secure, by narrowing the basis of public opinion whereon it stood, the
liberal principles of policy which the whigs had espoused became
incomparably more powerful, and were necessarily involved in the
continuance of the revolution settlement. The ministers of William
III. and of the house of Brunswick had no choice but to respect and
countenance the doctrines of Locke, Hoadley, and Molesworth. The
assertion of passive obedience to the Crown grew obnoxious to the
Crown itself. Our new line of sovereigns scarcely ventured to hear of
their hereditary right, and dreaded the cup of flattery that was
drugged with poison. This was the greatest change that affected our
monarchy by the fall of the house of Stuart. The laws were not so
materially altered as the spirit and sentiments of the people. Hence
those who look only at the former have been prone to underrate the
magnitude of this revolution. The fundamental maxims of the
constitution, both as they regard the king and the subject, may seem
nearly the same; but the disposition with which they were received and
interpreted was entirely different.
_Its salutary consequences._--It was in this turn of feeling, in this
change, if I may so say, of the heart, far more than in any positive
statutes and improvements of the law, that I consider the revolution
to have been eminently conducive to our freedom and prosperity. Laws
and statutes as remedial, nay more closely limiting the prerogative
than the bill of rights and act of settlement, might possibly have
been obtained from James himself, as the price of his continuance on
the throne, or from his family as that of their restoration to it. But
what the revolution did for us was this; it broke the spell that had
charmed the nation. It cut up by the roots all that theory of
indefeasible right, of paramount prerogative, which had put the Crown
in continual opposition to the people. A contention had now subsisted
for five hundred years, but particularly during the four last reigns,
against the aggressions of arbitrary power. The sovereigns of this
country had never patiently endured the control of parliament; nor was
it natural for them to do so, while the two houses of parliament
appeared historically, and in legal language, to derive their
existence as well as privileges from the Crown itself. They had at
their side the pliant lawyers, who held the prerogative to be
uncontrollable by statutes, a doctrine of itself destructive to any
scheme of reconciliation and compromise between a king and his
subjects; they had the churchmen, whose casuistry denied that the most
intolerable tyranny could excuse resistance to a lawful government.
These two propositions could not obtain general acceptation without
rendering all national liberty precarious.
It has been always reckoned among the most difficult problems in the
practical science of government, to combine an hereditary monarchy
with security of freedom, so that neither the ambition of kings shall
undermine the people's rights, nor the jealousy of the people overturn
the throne. England had already experience of both these mischiefs.
And there seemed no prospect before her, but either their alternate
recurrence, or a final submission to absolute power, unless by one
great effort she could put the monarchy for ever beneath the law, and
reduce it to an integrant portion instead of the primary source and
principle of the constitution. She must reverse the favoured maxim, "A
Deo rex, à rege lex;" and make the Crown itself appear the creature of
the law. But our ancient monarchy, strong in a possession of seven
centuries, and in those high and paramount prerogatives which the
consenting testimony of lawyers and the submission of parliaments had
recognised, a monarchy from which the House of Commons and every
existing peer, though not perhaps the aristocratic order itself,
derived its participation in the legislature, could not be bent to the
republican theories which have been not very successfully attempted in
some modern codes of constitution. It could not be held, without
breaking up all the foundations of our polity, that the monarchy
emanated from the parliament, or even from the people. But by the
revolution and by the act of settlement, the rights of the actual
monarch, of the reigning family, were made to emanate from the
parliament and the people. In technical language, in the grave and
respectful theory of our constitution, the Crown is still the fountain
from which law and justice spring forth. Its prerogatives are in the
main the same as under the Tudors and the Stuarts; but the right of
the house of Brunswick to exercise them can only be deduced from the
convention of 1688.
The great advantage therefore of the revolution, as I would explicitly
affirm, consists in that which was reckoned its reproach by many, and
its misfortune by more; that it broke the line of succession. No other
remedy could have been found, according to the temper and prejudices
of those times, against the unceasing conspiracy of power. But when
the very tenure of power was conditional, when the Crown, as we may
say, gave recognisances for its good behaviour, when any violent and
concerted aggressions on public liberty would have ruined those who
could only resist an inveterate faction by the arms which liberty put
in their hands, the several parts of the constitution were kept in
cohesion by a tie far stronger than statutes, that of a common
interest in its preservation. The attachment of James to popery, his
infatuation, his obstinacy, his pusillanimity, nay even the death of
the Duke of Gloucester, the life of the Prince of Wales, the
extraordinary permanence and fidelity of his party, were all the
destined means through which our present grandeur and liberty, our
dignity of thinking on matters of government, have been perfected.
Those liberal tenets, which at the æra of the revolution were
maintained but by one denomination of English party, and rather
perhaps on authority of not very good precedents in our history than
of sound general reasoning, became in the course of the next
generation almost equally the creed of the other, whose long exclusion
from government taught them to solicit the people's favour; and by the
time that Jacobitism was extinguished, had passed into received maxims
of English politics. None at least would care to call them in question
within the walls of parliament; nor have their opponents been of much
credit in the paths of literature. Yet, as since the extinction of the
house of Stuart's pretensions, and other events of the last half
century, we have seen those exploded doctrines of indefeasible
hereditary right revived under another name, and some have been
willing to misrepresent the transactions of the revolution and the act
of settlement as if they did not absolutely amount to a deposition of
the reigning sovereign, and an election of a new dynasty by the
representatives of the nation in parliament, it may be proper to state
precisely the several votes, and to point out the impossibility of
reconciling them to any gentler construction.
_Proceedings of the convention._--The Lords spiritual and temporal, to
the number of about ninety, and an assembly of all who had sat in any
of King Charles's parliaments, with the lord mayor and fifty of the
common council, requested the Prince of Orange to take upon him the
administration after the king's second flight, and to issue writs for
a convention in the usual manner.[143] This was on the 26th of
December; and the convention met on the 22nd of January. Their first
care was to address the prince to take the administration of affairs
and disposal of the revenue into his hands, in order to give a kind of
parliamentary sanction to the power he already exercised. On the 28th
of January the Commons, after a debate in which the friends of the
late king made but a faint opposition, came to their great vote: That
King James II., having endeavoured to subvert the constitution of this
kingdom, by breaking the original contract between king and people,
and by the advice of jesuits and other wicked persons having violated
the fundamental laws, and having withdrawn himself out of the kingdom,
has abdicated the government, and that the throne is thereby vacant.
They resolved unanimously the next day, that it hath been found by
experience inconsistent with the safety and welfare of this protestant
kingdom to be governed by a popish prince.[144] This vote was a
remarkable triumph of the whig party, who had contended for the
exclusion bill; and, on account of that endeavour to establish a
principle which no one was now found to controvert, had been subjected
to all the insults and reproaches of the opposite faction. The Lords
agreed with equal unanimity to this vote; which, though it was
expressed only as an abstract proposition, led by a practical
inference to the whole change that the whigs had in view. But upon the
former resolution several important divisions took place. The first
question put, in order to save a nominal allegiance to the late king,
was, whether a regency with the administration of regal power under
the style of King James II. during the life of the said King James, be
the best and safest way to preserve the protestant religion and the
laws of this kingdom? This was supported both by those peers who
really meant to exclude the king from the enjoyment of power, such as
Nottingham, its great promoter, and by those who, like Clarendon, were
anxious for his return upon terms of security for their religion and
liberty. The motion was lost by fifty-one to forty-nine; and this
seems to have virtually decided, in the judgment of the house, that
James had lost the throne.[145] The Lords then resolved that there
was an original contract between the king and people, by fifty-five to
forty-six; a position that seems rather too theoretical, yet necessary
at that time, as denying the divine origin of monarchy, from which its
absolute and indefeasible authority had been plausibly derived. They
concurred, without much debate, in the rest of the Commons' vote; till
they came to the clause that he had abdicated the government, for
which they substituted the word "deserted." They next omitted the
final and most important clause, that the throne was thereby vacant,
by a majority of fifty-five to forty-one. This was owing to the party
of Lord Danby, who asserted a devolution of the Crown on the Princess
of Orange. It seemed to be tacitly understood by both sides that the
infant child was to be presumed spurious. This at least was a
necessary supposition for the tories, who sought in the idle rumours
of the time an excuse for abandoning his right. As to the whigs,
though they were active in discrediting this unfortunate boy's
legitimacy, their own broad principles of changing the line of
succession rendered it, in point of argument, a superfluous enquiry.
The tories, who had made little resistance to the vote of abdication,
when it was proposed in the Commons, recovered courage by this
difference between the two houses; and perhaps by observing the king's
party to be stronger out of doors than it had appeared to be, were
able to muster 151 voices against 282 in favour of agreeing with the
Lords in leaving out the clause about the vacancy of the throne.[146]
There was still, however, a far greater preponderance of the whigs in
one part of the convention, than of the tories in the other. In the
famous conference that ensued between committees of the two houses
upon these amendments, it was never pretended that the word
"abdication" was used in its ordinary sense, for a voluntary
resignation of the Crown. The Commons did not practise so pitiful a
subterfuge. Nor could the Lords explicitly maintain, whatever might be
the wishes of their managers, that the king was not expelled and
excluded as much by their own word "desertion" as by that which the
lower house had employed. Their own previous vote against a regency
was decisive upon this point.[147] But as abdication was a gentler
term than forfeiture, so desertion appeared a still softer method of
expressing the same idea. Their chief objection, however, to the
former word was that it led, or might seem to lead, to the vacancy of
the throne, against which their principal arguments were directed.
They contended that in our government there could be no interval or
vacancy, the heir's right being complete by a demise of the Crown; so
that it would at once render the monarchy elective, if any other
person were designated to the succession. The Commons did not deny
that the present case was one of election, though they refused to
allow that the monarchy was thus rendered perpetually elective. They
asked, supposing a right to descend upon the next heir, who was that
heir to inherit it; and gained one of their chief advantages by the
difficulty of evading this question. It was indeed evident that, if
the Lords should carry their amendments, an enquiry into the
legitimacy of the Prince of Wales could by no means be dispensed with.
Unless that could be disproved more satisfactorily than they had
reason to hope, they must come back to the inconveniences of a
regency, with the prospect of bequeathing interminable confusion to
their posterity. For, if the descendants of James should continue in
the Roman catholic religion, the nation might be placed in the
ridiculous situation of acknowledging a dynasty of exiled kings, whose
lawful prerogative would be withheld by another race of protestant
regents. It was indeed strange to apply the provisional substitution
of a regent in cases of infancy or imbecility of mind to a prince of
mature age, and full capacity for the exercise of power. Upon the
king's return to England, this delegated authority must cease of
itself; unless supported by votes of parliament as violent and
incompatible with the regular constitution as his deprivation of the
royal title, but far less secure for the subject, whom the statute of
Henry VII. would shelter in paying obedience to a king de facto; while
the fate of Sir Henry Vane was an awful proof that no other name could
give countenance to usurpation. A great part of the nation not thirty
years before had been compelled by acts of parliament[148] to declare
upon oath their abhorrence of that traitorous position, that arms
might be taken up by the king's authority against his person or those
commissioned by him, through the influence of those very tories or
loyalists who had now recourse to the identical distinction between
the king's natural and political capacity, for which the presbyterians
had incurred so many reproaches.
In this conference, however, if the whigs had every advantage on the
solid grounds of expediency, or rather political necessity, the tories
were as much superior in the mere argument, either as it regarded the
common sense of words, or the principles of our constitutional law.
Even should we admit that an hereditary king is competent to abdicate
the throne in the name of all his posterity, this could only be intended
of a voluntary and formal cession, not such a constructive abandonment
of his right by misconduct as the Commons had imagined. The word
"forfeiture" might better have answered this purpose; but it had
seemed too great a violence on principles which it was more convenient
to undermine than to assault. Nor would even forfeiture bear out by
analogy the exclusion of an heir, whose right was not liable to be set
aside at the ancestor's pleasure. It was only by recurring to a kind
of paramount, and what I may call hyper-constitutional law, a mixture
of force and regard to the national good, which is the best sanction
of what is done in revolutions, that the vote of the Commons could be
defended. They proceeded not by the stated rules of the English
government, but the general rights of mankind. They looked not so much
to Magna Charta as the original compact of society, and rejected Coke
and Hale for Hooker and Harrington.
The House of Lords, after this struggle against principles undoubtedly
very novel in the discussions of parliament, gave way to the strength
of circumstance and the steadiness of the Commons. They resolved not
to insist on their amendments to the original vote; and followed this
up by a resolution, that the Prince and Princess of Orange shall be
declared King and Queen of England, and all the dominions thereunto
belonging.[149] But the Commons with a noble patriotism delayed to
concur in this hasty settlement of the Crown, till they should have
completed the declaration of those fundamental rights and liberties
for the sake of which alone they had gone forward with this great
revolution.[150] That declaration, being at once an exposition of the
misgovernment which had compelled them to dethrone the late king, and
of the conditions upon which they elected his successors, was
incorporated in the final resolution to which both houses came on the
13th of February, extending the limitation of the Crown as far as the
state of affairs required: "That William and Mary, Prince and Princess
of Orange, be, and be declared King and Queen of England, France, and
Ireland, and the dominions thereunto belonging, to hold the crown and
dignity of the said kingdoms and dominions to them, the said prince
and princess, during their lives, and the life of the survivor of
them; and that the sole and full exercise of the regal power be only
in, and executed by, the said Prince of Orange, in the names of the
said prince and princess, during their joint lives; and after their
decease the said crown and royal dignity of the said kingdoms and
dominions to be to the heirs of the body of the said princess; 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 heirs of the body
of the said Prince of Orange."
Thus, to sum up the account of this extraordinary change in our
established monarchy, the convention pronounced, under the slight
disguise of a word unusual in the language of English law, that the
actual sovereign had forfeited his right to the nation's allegiance.
It swept away by the same vote the reversion of his posterity, and of
those who could claim the inheritance of the Crown. It declared that,
during an interval of nearly two months, there was no king of England;
the monarchy lying, as it were, in abeyance from the 23rd of December
to the 13th of February. It bestowed the Crown on William jointly with
his wife indeed, but so that her participation of the sovereignty
should be only in name.[151] It postponed the succession of the
Princess Anne during his life. Lastly, it made no provision for any
future devolution of the Crown in failure of issue from those to whom
it was thus limited, leaving that to the wisdom of future parliaments.
Yet only eight years before, nay much less, a large part of the nation
had loudly proclaimed the incompetency of a full parliament, with a
lawful king at its head, to alter the lineal course of succession. No
whig had then openly professed the doctrine, that not only a king, but
an entire royal family, might be set aside for public convenience. The
notion of an original contract was denounced as a republican chimera.
The deposing of kings was branded as the worst birth of popery and
fanaticism. If other revolutions have been more extensive in their
effect on the established government, few perhaps have displayed a
more rapid transition of public opinion. For it cannot be reasonably
doubted that the majority of the nation went along with the vote of
their representatives. Such was the termination of that contest, which
the house of Stuart had obstinately maintained against the liberties,
and of late, against the religion of England; or rather, of that far
more ancient controversy between the Crown and the people which had
never been wholly at rest since the reign of John. During this long
period, the balance, except in a few irregular intervals, had been
swayed in favour of the Crown; and, though the government of England
was always a monarchy limited by law, though it always, or at least
since the admission of the commons into the legislature, partook of
the three simple forms, yet the character of a monarchy was evidently
prevalent over the other parts of the constitution. But, since the
revolution of 1688, and particularly from thence to the death of
George II., it seems equally just to say, that the predominating
character has been aristocratical; the prerogative being in some
respects too limited, and in others too little capable of effectual
exercise, to counterbalance the hereditary peerage, and that class of
great territorial proprietors, who, in a political division, are to be
reckoned among the proper aristocracy of the kingdom. This, however,
will be more fully explained in the two succeeding chapters, which are
to terminate the present work.
FOOTNOTES:
[75] Fox, Appendix, p. 8.
[76] "The legal method," says Burnet, "was to have made entries, and
to have taken bonds for those duties to be paid when the parliament
should meet and renew the grant." Mr. Onslow remarks on this, that he
should have said, the least illegal and the only justifiable method.
To which the Oxford editor subjoins that it was the proposal of
Lord-Keeper North, while the other, which was adopted, was suggested
by Jefferies. This is a mistake. North's proposal was to collect the
duties under the proclamation, but to keep them apart from the other
revenues in the exchequer until the next session of parliament. There
was surely little difference in point of illegality between this and
the course adopted. It was alleged that the merchants, who had paid
duty, would be injured by a temporary importation duty free; and
certainly it was inconvenient to make the revenue dependent on such a
contingency as the demise of the Crown. But this neither justifies the
proclamation, nor the disgraceful acquiescence of the next parliament
in it.
The king was thanked in several addresses for directing the customs to
be levied, particularly in one from the benchers and barristers of the
Middle Temple. _London Gazette_, March 11. This was drawn by Sir
Bartholomew Shower, and presented by Sir Humphrey Mackworth. _Life of
James_, vol. ii. p. 17. The former was active as a lawyer in all the
worst measures of these two reigns. Yet, after the revolution, they
both became tory patriots, and jealous assertors of freedom against
the government of William III. Barillon, however, takes notice that
this illegal continuance of the revenue produced much discontent.
Fox's Appendix, 39; and Rochester told him that North and Halifax
would have urged the king to call a parliament, in order to settle the
revenue on a lawful basis, if that resolution had not been taken by
himself. _Id._ p. 20. The king thought it necessary to apologise to
Barillon for convoking parliament. _Id._ p. 18; Dalrymple, p. 100.
[77] Dalrymple, p. 142. The king alludes to this possibility of a
limited grant with much resentment and threatening, in his speech on
opening the session.
[78] Fox, Appendix, p. 93; Lonsdale, p. 5.
[79] For this curious piece of parliamentary inconsistency, see
Reresby's _Memoirs_, p. 113, and Barillon in the Appendix to Fox, p.
95. "Il s'est passé avant hier une chose de grande conséquence dans la
chambre basse: il fut proposé le matin que la chambre se mettoit en
comité l'après diner pour considérer la harangue du roy sur l'affaire
de la religion, et savoir ce qui devoit être entendu par le terme _de
religion protestante_. La résolution fut prise unanimement, et sans
contradiction, de faire une adresse au roy pour le prier de faire une
proclamation pour l'exécution des loix contre tous les nonconformistes
généralement, c'est-à-dire, contre tous ceux qui ne sont pas
ouvertement de l'église Anglicane; cela enferme les presbitériens et
tous les sectaires, aussi bien que les catholiques Romains. La malice
de cette résolution fut aussitôt reconnu du roy d'Angleterre, et de
ses ministres; les principaux de la chambre basse furent mandés, et
ceux que sa majesté Britannique croit être dans ses intérêts; il leur
fit une réprimande sévère de s'être laissés séduire et entraîner à une
résolution si dangereuse et si peu admissible. Il leur déclara que, si
l'on persistoit à lui faire une pareille adresse, il répondroit à la
chambre basse en termes si décisifs et si fermes qu'on ne retourneroit
pas à lui faire une pareille adresse. La manière dont sa majesté
Britannique s'explique produisit son effet hier matin; et la chambre
basse rejeta tout d'une voix ce que avoit été résolu en comité le jour
auparavant."
The only man who behaved with distinguished spirit in this wretched
parliament was one in whose political life there is little else to
praise, Sir Edward Seymour. He opposed the grant of the revenues for
life, and spoke strongly against the illegal practices in the
elections. Fox, 90, 93.
[80] Fox, Appendix, p. 156. "Provided always, and be it further
enacted, that if any peer of this realm, or member of the House of
Commons, shall move or propose in either house of parliament the
disherison of the rightful and true heir of the Crown, or to alter or
change the descent or succession of the Crown in the right line; such
offence shall be deemed and adjudged high treason, and every person
being indicted and convicted of such treason, shall be proceeded
against, and shall suffer and forfeit as in other cases of high
treason mentioned in this act."
See what Lord Lonsdale says (p. 8) of this bill, which he, among
others, contrived to weaken by provisoes, so that it was given up.
[81] _Parl. Hist._ 1372. The king's speech had evidently shown that
the supply was only demanded for this purpose. The speaker, on
presenting the bill for settling the revenue in the former session,
claimed it as a merit that they had not inserted any appropriating
clauses. _Parl. Hist._ 1359.
[82] Reresby, p. 110; Barillon, in Fox's Appendix, pp. 93, 127, etc.
Le feu roi d'Angleterre et celui-ci m'ont souvent dit, qu'un
gouvernement ne peut subsister avec une telle loi. Dalrymple, p. 171.
[83] This opinion has been well supported by Mr. Serjeant Heywood
(_Vindication of Mr. Fox's History_, p. 154). In some few of
Barillon's letters to the King of France, he speaks of James's
intention établir la religion catholique; but these perhaps might be
explained by a far greater number of passages, where he says only
établir le libre exercice de la religion catholique, and by the
general tenor of his correspondence. But though the primary object was
toleration, I have no doubt but that they conceived this was to end in
establishment. See what Barillon says (p. 84); though the legal
reasoning is false, as might be expected from a foreigner. It must at
all events be admitted that the conduct of the king after the
formation of the catholic junto in 1686, demonstrates an intention of
overthrowing the Anglican establishment.
[84] "Il [le roy] me répondit à ce que je venois de dire, que je
connoissois le fond de ses intentions pour l'établissement de la
religion catholique; qu'il n'esperoit en venir à bout que par
l'assistance de V. M.; que je voyois qu'il venoit de donner des
emplois dans ses troupes aux catholiques aussi bien qu'aux protestans;
que cette égalité fâchoit beaucoup de gens, mais qu'il n'avoit pas
laissé passer une occasion si importante sans s'en prévaloir; qu'il
feroit de même à l'égard des choses practicables, et que je voyois
plus clair sur cela dans ses desseins que ses propres ministres, s'en
étant souvent ouvert avec moi sans reserve."--P. 104. In a second
conversation immediately afterwards, the king repeated, "que je
connoissois le fond de ses desseins, et que je pouvois répondre que
tout son but étoit d'établir la religion catholique; qu'il ne perdroit
aucune occasion de la faire ... que peu à peu il va à son but, et que
ce qu'il fait presentement emporte nécessairement l'exercice libre de
la religion catholique, qui se trouvera établi avant qu'un acte de
parlement l'autorise; que je connoissois assez l'Angleterre pour
savoir que la possibilité d'avoir des emplois et des charges fera plus
de catholiques que la permission de dire des messes publiques; que
cependant il s'attendoit que V. M. ne l'abandonneroit pas," etc. P.
106. Sunderland entered on the same subject, saying, "Je ne sais pas
si l'on voit en France les choses comme elles sont ici; mais je défie
ceux qui les voyent de près de ne pas connoître que le roy mon maître
n'a rien dans le cœur si avant que l'envie d'établir la religion
catholique; qu'il ne peut même, selon le bon sens et la droite raison,
avoir d'autre but; que sans cela il ne sera jamais en sûreté, et sera
toujours exposé au zèle indiscret de ceux qui échaufferont les peuples
contre la catholicité, tant qu'elle ne sera pas _plus_ pleinement
établie; il y a une autre chose certaine, c'est que ce plan là ne peut
réussir que par un concert et une liaison étroite avec le roi votre
maître; c'est un projet qui ne peut convenir qu'à lui, ni réussir que
par lui. Toutes les autres puissances s'y opposeront ouvertement, ou
le traverseront sous main. On sait bien que cela ne convient point au
Prince d'Orange; mais s'il ne sera pas en état de l'empêcher si on
veut se conduire en France comme il est nécessaire, c'est-à-dire
ménager l'amitié du roy d'Angleterre, et le contenir dans son projet.
Je vois clairement l'appréhension que beaucoup de gens ont d'une
liaison avec la France, et les efforts qu'on fait pour l'affoiblir;
mais cela ne sera au pouvoir de personne, si on n'en a pas envie ce
France; c'est sur quoi il faut que vous vouz expliquiez nettement, que
vous fassiez connoître que le roi votre maître veut aider de bonne foi
le roi d'Angleterre à établir fermement la religion catholique."
The word _plus_ in the above passage is not in Dalrymple's extract
from this letter. Vol. ii. part ii. pp. 174, 187. Yet for omitting
this word Serjeant Heywood (not having attended to Dalrymple),
censures Mr. Rose as if it had been done purposely. _Vindic. of Fox_,
p. 154. But this is not quite judicious or equitable, since another
critic might suggest that it was purposely interpolated. No one of
common candour would suspect this of Mr. Fox; but his copyist, I
presume, was not infallible. The word _plus_ is evidently incorrect.
The catholic religion was not established at all in any possible
sense; what room could there be for the comparative? M. Mazure, who
has more lately perused the letters of Barillon at Paris, prints the
passage without _plus_. _Hist. de la Révol._ ii. 36. Certainly the
whole conversation here ascribed to Sunderland points at something far
beyond the free exercise of the Roman catholic religion.
[85] It is curious to remark that both James and Louis considered the
re-establishment of the catholic religion and of the royal authority
as closely connected, and parts of one great system. Barillon in Fox,
Append. 19, 57; Mazure, i. 346. Mr. Fox maintains (_Hist._ p. 102)
that the great object of the former was absolute power rather than the
interests of popery. Doubtless if James had been a protestant, his
encroachments on the rights of his subjects would not have been less
than they were, though not exactly of the same nature; but the main
object of his reign can hardly be denied to have been either the full
toleration, or the national establishment of the church of Rome. Mr.
Fox's remark must, at all events, be limited to the year 1685.
[86] Fox, Appendix, p. 33; Ralph, 869. The prosecution of Baxter for
what was called reflecting on the bishops, is an instance of this.
_State Trials_, ii. 494. Notwithstanding James's affected zeal for
toleration, he did not scruple to congratulate Louis on the success of
his very different mode of converting heretics. Yet I rather believe
him to have been really averse to persecution; though with true Stuart
insincerity he chose to flatter his patron. Dalrymple, p. 177. A book
by Claude, published in Holland, entitled _Plaintes des Protestans
cruellement opprimés dans le royaume de France_, was ordered to be
burned by the hangman, on the complaint of the French ambassador, and
the translator and printer to be enquired after and prosecuted. _Lond.
Gazette_, May 8, 1686. Jefferies objected to this in council as
unusual; but the king was determined to gratify his most christian
brother. Mazure, ii. 122. It is said also that one of the reasons for
the disgrace of Lord Halifax was his speaking warmly about the
revocation of the edict of Nantes. _Id._ p. 55. Yet James sometimes
blamed this himself, so as to displease Louis. _Id._ p. 56. In fact,
it very much tended to obstruct his own views for the establishment of
a religion which had just shown itself in so odious a form. For this
reason, though a brief was read in churches for the sufferers, special
directions were given that there should be no sermon. It is even said
that he took on himself the distribution of the money collected for
the refugees, in order to stop the subscription; or at least that his
interference had that effect. The enthusiasm for the French
protestants was such that single persons subscribed 500 or 1000
pounds; which, relatively to the opulence of the kingdom, almost
equals any munificence of this age. _Id._ p. 123.
[87] It is well known that the House of Commons, in 1685, would not
pass the bill for reversing Lord Stafford's attainder, against which a
few peers had entered a very spirited protest. _Parl. Hist._ 1361.
Barillon says, this was "parce que dans le préambule il y a des mots
insérés qui semblent favoriser la religion catholique; cela seul a
retardé la rehabilitation du Comte de Stafford dont tous sont d'accord
à l'égard du fond." Fox, App. p. 110. But there was another reason
which might have weight. Stafford had been convicted on the evidence,
not only of Oates, who had been lately found guilty of perjury, but of
several other witnesses, especially Dugdale and Turberville. And these
men had been brought forward by the government against Lord
Shaftesbury and College, the latter of whom had been hanged on their
testimony. The reversal of Lord Stafford's attainder, just as we now
think it, would have been a disgrace to these Crown prosecutions; and
a conscientious tory would be loth to vote for it.
[88] "In all the disputes relating to that mystery before the civil
wars, the church of England protestant writers owned the real
presence, and only abstracted from the _modus_ or manner of Christ's
body being present in the eucharist, and therefore durst not say but
it might be there by transubstantiation as well as by any other
way.... It was only of late years that such principles have crept into
the church of England; which, having been blown into the parliament
house, had raised continual tumults about religion ever since. Those
unlearned and fanatical notions were never heard of till Doctor
Stillingfleet's late invention of them, by which he exposed himself to
the lash, not only of the Roman catholics, but to that of many of the
church of England controvertists too." _Life of James_, ii. 146.
[89] See _London Gazettes_, 1685, _passim_: the most remarkable are
inserted by Ralph and Kennet. I am sure the addresses which we have
witnessed in this age among a neighbouring people are not on the whole
more fulsome and disgraceful. Addresses, however, of all descriptions,
as we well know, are generally the composition of some zealous
individual, whose expressions are not to be taken as entirely those of
the subscribers. Still these are sufficient to manifest the general
spirit of the times.
The king's popularity at his accession, which all contemporary writers
attest, is strongly expressed by Lord Lonsdale. "The great interest he
had in his brother, so that all applications to the king seemed to
succeed only as he favoured them, and the general opinion of him to be
a prince steady above all others to his word, made him at that time
the most popular prince that had been known in England for a long
time. And from men's attempting to exclude him, they, at this juncture
of time, made him their darling; no more was his religion terrible;
his magnanimous courage, and the hardships he had undergone, were the
discourse of all men. And some reports of a misunderstanding betwixt
the French king and him, occasioned originally by the marriage of the
Lady Mary to the Prince of Orange, industriously spread abroad to
amuse the ignorant, put men in hopes of what they had long wished;
that, by a conjunction of Holland and Spain, etc., we might have been
able to reduce France to the terms of the Pyrenean treaty, which was
now become the terror of Christendom, we never having had a prince for
many ages that had so great a reputation for experience and a martial
spirit."--P. 3. This last sentence is a truly amusing contrast to the
real truth; James having been, in his brother's reign, the most
obsequious and unhesitating servant of the French king.
[90] "On voit qu'insensiblement les Catholiques auront les armes à la
main; c'est un état bien différent de l'oppression où ils étoient, et
dont les protestans zélés recoivent une grande mortification; ils
voyent bien que le roy d'Angleterre fera le reste quand il le pourra.
La levée des troupes, qui seront bientot complettes, fait juger que le
roy d'Angleterre veut être en état de se faire obéir, et de n'être pas
gêné par les loix qui se trouveront contraires à ce qu'il veut
établir." Barillon in Fox's Appendix, 111. "Il me paroit (he says,
June 25), que le roy d'Angleterre a été fort aisé d'avoir une prétexte
de lever des troupes, et qu'il croit que l'entreprise de M. le duc de
Monmouth ne servira qu'à le rendre plus maître de sons pays." And on
July 30: "le projet du roy d'Angleterre est d'abolir entièrement les
milices, dont il a reconnu l'inutilité et le danger en cette dernière
occasion; et de faire, s'il est possible, que le parlement établisse
le fond destiné pour les milices à l'entretien des troupes réglées.
Tout cela change entièrement l'état de ce pays ici, et met les Anglois
dans une condition bien différente de celle où ils ont été jusques à
present. Ils le connoissent, et voyent bien qu'un roy de différente
religion que celle du pays, et qui se trouve armé, ne renoncera pas
aisément aux avantages que lui donne la défaite des rebelles, et les
troupes qu'il a sur pied." And afterwards: "Le roi d'Angleterre m'a
dit que quoiqu'il arrive, il conservera les troupes sur pied, quand
même le parlement ne lui donneroit pour les entretenir. Il connoit
bien que le parlement verra mal volontiers cet établissement; mais il
veut être assuré du dedans de son pays, et il croit ne le pouvoir être
sans cela." Dalrymple, 169, 170.
[91] Fox's App. 69; Dalrymple, 153.
[92] It had been the intention of Sunderland and the others to
dissolve parliament, as soon as the revenue for life should be
settled, and to rely in future on the assistance of France. Fox's App.
59, 60; Mazure, i. 432. But this was prevented, partly by the sudden
invasion of Monmouth, which made a new session necessary, and gave
hopes of a large supply for the army; and partly by the unwillingness
of the King of France to advance as much money as the English
government wanted. In fact, the plan of continual prorogations
answered as well.
[93] Journals, Nov. 14. Barillon says that the king answered this
humble address, "avec des marques de fierté et de colère sur le
visage, qui faisoit assez connôitre ses sentimens." Dalrymple, 172.
See too his letter in Fox, 139.
A motion was made to ask the Lords' concurrence in this address,
which, according to the journals, was lost by 212 to 138. In the _Life
of James_, ii. 55, it is said that it was carried against the motion
by only four voices; and this I find confirmed by a manuscript account
of the debates (Sloane MSS. 1470), which gives the numbers 212 to 208.
The journal probably is mis-printed, as the court and country parties
were very equal. It is said in this manuscript, that those who opposed
the address, opposed also the motion for requesting the Lords'
concurrence in it; but James represents it otherwise, as a device of
the court to quash the proceeding.
[94] Coke, 12 Rep. 18.
[95] Vaughan's Reports; Thomas _v._ Sorrell, 333.
[96] Burnet and others. This hardly appears by Northey's argument.
[97] _State Trials_, xi. 1165-1280; 2 Shower's _Reports_, 475.
[98] The dissentient judge was Street; and Powell doubted. The king
had privately secured this opinion of the bench in his favour before
the action was brought. _Life of James_, ii. 79.
[99] _State Trials_, xi. 1132 _et seq._ The members of the commission
were the primate Sancroft (who never sat), Crew and Sprat, Bishops of
Durham and Rochester the chancellor Jefferies, the Earls of Rochester
and Sunderland, and Chief-Justice Herbert. Three were to form a
quorum, but the chancellor necessarily to be one. Ralph, 929. The Earl
of Mulgrave was introduced afterwards.
[100] Mazure, ii. 130.
[101] Henry Earl of Clarendon's papers, ii. 278. In Gutch's
_Collectanea Curiosa_, vol. i. p. 287, we find not only this license
to Massey, but one to Obadiah Walker, master of University College,
and to two fellows of the same, and one of Brazen-nose College, to
absent themselves from church, and not to take the oaths of supremacy
and allegiance, or do any other thing to which, by the laws and
statutes of the realm, or those of the college, they are obliged.
There is also, in the same book, a dispensation for one Sclater,
curate of Putney, and rector of Esher, from using the common prayer,
etc., etc. _Id._ p. 290. These are in May 1686, and subscribed by
Powis, the solicitor-general. The attorney-general, Sawyer, had
refused; as we learn from Reresby, p. 133, the only contemporary
writer, perhaps, who mentions this very remarkable aggression on the
established church.
[102] The catholic lords, according to Barillon, had represented to
the king, that nothing could be done with parliament so long as the
treasurer caballed against the designs of his majesty. James promised
to dismiss him if he did not change his religion. Mazure, ii. 170. The
queen had previously been rendered his enemy by the arts of
Sunderland, who persuaded her that Lord and Lady Rochester had
favoured the king's intimacy with the Countess of Dorchester in order
to thwart the popish intrigue. _Id._ 149. "On voit," says Barillon, on
the treasurer's dismissal, "que la cabale catholique a entièrement
prevalu. On s'attendoit depuis quelque temps à ce qui est arrivé au
comte de Rochester; mais l'exécution fait encore une nouvelle
impression sur les esprits."--P. 181.
[103] _Life of James_, 74. Barillon frequently mentions this cabal, as
having in effect the whole conduct of affairs in their hands.
Sunderland belonged to them; but Jefferies, being reckoned on the
protestant side, had, I believe, very little influence for at least
the two latter years of the king's reign. "Les affaires de ce
pays-ci," says Bonrepos, in 1686, "ne roulent à présent que sur la
religion. Le roi est absolument gouverné par les catholiques. My Lord
Sunderland ne se maintient que par ceux-ci, et par son dévouement à
faire tout ce qu'il croit être agréable sur ce point. Il a le secret
des affaires de Rome." Mazure, ii. 124. "On feroit ici," says
Barillon, the same year, "ce que on fait en France" [that is, I
suppose, dragonner et fusilier les hérétiques] "si l'on pouvoit
espérer de réussir."--P. 127.
[104] Rochester makes so very bad a figure in all Barillon's
correspondence, that there really seems no want of candour in this
supposition. He was evidently the most active co-operator in the
connection of both the brothers with France, and seems to have had as
few compunctious visitings, where the church of England was not
concerned, as Sunderland himself. Godolphin was too much implicated,
at least by acquiescence, in the counsels of this reign; yet we find
him suspected of not wishing "se passer entièrement de parlement, et à
rompre nettement avec le prince d'Orange." Fox, Append, p. 60.
If Rochester had gone over to the Romanists, many, probably, would
have followed: on the other hand, his steadiness retained the
wavering. It was one of the first great disappointments with which the
king met. But his dismissal from the treasury created a sensible
alarm. Dalrymple, 179.
[105] Lord Dartmouth wrote to say that Fletcher told him there were
good grounds to suspect that the prince, underhand, encouraged the
expedition, with design to ruin the Duke of Monmouth; and this
Dalrymple believes. P. 136. It is needless to observe, that such
subtle and hazardous policy was totally out of William's character;
nor is there much more reason to believe what is insinuated by James
himself (Macpherson's _Extracts_, p. 144; _Life of James_, ii. 34),
that Sunderland had been in secret correspondence with Monmouth;
unless indeed it were, as seems hinted in the latter work, with the
king's knowledge.
[106] The number of persons who suffered the sentence of the law, in
the famous western assize of Jefferies, has been differently stated;
but according to a list in the Harleian Collection, n. 4689, it
appears to be as follows: at Winchester, one (Mrs. Lisle) executed; at
Salisbury, none; at Dorchester, 74 executed, 171 transported; at
Exeter, 14 executed, 7 transported; at Taunton, 144 executed, 284
transported; at Wells, 97 executed, 393 transported. In all, 330
executed, 855 transported; besides many that were left in custody for
want of evidence. It may be observed, that the prisoners sentenced to
transportation appear to have been made over to some gentlemen of
interest at court; among others, to Sir Christopher Musgrave, who did
not blush to beg the grant of their unfortunate countrymen, to be sold
as slaves in the colonies.
The apologists of James II. have endeavoured to lay the entire blame
of these cruelties on Jefferies, and to represent the king as ignorant
of them. Roger North tells a story of his brother's interference,
which is plainly contradicted by known dates, and the falsehood of
which throws just suspicion on his numerous anecdotes. See _State
Trials_, xi. 303. But the king speaks with apparent approbation of
what he calls Jefferies's campaign, in writing to the Prince of Orange
(Dalrymple, 165); and I have heard that there are extant additional
proofs of his perfect acquaintance with the details of those assizes;
nor, indeed, can he be supposed ignorant of them. Jefferies himself,
before his death, declared that he had not been half bloody enough for
him by whom he was employed. Burnet, 651 (note to Oxford edition, vol.
iii.). The king, or his biographer in his behalf, makes a very awkward
apology for the execution of Major Holmes, which is shown by himself
to have been a gross breach of faith. _Life of James_, ii. 43.
It is unnecessary to dwell on what may be found in every history: the
trials of Mrs. Lisle, Mrs. Gaunt, and Alderman Cornish; the former
before Jefferies, the two latter before Jones, his successor as chief
justice of K. B., a judge nearly as infamous as the former, though not
altogether so brutal. Both Mrs. Lisle's and Cornish's convictions were
without evidence, and consequently were reversed after the revolution.
_State Trials_, vol. xi.
[107] Several proofs of this appear in the correspondence of Barillon.
Fox, 135; Mazure, ii. 22. The nuncio, M. d'Adda, was a moderate man,
and united with the moderate catholic peers, Bellasis, Arundel, and
Powis. _Id._ 127. This party urged the king to keep on good terms with
the Prince of Orange, and to give way about the test. _Id._ 184, 255.
They were disgusted at Father Petre's introduction into the privy
council; 308, 353. But it has ever been the misfortune of that
respectable body to suffer unjustly for the follies of a few. Barillon
admits, very early in James's reign, that many of them disliked the
arbitrary proceedings of the court; "ils prétendent être bons Anglois,
c'est-à-dire, ne pas désirer que le roi d'Angleterre ôte à la nation
ses privilèges et ses libertés." Mazure, i. 404.
William openly declared his willingness to concur in taking off the
penal laws, provided the test might remain. Burnet, 694; Dalrymple,
184; Mazure, ii. 216, 250, 346. James replied that he must have all or
nothing. _Id._ 353.
[108] I do not know that this intrigue has been brought to light
before the recent valuable publication of M. Mazure, certainly not
with such full evidence. See i. 417; ii. 128, 160, 165, 167, 182, 188,
192. Barillon says to his master in one place: "C'est une matière fort
délicate à traiter. Je sais pourtant qu'on en parle au roi
d'Angleterre; et qu'avec le temps on ne désespère pas de trouver des
moyens pour faire passer la couronne sur la tête d'un heritier
catholique. Il faut pour cela venir à bout de beaucoup des choses qui
ne sont encore que commencées."
[109] Burnet, Dalrymple, Mazure.
[110] The correspondence began by an affectedly obscure letter of Lady
Sunderland to the Prince of Orange, dated March 7, 1687. Dalrymple,
187. The meaning, however, cannot be misunderstood. Sunderland himself
sent a short letter of compliment by Dykvelt, May 28, referring to
what that envoy had to communicate. Churchill, Nottingham, Rochester,
Devonshire, and others, wrote also by Dykvelt. Halifax was in
correspondence at the end of 1686.
[111] Sunderland does not appear, by the extracts from Barillon's
letters published by M. Mazure, to have been the adviser of the king's
most injudicious measures. He was united with the queen, who had more
moderation than her husband. It is said by Barillon that both he and
Petre were against the prosecution of the bishops, ii. 448. The king
himself ascribes this step to Jefferies, and seems to glance also at
Sunderland as its adviser. _Life of James_, ii. 156. He speaks more
explicitly as to Jefferies in Macpherson's _Extracts_, 151. Yet Lord
Clarendon's _Diary_, ii. 49, tends to acquit Jefferies. Probably the
king had nobody to blame but himself. One cause of Sunderland's
continuance in the apparent support of a policy which he knew to be
destructive was his poverty. He was in the pay of France, and even
importunate for its money. Mazure, 372; Dalrymple, 270 _et post_.
Louis only gave him half what he demanded. Without the blindest
submission to the king, he was every moment falling; and this drove
him in to a step as injudicious as it was unprincipled, his pretended
change of religion, which was not publicly made till June 1688, though
he had been privately reconciled, it is said (Mazure, ii. 463) more
than a year before by Father Petre.
[112] "This defection of those his majesty had hitherto put the
greatest confidence in [Clarendon and Rochester], and the sullen
disposition of the church of England party in general, made him think
it necessary to reconcile another; and yet he hoped to do it in such a
manner as not to disgust quite the church-man neither." _Life of
James_, ii. 102.
[113] _London Gazette_, March 18, 1687; Ralph, 945.
[114] Ralph, 943; Mazure, ii. 207.
[115] _London Gazette_, June 9, 1687. Shower had been knighted a
little before, on presenting, as recorder of London, an address from
the grand jury of Middlesex, thanking the king for his declaration.
_Id._ May 12.
[116] _London Gazette_ of 1687 and 1688, _passim_; Ralph, 946, 368.
These addresses grew more ardent after the queen's pregnancy became
known. They were renewed of course, after the birth of the Prince of
Wales. But scarce any appear after the expected invasion was
announced. The Tories (to whom add the dissenters) seem to have thrown
off the mask at once, and deserted the king whom they had so grossly
flattered, as instantaneously as parasites on the stage desert their
patron on the first tidings of his ruin.
The dissenters have been a little ashamed of their compliance with the
declaration, and of their silence in the popish controversy during
this reign. Neal, 755, 768; and see _Biogr. Brit._ art. Alsop. The best
excuses are, that they had been so harassed that it was not in human
nature to refuse a mitigation of suffering on almost any terms; that
they were by no means unanimous in their transitory support of the
court; and that they gladly embraced the first offers of an equal
indulgence held out to them by the church.
[117] "The king now finding that nothing which had the least
appearance of novelty, though never so well warranted by the
prerogative, would go down with the people, unless it had the
parliamentary stamp on it, resolved to try if he could get the penal
laws and test taken off by that authority." _Life of James_, ii. 134.
But it seems by M. Mazure's authorities, that neither the king nor
Lord Sunderland wished to convoke a parliament, which was pressed
forward by the eager catholics, ii. 399.
[118] _Life of James_, p. 139.
[119] Ralph, 965, 966. The object was to let in the dissenters. This
was evidently a desperate game: James had ever mortally hated the
sectaries as enemies to monarchy; and they were irreconcilably adverse
to all his schemes.
[120] Burnet; _Life of James_, 169; D'Oyly's _Life of Sancroft_, i.
326. Lord Halifax, as is supposed, published a letter of advice to the
dissenters, warning them against a coalition with the court, and
promising all indulgence from the church. Ralph, 950; _Somers Tracts_,
viii. 50.
[121] Ralph, 967; Lonsdale, p. 15. "It is to be observed," says the
author of this memoir, "that most part of the offices in the nation,
as justices of the peace, deputy-lieutenants, mayors, aldermen, and
freemen of towns, are filled with Roman catholics and dissenters,
after having suffered as many regulations as were necessary for that
purpose. And thus stands the state of this nation in this month of
September 1688."--P. 34. Notice is given in the _London Gazette_ for
December 11, 1687, that the lists of justices and deputy-lieutenants
would be revised.
[122] _Life of James_, 183.
[123] Mazure, ii. 302.
[124] The reader will find almost everything relative to the subject
in that incomparable repertory, the _State Trials_, xii. 1; also some
notes in the Oxford edition of Burnet.
[125] Parker's _Reasons for Abrogating the Test_ are written in such a
tone as to make his readiness to abandon the protestant side very
manifest, even if the common anecdotes of him should be exaggerated.
[126] It seems, however, confirmed by Mazure, ii. 390, with the
addition, that Petre, like a second Wolsey, aspired also to be
chancellor. The pope, however, would not make him a bishop, against
the rules of the order of jesuits to which he belonged. _Id._ 241.
James then tried, through Lord Castlemain, to get him a cardinal's
hat, but with as little success.
[127] "Above twenty years together," says Sir Roger L'Estrange,
perhaps himself a disguised catholic, in his reply to the reasons of
the clergy of the diocese of Oxford against petitioning (_Somers
Tracts_, viii. 45), "without any regard to the nobility, gentry, and
commonalty, our clergy have been publishing to the world that the king
can do greater things than are done in his declaration; but now the
scene is altered, and they are become more concerned to maintain their
reputation even with the commonalty than with the king." See also in
the same volume, p. 19. "A remonstrance from the church of England to
both houses of parliament," 1685; and p. 145, "A new test of the
church of England's loyalty;" both, especially the latter, bitterly
reproaching her members for their apostacy from former professions.
[128] Ralph, 982.
[129] See _State Trials_, xii. 183; D'Oyly's _Life of Sancroft_, i.
250.
[130] Fox, App. 29; Dalrymple, 107; Mazure, i. 396, 433.
[131] Several proofs of this occur in the course of M. Mazure's work.
When the Dutch ambassador, Van Citers, showed him a paper, probably
forged to exasperate him, but purporting to be written by some
catholics, wherein it was said that it would be better for the people
to be vassals of France than slaves of the devil, he burst out into
rage. "Jamais! non, jamais! je ne ferai rien qui me puisse mettre au
dessous des rois de France et d'Espagne. Vassal, vassal de la France!"
s'écria-t-il avec emportement. "Monsieur! si le parlement avoit voulu,
s'il vouloit encore, j'aurois porté, je porterois encore la monarchie
a un de considération qu'elle n'a jamais eu sous aucune des rois mes
prédécesseurs, et votre état y trouveroit peut-être sa propre
sécurité.'" Vol. ii. 165. Sunderland said to Barillon, "Le roi
d'Angleterre se reproche de ne pas être en Europe tout ce qu'il devoit
être; et souvent il se plaint que le roi votre maître n'a pas pour lui
assez de considération." _Id._ 313. On the other hand, Louis was much
mortified that James made so few applications for his aid. His hope
seems to have been that by means of French troops, or troops at least
in his pay, he should get a footing in England; and this was what the
other was too proud and jealous to permit. "Comme le roi," he said, in
1687, "ne doute pas de mon affection et du désir que j'ai de voir la
religion catholique bien établie en Angleterre, il faut croire qu'il
se trouve assez de force et d'autorité pour exécuter ses desseins,
puis-qu'il n'a pas recours à moi."--P. 258; also 174, 225, 320.
[132] James affected the same ceremonial as the King of France, and
received the latter's ambassador sitting and covered. Louis only said,
smiling, "Le roi mon frère est fier, mais il aime assez les pistoles
de France." Mazure, i. 423. A more extraordinary trait of James's
pride is mentioned by Dangeau, whom I quote from the _Quarterly
Review_, xix. 470. After his retirement to St. Germains, he wore
violets in court mourning; which, by etiquette, was confined to the
kings of France. The courtiers were a little astonished to see _solem
geminum_, though not at a loss where to worship. Louis, of course, had
too much magnanimity to express resentment. But what a picture of
littleness of spirit does this exhibit in a wretched pauper, who could
only escape by the most contemptible insignificance the charge of most
ungrateful insolence!
[133] Mazure, iii. 50. James was so much out of humour at D'Avaux's
interference, that he asked his confidents, "if the King of France
thought he could treat him like the cardinal of Furstenburg," a
creature of Louis XIV. whom he had set up for the electorate of
Cologne. _Id._ 69. He was in short so much displeased with his own
ambassador at the Hague, Skelton, for giving into his declaration of
D'Avaux, that he not only recalled but sent him to the Tower. Burnet
is therefore mistaken (p. 768) in believing that there was actually an
alliance, though it was very natural that he should give credit to
what an ambassador asserted in a matter of such importance. In fact, a
treaty was signed between James and Louis, Sept. 13, by which some
French ships were to be under the former's orders. Mazure, iii. 67.
[134] Louis continued to find money, though despising James and
disgusted with him, probably with a view to his own grand interests.
He should, nevertheless, have declared war against Holland in October,
which must have put a stop to the armament. But he had discovered that
James with extreme meanness had privately offered, about the end of
September, to join the alliance against him as the only resource. This
wretched action is first brought to light by M. Mazure, iii. 104. He
excused himself to the King of France by an assurance that he was not
acting sincerely towards Holland. Louis, though he gave up his
intention of declaring war, behaved with great magnanimity and
compassion towards the falling bigot.
[135] Halifax all along discouraged the invasion, pointing out that
the king made no progress in his schemes. Dalrymple, _passim_.
Nottingham said he would keep the secret, but could not be a party to
a treasonable undertaking. _Id._ 228; Burnet, 764; and wrote as late
as July to advise delay and caution. Notwithstanding the splendid
success of the opposite counsels, it would be judging too servilely by
the event not to admit that they were tremendously hazardous.
[136] The invitation to William seems to have been in debate some time
before the Prince of Wales's birth; but it does not follow that it
would have been despatched if the queen had borne a daughter; nor do I
think that it should have been.
[137] Ralph, 980; Mazure, ii. 367.
[138] Dalrymple, 216, 228. The prince was urged in the memorial of the
seven to declare the fraud of the queen's pregnancy to be one of the
grounds of his expedition. He did this: and it is the only part of his
declaration that is false.
[139] _State Trials_, xii. 151. Mary put some very sensible questions
to her sister, which show her desire of reaching the truth in so
important a matter. They were answered in a style which shows that
Anne did not mean to lessen her sister's suspicions. Dalrymple, 305.
Her conversation with Lord Clarendon on this subject, after the
depositions had been taken, is a proof that she had made up her mind
not to be convinced. Henry Earl of Clarendon's _Diary_, 77, 79; _State
Trials_, ubi supra.
[140] M. Mazure has collected all the passages in the letters of
Barillon and Bonrepos to the court of France relative to the queen's
pregnancy (ii. 366); and those relative to the birth of the Prince of
Wales. P. 547. It is to be observed that this took place more than a
month before the time expected.
[141] Montesquieu.
[142] Some short pamphlets, written at this juncture to excite
sympathy for the king, and disapprobation of the course pursued with
respect to him, are in the Somers Collection, vol. ix. But this force
put upon their sovereign first wounded the consciences of Sancroft and
the other bishops, who had hitherto done as much as in their station
they well could to ruin the king's cause and paralyse his arms.
Several modern writers have endeavoured to throw an interest about
James at the moment of his fall, either from a lurking predilection
for all legitimately crowned heads, or from a notion that it becomes a
generous historian to excite compassion for the unfortunate. There can
be no objection to pitying James, if this feeling is kept unmingled
with any blame of those who were the instruments of this misfortune.
It was highly expedient for the good of this country, because the
revolution settlement could not otherwise be attained, to work on
James's sense of his deserted state by intimidation; and for that
purpose the order conveyed by three of his own subjects, perhaps with
some rudeness of manner, to leave Whitehall was necessary. The drift
of several accounts of the revolution that may be read is to hold
forth Mulgrave, Craven, Arran, and Dundee to admiration, at the
expense of William and of those who achieved the great consolidation
of English liberty.
[143] _Parl. Hist._ v. 26. The former address on the king's first
quitting London, signed by the peers and bishops, who met at
Guildhall, Dec. 11, did not, in express terms, desire the Prince of
Orange to assume the government, or to call a parliament, though it
evidently tended to that result, censuring the king and extolling the
prince's conduct. _Id._ 19. It was signed by the archbishop, his last
public act. Burnet has exposed himself to the lash of Ralph by stating
this address of Dec. 11 incorrectly.
[144] Commons' Journals; _Parl. Hist._
[145] Somerville and several other writers have not accurately stated
the question; and suppose the Lords to have debated whether the
throne, on the hypothesis of its vacancy, should be filled by a king
or a regent. Such a mode of putting the question would have been
absurd. I observe that M. Mazure has been deceived by these
authorities.
[146] _Parl. Hist._ 61. The chief speakers on this side were old Sir
Thomas Clarges, brother-in-law of General Monk, who had been
distinguished as an opponent of administration under Charles and
James, and Mr. Finch, brother of Lord Nottingham, who had been
solicitor-general to Charles, but was removed in the late reign.
[147] James is called "the late king" in a resolution of the Lords on
Feb. 2.
[148] 13 Car. II. c. i.; 17 Car. II. c. ii.
[149] This was carried by sixty-two to forty-seven, according to Lord
Clarendon; several of the tories going over, and others who had been
hitherto absent coming down to vote. Forty peers protested, including
twelve bishops, out of seventeen present. Trelawney, who had voted
against the regency, was one of them; but not Compton, Lloyd of St.
Asaph, Crewe, Sprat, or Hall; the three former, I believe, being in
the majority. Lloyd had been absent when the vote passed against a
regency, out of unwillingness to disagree with the majority of his
brethren; but he was entirely of Burnet's mind. The votes of the
bishops are not accurately stated in most books; which has induced me
to mention them here. Lords' Journals, Feb. 6.
[150] It had been resolved, Jan. 29, that before the committee proceed
to fill the throne now vacant, they will proceed to secure our
religion, laws, and liberties.
[151] See Burnet's remarkable conversation with Bentinck, wherein the
former warmly opposed the settlement of the crown on the Prince of
Orange alone, as Halifax had suggested. But nothing in it is more
remarkable than that the bishop does not perceive that this was
virtually done; for it would be difficult to prove that Mary's royalty
differed at all from that of a queen consort, except in having her
name in the style. She was exactly in the same predicament as Philip
had been during his marriage with Mary I. Her admirable temper made
her acquiesce in this exclusion from power, which the sterner
character of her husband demanded; and with respect to the conduct of
the convention, it must be observed that the nation owed her no
particular debt of gratitude, nor had she any better claim than her
sister to fill a throne by election, which had been declared vacant.
In fact, there was no middle course between what was done, and
following the precedent of Philip, as to which Bentinck said, he
fancied the Prince would not like to be his wife's gentleman usher;
for a divided sovereignty was a monstrous and impracticable expedient
in theory, however the submissive disposition of the queen might have
prevented its mischiefs. Burnet seems to have had a puzzled view of
this; for he says afterwards, "it seemed to be a double-bottomed
monarchy, where there were two joint sovereigns; but those who know
the queen's temper and principles had no apprehensions of divided
counsels, or of a distracted government." Vol. ii. 2. The convention
had not trusted to the queen's temper and principles. It required a
distinct act of parliament (2 W. and M. c. 6) to enable her to
exercise the regal power during the king's absence from England.