rather to foreign than to home politics. The great question which at
once occupied the minds of diplomatists after the Peace of Ryswick was
the succession to the throne of Spain. It seemed very improbable that
Charles II., a miserable hypochondriac, should live much longer. At his
death there threatened to be a general scramble for his vast
possessions. Early in the year, an embassy of unusual grandeur had
attended Portland to France. The question had been there opened, and a
corresponding French embassy under Tallard had subsequently and with the
same object been sent to London. On the dissolution of Parliament the
scene of negotiation was transferred to Holland. The question was one of
great intricacy and difficulty.[2] It was not easy to point out the
legitimate successor, even had it been possible to allow the Spanish
monarchy to pass unbroken into the hands of any of the claimants. The
eldest of Charles's sisters had married Louis XIV., a younger sister had
married Leopold of Germany. Leopold was himself Charles's first cousin,
grandson of Philip III. In direct descent, therefore, the Dauphin stood
next to the Spanish king. Next to him came the offspring of Leopold's
first marriage with the Spanish Princess, namely, the Electress of
Bavaria, but she gave over her right to her son, the Electoral Prince.
The third in order was the Emperor Leopold. But the marriage of the
Infanta with Louis had been accompanied by a formal renunciation of her
rights, sanctioned by the Cortes. The marriage of the second Princess
with Leopold had been attended by a similar renunciation, not sanctioned
by the Cortes. The marriage of Leopold's mother with the Emperor had
been attended by no renunciation at all. Thus, if the renunciations were
valid, the claims in accordance with them came in exactly the opposite
order to the claims by order of descent. But the change in the balance
of Europe involved in the accession to the throne of Spain of a prince
of either the imperial house of Germany or the royal house of France was
of far graver importance than the mere legal rights to the throne. Both
Leopold and the Dauphin, conscious that Europe would not submit to their
acquiring Spain for themselves, had handed on their claims to
representatives, who might be considered as comparatively harmless.
Leopold had substituted for himself the Archduke Charles, his son by a
second marriage, the Dauphin his second son Philip. But, in spite of
this arrangement, France, England and Holland had considered it
dangerous that the Spanish dominions should pass entire into the hands
of either of the claimants, and the negotiations of this year were
directed to forming a plan for dividing them with some sort of equality
among the three. The product of these negotiations was the First
Partition Treaty, definitively signed at the Hague on the 11th of
October. By this the bulk of the Spanish dominions--Spain, the Indies,
and the Netherlands--was to pass to the least powerful of the three
claimants, the Electoral Prince. France was to receive Guipuscoa in the
north of Spain, and the Two Sicilies; the Austrian competitor was to be
satisfied with the Milanese. The treaty had been arranged as quietly as
possible, but the republican institutions of Holland were not favourable
to secresy. Rumours of what had been done reached Spain. The desire of
the King and the Castilians was to preserve at all hazards the integrity
of the Empire. Charles was therefore persuaded to make a will, and to
declare that candidate whom France and England seemed most to favour,
namely, the Electoral Prince, heir to his whole dominions; and thus for
a time the matter rested.
[Sidenote: New Parliament. Tory reaction. Dec. 6, 1698.]
[Sidenote: The Country Party.]
[Sidenote: Dismissal of the Dutch guards.]
Having thus temporarily settled his position abroad, William returned to
England with the hope of a peaceful session. The hope was singularly
falsified by the event. The great Whig party, so noble and united in
adversity, had fallen to pieces, and a Tory reaction begun. The
greatness and success of its measures had left room for faction. The
unpopularity both of William and Montague afforded opportunity for the
attacks of malcontents. On the assembling of Parliament after the new
elections (Dec. 6, 1698), it became evident that a large number of
unknown men who had been elected, although nominally Whigs, intended to
make common cause with the extreme Tories, and that this united faction,
under the title of the Country Party, would form an opposition against
the Crown. The last session had already marked out the lines this
opposition would take. The points at issue would be the maintenance of
the army, the distribution of Crown grants, and the conduct of
individual members of the ministry. On the first of these points the
King did not act wisely. Unable to understand the insular politics in
favour with the English, he insisted that the ministry should propose a
standing army of 20,000 men. Afraid to introduce a Bill which they knew
they could not carry, the ministry suffered the initiative to slip from
their grasp, and a private individual was allowed to propose that the
number of troops should be further lessened to 7000, and that all those
7000 should be born Englishmen. In spite of the efforts of the ministry
the Bill was carried, and William found himself compelled to order the
departure of his favourite Dutch guards. Hurt to the quick, he seriously
formed the intention of quitting England. He even drew up his farewell
speech, and was only moved to remain by the earnest prayers of Somers
and by his own returning wisdom.
[Sidenote: Rivalry between the two Houses.]
Assured of their majority, the Opposition proceeded to attack the late
ministry. Their favourite object was Montague, who had laid himself open
to their assaults by the pride and luxury which he had exhibited in his
good fortune, and still more by the indecent rapacity with which he
seized on the valuable place of the Auditorship of the Exchequer, worth
at least £4000 a year; this he placed in the hands of his brother, to be
held until he should want it. The next victim was Russell, Lord Orford,
whose administration only escaped censure by a single vote. And before
the session closed, the third point, that of grants of Crown lands, was
touched upon in a way which produced much after disaster. The method
used on this occasion illustrates a point deserving of notice. The
Revolution had placed the supreme power in the hands of Parliament; but
Parliament itself consists of two elements, of two Houses drawn from
different classes. Besides the general party struggles, besides the
frequent contests between King and Parliament, and subsequently between
Parliament and people, there was therefore a class rivalry between the
two Houses, which had shown itself already on more than one occasion
during the reign, and was rendered more prominent now by the fact that
the party feeling in the Upper House was on the whole decidedly Whig.
The weapon which the Commons intended to use in this strife was their
exclusive right of introducing money Bills. Those Bills the Upper House
had the power of rejecting entire, but not of amending. The Commons now
"tacked" or appended to the Bill for the Land Tax a clause appointing
seven Commissioners to inquire into the manner in which the forfeited
land in Ireland had been granted out. This obnoxious clause the Lords
were compelled to pass, or to reject the Bill entirely, and thus stop
the supplies. Though keenly feeling the coercion put upon them, by a
plan which would have proved fatal to the Upper House had not the good
feeling of the nation and the strength of popular opinion ultimately
compelled the Commons to abandon it, the Lords passed the Bill, feeling
probably that the present occasion was scarcely important enough for a
great constitutional struggle. The Money Bill having been passed, the
King, in some anger, prorogued the Parliament (May 4).
As usual, when Parliament was not sitting, William withdrew to Holland,
a habit which, now that the war no longer necessitated his presence
there, increased his unpopularity in England, and the session of
Parliament which he returned to meet in November 1699 was still more
stormy than the last.
[Sidenote: The Darien scheme.]
The discontent in England was backed up by more serious discontent in
Scotland. The whole of that nation might be now reckoned among the
enemies of the Court. For, during the recess, on the 5th of October,
certain news had reached England of the failure of the great Darien
scheme, and the complete destruction of those wild hopes of wealth and
greatness which had been for the last four years buoying up the Scotch
nation. Paterson, the same man whose scheme for the Bank of England had
in the hands of Montague proved so successful, was the originator of
this disastrous project. He had persuaded himself that the natural
wealth of a country has nothing to do with its prosperity. The
commercial cities of the ancient world, and Venice and Holland in modern
times, had risen to greatness and wealth without any territorial
possessions of importance. He believed that he could reproduce this
phenomenon in the case of Scotland. The scheme of Columbus had been to
introduce the wealth of the East by a short and direct route into
Europe, and thus to destroy the traffic of the Venetians. He had found
his plan thwarted by the interposition of America; and the discovery of
a passage round the Cape of Good Hope had turned all men's attention in
that direction, and had been the great source of wealth both to the
Dutch and Portuguese. But the plan of Columbus had never been quite
forgotten, and Paterson now thought to renew it by establishing a line
of communication across the Isthmus of Darien. The Scotch were to
colonize and occupy the isthmus, which would become, in the view of the
projector, the great emporium of the whole Eastern trade. Although he
did not explain the details of his scheme, it was listened to with
enthusiasm by his fellow-countrymen; and in 1695, an extraordinary Act
passed the Scotch Parliament, and received the assent of the Lord High
Commissioner, authorising the formation of a Corporation, half the
capital of which was to be held by Scotchmen, with the monopoly of the
trade with Asia, Africa, and America for thirty-one years. With the
exception of foreign sugar and tobacco, all its imports were to be duty
free. Every servant of the Company was free from imprisonment and
arrest. The Company was authorized to take possession of unoccupied
territories and exercise legal rights, and the King promised to obtain
satisfaction at the public charge if foreign powers assaulted it.
Subscriptions to the amount of £200,000 and upwards were speedily
forthcoming, and a branch of the Company established itself in London.
There, however, the absurdities of the plan were at once discovered, and
it met with a very cold reception. Any colony, to be useful, must be
either in America or in the Spice Islands; now interference in America
would not be tolerated by Spain, nor would Holland look on quietly at
the occupation of the Spice Islands; a maritime war was in fact
inevitable; Scotland, singlehanded, could scarcely hope to carry on such
a war, and England would almost infallibly be drawn into it, and this on
behalf of a Company which, by changing Scotland into a free port, would
virtually make it an enormous centre for smuggling to the extreme
detriment of English trade. The attention of the King was drawn to the
subject. He expressed his entire disapprobation of the scheme, and
dismissed the Lord High Commissioner and the Secretary; but the law was
made and could not be rescinded. In 1698, in the midst of wild
enthusiasm, 1200 colonists set out from Leith, with Paterson among them,
and reached Darien in safety, and there established their colony, but
almost immediately came into contact with the neighbouring Spanish
governor, and the inevitable war began. At first, however, the reports
were favourable, and in the following year a new armament of four ships
and 1800 colonists left Scotland for Caledonia, as the new settlement
was called. They had not been gone long before news arrived at New York
that the colony no longer existed, and that the wretched remnant of its
inhabitants had sought refuge in New England. In fact, the climate had
proved eminently unhealthy, in spite of the assertions of Paterson.
Provisions had failed, and, worn out and enfeebled, the colonists,
feeling themselves entirely unable to repell the assaults of Spain,
determined to withdraw. After miserable suffering, a few of them reached
New York, and the second expedition arrived in Caledonia to find only
uninhabited ruins. They determined upon reoccupying these, rebuilt the
fort, and during the few healthy months continued, though with heavy
losses, to carry out their operations. But before long a Spanish fleet
appeared before the town, and an army, marching across the isthmus from
Panama, blockaded it on the land side. Resistance was impossible.
Already 300 of the new-comers had died, the survivors promised to depart
within a fortnight, and on the 11th of April left the colony for ever.
The disaster was regarded by the Scotch as a national injury on the part
of England. The Company had throughout excited great anger in the
Southern kingdom; the colonial governors had done all they could to
discourage the colony when it arrived, and the Scotch were ready to
trace this opposition to national jealousy,--to attribute it even to
William's partiality for his Dutch subjects, whose trade might have been
injured. In truth, the whole business was a proof, as William pointed
out to the House of Lords, of the difficulty of managing two countries
with different interests under one Crown, and the necessity of a closer
union between the nations.
[Sidenote: New Parliament Nov. 16, 1699.]
[Sidenote: Irish forfeitures.]
[Sidenote: Resumption Bill passed. April 10, 1700.]
[Sidenote: Parliament prorogued. April 11, 1700.]
It was thus, supported by the discontent of Scotland, that the
malcontents of Parliament resumed the question of the management of the
royal property. After a fruitless attack upon Somers, who had indeed
received a grant, but one against which no reasonable complaint could be
made, they proceeded to follow up the work of the last session, and to
act upon the recommendation of the seven Commissioners who had been
appointed by the tacked clause of the preceding session. The Crown lands
had been constantly dealt with according to the King's pleasure, without
parliamentary interference. In early times, however, they had been
regarded as a trust. Parliament had frequently demanded that the King
should live upon his own revenues, and Acts for the resumption of grants
had been passed, the last being that immediately following the battle of
Bosworth. Since then the gift of the Crown had been considered a
perfectly sound title. Whatever dislike, therefore, William's lavish
grants to his Dutch favourites had excited, there would have been very
great difficulty in calling in question his right to make them. The use
to which the forfeited lands which had fallen into William's hands after
the Pacification of Limerick had been put was more open to objection. A
Bill ordering them to be applied to the public service had been
interrupted and left incomplete, and the King had promised that the
Commons should have another opportunity of considering the question. As
they had since taken no steps in the matter, he seems to have considered
himself free to act as he pleased. Of the forfeited lands, which
amounted to about 1,700,000 acres, a fourth had been restored to its
ancient possessors, according to the Limerick Pacification. Some of the
rest had been mercifully given back to Irishmen, some to men like Ginkel
and Galway, who had distinguished themselves in the Irish wars, but by
far the larger portion had fallen to the King's personal friends, such
as Woodstock, the eldest son of Portland, and Keppel, Lord Albemarle.
The Commission could not arrive at unanimity, and sent up two reports.
But that of the majority, which was very hostile to Government, was
alone accepted by the Commons. It ridiculously over-estimated the grants
at a sum of, £2,600,000, and at the same time declared that very undue
leniency had been shown to the Irish. Had these grants not been made,
and the confiscations properly exacted, much of the present heavy
taxation, they said, might have been spared. The Commons, longing to be
free from taxes and hating the Dutch favourites, took up the matter with
factious warmth, and the Resumption Bill was passed, vesting all the
forfeited lands in the hands of trustees, and offering large rewards to
informers who would point out lands which ought to have been
confiscated. They even, with palpable injustice, included in their
inquiry lands which had never been forfeited. Expecting opposition from
the Upper House, they again tacked this Bill to the Land Tax Bill. The
Lords now determined upon a struggle. Little as they liked the Dutch
favourites, they could not allow themselves to be thus overridden. Their
opposition was, however, unsuccessful; the nation felt with the Commons,
and foreign affairs had reached a crisis which rendered peace at home
necessary to the King. The quarrel was pressed so far as to threaten a
complete breach between the Houses, and a fatal blow to the
Constitution. By the influence of the King the Lords were induced to
yield, and the triumphant Commons were passing to fresh assaults on the
King's friends, when, having passed the Land Tax Bill and thus supplied
himself with money, William suddenly prorogued the Houses.
[Sidenote: Second Partition Treaty.]
The necessity which had driven him to this step was the reopening of the
question of the Spanish succession. In January 1699 the Electoral Prince
had died. The whole question thus assumed a new shape, and William's
undivided attention was required. For the same reason, probably, and to
allay the opposition in the House, he thought it necessary to remove
Somers from office, and to place the Great Seal in the hands of Sir
Nathan Wright. The Second Partition Treaty, which the King was now
engaged in arranging, was such as was rendered necessary by the death of
the third claimant. The bulk of the Spanish dominions was now to be
given to the Archduke. It was to him that now Spain, the Indies, and the
Netherlands were assigned, while Milan, which had formerly fallen to his
share, was to be transferred to France, to be ultimately exchanged for
Lorraine, a German fief, very important to round off the French
dominions. But again these arrangements were upset. Portocarrero, the
Spanish minister, was in the French interest, and supported by Harcourt,
the ablest French diplomatist. By playing upon national feeling, which
was strong against any partition, these statesmen excited the anger of
the Spaniards against William, who had already incurred their enmity by
his fancied support of the Darien scheme; and Charles was at length
impressed with the absolute necessity of making another will. The events
of the late session had given rise to the belief that William was not
really master of England, while the visible greatness of France seemed
to afford the best chance of keeping the Spanish monarchy undivided; the
will was therefore made in favour of the Dauphin's son Philip, Duke of
Anjou, who was declared heir to the whole of the Spanish dominions. The
treaty was not well received in England. While one party clamoured that
too much was given to France, another complained of the injustice of
forestalling the wishes of the Spanish people, and there was a general
feeling of anger at the secresy with which the treaty had been arranged,
a treaty which might easily draw England into a foreign war, and which
had been concluded entirely without consulting Parliament. This anger
reached its highest point when, in November, the King of Spain died, and
Louis, in defiance of all his treaties, accepted his grandson's great
inheritance. William had determined that the whole responsibility should
lie with himself, trusting in his own diplomatic skill; he had been
beaten at his own arts, and his great treaty was absolutely useless.
[Sidenote: William's unpopularity.]
[Sidenote: New ministry. Dec. 1700.]
[Sidenote: New Parliament. Feb. 1701.]
[Sidenote: Succession Act.]
In fact, there was no time when the King had been so unpopular or his
enemies so strong. Nearly every class, except his own immediate
followers among the Whigs, were alienated from him; the mass of the
people had suffered from heavy taxation, the nobles were sore at the
unwise preference given to foreigners; the whole nation shared in this
feeling, and disliked his constant absences from home; the scandal of
the Irish forfeitures had just been brought to light; the country gentry
remembered with anger the failure of their Land Bank, and saw with envy
the increasing importance of the moneyed interest. One thing was plain,
that nothing could be done with a Parliament so adverse as the last,
with a ministry so powerless as the late holders of power had proved.
William therefore dissolved the Parliament, summoning a new one for the
following February; and, freeing himself from the old ministry, called
to his councils Rochester, the late Queen's uncle and the head of the
High Church Tories, with Godolphin and Sir Charles Hedges. For the
present his only hope lay in the possibility of a general European war;
of this as yet there was but little sign. Austria had indeed refused to
acknowledge the new King of Spain, and withdrawn its ambassador from
Madrid, but in other countries it seemed as if the will of the late
Spanish King would be quietly accepted. William himself could do
nothing, and for the time was compelled to submit. His new ministry
entreated him to acknowledge Philip; his Parliament showed no
disposition to support him in any hostile steps against France. Two
questions which he placed before them in his opening speech were, the
succession of the throne of England, the settlement to which had been
rendered necessary by the late death of the Duke of Gloucester, the
young son of the Princess Anne (July 29, 1700), and the position which
England should assume in the face of the altered aspect of European
politics. It was in vain, upon this latter point, that he attempted to
urge them to energy. The King of France had driven the Dutch to
acknowledge Philip, by suddenly entering the Low Countries, and
capturing 15,000 of their troops who had been intended to garrison the
barrier fortresses. William and the Dutch States had in vain demanded
the withdrawal of the French troops and the surrender of the
strongholds. But even this act of aggression did not arouse the
Parliament to energy. They acknowledged the obligations of England under
the Treaty of 1677, and promised to send succours to the Dutch, but
there seemed no immediate prospect of any grants for the purpose. Nor
was the other point much more vigorously prosecuted. A Bill of
Succession was indeed produced, but nearly every clause seemed evidently
aimed against the King's former conduct. The new sovereign was not to
leave the kingdom without leave of Parliament; no person not a born
Englishman was to be capable of holding any position of trust, or of
receiving any grant from the Crown. England was not to be engaged in war
for the defence of any dominions not belonging to the Crown of England.
All matters relating to the Government were to be transacted in the
Privy Council, and countersigned by such members of that body as should
advise or consent to them. Having thus secured, as they thought, the
insular position of England, the House proceeded to settle the
succession upon the Electress Sophia of Hanover. Thus, though the
Protestant succession was secured, a Bill which William had hoped would
be a singular expression of popular sympathy with his own efforts was in
fact a vote of censure on many of the acts of his reign.
[Sidenote: Impeachments against the Whigs.]