nation, who and whose Prince had rendered +such services to her. Whichever English party showed most disposition, +or rather least reluctance, to make common cause with the United +Provinces in the defence of Dutch (and therefore of English and +European) liberties, became thereby the party of William's choice. No +doubt his gradual construction of a pure Whig Ministry was in part +dictated by a desire to secure greater stability of counsel and unity of +action in the House of Commons. No doubt his laudable experiment of +governing by means of both parties had had results with which he could +hardly have been satisfied. But he had borne for five years with the +parliamentary factiousness which that experiment had undoubtedly tended +to aggravate, and there is no visible reason, save that which I have +indicated, for his putting an end to the experiment at this particular +moment and in this particular way. He had made shift to do without a +homogeneous Ministry ever since his accession. If now he needed a +Ministry which should be not only homogeneous, but homogeneously Whig, +we must look to the exigencies of his continental policy for the cause. + +The process, however, of replacing the Tories of the Administration by +Whigs was a very gradual one, and it was not of course until it was +complete that the Whig party in the House of Commons could be trusted to +support the Administration, "right or wrong," as, without much suspicion +of satire, we may say to have now become the accepted constitutional +practice. Nottingham and the Tory Naval administrators were the first to +go, their retirement having been in the one case consequentially, and in +the other directly necessitated by the narrow escape of the latter from +parliamentary censure in respect of the late naval miscarriages. Russell +became First Lord of the Admiralty, and with him Nottingham, who, as +Secretary of State, was then responsible for the military service, was +of course unable to serve. His place, however, was not immediately +filled up, nor was it till the end of the session that any further +ministerial changes were made. And this session itself was one of +peculiar constitutional interest on other grounds. In the first place +the Triennial Bill, vetoed by William in the previous session, was +reintroduced, and met with a most unexpected fate. It was brought in +this time in the House of Commons, and passed through all its stages up +to the final one without a division. But the motion that "the Bill do +now pass" was rejected by a majority of ten. The whole affair is +involved in much obscurity, and the cause or causes of the unlooked-for +rejection of the measure must always remain matter of conjecture. +Macaulay declares its defeat to have been brought about by the +instrumentality of the expert parliamentary intriguer Seymour; and as no +House of Commons that ever lived is likely to have relished the idea of +putting a term to its own existence, it is not difficult to guess the +kind of sentiment to which Seymour might have appealed. But one point +not unworthy of notice in the matter is that the numbers voting in the +division, 146 Noes and 136 Ayes, did not together compose a very full +House. They fell short by thirty-two of the numbers who voted in the +division by which the second edition of the Triennial Bill, introduced +in, and passed through, the House of Lords, and sent down to the House +of Commons, was rejected a fortnight afterwards. In this case, of +course, the adverse majority of 197 were able to allege that they were +not opposing the limitation of Parliament, but merely resisting a +usurpation of constitutional jurisdiction on the part of the Peers. But +it should be observed that this argument does not appear to have +produced many defections from the party of the Ayes. They number 127, or +only nine short of their original strength; and assuming that these nine +votes were transferred to the Noes, it will still leave some forty new +votes to be accounted for. It looks rather as if these were the votes of +members who would have divided against the Bill if they had dared (and +as they did so soon as they got a plausible pretext for doing so), but +not daring, consented to assist in compassing its rejection by absenting +themselves from the division. + +The Place Bill, another abortive measure of this session, had a quite +different history. It was introduced in much the same shape as in the +previous year, and passed the Lower House substantially unchanged. In +the Lords, however, it underwent a material amendment. As originally +drawn it provided that no member of the House of Commons elected after +the 1st 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, while maintaining the provision +for the forfeiture of the seat, introduced words qualifying the acceptor +of office to sit in the same Parliament if again chosen as a +representative. This amendment the Commons adopted, and the Bill thus +modified, having passed both Houses, was, somewhat to the surprise of +everybody and to the disgust of many people, vetoed by the King. This +exercise of the prerogative was received with far less patience than on +the two former occasions, and for a few days a serious conflict between +the Legislature and the Crown appeared to be imminent. An address of +remonstrance was presented to William, who replied in conciliatory +language, but without holding out any hopes that his veto would be +withdrawn. Another debate of a somewhat excited character followed, but +calmer counsels than had at first found favour with the House of Commons +ultimately prevailed. A motion to prepare a new representation or +remonstrance was rejected by a very large majority, and the Place Bill +dropped. The great Whig historian's account of the matter is that the +amendment "deprived the Bill of all efficacy both for good and evil"; +but that the Commons "so little understood what they were about that, +after framing a law, in one view most mischievous"--namely, in respect +of its tending to keep the chief Ministers of the Crown out of the +House of Commons, "and in another view most beneficial"--namely, as +tending to keep subordinate officials out of the House of Commons, they +were perfectly willing that it should be "transformed into a law quite +harmless and almost useless"; and that William went out of the way to +veto this quite harmless and almost useless law, because he "understood +the question as little as the Commons themselves." + +This is not a very plausible theory; nor does one well see why Macaulay +should describe that proviso of a right to re-election--which was +afterwards adopted, and which is an essential feature of our still +subsisting Act of Anne--as depriving the Bill of nine-tenths of its +power both for good and for evil. Surely both King and Parliament might +have been credited with knowing their own business a little better than +that. It seems reasonable rather to ask ourselves whether the amendment +was such as to militate in any serious degree against the legislative +object of the Commons, or in any similar degree to disarm the objections +which William entertained to the measure. If it did neither of these +things, there was nothing paradoxical either in the Commons accepting or +the King pronouncing his veto upon the Place Bill; and it seems to me to +be clear that the amendment did neither of these things in fact. No +doubt it was desirable, from the point of view of the majority, that +office-holders should cease to sit in Parliament and become +incapacitated for re-election; and this on the abstract and general +ground that such persons were not sufficiently independent to be able to +discharge the functions of legislators with advantage to the country. +So far, then, as the general principle relating to office-holders was +concerned, the amendment was opposed to the real wishes of the Commons, +and had no reason therefore to provoke the hostility of the King. But +there was a specific ground on which the House had cause to dislike +office-holders, and a specific class of appointments to which this +ground applied; and the Bill, even as modified by the Lords' proviso, +would have limited the royal influence in respect of these appointments +to an extent quite sufficient to account both for the Commons adopting +the amendment of the Upper House, and for the King refusing his assent +to the Bill. It would obviously have dealt a heavy, though not, of +course, a final, blow to the employment of the patronage of the Crown +for the purpose of "managing" the Legislature. It would have made it a +far more difficult thing for the Court or the Government to maintain +their majority in the House of Commons by what would now be called a +corrupt use of its patronage, but what was then regarded, or getting to +be regarded--at any rate by the party in power,--as one of the +legitimate arts of rule. For whenever the Sovereign or his Ministers +endeavoured to convert a hostile into a friendly vote by the bestowal of +office upon its possessor, he or they would always have to reckon with +the possibility that the constituents of the bought member might not +care to have their interests sold along with their parliamentary +representative. They might, and on a question which strongly moved them +they very probably would, have expressed their disapproval of his +conduct by refusing to re-elect him; in which case the Government would, +of course, have found themselves at the end of the transaction with one +piece of patronage the less, but not with one vote the more. In a word, +the Place Bill, as amended by the Lords, though it would have left +untouched the power of the Crown to bring office-holders into +Parliament, would materially have impaired its power of turning members +of Parliament into office-holders; and apparently it was only because +Macaulay viewed the Bill too exclusively in its relation to the former +power, and took no account of its bearing on the latter, that he could +have regarded it as a measure in which William had no real concern, and +which he only vetoed through some vague dislike of it as affecting his +prerogative he hardly knew how. So far from this, it seems to me that +his objection may well have been a very definite one, and that he +perfectly understood, and was not at all disposed to undervalue, the +particular exercise of his prerogative which it threatened. For whatever +may have been his original or even his persistent repugnance to the acts +of parliamentary management by means of parliamentary corruption, he had +probably come by this time to regard it as among the inevitable if +disagreeable necessities of royal and ministerial policy under the +English system of party government. + +The close of this session witnessed the virtual completion of the work +of ministerial reconstruction on a purely Whig basis. Shrewsbury, who +had been offered the Secretaryship of State left vacant by the +retirement of Nottingham, after some months of hesitation accepted the +office. Trenchard, the other Secretary of State, was also a member of +the Whig party. The rising Whig financier, Charles Montague, who had +during this session devised and carried out the legislative measure for +the establishment of the Bank of England, was for this service elevated +to the post of Chancellor of the Exchequer. The Keeper of the Seal was +the Whig Somers. The Whig Russell was First Lord of the Admiralty. All +the important offices of the State were now in fact in the hands of the +Whig party, and William, now fairly embarked upon the experiment +recommended by Sunderland, made one last concession to his old policy of +balancing one party against the other by a liberal distribution of +honours among the displaced Tories. + +The military and naval operations of 1694 were marked by none of these +successes which catch the public eye, but the year was really one of +more moment to the history of the struggle with Louis than at first +sight appears. Mismanagement and treachery brought disaster on the +expedition against Brest, and the disgrace was certainly not redeemed by +the subsequent bombardment and destruction of Dieppe and Havre. But the +despatch of Russell's fleet to the Mediterranean yielded solid gains +which more than compensated for our losses in the Channel. Russell +relieved Barcelona, blockaded Toulon, brought the hostile Italian States +to reason, and compelled them, for the first time, to acknowledge +William's titles, reanimated the Duke of Savoy, who had begun to think +of a separate peace with France, and, indeed, practically brought the +Mediterranean under English maritime control. As a consequence, our +commerce, which had been declining ever since the Revolution, began +rapidly to revive. + +The land campaign, though equally undistinguished by any striking +triumph, was no less fruitful in matter for solid satisfaction. An +attempt of William to carry the war into the enemy's country was foiled, +it is true, by the skill of Luxembourg, who repulsed the advance of the +Elector of Bavaria upon French Flanders, and this check was, of course, +more important on one side than William's capture of the inconsiderable +fortress of Huy was on the other. But in Spain, where Russell's +appearance before Barcelona had compelled De Noailles to retreat; on the +Rhine, where the Prince of Baden drove back Delorges, and established +himself for the summer in Alsace; and in Piedmont, where, in spite of +the vacillations of the Duke of Savoy, the French gained no material +advantage--the course of events, particularly as contrasted with those +of the three previous years, gave ample justification for the words with +which William met his Parliament on the 9th of November. "With respect," +he said, "to the war by land, I think I may say that this year has put a +stop to the progress of the French arms." Loyal addresses were returned, +and supplies to the amount of five millions were readily voted; but, +along with the Supply Bill, the Triennial Bill was again introduced. It +was probably intimated to Parliament, through some of the private +channels of communication with the Court, that William was not prepared +to veto it a second time. The Bill was brought in on the first day of +the session, and, together with a Bill settling the Customs on the +Crown, received the royal assent on the 22d of December. November of +1696 was fixed as the limit of the life of the existing Parliament. The +Place Bill, vetoed by the King in the previous session, was again +introduced, and with exactly the same results as had followed the second +attempt to pass the Triennial Bill. This measure, it will be +remembered, after failing to obtain the royal assent in the session of +1692-3, was defeated in the Commons in 1693-4, and so also it happened +with the Place Bill. The inference which I think suggests itself in both +cases is that the exercise of the royal veto, though unpopular with the +country, was not by any means equally so with the House of Commons; that +there were many Tories who were not particularly keen on purging +Parliament of office-holders, and not a few Whigs whose zeal for the +limitation of its constitutional life was somewhat lukewarm; and that +both Whigs and Tories of this order were not sorry to be able to evade +their party obligations to vote for these measures by pleading their +unwillingness to force the King's hand, and perhaps provoke a +constitutional crisis. + +The day on which William gave his assent to the Triennial Bill was to +him a day of grave anxiety; and a year fairly prosperous abroad and +peaceful at home was to bring him ere its close the heaviest calamity of +his life. The illness of the Queen, who had been for two or three days +confined to her bed, was on the evening of the 21st of December +recognised by her physician as smallpox. A week afterwards, at one in +the morning of the 28th of December, she died. William's grief at her +loss was uncontrollable, and to all but those, and they were few, who +had penetrated the stoicism beneath which he was accustomed to conceal +deep feelings, it must have been a strange and moving sight. He remained +for days at her bedside scarcely taking food or sleep. He broke out in +the presence of Burnet into passionate outcries upon his agony at the +thought of losing her, and into fervent praises of her love and +virtues. "He cried out," says the Bishop, "that there was no hope, and +that from being the happiest he was now going to be the miserablest +creature on earth. He said that during the whole course of their +marriage he had never known one single fault in her; there was a worth +in her which nobody knew besides himself.... The King's affection was +greater than those who knew him best thought his temper capable of; he +went beyond all bounds in it; during her sickness he was in an agony +that amazed us all, fainting often and breaking out into most violent +lamentations; when she died his spirits sank so low that there was great +reason to apprehend that he was following her; for some weeks after he +was so little master of himself that he was not capable of minding +business or of seeing company." + +The depth of this affection, moreover, was not disproportioned, as is +sometimes the case in examples of conjugal devotion, to the worthiness +of the object. Even Evelyn, who was shocked as a Tory and legitimate +king's-man by the levity of Mary's behaviour (for which, however, an +explanation has been suggested) on her arrival at Whitehall after +James's flight, affirms of her that "she was such an admirable woman, +abating for taking the crown without a due apology, as does, if +possible, outdo the renowned Queen Elizabeth." The comparison, +extravagant as it may appear at first sight, is not without some +justification in the spirited behaviour of Mary on the great national +crisis which occurred during her husband's absence in the Irish +campaign. It would be absurd of course to credit Mary with Elizabeth's +gifts of statecraft, or with her intellectual capacity in general, but +in courage and composure in the presence of danger she was no unworthy +successor of that great queen. In William's passionate declarations of +his debt to her there was no extravagance at all. To him she had been +the most affectionate, dutiful, and forbearing of wives, and if her +influence over him fell short of retaining his marital constancy, she +endeared herself more closely to him on the side of the purer emotions +by her magnanimous forgiveness of his errors. It cannot but soften the +harsher outlines of our conception of William, and help to supply that +human and homely element which is too much wanting in his character, to +know that he was capable both of inspiring and reciprocating so true an +affection as this. + + + + +CHAPTER XII + +1695-1697 + + Campaign of 1695--Capture of Namur by the allies--Dissolution + of Parliament--William's "progress"--The elections--New + Parliament--Grants to Portland--The Assassination Plot-- + Campaign of 1696--Fenwick's conspiracy--Negotiations with + France--Peace of Ryswick. + + +For some weeks after the death of Mary William's grief for her loss +disabled him from the discharge of public duties. He desisted from the +personal delivery of his answers to addresses from the two Houses, and +though important domestic events--such as the disgrace and dismissal of +Sir John Trevor, the Speaker of the House of Commons, for corruption, +and the proceedings preliminary to the contemplated impeachment of +Danby, now Duke of Leeds, for the same offence--took place before the +prorogation, the King does not appear to have actively interested +himself in them, either on one side or the other. Leeds, though he +escaped the impeachment with which he was threatened, stood morally +convicted of the charges preferred against him; but William still +allowed this useful and experienced, if unscrupulous public servant to +remain at the head of the Council. The only mark of royal displeasure +with which he was visited was his exclusion from the list of +lords-justices appointed according to custom to execute the royal +authority during the King's absence on the Continent. + +On the 3d of May Parliament was prorogued, and on the 12th of the same +month William set out for Flanders to take command of the allied army +for what was destined to be the most successful of his campaigns. +Luxembourg was dead, and the command of the French army in the +Netherlands had devolved on a far inferior general in the person of +Marshal Villeroy. William was now matched against a general to whom he +was as much superior as Luxembourg had been to him, and this reversal of +conditions told speedily and signally on the fortunes of the year's +campaign. The prime object of William's operations was the retrieval of +the disastrous loss which the allies had suffered in 1692 by the fall of +Namur. On the recapture of this important fortress he now bent his whole +energies. His first movement, however, was an unsuccessful one. Athlone, +who had been detached with a large force to invest the city, was unable +to prevent Boufflers from throwing himself into it with a strong +reinforcement. The garrison now numbered 14,000 or 15,000 men, and as +its works had been planned by Vauban, the greatest military engineer of +his age, its defenders reckoned it impregnable. Leaving the main body of +his army under the Prince of Vaudemont, who, when pressed by Villeroy, +succeeded in skilfully retiring to Ghent, William, at the head of a +division, effected a junction with the forces of the Elector of Bavaria +and the Brandenburg contingent, and marching to Namur proceeded rapidly +to invest it. Its siege was then vigorously prosecuted. Cohorn, the +pupil of Vauban, and next to him in scientific reputation, was the +engineer of the allies, and, thus pitted against his master, had every +incitement to the exertion of his utmost skill. The trenches were opened +on the 2d of July, and on the 8th the outworks of one side of the city +were attacked and carried by an English force. This was the occasion on +which William is reported to have exclaimed, laying his hand on the +shoulder of the Elector of Bavaria, "Look, look at my brave English!" +The soldier in him was far nearer to them than the statesman, and amid +the smoke and tumult of that Flemish battlefield he was doubtless +stirred by emotions towards his subjects which at Kensington or +Westminster he had never known. On the 17th of the month, after a fierce +conflict in which the attacking forces were thrice beaten back and +thrice returned to the assault, the first counterscarp of the town was +carried. On the 20th the Bavarians and Brandenburgers captured another +portion of the outworks, and a few days later the English and Dutch made +themselves masters of the second line of fortifications. Before, +however, a general assault could be ordered, Boufflers, who did not +consider himself strong enough to defend the town, surrendered it on +terms of being allowed to retire into the citadel, for the possession of +which, in its turn, an obstinate struggle began. Villeroy, now before +Brussels, endeavoured in vain by a furious and destructive bombardment +of that city to compel the allies to raise the siege of the Namur +citadel, and Boufflers, in his last stronghold, soon found himself +exposed to so terrible a fire from one hundred and sixty cannon and +sixty mortars that, unless relief reached him, he felt that capitulation +could only be a question of days. At this desperate juncture Villeroy +advanced to his assistance, and on the 15th of August his army, 80,000 +strong, was sighted by the defenders of Namur. The siege of the citadel +was not for a moment intermitted; the allies stood between the fortress +they were seeking to capture and the host which was marching to relieve +it, equally prepared to strike at both. For three days the two armies +confronted each other--three days of such anxiety as Europe had not +known since the beginning of the war. Everything seemed to portend a +conflict between the two great hosts--as decisive and even epoch-making +a struggle as that which, after the lapse of a century and a quarter, +was to be fought out on that now historic plain which the French general +had skirted on his way from Brussels. But the event surprised every one +and disappointed many. On the night of the 18th Villeroy unaccountably +withdrew his army, and the fate of the fortress was sealed. Portland was +sent to demand its surrender, but Boufflers, oppressed by the tradition +that no French marshal had ever capitulated, refused to do so, and the +next day, after the bloodiest assault which the history of that time +records, the allies succeeded in capturing about a mile of the +prodigious outworks of the citadel. Boufflers requested a truce of +forty-eight hours to bury his dead, which was allowed him; and before +the expiration of the time he signified his willingness to capitulate +within ten days. He was informed by the Elector of Bavaria on behalf of +the allies that he must surrender immediately or prepare for an +immediate renewal of the attack; and thus resolutely met he yielded. On +the 26th of August the garrison marched out with the honours of war, and +the greatest humiliation inflicted upon the French king since the +commencement of his career of conquest was with much pomp and +circumstance consummated. Villeroy and his useless army had already +retired to Mons. + +The capture of Namur was the greatest event of the year, and indeed of +the campaign. It marked the turn of the tide in Louis's fortunes. From +1690 onwards it had set steadily in its favour, and reached full flood +on the day of Landen, in 1693. The following year may be fairly taken as +representing the half-hour of slack water before the ebb begins; but in +1695 it was plain to every one that the tide was running out. No other +victory was needed to demonstrate it after that of Namur, and none in +fact was won. In the autumn hostilities as usual ceased, and on the 10th +of October William, leaving his army in winter quarters, returned to +England to be received with a too rare warmth of welcome by his people. +He seized the opportunity of this burst of popular sunshine to dissolve +Parliament, which had still under the Triennial Act another year of life +to run. It has been suggested that he did so to put a stop to the +impeachment of Leeds, but though the proceeding against the Minister to +whom he owed not only his marriage with Mary, but in a great measure his +elevation to the English throne, must doubtless have given him +uneasiness, he had reason enough apart from this for determining the +life of the Legislature. "The happy state the nation was in," says +Burnet, "put all men except the merchants in a good temper; none could +be sure we should be in so good a state next year; so that now probably +elections would fall on men who were well affected to the Government. A +Parliament that saw itself in its last session might affect to be +froward, the members by such a behaviour hoping to recommend themselves +at the next election." And though Burnet only glances at the State +prosecutions as one among the causes which decided William's action, it +was with no special reference to the case of Leeds. "Besides," are his +words, "if the same Parliament had been continued probably the inquiries +into corruption would have been carried on which might divert them from +more pressing affairs, and kindle greater heats, all which might be more +decently dropped by a new Parliament than suffered to lie asleep by the +old one." + +A proclamation was accordingly issued dissolving the existing +Parliament, and summoning a new one for the 22d of November. The +interval was employed by William in an unwonted effort to conciliate the +goodwill of the electors. For the first and only time in his reign he +set out upon a royal progress through the eastern and northern parts of +his kingdom, visiting many great houses, not only of Whig, but in some +cases of Tory magnates. At each of his stopping-places the rural +population of all degrees from squire to peasant thronged to see him, +and it seems evident that he made almost pathetic efforts to please. +"The King," says Burnet, who is always an outspoken critic of his royal +master, "studied to constrain himself to a little more openness and +affability than was natural to him; but his cold and dry way had too +deep a root not to return too oft upon him." Neither at Cambridge in his +journey northward, nor at Oxford, which he took on his return, was his +visit a success. The chiefs of the younger University invited him to no +entertainment; he declined that which was offered him by the +authorities of the elder. People murmured, too, at his visit to Althorp, +and some remarked, no doubt with less truth than ill-nature, that the +only place in which he really succeeded in making himself agreeable was +at the seat of the highly unpopular Sunderland. Nevertheless, and +however little these conciliatory efforts may have contributed to the +result, the elections went generally in William's favour. In many +constituencies Tories lost their seats, and were replaced by Whigs. The +city of London, which had returned four of the former party, now sent to +Parliament four of the latter. Members were in some places expressly +instructed by their constituents to support the King, and to vote +whatever supplies might be necessary for the vigorous prosecution of the +war. The new Parliament contained about one hundred and sixty members, +of whom the greater number were known to be well disposed towards the +King. William had triumphantly performed a feat which, as attempted by +the advisers of the sovereign, has perhaps more often been attended with +disaster than with success. + +On the 22d of November, the day appointed, the new Parliament met. The +Commons again chose Foley for their Speaker, and the King made a long +speech from the throne. The demand for supplies was still very high, but +William said that as he had engaged in the present war by the advice of +his first Parliament, who thought it necessary for the defence of the +Protestant religion and the preservation of the liberties of Europe, and +as the last Parliament had with great cheerfulness assisted him to carry +on the war, so he could not doubt but that the present Parliament would +be unanimously zealous in the prosecution of it, particularly since the +advantages gained that year afforded a reasonable hope of future +success. The Commons voted an address of thanks and congratulation upon +the success of his Majesty's arms abroad, and pledged themselves to the +prosecution of the war. William returned a short but suitable answer, +and the business of the session began. The Legislature set to work to +effect a much-needed purification of the coinage, and as the Lords had +made a concession to the Commons in respect of the measure which became +necessary for this purpose, the Lower House now assented to the often +rejected amendment introduced by the Upper House in the Bill for +regulating trials in cases of high treason, which now at last became +law. But the session was not to proceed far without giving birth to an +unfortunate difference between Parliament and the King. William, with +that ill-judged profuseness of liberality towards his Dutch adherents, +by which he compromised not only contemporary popularity but posthumous +reputation, proposed to grant to Portland a magnificent estate +consisting of five very extensive manors in Denbighshire. The people of +the county forthwith set up the cry that the King intended to make this +foreigner Prince of Wales, so far at least as he could do so by +bestowing on him all that the Crown had to give in the principality. The +local gentry petitioned against the grant, and an address was voted +requesting the King to stop it. "Portland," says Macaulay, "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." It would have been better, however, if the +historian had in this place added that William forthwith made a fresh +grant to the Earl of Portland of the manors of Grantham, Dracklow, +Pevensey, and East Greenwich, in the counties of Lincoln, Cheshire, +Sussex, and Kent, together with the honour of Penrith in the county of +Cumberland, and other manors in Norfolk, York, and the Duchy of +Lancaster. As these ancient crown-lands were far apart it could not now +be said that the King was creating a principality for the favourite, but +it removed no other of the serious objections to the grant. + +Again, however, and as before, at a moment when the seldom very bright +sky of William's popularity threatened to become seriously overcast, the +sympathies of his people were revived by his enemies. The most +formidable of the conspiracies against the King's life, that known _par +excellence_ as the Assassination Plot, was set on foot, or rather +revived, as the renewal of a project which had been frustrated several +months earlier by the departure of William for the Continent--in the +autumn of 1695; and by the spring of the following year was ripe for +execution. Its leading spirit was one Sir George Barclay, a Scotchman, +who came over from St. Germains with a special commission from James, +which if it did not actually contemplate, or at least expressly sanction +assassination, was, to say the least, of a dangerously elastic +character. Among those whom he enlisted in the conspiracy were one +Charnock, an ex-fellow of Magdalen College, who had been a tool of James +II. in his high-handed violation of the statutes and liberties of that +society, Sir John Fenwick, a man of good family and connections and a +noted Jacobite agitator, and Sir William Parkyns, a Tory. The plan of +the conspirators was to lie in wait for William at a ferry on the +Thames, which he was in the habit of crossing every Saturday on his way +from Kensington to hunt in Richmond Park. To overpower the royal guards +it was necessary to raise the number of the conspirators to forty, among +whom it was tolerably certain that there would be at least one traitor. +As a matter of fact there were three. The secret was communicated by one +of these to Portland; the King, at first disposed to make light of it, +consented at last to abandon his hunting expedition on the Saturday +fixed for the assassination, and again on the same day in the following +week; and the principal conspirators were arrested. Barclay escaped to +France, and the Duke of Berwick, who had at the same time been vainly +attempting to prepare the way for a French invasion by a Jacobite +insurrection, also fled the country. William, in a speech from the +throne, made a formal announcement to the two Houses of the detection of +the conspiracy and his providential escape; and shortly afterwards +several of the conspirators, including Charnock and Parkyns, were tried +and executed. + +That the discovery of the Assassination Plot tended, as Macaulay holds, +to revive the popularity of William may perhaps have been the case; it +is at any rate certain that on the occasion of the next difference +between the King and the Legislature he proved to be fully master of the +situation. The growing jealousy entertained by the landed interest +towards the wealthy traders, who were now in ever-increasing numbers +disputing the representation of the counties and provincial boroughs +with the squirearchy, gave birth during the present session to a project +of legislation of a highly reactionary kind. A Bill was brought in for +excluding from the House of Commons every one not possessed of a certain +estate in land. For a county member this property qualification was +fixed at five hundred a year, for a borough member at two hundred. Early +in February the Bill was read a second time, and referred to a select +committee, whose deliberations are rendered memorable by the fact that +an attempt was made in the course of them to antedate an existing +provision of an electoral system by about a century and a quarter. It +was proposed to add a clause enacting that votes should be taken by +ballot, but the proposition was rejected without a division. Duly +revised by the committee the Bill was returned to the House, and it then +became apparent that the pretensions of the landed interest were to meet +with resistance from an unexpected quarter. The Universities of Oxford +and Cambridge raised their voices against a restriction which struck at +individual ability no less than at personal property, and in deference +to their protest a motion was made to except the Universities from the +operation of the Bill. This, however, was rejected by 151 votes to 143, +and a motion subsequently made to except the city of London was not +pressed to a division. The Lords, from disinclination, let us charitably +hope, to embroil themselves with the elective House on a matter of +electoral legislation, passed the Bill without any amendment, and it +came up in due course for the royal assent. It was perhaps the least +invidious of all the opportunities ever offered to William for the +exercise of the veto, and he very wisely resolved to stop the Bill. In +spite, however, of the obviously disinterested character of the +step--the measure being one which touched no royal prerogative +whatever, and which he could have no reason for vetoing save that he +believed its provisions to be opposed to the true interests of the +country--his action did not escape challenge. An attempt was made by a +section of the Tory party to carry a vote of censure upon whatever +Minister had advised him to refuse assent to the Bill. The proposal, +however, was not taken up by the more moderate members of the +Opposition, and was ultimately rejected by the very large majority of +219 to 70--a sufficiently emphatic affirmation of the legitimate +character of at least this exercise of the prerogative of disallowance. +It is of course not impossible, as has been already admitted, that the +recent revulsion of goodwill towards the King may have contributed to +the completeness of this victory, but it seems scarcely necessary to +ascribe much to the operation of any such sentiment. It is pretty clear +that the Bill for the Regulation of Elections was very doubtfully +regarded in many quarters of the House; and it is indeed rather +surprising that in a Parliament such as that returned in 1695, with Whig +influence in a distinct ascendency, it should have been possible to +carry the Bill at all. It must, moreover, be remembered that even if +there had been a more pronounced liking for it in Parliament itself, the +measure was essentially one of that character for which a shrewd member +will not venture to vote except with one eye on his constituents. +Natural as it was for a country gentleman of that day to object to a +Londoner coming down with a valise full of guineas to contest with him +his native county or his ancestral borough, it is not to be supposed +that his objection would be shared by the free and independent electors +of either constituency. To them it might appear by no means undesirable +that "local interest" should be stimulated to judicious liberality by +the competition of the open-handed outsider. + +On the 27th of April the first session of the new Parliament came to an +end, and a fortnight after the prorogation William landed in Holland, +whence he immediately set out to resume the command of the allied forces +in Flanders. His presence, however, was needed rather for purposes of +counsel than command; for, in truth, the long and desperate struggle +with Louis had now reached a stage when even the most enterprising of +captains might well be of opinion that Q. Fabius was the only general +whose tactics were worth studying. At one time it had almost become a +question which of the combatants would be the first to swoon from +exhaustion; but before William's arrival the skilful surprise and +destruction by Athlone and Cohorn of a vast magazine of ammunition and +stores, collected by the French at Groet, had virtually decided that +question against France. England, then in the throes of a monetary +crisis, was sufficiently hard put to it to support the continued strain +of the campaign; but upon France, with three armies afoot in three +hostile countries at once, the demand was far more terrible. She was +virtually too weak to attack in the Netherlands, and William probably +saw no advantage to himself in forcing an engagement. The summer passed +away in marches and counter-marches, and not a blow was exchanged +between Villeroy and the strategist who had plucked Namur out of his +grasp the year before. On the Rhine operations were equally bloodless +and indecisive. In Catalonia there had been some hard fighting, and +Vendome, who had succeeded Noailles, won a dearly-bought victory over +the Spaniards. Throughout the year, indeed, the pen was more busy than +the sword, and the straits in which Louis found himself may be measured +by the energy of his efforts to detach the allies from each other. The +wavering Duke of Savoy was at last definitively won over, his seduction, +it is said, being finally effected by assurances secretly transmitted to +Turin from the Court of Versailles to the effect that James would +inevitably be restored to his throne in consequence of the extraordinary +measures then being concerted for that purpose. The Duke, upon this, +went on pretence of pilgrimage to Loretto, and there signed a secret +treaty with France. Suspicion of his fidelity, however, soon gained +ground, and in the course of the summer he threw off the mask and +declared his intention, in accordance with a clause in the secret +treaty, of establishing a neutrality over all Italy. To this, of course, +the Emperor and the Kings of Spain and England refused to assent; but +the Duke compelled them to submission by an invasion of Milan, and all +Italian resistance to the French power was brought to an end. Louis at +the same time made separate overtures of peace to the Dutch, and with +such success that the States-General formally resolved that the +concessions of France afforded good ground for a treaty. The terms were +communicated to the other members of the confederacy, by some of the +weaker of whom they were accepted, although the Emperor and the King of +Spain united in rejecting them. + +While matters were in this condition William returned to England for the +parliamentary session, and in his speech on the 20th of October to the +two Houses he informed them that overtures of peace had been made by the +enemy. But the language in which he referred to them left no doubt of +his own views. "I am sure," he said, "we shall agree in opinion that the +only way of treating with France is with our swords in our hands." This +is not a method of treating with foreign Powers which finds equal favour +in our own day; but in 1696 there was no great difference among English +parties as to the proper mode of negotiating, at any rate with Louis +XIV. The House of Commons was as sternly distrustful of the French king +as was William himself. Protracted and burdensome as had been the +struggle, they were in no more hurry to catch at Louis's overtures than +he. In their address of reply the Commons recalled the fact that this +was the eighth year that they had assisted his Majesty with large +supplies for carrying on a just and necessary war, and that this war had +cost the nation much blood as well as treasure; but they added that the +benefits procured to religion and liberty were not dearly purchased at +this price, and they pledged themselves to provide not only the +necessary supplies for continuing the war with vigour, but also for the +payment of the public debt, which had been gradually accumulating in +consequence of the deficiencies of revenue. The close of this session +was marked by vehement debates in both Houses on the Bill for the +attainder of Sir John Fenwick. Fenwick, who had been arrested in the +previous summer, and was now lying in the Tower, endeavoured to save his +life by making a confession incriminating Marlborough, Godolphin, +Russell, Shrewsbury, and other Lords, whom he indicated as holding +communications with the exiled king. William, however, who had long been +well aware of the treason of most of these accused servants of his, +declined to notice the charges, and the accuser only sealed his own doom +by making them. A Bill of Attainder was brought in against him by the +Whigs, and, the insufficient evidence in support of it having by a +straining of the law of treason been voted sufficient, passed both +Houses after a series of hot debates in which neither political party +showed to great advantage, and Fenwick was executed. + +Early in 1697 the long struggle between France and the allies showed +signs of drawing to a close. Louis had expressed his willingness to +surrender the conquests made in the war, to restore Lorraine and +Luxembourg to their lawful owners, and to recognise William as King of +England. To these terms William and the States-General were ready enough +to assent; Spain, however, and the Emperor, raised objections; the +latter, as is suggested, on account of his desire to keep up the war +until the death of the ailing Spanish king, so that his own pretensions +to the crown of Spain might have the support of the allied army against +those of the French rival in the succession. Difficulties were +accordingly raised to delay the meeting by a Congress. The Emperor +proposed Aix-la-Chapelle as its place of meeting, and objected to the +French alternative proposal of the Hague. It was, however, finally +agreed that the representation of the allies should assemble at the +Hague, while those of France took up their quarters at Delft, a few +miles off; and that meetings between the two sets of negotiators should +take place at Ryswick, an intermediate village, in a palace belonging +to the Princes of Orange. Here accordingly they met on the 9th of May +1697, England being represented by Pembroke and Villiers, with the poet +Matthew Prior as their secretary, and France by Messieurs Harley, Crecy, +and Caillieres. Kaunitz and De Quiros were the respective +plenipotentiaries of the Empire and Spain. A Swedish minister acted as +mediator. Like other famous Congresses before and since, however, the +Congress of Ryswick made little progress; and after it had been many +weeks in session with no visible result, William resolved to open +negotiations directly with Louis through one of his generals commanding +in the Netherlands. He selected Boufflers as the most eligible for his +purpose, and Portland was directed to solicit a short interview. Leave +to comply with this request was immediately asked and obtained from the +French king, and several conferences took place between the two, +resulting, in less time than the Congress had taken to exchange powers +and settle formalities of precedence and procedure, in the settlement of +the basis of a treaty. Portland's commission was couched in highly +authoritative terms, and Marshal Boufflers's report of them shows most +strikingly how commanding an influence William then exercised in Europe, +and what lofty language one of the least assuming of men regarded it as +entitling him to use. In the French Marshal's account of his first +interview with Portland he recites an assurance conveyed to him by the +latter on the part of England, "that if satisfaction be given him on +points which concern him (the Prince of Orange) personally, he will +oblige the Emperor and the Spaniards to make peace; being satisfied for +himself, as well as the States-General, with the offers which your +Majesty has made in the preliminaries, and that if the Emperor and the +Spaniards persist in refusing to make peace, he will conclude it without +them together with the Dutch."[16] + +The required satisfaction, however, was not obtained without some +difficulty. On William's side two stipulations were made, to which Louis +hesitated to assent; and neither these nor the two counter demands +advanced by the French king were ultimately assented to in the form in +which they were originally proposed. William required first that in the +peace which was to be concluded, and by which Louis was to consent to +recognise him King of England, the French king should "promise and +engage not to favour, directly or indirectly, King James against him." +The French plenipotentiaries at the Hague had already assented to their +master engaging himself not to favour directly or indirectly "the +enemies of the Prince of Orange, acknowledged King of England." William, +however, desired that James should be designated by name. "It is +absolutely necessary," writes Boufflers, reporting Portland's words to +Louis, "for the security of the Prince of Orange, that your Majesty +should engage _expressly_ not to favour directly or indirectly King +James _nominatim_; and" (this was the second point of contention) "that +he shall go and reside at Rome or elsewhere out of France, provided he +be not near enough to keep up any party in England." Boufflers added +that though the first demand might be waived if Louis had any reluctance +to mention James by name, and that "other equivalent terms" might be +found to give the Prince of Orange the securities he desires, yet that +it was indispensable in order to remove all suspicion that the exiled +king should reside out of France. + +To both of these stipulations Louis demurred. It was inconsistent, he +held, with his honour as a sovereign, and with his duties as a host and +kinsman, to name "the King of England" in the treaty and to engage to +cause him to quit France; but he offered to agree "not to assist +directly or indirectly the enemies of the Prince of Orange without any +exception"; and Boufflers was directed to point out that the last three +words would exclude all suspicion of a restriction in favour of any +person whatsoever, and in fact amount to a virtual designation of James. +Upon this a further clause was engrafted by William, engaging Louis "not +to favour in any manner whatsoever the cabals, secret intrigues, +factions, and rebellions which might occur in England, nor any person or +persons who should excite or foment them," and to this Louis, after +modifying the expression "person or persons" which he regarded +apparently as the equivalent of "James or James's adherents," consented. +An attempt was made by William to obtain an assurance that after peace +was concluded James would be "induced to resolve of his own accord" to +live out of France; but Louis declined to yield even thus far, and the +point was waived. William perhaps believed that he could the better +afford to do so, as he proposed to make his acceptance of one of Louis's +two stipulations dependent upon his obtaining practical satisfaction on +this head. To the demand for the pension of L50,000, to which Mary of +Modena was alleged to be entitled, William had signified his +willingness to allow her any sum to which she could show lawful claim, +but it seems pretty clear that he had resolved to qualify this promise +by the condition that she and her husband should quit St. Germains. The +other demand of Louis--too arrogant to have been seriously urged, and in +all probability only put forward in formal fulfilment of a promise--was +that a general amnesty should be granted to all those who had followed +the fortunes of James, and further, that they should be restored to +their forfeited estates. To this last modest request William replied +that it was not in his power to grant it since the reversal of attainder +was a matter of statute and not of prerogative; to the former he replied +with proper spirit that "as for the general amnesty, besides that his +honour and glory demand that he shall not be forced to it by a treaty of +peace, the safety of his own person requires him not to recall +individuals to England whom he knows to be his personal enemies; but +that as soon as he shall be acknowledged King of England, and in +undisturbed possession by the treaty of peace, he will readily, of his +own free will, pardon those who seem to him disposed to return with good +faith and to live in quietness, behaving as good and loyal subjects." +The demand was of course immediately waived, and the two Powers being +now in accord, it now only remained to bring the rest of the allies into +the agreement. This, however, was not to be done in a moment. Both +Austria and Spain held back, and while they were hesitating new +successes of the French arms brought about an enhancement of the French +terms. Barcelona fell before one of Louis's armies, and the South +American Cartagena before a squadron of his fleet. Upon this his +plenipotentiaries were instructed to announce that he intended to keep +Strasburg, and that unless his terms, thus modified, were accepted by +the 10th of September he should hold himself at liberty to modify them +yet further. The combined influence of the reverse and the menace, +assisted by the steady pressure of William's determination, at length +produced the desired effect. At daybreak on the 11th of September +(1697), after a night spent in debate as to the order of procedure, the +Treaty of Ryswick was at last signed as between France and Spain, France +and the United Provinces, and France and England--the Emperor being +allowed till the 1st of November to signify his adhesion. Two days later +the news was known in England, and was there received with universal +rejoicings. William, however, regarded it with no unmixed satisfaction. +"I received last night," he writes to the Pensionary, Heinsius, "your +letter of the preceding day, and your letter of yesterday has been +delivered to me to-day by Lord Villiers. May God be pleased to bless the +peace which has just been concluded, and long continue it by His grace. +Yet I confess that the manner in which it has been concluded inspires me +with some apprehensions for the future." + +FOOTNOTE: + +[16] Grimblot's _Letters of William III._, etc., i. 8. + + + + +CHAPTER XIII + +1698-1699 + + Portland's embassy--His life in Paris--The question of the + Spanish Succession--The First Partition Treaty--General + election and meeting of the new Parliament--Its temper-- + Opposition to William's military policy--Reduction of the + army. + + +One of William's first steps after the conclusion of the peace was to +appoint a strong ambassador to Versailles. Portland was selected, +partly, as it is said, in consequence of his jealousy of the growing +ascendency of his youthful rival Keppel in the favour of William, but +much more, one may suppose, because of his force of character and +intimate acquaintance with European politics. The Ambassador +Extraordinary was intended, as he understood his mission, to hold his +head high at the Court of Louis, and he undoubtedly did so. His retinue +and equipage was of remarkable splendour, and his bearing, especially +towards those who showed any sign of disputing his just pretensions, was +marked by an unflinching dignity.[17] He protested bluntly against the +presence of the would-be assassins of William at a Court at which he +was William's representative. He pressed for the removal of James and +his adherents from St. Germains; and on both these matters Louis, while +firmly maintaining the position which he had taken up at the Brabant +negotiation, showed, nevertheless, unmistakable anxiety to conciliate +the resolute ambassador. It was not, however, to deal with points of +this kind that Portland had been sent to Versailles. Another matter of +the greatest European moment was beginning to press, and it was to +endeavour to effect an adjustment of the various conflicting interests +involved in it that William had despatched his carefully-selected +emissary to the French Court. Charles II., King of Spain and the Indies, +and last of the male line of the Emperor Charles V., was known to be +near his end, and at his death the whole of his vast empire in the two +hemispheres would pass to one or other of two powerful reigning Houses, +to neither of which its transfer would be regarded with indifference by +Europe at large. The rightful heir of Charles II., if blood alone had +had to be considered, was the Dauphin of France, the son of his sister, +who had married Louis XIV. With the consent of her husband she had at +the time of her marriage renounced for herself and her posterity all +pretensions to the Spanish crown, and her renunciation was duly recorded +in a European Treaty. Failing this line it would be necessary to go back +another generation, and the Emperor Leopold, as the son of Charles's +aunt, stood next in succession. His claim was barred by no renunciation; +but it was no more likely that Louis would quietly allow him to succeed +than that he would submit to the succession of a Bourbon. It was not to +the interests of Europe that either House should acquire such an +enormous accession of territory and power. To William it appeared at any +rate intolerable that the House of Bourbon should do so, and in order to +avert this calamity, as he regarded it, he took one of the most keenly +canvassed steps of his political life in the negotiation and conclusion +of the famous Partition Treaty. There is no likelihood that posterity +will ever arrive at accord upon the policy of this famous transaction, +but before even attempting to consider the unfavourable criticisms +passed upon it, it is absolutely necessary to note one cardinal +characteristic of its nature. To William it was avowedly and essentially +an expedient adopted, to use Aristotle's expression, +kata ton deuteron +ploun+. It was never regarded or represented by him as more than the +"second-best" thing to be done in a case where the actual best had been +rendered impracticable by circumstances beyond his own control. He knew +that Louis's moderation in the settlement of the terms of Ryswick had +been merely politic; that its main object was to put an end to the war, +and so to break up the forces of a coalition which both he and his rival +knew that it would be a hard matter to get together again; and that the +peace once concluded, Louis would have it in his power to recruit his +military strength, and prepare to take advantage of the almost daily +expected death of Charles II. of Spain to carry out his long cherished +design upon that kingdom. There were two ways of dealing with this +situation, and two only. Either England must be kept under arms, or the +King of England must "transact" with the King of France. The former of +these two courses was denied him by the jealousy of his English +subjects, and he was accordingly forced upon the latter. In writing to +the Pensionary Heinsius he deplores the fact that he cannot "remain +armed," and declares that little reliance as could be placed upon +engagement with France, it was absolutely necessary that such should be +concluded; since otherwise, he writes, "I do not see a possibility of +preventing France from putting herself in immediate possession of the +monarchy of Spain in case the King should happen to die soon." +Obviously, therefore, it would be unfair to judge of the First Partition +Treaty as though the arrangement of it had been deliberately selected by +William from a variety of more or less eligible expedients. The only +mode in which it can be logically or reasonably attacked is by +contending either that the object of the Treaty, the exclusion of the +grandson of Louis from the throne of Spain, was not a political end of +such importance as to be worth bargaining for at all, or else that the +particular bargain to which William agreed was in itself an improvident +one. + +So much premised, let us proceed to examine the provisions of this +memorable instrument. Roughly speaking they would have effected a +division of the heritage of the Spanish king between the Electoral +Prince of Bavaria and the Dauphin of France. The former was to have the +kingdom of Spain, the Spanish Netherlands, and the Spanish possessions +in the New World; to the latter were to pass the two Sicilies and +Sardinia, certain places on and off the coast of Tuscany, and the +Cis-Pyrenaean portion of the Province of Guipuzcoa. Milan was to go to +the Archduke Charles, the second son of the Emperor Leopold. Such was +the arrangement, and whether its terms were to be deemed good or bad for +England, it is at least certain that they were only obtained from the +French king after long and obstinate diplomatic haggling, first between +Portland, William's Ambassador-Extraordinary at Versailles, and the +French Ministers, and afterwards between the Count de Tallard, Louis +XIV.'s ambassador to England, and William himself. The French king was +extremely anxious to secure the Spanish kingdom for his grandson Philip, +Duke of Anjou, and was ready to undertake that the Dauphin and Philip's +elder brother should waive their rights, so as to guard against the +possibility of the French and Spanish monarchies being united under one +sceptre. As to the danger lest a Bourbon, once established at Madrid, +might hand over the Spanish Netherlands to the head of the family, Louis +was willing to protect England and Holland against that danger by +consenting that those provinces should be ceded to the Elector of +Bavaria. William met this proposal, not by a direct negative, but by +raising his terms of assent to it. Not only, he insisted, must the +Spanish Netherlands pass to the Elector of Bavaria, but Louis must give +up some fortified towns on his Flemish frontier, for the better +self-protection of the United Provinces, while England was "compensated" +on the Mediterranean and the Gulf of Mexico. Louis protested on his own +behalf against the former of these proposals, and declared that the +Spaniards would never consent to the latter. At last, unable to obtain +his way with regard to the elevation of one of his grandsons to the +Spanish throne, he assented to the only alternative arrangement which +would prevent Spain from passing to his rival the Emperor, and signified +his willingness to accept the Electoral Prince of Bavaria as the heir to +the Peninsula. The obstinacy with which the points of this treaty were +contested may be measured by the fact that the first interview between +Pomponne and Portland, in which the matter of the Spanish succession was +broached, took place on the 15th of March, and it was not till the 4th +of September that the treaty was signed. It cannot therefore be +contended that William spared pains to obtain what he considered the +best terms from Louis, and having regard to the fact that the King of +Spain was not expected to live out the year, it is plain enough that on +one assumption--that, namely, of the paramount necessity of preventing +the accession of a grandson of Louis to the Spanish throne--the +negotiations could not with safety have been protracted much longer. The +latter, in short, of the two questions which were propounded at the +outset of the examination may be said to depend for its answer upon the +former. Supposing that the exclusion of the Duke of Anjou or the Duke of +Berry from the throne of Spain was a political object worth bargaining +for at all, William cannot, I think, be charged with having paid an +improvident price for it. Nor does it appear to me reasonably arguable +that the object in question was not worth bargaining to obtain. It has +been urged by some critics of this transaction that the apprehensions +roused in those days at the prospect of a Bourbon prince succeeding to +the throne of Charles were exaggerated; that experience has shown the +fallacy of supposing that ties of kindred count for much in determining +the policy of monarchs, and that it would certainly have been better +that the Spanish throne should pass to the descendant of a French king +than that the two Sicilies and other points of vantage on the +Mediterranean should pass to a future French king himself. But those who +so argue rely too much upon general principles and pay too little +attention to the facts of the particular case. One might readily admit +that ties of kindred count for little in determining the policy of +monarchs, and at the same time retain the full conviction that the +subsistence of the relation of grandfather and grandson between the then +King of France--the man and the circumstances being what they were--and +the King of Spain would have been fraught with the most disastrous +consequences for all Europe. There could be no serious doubt that the +Duke of Anjou or the Duke of Berry would be a mere puppet with his +strings pulled from beyond the Pyrenees, and that the whole resources of +his kingdom would at once have been drawn upon by Louis to enable him to +resume the war. Had the French crown rested upon another head, or even +had there been any probability that the new occupant of the Spanish +throne would have time allowed him to outgrow the _regni novitas_ and +strike out a policy of his own, the case would have been different. But +we must judge of the situation by the light of the facts as they were. +It is beside the point to argue that because a grandson of Louis after +all succeeded the Spanish king, and after a desolating war for his +dethronement continued to reign over Spain, and his children after him, +without Europe being "a penny the worse"--it is beside the point, I say, +to argue that an arrangement which operated not amiss for Europe from +1712 onwards would have been tolerable in 1698. Philip V. was well +enough as a king of Spain, after his grandfather's power had been +brought low by a dozen more years of European war, but Philip of Anjou, +the nominee and instrument of Louis XIV., at the close of the previous +century, would have been a weapon pointed at the breast of free and +Protestant Europe. You cannot judge of the strength or keenness of a +dagger by merely estimating its power in the grasp of a failing hand. + +Doubtless, however, the complaints both contemporary and subsequent of +the provisions of the Partition Treaty were to some extent stimulated by +the circumstances of its arrangement. It is well known that William, +acting as his own Foreign Minister, carried his official independence so +far as to conduct the whole of the negotiations with Louis from +beginning to end without any reference to, or at least any effective +consultation of, a single English Minister. Somers, it is true, had been +told before the King's departure for Loo that Lord Portland had been +sounded by Louis with reference to an agreement with England concerning +the Spanish succession; but it was not till the terms were actually +arranged that William wrote to Somers for his opinion upon them, +"leaving it to his judgment to whom else he might think it proper to +impart them," and adding "if it be fit that this negotiation be carried +on there is no time to be lost, and you will send me the full powers +under the Great Seal, with the names in blank, to treat with Count +Tallard." Portland at the same time communicated directly with Vernon, +the then Secretary of State, whose consent was necessary to the imprint +of the Great Seal; and Somers himself confided the affair to several +other Ministers. But it is clear, not only from Somers's own reply to +William, but generally on the face of the whole transaction, that even +if the King's English Ministers had been competent to revise the +agreement, their suggestions would have come too late. Somers's +criticisms, though sensible in themselves, were of the most tentative +character; he excuses himself indeed that his thoughts were so ill put +together, and pleaded the known effect of the waters at Tunbridge Wells, +where he then was, in "discomposing and disturbing the head so as almost +totally to disable one from writing"; but in fact he writes with the +extreme diffidence natural to the "layman" conscious of his incapacity +to advise the expert. The commission of plenipotentiaries was then drawn +out by Secretary Vernon with the names left in blank, and the Chancellor +requested the Secretary for his warrant before affixing the Great Seal. +This, however, Vernon refused to give, and Somers thereupon sealed the +powers with his own hand, taking care, however, to keep the King's +letter as a justification or an excuse for the act. That the whole +proceeding was unconstitutional, according to the fully developed theory +of the constitution, is of course obvious, and it is only a partial and +not a complete defence of William's share in it that the theory in +question was nothing like so fully developed or so firmly established as +it is at the present day. It is all very well to say that "William was +his own Foreign Minister,"--a statement which is repeated by Whig +writers, as though it sufficed to explain any conceivable +irregularity,--but the mere fact of his being unable to complete the +legal execution of a treaty without calling in the assistance of a +Minister (or rather, as it really should have been, if the Chancellor +had not taken upon him to dispense with the Secretary's co-operation, of +two Ministers), must have been a sufficient indication to the King of +the even _then_ constitutional limits of his prerogative. The _form_, in +short, was eloquent of the _fact_. It would have been plainly irrational +to suppose that the royal treaty-making power would have been made +exercisable only under the authority of an instrument validated by an +act which none but a Minister or Ministers could perform, unless it were +intended that such Minister or Ministers should be as fully responsible +for the doings of the executive in foreign as in domestic affairs. And +assuredly it cannot be regarded as more than a colourable recognition of +this responsibility to procure the merely mechanical assent of Ministers +to the results of an international agreement, in the negotiations for +which they have not been permitted to take any part. It seems difficult +therefore to contend that William was not in this matter _knowingly_ +over-riding constitutional restrictions, under the conviction probably +that the pressing nature of the emergency, and the danger of delaying +the Spanish settlement by deliberations with the English Ministers, +sufficiently justified the irregularity. + +There was that, too, in Somers's letter which would have confirmed him +in the belief that he had done well in agreeing betimes with his +adversary. The Chancellor spoke of the "deadness and want of spirit" +universally prevailing in the nation. None, he said, were disposed to +the thought of entering on a new war; but all seemed to be tired out +with taxes, to a degree beyond what was discerned till it appeared upon +the occasion of the late elections. And, indeed, the lesson of these +elections was too significant to be missed. A great change had passed +over the mind of the country since the return of the Parliament of 1695, +and the overthrow of the Tory ascendency by an electorate thoroughly +roused to a sense of the duty of prosecuting the war, and to that end +supporting the war party. In 1698, although the Tory ranks were not very +largely recruited, nor those of the non-Ministerial Whigs materially +reduced, it is certain that many candidates on both sides had been +compelled to pledge themselves to a policy of peace and retrenchment. +The new Parliament was opened by the King on the 6th of December, and +the temper of the House of Commons was not long in declaring itself. The +Ministerial party succeeded in carrying the election of their Speaker, +Sir Thomas Littleton, but they were utterly powerless to sustain their +master's military policy against the mass of opposition which it had to +encounter. A resolution was adopted cutting down the army to 7000 men, +"and these to consist of his Majesty's natural-born subjects." To +William, whose Ministers had held out hopes to him that a force of at +least 10,000 men would be sanctioned by Parliament, and who personally +held that anything less than double that number would be insufficient, a +resolution which would not only have inexcusably weakened, in his +opinion, the defences of England, but have deprived him even of the +services of those Dutch Guards who had fought with such signal bravery +for the liberties of that country, caused natural and bitter chagrin. He +gave the royal assent to the Bill founded upon this resolution, but he +gave it in a speech through the dignified composure of which his grave +concern and disappointment perceptibly struggle. A later attempt to save +his Dutch Guards, almost pathetic in its character,[18] proved +unsuccessful; and, when, in reply to this appeal, the Commons reminded +him that he had promised in 1688 to "send all foreign troops that came +over with him back again," so narrow and ungenerous an insistence on the +strict letter of his pledge must no doubt have added to his +mortification. + +The occasion of this second attempt was an event to be shortly noticed, +which might have been thought likely to dispose the Parliament to a more +liberal view of military necessities; and William has been censured by +his greatest admirer for not having applied to the House for an increase +of the English establishment instead of striving to retain a force of +his countrymen. It is not a matter for regret, however, that this +mistake, if mistake it was, should have been committed; for it enables +us pretty accurately to measure the respective proportions of reason and +prejudice in the conduct of Parliament. So far as the motive of the +House of Commons in these military retrenchments was a purely economical +one--so far even as it implied blindness to those European +considerations which our insular position no more absolved us from +regarding in 1698 than it does to-day--this motive was, if mistaken, +respectable. Even that exaggerated dread of a standing army, which, no +doubt, had more to do with the decision of the parliamentary majority +than any theory, good, bad, or indifferent, of the probable course of +European affairs, would not deserve to be severely judged. But it is +difficult to attribute the refusal of the House of Commons to sanction +William's retention of his body-guard to any worthier motive than mere +jealousy of the foreigner. It was a step as unwise from the political +point of view, and in its bearing on the relations of sovereign and +subject, as on the moral side it was ungracious. One can well understand +that the personal affront involved in it may have been harder for the +King to bear than even the rejection of his general military demands. +Anyhow there seems no doubt that upon learning the decision of the House +in the matter of the army William did seriously contemplate retirement +to Holland, after abdicating in favour of the Princess Anne, and that +nothing but the firmness of Somers prevented him from carrying his +resolution into effect. So at least Somers himself believed; and +Somers's knowledge of the royal mind, as well as of the royal character, +was distinctly superior to that of Burnet, who treated the threat of +withdrawal as not seriously meant. And when, having schooled himself to +submit with dignity and grace to this rebuff, he found himself +churlishly denied the slight personal favour which he subsequently +requested, his bitterness of feeling was, we may well believe, +extreme.[19] The whole incident is one which no Englishman of the +present day, whatever his politics, can look back upon without a sense +of shame. + +William, it may be imagined, was not sorry to put an end to a +parliamentary session so fraught with unpleasant incidents. Nor, after +the settlement of the military question, was there much more business to +be done. Its despatch, however, was attended by one occurrence which +deserves notice here as having prepared the way for one of the gravest +political conflicts of the reign. Defeated by the manoeuvre above +referred to in their attack upon the Crown grants, the country party +brought their forces to bear upon a position at once more limited and +more assailable. They demanded a commission of inquiry into the disposal +of the Irish forfeitures, and to insure the accomplishment of their +object they resorted to the questionable expedient of "tacking" to a +money Bill which they were sending to the Upper House a clause +authorising the appointment of seven commissioners to carry out the +proposed investigation. To this virtual "ouster" of their jurisdiction +over the question the Lords very naturally objected. They could not +reject the Land Tax Bill, the measure to which this clause had been +tacked, without creating national confusion; and rejection without +amendment was their only constitutional alternative to accepting +it--commissioners' clause, and all. They demurred, but ultimately +yielded, under protest; and William, not as it seems without foreboding +of future trouble, assented to the Bill with its irrelevant rider. + +It was now the month of May, and the Houses, having held uninterrupted +session ever since the 1st of January, had fairly earned their recess. +On the 4th of the month the King came down to Westminster and bade his +Parliament a cold adieu. + +FOOTNOTES: + +[17] It is with a mixture of amusement and admiration that one reads in +Grimblot (i. 220) the account he gives of one of his diplomatic +receptions: "The King had sent the Duke d'Aumont, his first gentleman of +the bedchamber, to compliment me. After this the Duchess of Burgundy +sent the Marquis de Villacerf. They then began to make new pretensions, +requiring me to go and meet him half-way down the steps, as I had done +the former nobleman, and I refused to receive him except at the door of +the antechamber, which is at the top of the stairs. This gave rise to a +lengthened dispute, during which he was standing half-way up the steps, +and I at the top, while messengers passed backwards and forwards between +us. At length I sent him word that, if this did not content him, it +would be best for each of us to go our own way, without my having the +honour of seeing him, for that undoubtedly I should do no more, after +which he came up." Upon this grandee's leaving another difficulty arose. +Portland, although he conducted him back to his carriage, did not wait +to "see him depart," on which the "conductor of ambassadors" made great +complaints. The dispute as to the proper ceremony of reception was +renewed by the next arrival, when the conductor of ambassadors behaved +impertinently in public, "obliging me," says Portland, "to treat him as +became a person who has the honour to represent your Majesty," whereat +the conductor of ambassadors was "confounded and irritated." + +[18] The message from the King runs thus: "His Majesty is pleased to let +the House know that the necessary preparations are made for transporting +the Guards who came with him into England, and that he intends to send +them away immediately, unless out of consideration for him the House be +disposed to find a way for continuing them longer in his service, which +his Majesty would take very kindly." + +[19] He writes in a letter to Lord Galway, Jan. 27, 1699: "It is not +possible to be more sensibly touched than I am at my not being able to +do more for the poor refugee officers who have served me with so much +zeal and fidelity. I am afraid the good God will punish the ingratitude +of this nation. Assuredly on all sides my patience is put to the +trial." + + + + +CHAPTER XIV + +1699-1700 + + Death of the Electoral Prince of Bavaria--Renewed negotiations + --Second Partition Treaty--The Irish forfeitures--The + Resumption Bill--Will and death of the King of Spain. + + +The political event on which William had founded hopes of re-opening the +army question has been indirectly referred to in the last chapter. This +event, as has been said, was one which might reasonably have been +thought likely to dispose the English Parliament to a more liberal view +of the military necessities of the country by bringing once more into +prominence a European danger which diplomacy had been hitherto believed +to have averted. In the early days of 1699 the Electoral Prince of +Bavaria--the youthful heir-designate of the Spanish monarchy--took his +departure from a troubled world whose confusions were to be formidably +increased by his quitting it. The English Parliament, as we have seen, +refused to allow the Prince's death to modify their policy. But William +could not afford to overlook it; for it, of course, reopened at once the +whole question which had been closed by the First Partition Treaty, and +rendered it necessary to nominate a new successor to the Spanish +kingdom and its possessions in the New World. Louis XIV. was the first +to move in the matter. He instructed De Tallard to sound William as to a +new Treaty, and, after one or two candidates had been mentioned and +rejected, it was finally agreed between the French and English +sovereigns that the Archduke Charles, the son of the Emperor Leopold, +should be the future King of Spain and the Indies, and that the +Milanese, which had been allotted to him under the First Treaty, should +go to Louis, by whom it was to be bartered for Lorraine. The arrangement +was complete in all respects except that of having received the sanction +of the Emperor by the summer or early autumn of 1699; but the rumour of +it caused a violent outbreak of indignation in Spain. The Marquis of +Canales, Spanish Ambassador at the English Court, was instructed to +protest, which he did in terms so insolently imperious that William, on +being informed at Loo of the language used by him, at once directed that +the Marquis's passports should be handed to him, and at the same time +recalled our own ambassador at Madrid. By whose means the provisions of +the new Treaty were communicated to the Spanish Court and people is not +certainly known; but considering that one of the parties to whom it had +been submitted rejected it (for the Emperor at the eleventh hour refused +to sign), and, moreover, that another party--the French king--had never, +in all probability, sincerely assented to it, there is no need for much +speculation on this point. Leopold had known and obvious motives for +disclosing it to the unhappy Charles, and Louis is more than suspected +of having private motives for doing so. But whichever of the two was the +medium of communication, Louis was indisputably the gainer. The news +aroused a powerful anti-Austrian feeling in the minds of the Spanish +people, of which the French King, who was far better served at the Court +of Madrid than the Emperor, was not slow to take advantage. From the +autumn of 1699 till the 1st of November 1700, when the few and miserable +days of Charles II. came to an end, the agents of France worked +persistently, and in the end successfully, to overcome the Austrian +leanings of the dying monarch, and to convince him that on grounds of +patriotism, no less than of legal and moral obligation, he was bound to +devise his dominions to his lawful French heir, and away from the Prince +to whom Louis had solemnly agreed with William that they should pass. + +The final consummation of these intrigues, however, was still a year +distant, and meanwhile an incident of extreme interest, and at the time +of exceeding gravity, in English politics, has to be recorded. On the +19th of November Parliament met again, and in a mood which boded ill for +the relations between the sovereign and the third estate of his realm. +The session began with one of the numerous abortive attacks made upon +Somers in the course of his distinguished career, and an equally +unsuccessful attempt was made to procure the disgrace of that perpetual +bugbear of the Tories, Bishop Burnet. But these were merely in the +nature of preliminary skirmishes; it was not long before hostilities +were opened upon William and his Ministers in a more serious way. It +will be remembered that at the close of the last session the Commons +tacked to the Land Tax Bill a clause appointing seven commissioners to +inquire into the Irish forfeitures, and that the Lords, after some +demur to the manner in which the proposal was being forced upon them, +passed the measure. The report of these commissioners, who had been +pursuing their inquiries in Ireland during the recess, was now ready, +and early in the session it was presented to Parliament, signed by four +of the commissioners, the other three dissenting. Disfigured by many +exaggerations and some wilful misstatements, this important document +contained, nevertheless, an amount of discreditable truth sufficient not +only to excite considerable popular feeling against William at the time, +but to inflict some permanent injury on his historical reputation. + +The four commissioners reported that all the lands in the several +counties in Ireland belonging to the forfeited persons amounted, as far +as they could reckon, to 1,060,762 acres, worth L211,623 per annum, and +computed therefrom to be of the capital value of L2,685,138. That some +of these lands had been restored to the old proprietors by virtue of the +Articles of Limerick and Galway, or by his Majesty's favour through +reversal of outlawries, and royal pardons obtained chiefly by +gratifications to such persons as had abused his Majesty's royal bounty +and compassion; and that besides these restitutions, which they thought +to be corruptly procured, there were seventy-six grants and "custodians" +under the Great Seal of Ireland, of which they made a recital--as, for +instance, to the Lord Romney, three grants now in being, containing +49,517 acres; to the Earl of Albemarle, in two grants, 106,633 acres in +possession and reversion; to William Bentinck, Esq., Lord Woodstock +(Portland's eldest son), 135,820 acres of land; to the Earl of Athlone +in two grants, 26,480 acres; to the Earl of Galway one grant of 36,148 +acres, etc. That the estates so mentioned did not indeed yield so much +to the grantees as they were valued at, because as most of them had +abused his Majesty on the real value of their estates, so their agents +had imposed upon them, and had either sold or let the greatest part of +these lands at an undervalue; but that after all deductions and +allowances there yet remained L1,699,343: 14s. which they laid before +the Commons as the gross value of the estates forfeited since the 13th +day of February 1689, and not restored. The commissioners went on, in +excess, as it should seem, of their attributions,[20] to report that +William had conferred the forfeited Irish estates of the late King +James, estimated at 95,649 acres, worth L25,998 a year, on his mistress, +the Countess of Orkney. Excluding this item, however, the value of the +restorations and royal grants against which the commissioners reported +amounted, it will be seen, to close upon a million sterling. + +It is very probable, indeed it may be said to be certain, that the total +value of these forfeitures was grossly exaggerated by the commissioners; +it is possible that it was to some extent wilfully exaggerated for party +purposes. The lands forfeited in Ireland during the Revolution may have +been worth "nearer half a million sterling than two millions and a +half." It does not seem to me, however, that this is a point of the +importance which Macaulay seems to attach to it. Even if it could be +shown that the proportion of the royal grants to the total forfeitures +was unduly magnified through an over-estimate of the value of the +former, I cannot see that it would affect the merits of the case. The +real gist of the charge against William in respect of these +grants--assuming, that is to say, that he was justified in making them +at all without the sanction of Parliament--is to be sought not in a +comparison of the royal benefactions with the amount of the property at +his disposal, but in an examination of their proportions _inter se_. +Even if it be shown that he distributed property of the value not of a +million sterling, but of only a fifth of that sum, it remains equally +true in either case, that more than one-tenth of his bounty went to a +single favourite who had little or no public services to show for them, +and very nearly an eighth to a young man whose only claim upon him was +that of being an able and faithful servant's eldest son. The grants to +Albemarle and Woodstock are impossible to defend, and the latter almost +impossible to explain. William had already loaded Portland with +benefits, and to the vast estates he had bestowed upon him in England +his eldest son would, in the natural course of events, succeed. On what +ground, either of justice or even of sentiment, it could have been +thought well to enrich the expectant heir of so much English landed +property with 135,820 acres of forfeited Irish land is a mystery which +has never been satisfactorily explained. As to the grant to Albemarle, +it was of even worse example. Woodstock was at least the son of a +counsellor to whom William owed much, and whom he might conceivably +have regarded himself as rewarding in the person of his heir; but what +had Keppel, a mere favourite, a young courtier with no other +recommendations but his youth, his good looks, and his complaisance, a +personality too closely recalling that of a "minion" of Henri Trois, and +which in the Jacobite libels, not wisely to be thus supplied with +colourable pretexts for their calumnies, was openly so described--what, +one cannot but ask, had Keppel done to deserve a grant of 106,633 acres +of the forfeited Irish land? Compare these two largesses, Woodstock's +and Albemarle's, with those bestowed on Lord Romney, an ex-Secretary of +State, and one of the leaders of the movement which brought William to +England; on Lord Athlone, the stout Dutch soldier who, as General +Ginkel, had given and taken many a hard knock in his master's service; +on Lord Galway, that gallant Marquis de Ruvigny who had turned the flank +of the Irish on the bloody day of Aghrim. Albemarle's, the smaller of +the two, is more than twice that of Romney, nearly thrice that of +Galway, more than four times that of Athlone. It was impossible for +William to contend in the face of this evidence that he had simply been +using the forfeited lands of Irish rebels to reward those public +servants who had done most by valour in the field, or wisdom in the +council-chamber, to establish firmly on the throne of England, the +Prince chosen by the nation; and that therefore he was merely +anticipating the national reward which would have been conferred upon +them, and virtually drawing upon one national fund in relief of +prospective charges upon another. He could not even contend, as we have +seen, that this was the _main_ use to which he had put the forfeitures; +for though wisdom and valour had come in for a share of the spoils, +their share was lamentably smaller than that which was won by mere arts +of courtiership. There is, in short, no denying the fact that while +William applied a part of this property to strictly public objects, or, +in other words, to objects to which, but for such application of it, the +public would have to contribute in another shape, he devoted far too +large a portion of it to purposes of purely private benefaction, for +which he would otherwise have had to resort to drafts upon his Civil +List.[21] + +But even this does not exhaust all the disagreeable elements in the +transaction. Had the Irish forfeitures been simply in the nature of +property "within the order and disposition" of the sovereign, and +impressed with only a constructive trust for the benefit of the nation, +the King's dealings with it would have been open to grave reprehension. +As a matter of fact, however, the property in question was the subject +not of a mere constructive trust, but of an express recognition on +William's part of its fiduciary character, and of a distinct promise +that Parliament, as representing the _cestui que trust_, should have an +opportunity of deciding on the proper mode of its application. On the +5th of January 1691 the King had closed the short autumn with a speech, +in which he assured the Houses that he would not "make any grant of the +forfeited lands in England and Ireland till there be another opportunity +of settling that matter in Parliament, in such manner as shall be +thought most expedient." This undertaking had reference to a Bill which +had actually passed the Commons for applying the Irish forfeitures, and +which only failed to become law because William, who was due at the +Congress then about to meet at the Hague, was compelled to prorogue +Parliament before the Lords had had time to consider the measure. It is +vain to contend that this promise was fulfilled, because several +"opportunities" were given to Parliament to deal with the question--in +the sense that several sessions were allowed to pass without Parliament +moving in the matter--before William himself proceeded to grant away the +forfeited lands. William was not entitled, under the circumstances, to +infer any surrender of parliamentary control over the forfeitures from +mere parliamentary inaction. Such an inference would in any case have +been a somewhat questionable one; but this was a case in which the +wishes of one branch of the Legislature had already been recorded in the +form of a distinct legislative project. The King knew, in short, that +the Commons desired to make Irish rebellion as far as possible pay for +its own suppression; he knew that they looked to the value of the +rebels' lands to afford partial relief to the English tax-payer from the +heavy imposts to which he was being subjected; and when, knowing this, +he proceeded to grant away large tracts of these lands, thus affected to +the national service, at his own will and pleasure, and in many cases to +persons whom the nation would never have consented to endow so +munificently out of its own pocket, he was unquestionably dealing with +his Parliament and people after a fashion which, in the case of a +private individual standing in analogous relation to other parties, +would be severely condemned. If he intended to ignore his promise of +January 1691 altogether, his grants were mere high-handed usurpations of +right; if he relied upon the mere "allowance of opportunities" in the +manner above mentioned as being a fulfilment of that promise, then he +was guilty of something which can only be described in modern +phraseology as sharp practice. + +Undoubtedly the House of Commons might have proceeded with more +moderation than they displayed, but the majority in that House felt that +they had a good, and what was still better, a popular case against the +King and his advisers; they knew that the country was sore with the +weight of taxation, and jealous of the amount of royal favour bestowed +upon foreigners; and they felt that they might rely upon the combined +force of these two sentiments to support them in extreme measures. +Having gained their first triumph in the committal to the Tower of Sir +Richard Levinge, one of the dissentient commissioners who had charged +his colleagues with speaking disrespectfully of the sovereign in +connection with these benefactions, they introduced the famous +Resumption Bill, a measure by which all the royal grants were +invalidated, and the whole of the alienated property resumed to the use +of the State. In the Bill sent up to the Lords from the Lower House in +1690 it had been proposed to reserve a third part of the forfeitures to +the King, and William was not without hopes that this reservation, which +would just about have covered his grants to Woodstock, Albemarle, and +the three other peers whose names have been mentioned above, would be +renewed. The imperious majority, however, refused to hear of any such +modification of their demands. They rejected a clause moved by Ministers +for reserving at least some portion of the forfeitures to the King; and +they carried resolutions to the effect that "the advising, procuring, +and passing of the grants in Ireland had been the occasion of +contracting great debts, and laying heavy burdens upon the people; that +the said grants reflected highly upon the King's honour; and that the +officers and instruments concerned in procuring and passing them had +highly failed in the performance of their duty." These resolutions were +presented to William at Kensington by the Speaker and leaders of the +Opposition. William replied that he had thought himself bound to reward +out of the forfeited property those who had served him well, and +especially those who had borne a principal part in the reduction of +Ireland. The war, he said, had undoubtedly left behind it a heavy debt, +and he should be glad to see that debt reduced by just and effectual +means. + +The answer, though undoubtedly weak enough, seems scarcely open to one +of the criticisms which Macaulay pronounces upon it[22]. It would have +been not so much injudicious as absurd on William's part to "hint" that +the Irish forfeitures "could not justly be applied to the discharge of +the public debts." His meaning could only have been that it would not be +just to the grantees to resume their property in order to apply it to +public uses. It would appear, however, that the House of Commons +understood his words in the wider and less defensible sense. The +Resumption Bill was pushed vigorously through the House of Commons, and +in order to paralyze the expected resistance of the Lords, the expedient +of tacking was again resorted to. The Bill was tacked to a Land Tax Bill +for raising two shillings in the pound for the service of the next year, +and then sent to the Upper House. It passed its second reading by a +considerable majority, but in committee and on the third reading several +amendments were carried. It is highly significant, however, that though +William was known to be very solicitous to obtain the confirmation of at +least some of his Irish grants, and though the majority in the Lords in +favour of the amendment may be supposed desirous of doing all that they +reasonably could to gratify him, the Bill as regards his dealings with +the Irish forfeitures was left untouched. The majority contented +themselves with modifying certain arbitrary and inequitable provisions +whereby the Lower House had sought to usurp jurisdiction over property +which had never come to the Crown by forfeiture at all, and to grant +estates and sums of money of their own authority, and without the +constitutional intermediation of the Crown, to certain favoured +individuals. Thus amended, the Bill was sent back to the Lower House, +where it met of course with the very reception which the expedient of +tacking was designed, in the event of its coming back with amendments, +to secure for it. Parties had been much divided as to the policy of +tacking the Resumption Bill to a money Bill; but as to the duty of +resisting an attempt on the part of the Lords to amend a Bill sent up to +them in this fashion parties were united. The amendments were rejected +_nemine dissentiente_, and at the conference which followed the Lords +were informed by the managers of the Commons that the point of +constitutional practice was too well settled to be arguable, and that +the Bill was left in their hands along with the responsibility of all +the serious consequences which must follow its rejection. The Lords +nevertheless for a time stood firm; they resolved by a majority of +thirteen to adhere to their amendments, and on the following day the +Bill was, on a second conference, returned once more to the Commons, by +whom it was once more sent back to the Lords, with an intimation that +the determination of the Lower House was unalterable. This was on the +10th of May, and the whole of that day and night the greatest public +excitement prevailed. The deadlock between the two Houses had reached +such a point that if both refused to give way, and the supplies were +consequently lost, a complete dislocation of the national business, +accompanied in all probability by dangerous popular disturbance, would +have assuredly followed. + +From this peril the country was saved at the critical moment by the good +sense and magnanimity of William. His behaviour was the more creditable +to him because not only was he eager, as has been said, for the +rejection of the Resumption Bill, but he had taken so active a part in +the attempt to bring about that result that surrender must necessarily +subject him to additional humiliation. There can be no doubt from the +account given by Burnet, whose own painful perplexity between the claims +of courtiership and patriotism increases the value of his testimony on +the subject, that William had tried hard to procure the defeat of the +measure. "The King," says the Bishop, "seemed resolved to venture on all +the ill consequences that might follow the losing this Bill, though +these would probably have been fatal. As far as we can judge either +another session of that Parliament or a new one would have banished the +favourites and begun the Bill anew with the addition of obliging the +grantees to refund all the mesne profits. Many in the Lords, that in all +other things were very firm to the King, were for passing the Bill, +notwithstanding the King's earnestness for it, since they apprehended +the ill consequences that were like to follow if it was lost." On the +5th of April he told Portland that if the Bill was not stopped in the +Upper House he should count all lost; and on the same day he declared +that he was resolved not to pass the Bill, and that the only question +was whether he should prorogue the Parliament on that day or on the +following Monday. On or before the 10th of April he had reflected more +maturely on the situation, and with that intuitive recognition of when +to give way, which only strong rulers ever seem to exhibit, and which +the masterful Elizabeth had displayed before him, he saw that the time +had arrived to yield. He took steps to have it conveyed to his adherents +in the Upper House that he desired the Bill to pass; and on the sitting +of the following day, May 11, the Lords withdrew their amendments and +accepted the Bill in its original form. Thus passed away a most perilous +crisis, and William, by the fine temper and moral courage with which he +thus submitted to perhaps the most galling rebuke ever inflicted upon a +monarch by a legislative assembly, must be admitted to have gone far to +atone for the serious error of his previous action. He was, however, and +not unnaturally, of opinion that he had done enough in the cause of the +peace, and the next day, in order to prevent the presentation to him of +an address from the Commons, praying that no person not a native, except +Prince George of Denmark, should be admitted to his Majesty's Councils +in England or Ireland, he came down and prorogued Parliament without a +speech. + +The whole of the year 1700 was destined to abound in fresh troubles for +this sorely-tried and now fast waning life. No sooner had the English +Parliament separated than the Scotch Parliament met; and their first +business was to espouse the cause of their foolish and unlucky +countrymen who had taken part in the famous "Darien expedition," and +were now under detention by the Spanish Government at Carthagena. The +notable scheme in which these men had thus lost their liberty, and so +many thousands of other Scotchmen their property, was originated by an +adventurer of the name of Paterson, and depended for its success on the +double assumption that the territorial owners of the country on which +they proposed to found a trading station for the avowed purpose of +diverting trade from these owners' hands into their own would respect +their occupancy, and that the burning heat and malarious climate of an +equatorial region would spare their lives. Neither of these assumptions +had been realised. The sun and the swamps had thinned the number of the +settlers to a handful, and this remnant had been besieged, forced to +capitulate, and expelled from the isthmus by the forces of Spain. +William promised, in reply to an address from the Edinburgh legislators, +to demand the release of the Carthagena prisoners; but when the Scotch +Parliament proceeded to pass a resolution affirming that the colony in +Darien was a legal and rightful settlement, and that the Parliament +would maintain and support the same, the King thought it high time to +put a check on their proceedings. This he endeavoured to do through the +royal commissioner by means of repeated adjournments carried to such an +extent as to cause riots in Edinburgh, and at last, by dint of +conciliatory replies to their resolutions, and possibly by +gratifications of a more substantial kind, succeeded not only in +pacifying his northern subjects on this matter, but in bringing them, +before the close of the session at the end of the year, into a state of +such loyal complaisance that, unlike their English brethren, the Scotch +legislators voted for keeping on foot the whole of the land forces that +existed in the kingdom when the session began. + +The time was now fast approaching when William's military policy was to +be justified by events. Throughout the whole of this year the struggle +of rival Powers over the fast decaying body of the unhappy Charles had +gone spiritedly forward at the Court of Madrid. The combatants, however, +were unequally matched. On the side of France were enlisted the services +of Cardinal Portocarrero, who soon succeeded in removing the King's +confessor--an Austrian instrument--and substituting another in the +French interests. The terrors of religion were then brought to bear upon +the wretched sovereign in a strength sufficient to overcome his natural +leanings in the matter of the disposition of his crown and kingdom +towards his own Austrian flesh and blood. They persuaded the unhappy +imbecile that he had been bewitched through Austrian agency; they +persuaded the populace of Madrid that the partisans of Austria had +brought about a famine. Having at last succeeded in utterly discrediting +the rival party, and working upon the superstition of Charles until he +believed that if he ousted his Bourbon heir from the succession he would +be inevitably damned, the French faction finally induced him to sign a +will appointing Philip, Duke of Anjou, universal successor to the +Spanish monarchy. A month afterwards this miserable slave of the priest +and the plotter at last obtained his manumission. He died on the 1st of +November 1700, and William then learnt for the first time that the +months of laborious negotiations spent on the successive framing of two +carefully-drawn treaties had been completely thrown away. For a brief +space of time, indeed, he remained in doubt whether Louis really +intended to play him false, but before the middle of the month of +November all uncertainty was at an end. Louis threw over the Partition +Treaty and adopted the will. The Duke of Anjou was despatched into Spain +with the historic exclamation touching the effacement of the +Pyrenees--mountains certainly not in this instance removed by +"faith,"--and William had the intolerable chagrin of discovering not +only that he had been befooled, but that his English subjects had no +sympathy with him or animosity against the royal swindler who had +tricked him. "The blindness of the people here," he writes sadly to the +Pensionary Heinsius, "is incredible. For though the affair is not +public, yet it was no sooner said that the King of Spain's will was in +favour of the Duke of Anjou, than it was the general opinion that it was +better for England that France should accept the will than fulfil the +Treaty of Partition." + +FOOTNOTES: + +[20] It was justly contended by the dissentient commissioners that these +lands had passed to William by his father-in-law's abdication in 1688, +and did not therefore come properly within the purview of an inquiry +limited to forfeitures occurring since February 13, 1689. The majority +of the commission insisted, however, paradoxically enough, that James's +Irish estates were only forfeited on, and by, his invasion of Ireland in +March of the latter year. + +[21] The grants to Lady Orkney, of which so much was made by the country +party at the time, raised a totally different question on another level, +so to speak, of political morality. These grants were made out of +William's inheritance from his predecessor; and though Macaulay is no +doubt abstractedly right in arguing that William should have pensioned +his mistress out of economies effected in his Civil List than by +alienating his hereditary revenue, the remark is from the practical +point of view somewhat of an anachronism. In our day, when the lands of +the Crown are formally vested in commissioners by the sovereign in +consideration of his Civil List at the commencement of each reign, the +quasi-national character of this property is fixed and emphasised. But +no sovereign before William's time had regarded it in this light, or +recognised any implied restraint upon alienation; and William, with +Charles II.'s grants to his numerous mistresses before his eyes, may +well be excused for thinking his gift to Lady Orkney not only +justifiable but laudably moderate. + +[22] The context of the passage, "The Commons murmured, etc., 'His +Majesty tells us,' they said, 'that the debts fall to us, and the +forfeitures to him'" (_Hist. Eng._ v. 271), appears clearly to show that +Macaulay supposed William to be speaking of the whole of the forfeitures +as not justly applicable to the public debt. His own previous words will +just admit (though not in strict grammar) of the construction that the +King was referring only to the "one-fifth part of these estates" which +had passed to deserving grantees; but if this is to be its construction, +Macaulay's favourite boast that he had written no sentence capable of +being misunderstood would have to be abandoned. + + + + +CHAPTER XV + +1701-1702 + + English indifference on the Spanish question--Death of James + II. and Louis's recognition of the Pretender--Reaction in + England--Dissolution of Parliament--Support of William's + policy by its successor--The Treaties--Accident to William + --His illness and death--Character--The Whig legend examined + --His great qualities as man and ruler--Our debt to him. + + + +The insensibility of Englishmen to a danger which weighed heavily on the +mind of William was exactly matched by his own indifference to one which +appeared extremely serious to them. William dreaded the idea of a +Bourbon reigning at Madrid, but he saw no very grave objection, as the +two treaties showed, to Naples and Sicily passing into French hands. +With his English subjects the exact converse was the case. They strongly +deprecated the assignment of the Mediterranean possessions of the +Spaniard to the Dauphin; but they were undisturbed by the sight of the +Duke of Anjou seating himself on the Spanish throne. It has been said +that on their own principles they ought to have disliked the will even +more than the Partition Treaties, because the former document, in +devising _all_ the possessions of Spain to the Duke of Anjou, "gave +precisely the same advantages to France on the Mediterranean" as she +would have obtained under the Treaties. But this argument obviously +begs the whole question against the English view by assigning to the +word "France" a meaning which it was of the essence of that view to +repudiate. The very gist of the English case was that "France" and "the +second son of the French Dauphin barred from the succession to the +French Crown" were not convertible terms. Had Englishmen in general so +regarded them, they would perhaps have been as jealous of the Duke of +Anjou's succession to the Spanish throne as was William himself. They +held, however,--whether rightly or wrongly, and I have already stated my +reason for thinking that at the time and in the circumstances they were +wrong--that the elevation of Louis's grandson to the Spanish throne did +not mean the "solidarity" of France and Spain.[23] But while the Duke of +Anjou, considered as the owner of the two Sicilies, did not in their +opinion stand for "France," the Dauphin, who was to have had them under +the Partition Treaties, undeniably did. The heir to the Crown of France +of course is France, not as a matter of opinion, but as a matter of +fact. The English view therefore, however mistaken on the point of +policy, was unassailable on the ground of logic; and its inherent +plausibility, in addition to the national dissatisfaction with the +manner in which the Treaties had been negotiated, would, in all +probability, have made it impossible for William to carry the country +with him in a war policy directed against France. + +But just as, under a discharge from an electric battery, two repugnant +chemical compounds will sometimes rush into sudden combination, so at +this juncture the King and the nation were instantaneously united by the +shock of a gross affront. The hand that liberated the uniting fluid was +that of the Christian king. On the 16th of September 1701 James II. +breathed his last at St. Germains, and, obedient to one of those +impulses, half-chivalrous, half-arrogant, which so often determined his +policy, Louis XIV. declared his recognition of the Prince of Wales as +_de jure_ King of England. No more timely and effective assistance to +the policy of its _de facto_ king could possibly have been rendered. Its +effect upon English public opinion was instantaneous; and when William +returned from Holland on the 4th of November, he found the country in +the temper in which he could most have wished it to be. Still he +hesitated for a while as to whether or not he should dissolve +Parliament. Sunderland, for whose astuteness and profound knowledge of +English politics William entertained a respect unqualified, as was usual +with that cool and cynical observer of men, by any repugnance he might +have felt for the ex-Minister's political profligacy, had been consulted +by him on this point through Somers both before and since the death of +James; and this sagacious counsellor had urgently recommended a +dissolution, predicting that it would result in a signal triumph of the +Whigs. On the 7th of November William laid the question before his Privy +Council, who were divided in opinion, and, acting on his own judgment, +he then determined to dissolve. On the 11th of the month the royal +proclamation to that effect was issued, and the new Parliament summoned +to meet on the 31st of December. The result did not, indeed, completely +bear out Sunderland's prediction, but it proved that a marked change had +taken place in the opinion of the country; for, though the Tories +managed still to hold their own in the smaller boroughs, the Whigs +carried most of the counties and great towns. Their opponents, however, +were strong enough to re-elect Harley to the Speakership, his nomination +being seconded by his afterwards yet more famous political ally, Henry +St. John, the future Lord Bolingbroke. William addressed the Houses in a +speech of unusual length and earnestness, in which he recalled the "high +indignity" offered to himself and the nation by Louis's recognition of +the pretended Prince of Wales as King of England, and the dangers with +which England and Europe were threatened by the elevation of his +grandson to the Spanish throne. To obviate these dangers he had, he told +them, concluded several alliances, and treaties for the conclusion of +others were still pending. He went on to remind them that the eyes of +all Europe were upon this Parliament, and "all matters at a standstill +until their resolution was known. Therefore," said he, "no time ought to +be lost; you have an opportunity, by God's blessing, to secure to you +and your posterity the quiet enjoyment of your religion and liberties, +if you are not wanting to yourselves, but will exert the ancient vigour +of the English nation; but I tell you plainly my opinion is, if you do +not lay hold on this occasion you have no reason to hope for another." +He concluded with an exhortation, almost passionate for him, to lay +aside "the unhappy fatal animosities" which divided and weakened them. +"Let me conjure you to disappoint the only hopes of our enemies by your +unanimity. I have shown, and will always show, how desirous I am to be +the common father of my people; do you in like manner lay aside parties +and divisions; let there be no other distinction heard of among us in +future but of those who are for the Protestant religion and the present +Establishment, and of those who mean a Popish prince and a French +Government." + +This stirring speech produced its due effect. Opposition in +Parliament--in the country it was already inaudible--was completely +silenced. The two Houses sent up addresses assuring the King of their +firm resolve to defend the succession against the pretended Prince of +Wales and all other pretenders whatsoever. The Commons declared +independently--in those days addresses from the two Houses were not as +now identical in terms--that they would to the utmost of their power +enable his Majesty to make good all such alliances as he had made--an +omission from the address of the Upper House which their Lordships +subsequently supplied. Nor did the goodwill of Parliament expend itself +in words. The Commons accepted without a word of protest the four +treaties constituting the new Grand Alliance, though the inequality of +some of their conditions as regarded England, and the self-seeking +motives which actuated one at least of their continental signatories, +were apparent on the face of them. The votes of supply were passed +unanimously, and ere the Parliament had well completed the first +fortnight of its existence a Bill of Attainder against the Prince of +Wales--in which the Lords endeavoured, but in vain, to include Mary of +Modena--had passed both Houses. But the King's assent to this, as also +to an Abjuration Bill directed to the same object, had to be given by +commission; for William was now already sickening to his death. His +always feeble health had become feebler during the winter; his constant +asthma had told heavily upon the condition of his lungs; his legs had +swollen to an extent which led his doctors, though erroneously it would +seem, to suspect dropsy; he had, in fact, arrived at that state of body +in which any accident might be fatal. On Saturday, the 21st of February, +he set out from Kensington on horseback to hunt, according to his weekly +custom, at Hampton Court. On the road his horse stumbled over a +molehill,[24] and fell with his rider, who fractured his right +collar-bone. William was taken to Hampton Court, where the bone was set, +and the surgeon, finding him feverish, recommended bleeding. This he +declined, and, contrary to advice, insisted on returning that evening to +Kensington, where it appeared that the setting of the bone had been +displaced by the motion of the carriage, and the operation had to be +repeated. William slept well, and for a few days no signs of mischief +appeared. But, as was afterwards shown by the autopsy, the fall from his +horse had violently detached a diseased portion of his lungs from its +adhesion to the walls of the thoracic cavity, and this had set up +pulmonary inflammation. On the 28th of February he found himself unable +to attend Parliament in person, and accordingly conveyed to the Houses +by way of message his last recommendation of a project which, ever +since the beginning of his reign, he had had much at heart--that, +namely, of effecting a legislative union between England and Scotland. +On the next day alarming symptoms appeared. The assent to the Prince of +Wales's Attainder Bill was given by commission, and a week later, on the +7th of March, when it became necessary to issue another commission for a +similar purpose, William was past the power of subscribing the +sign-manual, which had to be affixed by a stamp. "_Je tire vers ma +fin_," he murmured to Albemarle, who had arrived from Holland the same +night; and, as the perversity of fate had willed it, he who had from +boyhood sought death everywhere, had not for years perhaps been so +little prepared to meet it. "Sometimes he would have been glad, he told +Portland, to have been delivered out of all his troubles, but he +confessed now he saw another scene, and could wish to live a little +longer." It was another scene indeed--the whole web of his Spanish +policy unravelled, his great enemy once more powerful for mischief, the +whole work of his life to do again! + +He lived through the night, but that was all. Burnet and Tillotson had +gone to him that morning and did not quit him till he died. The +Archbishop prayed with him some time, but he was then so weak that he +could scarcely articulate. "About five o'clock on Saturday morning he +desired the Sacrament, and went through the office with great appearance +of seriousness, but could not express himself; when this was done he +called for the Earl of Albemarle and gave him a charge to take care of +his papers. He thanked M. Auverquerque for his long and faithful +services. He took leave of the Duke of Ormond, and called for the Earl +of Portland, but before he came his voice quite failed; so he took him +by the hand and carried it to his heart with great tenderness. Between +seven and eight o'clock the rattle began; the commendatory prayer was +said for him, and as it ended he died." + +More than one hundred and eighty years have passed since that morning; +but though the fierce political controversies which raged around the +person and character of the dead man, leaving, perhaps, no quality but +his courage unassailed, have long since subsided, some into utter +silence, others into moderation, it is impossible to say that their +disturbing force is altogether spent. A faint echo from those furious +clamours may still be heard mingling with the voice of History; a ripple +from those distant billows still breaks the mirror of her judgment. It +could hardly be otherwise. The principles of which William was in part +the voluntary and in part the unchoosing champion have triumphed so +completely that they find nowadays no avowed opponent, and scarcely even +any secret enemy; but it was William's destiny to have been identified +in the promotion and defence of them with an English political party +whose many excellent qualities as statesmen and citizens have been +always associated with a moral and intellectual temper which, for a +century and a half, has offered a standing provocation to men of every +other political school. Fate made William of Orange a Whig hero, and in +arranging his preliminary condition ordained also by inevitable sequence +his exposure to some measure of the polemical resentments which his +votaries have never failed to concentrate upon themselves. That the +Whigs of his own day should have behaved as they did, on many occasions +exceedingly ill to him, is no more unnatural than that they should have +unduly exaggerated his virtues after his death. Both their ill-treatment +and their excessive eulogy of him were, in different ways, the +expression of the same modest confidence in their own civil deserts. The +Whigs believed themselves entitled not only to an exclusive interest in +a living Whig-made king, but also to as much capital as could be made +out of his posthumous renown. If they behaved ill to him at times during +his life, it was to assert the just claims of the Whig party; if they +over-praised him when dead, it was by way of just tribute to the Whig +virtues. + +Far be it from me to suggest that William of Orange needs any such +artificial additions to his legitimate glory. They are mentioned merely +to account for and excuse the fact that an impartial review of his +career and character needs to be commenced with what might otherwise +seem words of captious disparagement. It is absolutely necessary to +strip off the draperies of partisanship in order to see the real man +beneath; but that truly heroic figure can well afford it. + +William of Orange, I maintain then, is not to be regarded as altogether +that "patriot king," that "sovereign of the people," which it has +pleased his Whig devotees to discover in him, still less as that sort of +anticipatory and prophetic political philosopher for which he passes in +the legend of some Whig constitutionalists. No doubt he had a distinct +popular fibre in his nature. The great-grandson of his great-grandfather +can hardly have been wanting in sympathy with popular aspirations, or in +belief in the might and virtue of popular forces. But such sentiments +have been the birthright of many a man whose instincts were the very +reverse of democratic; and there is no reason to think that William +either foresaw or would have relished that growth of the democratic +element in English government to which he inevitably contributed so +powerful a stimulus. He was not, it must be remembered, a democrat even +in his own country; on the contrary, his strongest impulses were +essentially of aristocratic origin. It was not his Protestant +enthusiasm, though this was ardent enough, nor his love of his country +and his hatred of foreign dictation, though these passions were strong +and sincere enough, which were the dominant influences in moulding his +youthful character. It was pride of ancestry, the memory of William the +Silent, resentment at the fallen fortunes of his house, and resolution +to restore them. These it was which first inspired him with an ambition +essentially personal in its character, and it was not till this ambition +had been gratified by his elevation to higher dignities even than his +forefathers, that the other impulses of birth or training can be said to +have begun to sway him at all. And until that ambition was gratified he +was not only capable of all the virtues of the ambitious, but an adept +in their vices also. He was but sixteen when he taught his mother the +wisdom of disarming the suspicion of the Pensionary De Witt by pretended +cordiality, and earned the criticism of the shrewd French envoy +d'Estrades that he was "a great dissembler, and omitted nothing to gain +his ends." So, too, one can hardly doubt that it was ambition rather +than zeal for liberty and Protestantism that first inspired him with +that design of intervention in England, which must have just taken shape +in his mind shortly after the return of Dykvelt from his mission of +1687. His succession, or rather his wife's succession, was safe enough +if Mary of Modena bore no male issue to James. But she might and did +bear such issue, in a child whose claims could only be set aside by a +revolution; and even had no heir apparent been born to the throne, the +position of William accepting the English crown conjointly with his wife +in his capacity as liberator of the English people would be something +very different from that of a king-consort, which was all he could +otherwise have hoped to be. It is surely not unjust to a man of +William's antecedents to believe that from the hour that he learned the +strength of his party in England, down to the hour when he was presented +with the crown in the banqueting chamber at Whitehall, he had eyes for +little else than the great European future which would open before him +as King of England; and that any hesitations he may have shown in +accepting the sovereignty were as purely politic as those of Caesar at +the Lupercal. + +As regards his attitude towards English political institutions in +general, and the _voluntary_ element in his share in developing them, +the Whig legend appears to me more purely mythical still. At no time in +his life did William show the slightest personal predilection for or +even faith in parliamentary institutions, still less in party +government. He looked upon the English Parliament as a clumsy and +irritating instrument, blunt at one part, dangerously double-edged at +another, which he was nevertheless bound to work with and make the best +of. That he was the first to try the system of a party ministry and +party government is, as I have essayed to show, a fact of little +significance. He tried it as he tried other means of managing the +apparently otherwise unmanageable, as he had at first tried dividing +offices of State among the leading men of both parties, and as he had +tried and continued to try the method of corruption for the rank and +file. As to any preference of one English party to another there is no +trace of such a feeling in his mind. From the moral point of view, I +imagine, he regarded most of the leaders of both parties with an equal, +and, it may be, with an equally just, contempt; but with his +intellectual appreciations he never allowed his moral judgment to +interfere. He used the unscrupulous Tory Marlborough and the +unscrupulous Whig Sunderland with an impartial indifference to their +political profligacy. He made trial, in fact, of all English public men +and of all political expedients to serve his European ends, which were +sometimes but not always English ends also; and thus it was that though +he experimentalised with the strict party system in order to secure a +Parliament which would support the war energetically in 1695, yet in the +next Parliament, his immediate object being gained, he showed no +disposition to prosecute that experiment on abstract political grounds. +It is impossible to represent a ruler of this kind, however wise and +moderate, as _consciously_ training our parliamentary institutions upon +the peculiar lines of growth which they subsequently followed. + +Yet after all these deductions there remains to William, both as a +European statesman and as a benefactor to our country, an ample margin +of renown. Of his moral and mental stature as a man it is scarcely +necessary to speak. It must be patent to all but the dullest prejudices +of our day as it was to all but the fiercest passions of his own. It is +the highest praise of his high qualities to say that our impression of +them easily survives the reaction from idolatry, and that after we have +thrown aside the magnifying-glass of Whiggism the objects which it was +used to exaggerate still fill the eye. If William had not all the +virtues which belong to the patriot and philosopher, he had all that go +to the making of the hero. Even Macaulay, who has over painted both his +king-craft and his statesmanship, has not laid on the colours of his +heroism with too bold a hand. Sagacious as he undoubtedly was in +counsel, dexterous as he was in the management of men, keen as was his +outlook on European politics, and resourceful as he was in meeting its +exigencies, it is possible to contend that his Whig eulogist has +credited him with far more than the keenness and sagacity, the dexterity +and resource, which he possessed. But such eulogy does not, for it could +not, materially exaggerate his great features as a man--his patience of +delay and disappointment, his fortitude under disaster, his +imperturbable composure in moments of crisis, his lofty magnanimity, +which from its high place seemed literally to overlook rather than to +forgive injuries, his haughty courage, which thought it equal shame to +glance aside at the lurking assassin and to turn away from the open foe. +His character was stern, forbidding, unamiable, contemptuously generous, +as little fitted to attract love as it was assured of commanding +respect; but it bears in every lineament the unmistakable stamp of +greatness. And his achievements were as great as his character. His +record as a ruler pure and simple, as a mere expert in the art of +governing, has never been surpassed, perhaps never equalled, in history. +The showy administrative exploits of a Napoleon with vast armies at his +back, and the pen of a despotism in his hand, appear to me to sink into +insignificance when compared with those of this ruler of four nations--a +constitutional sovereign in England and Scotland, the chief of a +republic in Holland, and a military autocrat, governing by the sword +alone, in Ireland,--who for eleven years successfully directed the +affairs of these alien and often mutually hostile communities, and who +throughout all that time held in one hand the threads of a vast network +of European diplomacy, and in the other the sword which kept the most +formidable of European monarchs at bay. Nor should we omit from the +comparison that he did all this under moral restraints and physical +disadvantages to which Napoleon was a total stranger, impeded by +obligations to law, municipal and international, which Napoleon set +cynically at defiance, and distressed throughout his life by bodily +ailments which never troubled the Corsican's iron frame. + +Nor in what has been written in criticism of the Whig legend would I for +a moment be suspected of undervaluing the debt which Englishmen owe to +William of Orange. It is not necessary to exalt him into a divinely +inspired progenitor of the British Constitution in order to recognise +fully the greatness of the services which he rendered to it. He was not +"Father of the Constitution" in the sense in which the poet is the +father of his poem, or the philosopher of his theory; but assuredly he +was so in the sense in which we say that a child has found a "second +father" in an upright guardian, who, while not, it may be, comprehending +his character, or in sympathy with his spirit, or foreseeing his future, +has yet been his vigilant protector through the perils of childhood, and +has accounted for his patrimony to the uttermost farthing. That William +stood in this relation to our modern English polity throughout his too +short reign, and that he loyally discharged its obligations, is +indisputable. The virtues which enabled him to do so were mainly three, +which are essential to all good and faithful guardianship, whether of +children or constitutions--the virtues of good sense, self-restraint, +and honesty. And the greatest of these three is honesty. William's +practical wisdom always told him the moment when to yield in a struggle +with his Parliament; and when that moment arrived his naturally +passionate temper never failed to answer to the rein. But even at those +moments there would often have been an evil alternative open to him, +from which the fundamental integrity of his nature always turned aside. +He scrupled not to use all the arts of political "management" which were +sanctioned by the lax morality of his day; he exerted his prerogative +freely to gain his ends; but he knew that the compact between him and +his people was that in the last resort the will of the people should +prevail, and this compact he never attempted either to violate or to +evade. Here he was as emphatically a _Re Galantuomo_, a "King +Honest-man," as was Victor Emmanuel himself. + + "Hos ante effigies majorum pone tuorum, + Praecedant ipsas illi, te consule, virgas." + +Rulers who have earned this name may justly rank it, if only for its +rarity, above every other title of honour--even though, themselves the +creators or regenerators of nations, they can look back upon the +splendid achievements of the Counts of Nassau, or the long ancestral +glories of the House of Savoy. + +FOOTNOTES: + +[23] That Louis intended it to mean this is pretty obvious from his +remark about the effacement of the Pyrenees. + +[24] The nature of the impediment lives for history in the Jacobite +toast which so grimly reflects the brutal passions of the time--"To the +little gentleman in black velvet that works underground." + + +THE END + +_Printed by_ R. & R. CLARK, LIMITED, _Edinburgh_. + + + + +Twelve English Statesmen + +Crown 8vo. _2s. 6d._ each + +*** _A Series of Short Biographies, not designed to be a complete roll +of famous Statesmen, but to present in historic order the lives and work +of those leading actors in our affairs who by their direct influence +have left an abiding mark on the policy, the institutions, and the +position of Great Britain among States._ + + + =WILLIAM THE CONQUEROR.= By EDWARD A. FREEMAN, D.C.L., + LL.D., late Regius Professor of Modern History in the + University of Oxford. + + =HENRY II.= By Mrs. J. R. GREEN. + + =EDWARD I.= By T. F. TOUT, M.A., Professor of History, The + Owens College, Manchester. + + =HENRY VII.= By JAMES GAIRDNER. + + =CARDINAL WOLSEY.= By Bishop CREIGHTON, D.D., late Dixie + Professor of Ecclesiastical History in the University of + Cambridge. + + =ELIZABETH.= By E. S. BEESLY, M.A., Professor of Modern + History, University College, London. + + =OLIVER CROMWELL.= By FREDERIC HARRISON. + + =WILLIAM III.= By H. D. TRAILL. + + =WALPOLE.= By JOHN MORLEY. + + =CHATHAM.= By FREDERIC HARRISON. + + =PITT.= By Lord ROSEBERY. + + =PEEL.= By J. R. THURSFIELD, M.A., late Fellow of Jesus + College, Oxford. + + +English Men of Action Series + +Crown 8vo. Cloth. With Portraits. _2s. 6d._ each + + =CAMPBELL (COLIN).= By ARCHIBALD FORBES. + + =CLIVE.= By Sir CHARLES WILSON. + + =COOK (Captain).= By Sir WALTER BESANT. + =DAMPIER.= By W. CLARK RUSSELL. + + =DRAKE.= By JULIAN CORBETT. + + =DUNDONALD.= By the Hon. J. W. FORTESCUE. + + =GORDON (General).= By Sir W. BUTLER. + + =HASTINGS (Warren).= By Sir A. LYALL. + + =HAVELOCK (Sir Henry).= By A. FORBES. + + =HENRY V.= By the Rev. A. J. CHURCH. + + =LAWRENCE (Lord).= By Sir RICHARD TEMPLE. + + =LIVINGSTONE.= By THOMAS HUGHES. + + =MONK.= By JULIAN CORBETT. + + =MONTROSE.= By MOWBRAY MORRIS. + + =NAPIER (Sir Charles).= By Sir W. BUTLER. + + =NELSON.= By Prof. J. K LAUGHTON. + + =PETERBOROUGH.= By W. STEBBING. + + =RALEIGH (Sir Walter).= By Sir RENNELL RODD. + + =RODNEY.= By DAVID HANNAY. + =SMITH (Captain John).= By A. G. BRADLEY. + + =STRAFFORD.= By H. D. TRAILL. + + =WARWICK, the King-Maker=. By C. W. OMAN. + + =WELLINGTON.= By GEORGE HOOPER. + + =WOLFE.= By A. G. BRADLEY. + +MACMILLAN AND CO., LTD., LONDON + + +Foreign Statesmen Series + +Edited by J. B. BURY, M.A., Regius Professor of Modern History +at Cambridge. + +Crown 8vo. _2s. 6d._ each + + =CHARLES THE GREAT.= By THOMAS HODGKIN, D.C.L., + Author of _Italy and Her Invaders_, &c. _Ready_ + + =PHILIP AUGUSTUS.= By Rev. W. H. HUTTON, Fellow and + Tutor of St. John's College, Oxford. _Ready_ + + =WILLIAM THE SILENT.= By FREDERIC HARRISON. _Ready_ + + =PHILIP THE SECOND OF SPAIN.= By Major MARTIN HUME. + _Ready_ + + =RICHELIEU.= By R. LODGE, Professor of History in + the University of Edinburgh. _Ready_ + + =MARIA THERESA.= By Dr. J. FRANCK BRIGHT, D.D. + _Ready_ + + =JOSEPH II.= By Dr. J. FRANCK BRIGHT, D.D. _Ready_ + + =MIRABEAU.= By P. F. WILLERT, Fellow of Exeter + College, Oxford. _Ready_ + + =COSIMO DE MEDICI.= By Miss K. D. EWART. _Ready_ + + =CAVOUR.= By the Countess MARTINENGO CESARESCO. + _Ready_ + + =MAZARIN.= By ARTHUR HASSALL, Student and Tutor of + Christ Church, Oxford. _Ready_ + + =CATHERINE II.= By J. B. BURY, Regius Professor of + Modern History in the University of Cambridge. + +MACMILLAN AND CO., LTD., LONDON + + + + + +-------------------------------------------------------+ + | Transcriber's Note: | + | | + | Inconsistent hyphenation and spelling in the original | + | document have been preserved. | + | | + | Typographical errors corrected in the text: | + | | + | Page 2 Nassua changed to Nassau | + | Page 17 Strasburg changed to Strasbourg | + | Page 69 renowed changed to renowned | + | Page 151 Harlay changed to Harley | + +-------------------------------------------------------+ + + + +***END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK WILLIAM THE THIRD*** + + +******* This file should be named 36895.txt or 36895.zip ******* + + +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: +http://www.gutenberg.org/dirs/3/6/8/9/36895 + + + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed. + +Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. 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