REIGN OF WILLIAM III. (_concluded_).
William Meets his Parliament--Reduction of the Standing
Army--Visit of Peter the Great--Schemes of Louis--The East
India Company--Spanish Partition Scheme--Its Inception and
Progress--Somers's Hesitation--The Treaty is Signed--New
Parliament--Tory Reaction--Dismissal of the Dutch
Guards--William forms an Intention of Quitting England--Attack
on the late Ministry--Jobbery in the Admiralty--Paterson's
Darien Scheme--Douglas's Reasons against It--Enthusiasm
of the Scots--Departure of the First Expedition and
its Miserable Failure--The Untimely End of the Second
Expedition--Second Partition Scheme--Double-dealing of the
French--New Parliament--Attack on Somers--Report on the Irish
Grants--Resumption Bill passed--William's Unpopularity--Death of
the Duke of Gloucester--Conclusion of the New Partition Treaty
and its Results--Charles makes over his Dominions to the French
Candidate--His Death--Disgust of William at Louis's Duplicity--Tory
Temper of the House--The Succession Question--Debates on Foreign
Policy--The Succession Act passed--New Negotiations with
France--Attack on the Whig Ministers--Acknowledgment of the Spanish
King--Impeachment of the Whigs--The Kentish Petition--Its Reception
by the House--The Legion Memorial--Panic in the House--Violent
Struggle between the two Houses--The Impeachments dropped--William
goes Abroad--The Grand Alliance and its Objects--Beginning of the
War--Death of James II.--Louis acknowledges the Pretender--Reaction
in England--New Parliament and Ministry--The King's Speech--British
Patriotism is Roused--Voting of Supplies--The Bills of Attainder
and Abjuration--Illness and Death of William--His Character.
William met his Parliament on the 3rd of December. He congratulated
it on the achievement of a peace in which the Confederates had
accomplished all they had fought for--the repression of the ambitious
attempts of France to bring under its yoke the rest of the kingdoms
on the Continent. She had been compelled to yield up everything which
she had seized from the commencement of the war. But he reminded them
that this had not been accomplished except at a heavy cost. They had
supported him nobly in furnishing that cost, and he trusted they would
not now be less prompt to discharge the remaining unpaid claims,
and in taking measures to liquidate by degrees the debts incurred.
He expressed his hope that they would provide him for life with a
sufficient Civil List to maintain the necessary dignity of the Crown.
Though the war was over, he reminded them that there were many reasons
why the army and navy should yet be maintained on a respectable footing.
The Commons voted him an address, in which they united in the
congratulations on the restoration of peace, but passed over the
subject of the army. William noticed the omission, and felt it deeply.
Nobody was more aware than himself that, though they had bound France
by the treaty of Ryswick, no bonds of that kind ever held Louis
XIV. any longer than it suited his necessities or his schemes of
aggrandisement. He observed that Louis still kept on foot his large
armies, and that he still retained James and his Court at St. Germains,
in open violation of the treaty; and the circumstances of Spain, whose
king was gradually dying childless, with Louis intently watching to
pounce on his dominions, filled him, as it did every far-seeing man,
with deep anxiety. Though no king ever less sought to infringe the
liberties of his subjects, yet William, naturally fond of an army and
of military affairs, was especially anxious at this crisis for the
retention of a respectable force. He knew that Europe, though freed
from actual war, was, through the restless ambition of Louis, still
living only in an armed peace.
The Commons did not leave him long in suspense. In a few days they
went into the subject of the proposal to keep up the army. The spirit
of the House was high against a standing army. All the old arguments
were produced--that a standing army was totally inconsistent with
the liberties of the people; that the moment you put the sword into
the hands of mercenaries, the king became the master of the rights
of the nation, and a despot. They asked, "If a standing army were
to be maintained, what should they have gained by the revolution?"
The Tories, who were anxious to damage the Whigs, and the Jacobites,
who were anxious to damage William's government altogether, were
particularly eloquent on these topics. The true patriots, and they
were few, were eloquent from principle. It was in vain that the
friends of William represented that it was a very different thing to
maintain an army in particular circumstances which depended on the
will of Parliament, from maintaining one at the sole pleasure of the
king. The opponents of a standing army contended that a militia was
the natural force for internal defence, which could be brought to
nearly as much perfection as regular troops, and could be called out
when wanted; and that the navy was our proper army, and that if kept
in due efficiency it was able, not only to protect us and our trade,
but to render all such assistance to other nations as became a generous
and Christian nation. By a division of a hundred and eighty-five votes
against a hundred and forty-eight, the House resolved that all the
forces raised since 1686 should be disbanded.
[Illustration: PETER THE GREAT AT DEPTFORD DOCKYARD.
FROM THE PAINTING BY DANIEL MACLISE, R.A. IN THE ROYAL HOLLOWAY
COLLEGE, EGHAM.]
This fell with an appalling shock on William. All his army of brave
mercenaries, his Dutch guards, his Huguenot cavalry, must be sent away.
He would, it was found, be left only with about eight thousand regular
troops. Never was there such a stripping of a martial monarch, who had
figured at the head of upwards of a hundred thousand men against the
greatest military power of Europe. He made little remark publicly, but
he poured out his grief to his great correspondent the Dutch Grand
Pensionary, Heinsius, and to Burnet. To them he said that it would
make his alliance of so little value, his state so contemptible, that
he did not see how he was to carry on the government; that he never
could have imagined, after what he had done for the nation, that they
would treat him thus; and that, had he imagined it, he would never have
meddled with the affairs of England; that he was weary of governing a
country which had rather lay itself open to its enemies than trust him,
who had acted all his life so faithfully for them. But it was useless
complaining; the country was resolved on having no standing army, and
every attempt of Ministers to modify or enlarge the resolution was
disregarded. They proposed that the Bill should be committed, because
it would leave the king in the hands of the old Tory regiments; and,
again, that five hundred thousand pounds per annum should be granted
for the maintenance of Guards and garrisons. Both motions were
negatived. There was a strong feeling excited against Sunderland, on
the supposition that he had encouraged the king in his desire for a
large army, because he warmly argued for it; and that minister, equally
odious to both parties, felt it safest to retire. He therefore resigned
his post of Lord Chamberlain, though William did all he could to
dissuade him from doing so, and sought the seclusion of his princely
abode of Althorp.
These were the last transactions of the English Government in 1697; but
there was at this moment a person residing in England who was destined
to produce greater changes in the face of Europe, and in its relations,
than any who had gone before him. This was Peter the Czar of Muscovy,
who was at this time residing at Sayes Court, a house of the celebrated
John Evelyn, at Deptford, and studying the fleet and shipbuilding of
England, in order to create a naval power for himself. He was only a
youth of five-and-twenty, and was the monarch of a country then sunk
in barbarism, which was unrepresented at the Courts of Europe, was
little heard of by the rest of the Continent, and whose merchants were
forbidden, on pain of death, to trade with other countries. Yet already
Peter had raised a regular army, and something of a navy, putting
them under the management of Scottish and French officers. By means
of these, in 1696, he had besieged and taken Azov. He had put himself
through all the ranks of the army, beginning as a common soldier; and
he had then determined to see personally the chief maritime nations,
Holland and England, and learn what he could of the arts that made them
so powerful. He set out with only twelve attendants, amongst whom were
his two chief princes, Menschikoff, who had been originally a pieman,
and Galitzin. These were to act as his ambassadors to the Courts of
Holland and England, he himself remaining _incognito_. He first settled
at Zaandam, in Holland, where he lived in a small lodging, dressed
and worked with his attendants as ship-carpenters, learning to forge
the ironwork of ships, as well as to prepare their woodwork. He had
a yacht on the Zuyder Zee, and practised its management, and studied
rope-making and sail-making. He found himself too much crowded about
and stared at on his removal to London, where he spent his time chiefly
in the dockyards of Deptford, Woolwich, and Chatham. William used to
go and see him at Sayes Court, and sent the Marquis of Caermarthen
to attend upon him, where they are said to have drunk brandy and
pepper together during the long winter evenings. In the ensuing April
disturbances at home called him away, but not before he had destroyed
Evelyn's fine holly hedges by driving over them in the deep snows in
his sledge, to Evelyn's great mortification.
At the opening of the year 1698, all appeared peace in Europe,
but it was the quiet only which lies in the bosom of a volcano.
Enormous expenditure of blood and treasure had been made to repel the
unprincipled schemes of Louis XIV. Europe seemed to have triumphed over
him. He had suddenly surrendered all that he had striven for, as if
he perceived the impossibility of his aspirations. Nothing was less
the fact. Never had he been so daring in his plans of aggrandisement
as at this moment. Why should he continue to drain his kingdom of its
population and its substance to grasp merely at Flanders, when, by
exerting the arts of diplomacy, he might possess himself, not only
of Flanders, but of all Spain, the north of Italy, the Sicilies, the
South American and Indian dependencies? This grand scheme Louis now
resolved to compass. He had married, as we have said, the Infanta,
Maria Theresa, the sister of Charles II. of Spain, and had children
by her. On marrying her he had sworn to renounce all claims to the
Spanish throne through her; but this weighed nothing with Louis. He
resolved that a son of the Dauphin--that is, his grandson through Maria
Theresa--should be put forward as the French candidate in lieu of his
father. Against him was the Emperor of Germany, the first cousin of
Charles II., but he had resigned his claims in favour of his son by a
second marriage--the Archduke Charles. By his first marriage with a
younger sister of Charles II. he was the grandfather of the Electoral
Prince of Bavaria. But the rights of this claimant, like those of the
Dauphin's son Philip, were somewhat discountenanced by the fact that
his grandfather's marriage had been accompanied by a renunciation of
rights. It will be seen, therefore, that the question was one of some
intricacy, and it was complicated by doubts as to the validity of the
renunciations. Louis determined that the House of Austria should be
set aside, and his own issue occupy the Spanish throne, when France,
in fact, stretching from Gibraltar to Flanders, and including a large
share of Italy, would be able to give law to the Continent, and swallow
up Flanders and Holland, if not Germany too. This was the danger which
wrought on the anxious heart of William at this moment.
Montague, in the height of his popularity, undertook and carried a
measure which eventually, however, did the Whigs infinite mischief.
Ministers had applied to the East India Company for a loan. The
Company offered to lend them seven hundred thousand pounds, to be
repaid out of the supplies at the convenience of Government. The new
Company, which had so long been striving after a charter, hearing of
the proposal, immediately outbade the old Company, offering to lend
the Government two million pounds at eight per cent. The bait was too
tempting to resist; a Bill was brought into the Commons, and passed
its first reading by a large majority. The old Company, alarmed,
petitioned the House, stating the claims it possessed, from having
been encouraged by many royal charters to invest its capital, and to
create a trade with India. It begged the House to consider that a
thousand families depended on the stock, and that the property of the
Company in India, producing an annual revenue of forty-four thousand
pounds, would all be destroyed or reduced to trifling value. They
deposed that they had expended a million of money in fortifications
alone; that during the war they had lost twelve ships and cargoes worth
fifteen hundred thousand pounds; that since the last subscription they
had paid two hundred and ninety-five thousand pounds for customs,
and above eighty-five thousand pounds in taxes. They had furnished
ten thousand barrels of gunpowder when the Government was greatly
pressed for it, and taken eighty thousand pounds' worth of Exchequer
Bills. The House weighed the proposal, but was persuaded by Montague
to give the preference to the new Company. On this the old Company
offered, notwithstanding their great losses, to advance two millions
to Government, on condition that the charter to the new Company was
not granted. The offer came too late; the Bill for the new Company
was passed, and carried also in the Lords, but with considerable
opposition, and a protest from one-and-twenty peers. This Act was,
notwithstanding, deemed a very unjust and arbitrary measure; and the
arguments of the Whigs for a standing army, and their embezzlements
in the Government offices and by most flagrant contracts, seriously
affected their popularity.
Towards the end of July William went to Holland, and having addressed
the States-General, and given audience to a number of ambassadors at
the Hague, he betook himself to his favourite seat at Loo, where,
in August, he was joined by Portland, the Pensionary Heinsius, and
the Count Tallard, an emissary from Louis XIV. In this retirement
they discussed one of the boldest projects which could possibly be
entertained by statesmen, namely, a partition of the Spanish dominions.
That the scheme was Louis XIV.'s there can be no question, and, daring
as it was, served but as the blinding manœuvre which covered still
more daring ones. The ultimate object of Louis was the seizure of the
crown and territories of Spain, to which we have already alluded, but
William, with great address, at once set to work to countermine him.
This plan of dividing the empire of Spain amongst such parties as
should suit the views of William and Louis had been suggested by
France, apparently very soon after the peace of Ryswick, and had been
going on all the spring in England in profound secrecy. One of the
motives for sending Portland to Paris in January had been to learn the
full particulars of this scheme, which had been somewhat mysteriously
opened to William. In writing to Heinsius on the 3rd of January,
when Portland was about to start for France, William expressed his
surprise as to the real meaning of "something that was proposed to be
done by the Republic, France, and England, towards the maintenance of
the peace," and imagined it might relate to their position with the
Emperor. However, he added, "the earl of Portland will readily be able
to get at the bottom of this affair in France, and that is another
reason for hastening his departure as much as possible."
[Illustration: VIEW IN THE HAGUE: OLD GATE IN THE BINNENHOF, WITH THE
ARMS OF THE COUNTY OF HOLLAND.]
Portland was scarcely settled in his diplomatic position in Paris when
the scheme was broached to him, but at first cautiously. On the 15th
of March he wrote to William that the Ministers Pomponne and De Torcy
had communicated to him, but in the profoundest secrecy, that the
king their master desired to make him the medium of a most important
negotiation with the king of England. The impending death of the king
of Spain was likely to throw the whole of Europe into war again, unless
this were prevented by engagements entered into by the kings of France
and England to prevent it. For if the Emperor were allowed to succeed
to Spain with its dependencies, Flanders, Italy, and the colonies, he
would become so powerful that he would be dangerous to all Europe.
Portland declared that he could give no opinion, nor could the king
his master give an answer, so far as he could see, until he had the
full views of the king of France on the subject; and that the naval and
maritime interests of England and Holland might be greatly affected by
any arrangement regarding the succession of the Spanish territories.
The French Ministers said it would be easy to order matters regarding
the Low Countries to the satisfaction of England and Holland, and that
France would guarantee that the crown of Spain should not be annexed to
that of France; but as to the Indies, or the security of English trade
in the Mediterranean, Portland could draw nothing from them. The views
of France were so far not very clear; but Portland added the important
piece of information that the Count de Tallard was at that very moment
setting out for London, ostensibly to congratulate William, but really
to prosecute this negotiation.
Accordingly, Tallard arrived in London on the 19th of March, and
he and William, in strict secrecy, admitting no one else to their
confidence, discussed this scheme of Louis. This was no other than that
the crown of Spain, with the Spanish Netherlands and colonies, should
not be allowed to pass to the Emperor, but should be settled on the
Electoral Prince of Bavaria, the third claimant; that Naples, Sicily,
Sardinia, the province of Guipuzcoa on the French side of the Pyrenees,
Fontarabia, San Sebastian, Ferrol, and some towns on the Tuscan coast
then owned by Spain, and called Presidii, should be settled by a mutual
treaty between them on the Dauphin; and that Milan should be settled
on the Archduke Charles, the second son of the Emperor, to whom he had
resigned his rights.
The negotiations were carried on in England in closest secrecy between
William and Tallard, William entering into engagements which most
momentously affected England as well as all Europe, without taking a
particle of advice from his Council, much less seeking the advice of
Parliament--a proceeding which we should now consider unconstitutional,
but which was then by no means unusual. When he quitted England after
the dissolution of Parliament, it was only the more unobservedly to
complete this extraordinary business. Tallard followed him to Loo, and
they were soon after joined by Portland. It was now about the middle
of August, and William wrote to Somers, desiring him to send him full
powers under the Great Seal to complete the negotiation, leaving the
names in blanks. He said he had ordered Portland to write to Vernon,
the Secretary of State, to draw out the commission with his own hand,
so that no creature should know anything of it except Somers and one
or two of the other most trusted Ministers. He told Somers that it was
confidently believed that the King of Spain could not outlive the month
of October--might die much sooner, and, therefore, not a moment was to
be lost.
In consequence of this communication, Somers, who was seeking health at
Tunbridge Wells, immediately called into his counsels Russell (now Lord
Orford), Montague, and Shrewsbury. He informed William that Montague
and Secretary Vernon had come down to him at Tunbridge; they had
seriously discussed this very momentous question, and that it seemed
to them that it might be attended with very many ill consequences if
the French did not act a sincere part; that the people of England would
undoubtedly resent being drawn into any fresh war; and that it required
deep consideration what would be the condition of Europe should this
proposed partition be carried out. To them it seemed that if Sicily
were in French hands, they would become entire masters of the Levant
trade; that if they obtained any of the Spanish ports on the Tuscan
coast, Milan would be so entirely shut in from independent intercourse
or commerce by sea and land that it would be utterly powerless; that if
France had Guipuzcoa and the other Spanish places on the French side of
the Pyrenees, the rest of Spain would be as completely open to French
invasion as Catalonia now was; and, finally, if this negotiation was
concluded, what guarantee had William for the king of France's faithful
execution of it? Were England and Holland to sit still and see France
enforce this partition? "If that be so," says Somers, "what security
ought we to expect from the French that, while we are neuter, they will
confine themselves to the terms of the treaty, and not attempt to take
further advantage?" These considerations were sound, but William had
certainly chosen the lesser of two evils, for the placing of the French
candidate on the throne of Spain would have entirely overturned the
European balance.
In obedience to the king's orders, Somers sent the _carte blanche_
with the Great Seal affixed; but he had failed in inducing Vernon to
give him a warrant for affixing the Seal. The Secretary was too well
aware of the unconstitutional character of this proceeding to issue
such a warrant, and Somers was obliged to content himself with keeping
the king's letter as his authority for the act. Undeterred by the
plain suggestions of Somers and the other Ministers as to the total
want of security which he had for Louis's observance of this treaty,
and the dangerous power it conferred on France, William was in such
haste to conclude the treaty, that the Earl of Portland and Sir Joseph
Williamson had signed a rough draft before Somers's _carte blanche_
arrived; and on the 11th of October, or about six weeks after its
receipt, the formal treaty was signed by Portland, Williamson, Tallard,
and Heinsius.
William returned to England in the beginning of December. He arrived on
the 4th, and opened his new Parliament on the 6th. It had been obliged
to be prorogued owing to his prolonged stay, having been called for
August. The Ministers in William's absence had not taken much pains to
influence the elections, and it soon appeared that a very independent
body of gentlemen had been sent up. Not only had the electors put
forward men of free principles, but the press had warmly urged the
selection of a Liberal Speaker as essential to the full exercise of
Parliamentary freedom. There were three candidates for the Speakership
more particularly in view--Sir Edward Seymour, Sir Thomas Littleton,
and Harley, the one supported by the Tories.
A paper on the choice of a Speaker had been actively circulated, which
said that the great Lord Burleigh declared "that England could never
be undone except by a Parliament," and that whenever we were enslaved
like our Continental neighbours, it would be by the joint influence of
a corrupt Parliament and a standing army. It cried down Seymour as a
man who had constantly been bargaining with the Court since the days of
the Pension Parliament of Charles II.; and it declared that men holding
office under the Crown were most unfit for the office of Speaker. This
was aimed at Littleton, which seemed a good omen for the Court, but, as
it soon appeared, was no sound indication, for Harley was not elected,
but Littleton.
In his opening speech William told the Commons that, notwithstanding
the state of peace, it would be necessary for them to consider well the
strength which they ought to maintain both at sea and on land; that the
honour and even safety of the nation depended on not stripping it too
much of its forces in the eyes of foreign nations. It was necessary,
he contended, that Europe should be impressed with the idea that they
would not be wanting to themselves. They had acquired a great position
among the nations, and it was their duty to preserve it. He recommended
them to make some progress in the discharge of the debts incurred in
this long and expensive war, for an English Parliament could never,
he imagined, neglect the sacred obligations which it had assumed. He
also suggested to them some measures for the improvement of trade and
for the discouragement of profaneness, and he begged them to act with
unanimity.
The remarks on the necessity of maintaining more troops than the last
Parliament had determined on, and on defraying the debts incurred
by the war, seemed to rouse an extraordinary spirit of anger and
disrespect in the new House. It neglected the ordinary courtesy of
an Address. Before leaving for Holland in the summer, William left a
sealed paper, ordering Ministers not to reduce the army in compliance
to less than sixteen thousand men. Probably this was become known,
and there had got abroad a persuasion that the king meant to resist
the will of the Parliament in this respect; no other cause appeared
sufficient to explain the animus which now manifested itself. The House
resounded with speeches against standing armies, and on the waste of
the people's substance on foreign wars, and it resolved that all the
land forces of England in English pay should not exceed seven thousand,
and that these should all be natural-born subjects; that not more
than twelve thousand should be maintained in Ireland--these, too, all
natural-born subjects, and to be supported by the revenue of Ireland.
The Ministers had told the king before the meeting of Parliament that
they thought they could obtain a grant of ten or twelve thousand in
England, and William had replied that they might as well leave none as
so few. But now that this storm broke out, the Ministers, seeing no
possibility of carrying the number they had hoped for, sat silent, to
the great disgust of the king.
This resolution went to strip William of his Dutch Guards whom he had
brought with him, and who had attended him in so many actions, and
of the brave Huguenots, who had done such signal service in Ireland.
The spirit of the Commons, instead of being merely economical, was
in this instance petty and miserable. It was neither grateful nor
becoming to its dignity, to make so sweeping a reduction of the
army, to begrudge the king who had rescued them from the miserable
race of the Stuarts, and had so nobly acquiesced in everything which
regarded their liberties, the small satisfaction of a few Dutch and
Huguenot troops. The Huguenots especially, it might have been expected,
would have experienced some sympathy from the Parliament, not only
in return for their own gallant services, but because their friends
and fellow-religionists were at this moment suffering the severest
persecution. But a deep dislike of foreigners had seized the nation,
and this had been rendered the more intense from the lavish wealth
which William heaped on Portland and others, and from his retiring
every year to spend the summer months in Holland. They had never been
accustomed to have their monarch passing a large portion of his time
abroad, and they regarded it as an evidence that he only had any
regard for the Dutch. The Commons, without considering his feelings,
introduced a Bill founded on their resolution, carried it briskly
through the House, and sent it up to the Lords, where it also passed.
Deeply annoyed, William is said to have walked to and fro on learning
that the Commons insisted on his dismissing the Dutch Guards, and to
have muttered, "By God, if I had a son, these Guards should not quit
me." He wrote to Lord Galway, one of his foreign friends, "There is a
spirit of ignorance and malice prevails here beyond conception." To
Heinsius he wrote in a similar strain, "that he was so chagrined at the
conduct of the Commons, that he was scarcely master of his thoughts,
and hinted at coming to extremities, and being in Holland sooner than
he had thought." In fact, he was so much excited as to menace again
throwing up the government. He sat down and penned a speech which
he proposed to address to the two Houses; it is still preserved in
the British Museum. It ran:--"My Lords and Gentlemen,--I came into
this kingdom, at the desire of the nation, to save it from ruin, and
to preserve your religion, laws, and liberties; and for this object
I have been obliged to sustain a long and burthensome war for this
kingdom, which, by the grace of God and the bravery of this nation, is
at present terminated by a good peace; in which you may live happily
and in repose if you would contribute to your own security, as I
recommended at the opening of the Session. But seeing, on the contrary,
that you have so little regard for my advice, and take so very little
care of your own safety, and that you expose yourselves to evident ruin
in depriving yourselves of the only means for your defence, it would
neither be just nor reasonable for me to be witness of your ruin, not
being able on my part to avoid it, being in no condition to defend and
protect you, which was the only view I had in coming to this country."
And it then went on to desire them to name proper persons to take
charge of the government, promising, however, to come again whenever
they would put him in his proper place, with proper power to defend
them. The entreaties of Somers, however, induced him to abandon his
purpose.
The mischief which the Whigs had done themselves by granting a charter
to the new East India Company, in violation of the existing charter of
the old Company, merely because the former Company had offered them a
large money bait, encouraged the Tories greatly in their endeavours
to regain power. They exhorted the old Company to petition that means
should be taken to enable it to maintain its trade and property against
the new Company for the remaining portion of the twenty-one years of
its charter; and there were not wanting some in the House who declared
that the new charter, granted in violation of an existing one, and
from such corrupt motives, should be abolished. Montague, however,
who had passed the Act for this charter, was able to protect it, but
not to prevent fresh onslaughts on the unpopular Whigs. They were
charged with gross corruption, and with embezzlement of the public
revenue, for the purchase of great estates for themselves, and the
grievous burthen of the people by taxation. Russell, Earl of Orford,
was specially singled out by the Commons. He was both First Lord of the
Admiralty and Treasurer of the Navy, as well as Admiral, and assumed
great authority, forgetful of the humble station from which he had
risen. He was charged with keeping large sums of public money for his
own private use, instead of paying the officers and seamen when their
pay was due. They called for his accounts, and there appeared to be
four hundred and sixty thousand pounds in his hands. In his defence
he represented that this was actually in course of payment, and that
part of the sum was yet in tallies, which must be converted into cash
before it could be distributed. But this did not satisfy the Commons.
They voted an address to the king, complaining of the impropriety of
one and the same person being Lord High Admiral, Chief Commissioner of
the Board of Admiralty, and Treasurer; of gross misapplication of the
public money; of many unnecessary changes introduced into the navy; of
delays in granting convoys; and of favouritism to particular officers.
Orford was prudent enough to retire from his offices before the storm
which was gathering burst in all its fury upon him. The Tories, elated
by this success, endeavoured to get Sir George Rooke put into Orford's
place; but the Whigs were yet strong enough and imprudent enough to get
the Earl of Bridgewater named First Lord of the Admiralty--a man almost
wholly unacquainted with naval affairs; and Lord Haversham, another of
the "land admirals," as the sailors called these unprofessional men,
succeeded to Priestman, one of the Junior Lords, who retired.
[Illustration: CHARLES MONTAGUE, EARL OF HALIFAX. (_After the Portrait
by Sir Godfrey Kneller._)]
Those matters being settled, the House voted fifteen thousand pounds
for sailors for the year, the vote expressly stipulating for sailors
only, lest the king should include some land forces under the name of
marines. They also granted one million four hundred and eighty-four
thousand pounds for the service of the year, to be raised by a land
and income tax of three shillings in the pound. To this Act, availing
themselves of their sole right to introduce money Bills, they also
"tacked" a clause appointing commissioners to take an account of the
estates forfeited in Ireland by the last rebellion, in order to their
being applied in ease of the subjects in England. This was another
sharp reminder of the king's proceedings. It had been promised by him
that he would not bestow the forfeited estates without the sanction
of the House, but in disregard of this he had given large estates to
his favourites. William was deeply mortified by this clause, and some
of the Lords entered a protest against it, on the ground that the
clause was foreign to the contents of the Bill, and was contrary to the
practice of Parliament. The king, however, did not venture to refuse
his signature to the Act, which he passed on the 4th of May, 1699, and
at the same time prorogued the Parliament.
Before quitting England, William was obliged to almost entirely remodel
his Ministry. The Duke of Leeds retired from the Presidency of the
Council; his influence had expired with the discovery of his bribe from
the East India Company. The Earl of Pembroke, a moderate Tory, who
performed his official duties with zeal and integrity, was put in his
place. Villiers, Earl of Jersey, having returned from his embassy to
France, was made Secretary of State in place of the Duke of Shrewsbury,
who became Lord Chamberlain. The Earl of Manchester went as ambassador
to France in place of Jersey, and Lord Lonsdale, another Tory, obtained
the Privy Seal. On the 2nd of June, William, having appointed a
regency, embarked for Holland, where he retired to Loo, but not to
peace of mind, for he saw events marching to an ominous result. The
forces of England and of the Continent were disbanded, except those of
Louis, which were rapidly increased; and not only the Spanish monarchy,
but all Europe, appeared at his mercy. But before following these
movements, we must trace some nearer home.
Ireland was quiet. The Parliament of that kingdom had voted one hundred
and twenty thousand pounds for the maintenance of the twelve thousand
troops ordered by the English Parliament to be quartered in that
country, and the Duke of Bolton and the Earls of Berkeley and Galway
were appointed Lords Justices.
In Scotland far different was the state of things. There excitement
raged against the Ministry of England, and not the less against the
king, who disowned their Company, organised to carry out the Act
granted for trading to Africa and the Indies. The charter for this
Company was granted by the Scottish Parliament, and ratified by William
in 1695. Its professed object was to trade with the East and West
Indies and Africa; but there was a plan for carrying out these objects,
which does not seem to have been made known to the Government, or made
public generally, till after the acquisition of the charter. This was
to seize on the Isthmus of Darien, to establish a strong colony there,
and not only to grow rich through possession of the gold mines, but to
found ports both on the Atlantic and on the Pacific, so that a great
carrying trade might be prosecuted between Europe and China and the
East Indies by that route.
William Paterson, the projector of this scheme, was the same man
who had projected and carried into being, through the influence of
Montague, the Bank of England. He has been generally represented as
a visionary speculator and schemer, and has not unfrequently been
confounded with John Law, of Lauriston, the author of the famous South
Sea Bubble and Mississippi Scheme, which spread such ruin through
both France and England. Paterson, however, was a very different
man. Undoubtedly he was a most speculative genius, but in his
speculations there was something grand, substantial, and based, for
the most part, on the purest moral principles. The Bank of England
is a lasting memorial of his real sagacity and acute talents. It was
well devised, and immediately rose to entire success. Through some
disagreement in the mode of management Paterson sold out his stock,
and proposed the erection of an Orphan Bank, connected with the Orphan
Fund established by the Corporation of London already mentioned. This
was not entertained, and he then projected his grand scheme for the
Scottish Company to trade to the Indies. This scheme, so far from being
visionary, had all the elements of a great and far-seeing reality.
The unsound portion of Paterson's project was the not sufficiently
taking into account these political obstacles:--Spain possessed, or
rather claimed to possess, the Isthmus of Darien. Louis of France was
contemplating the seizure of Spain, and its American territories.
William was under treaty of peace with both Spain and Louis. It was
impossible, therefore, to obtain possession of the Isthmus of Darien
without producing a fresh European war. To attempt it by treaty was
useless, for Spain would never consent to permit England, of which
she was in the highest degree jealous, thus to establish a great
mercantile colony in the midst of her most valuable Transatlantic
colonies, from which she was annually drawing her cargoes of gold and
other valuable products. Louis of France, who was resolved to succeed
to the Spanish Empire, was as little likely to permit such a thing. To
obtain possession of Darien, then, could only be done by invasion, and
that invasion must produce immediate war, for which William was not
prepared.
But the scheme was got up ostensibly to trade to the East and West
Indies and Africa. There was no mention of Panama; and its prospects
were so fair that they seized on the imaginations of the English and
Scottish public. The Company was to have the monopoly of trade with
Asia, Africa, and America for thirty-one years. Paterson had spent
ten years in the West Indies, and, as it is supposed, in Panama. At
all events, he had the reputation of being intimately acquainted with
those regions and their resources. His proposals of the Company were
eagerly accepted both in London and Edinburgh. Though it was intended
to raise only three hundred and sixty thousand pounds as the original
stock for both countries, three hundred thousand pounds were subscribed
in London alone in a few days. But this remarkable success excited all
the vindictive feelings of Companies whose interests this new league
appeared likely to affect. The East India Companies, new and old,
immediately were on the alert, and raised such a feeling in the House
of Commons that it resolved to impeach Paterson and the bankers, Coutts
and Cohen, for the commission of an illegal act in daring to levy money
in England without the sanction of the English Legislature. In the
meantime a subscription list had been opened at Hamburg, and by this
the Dutch East India Company was equally alarmed, and the influence
both of the Dutch and of the English Companies was made to bear on
the king. William, who had been too much absorbed by his warfare with
Louis to perceive the hostile feelings which he was exciting by passing
the Scottish Act, now made haste to condemn his own precipitancy. He
complained that he had been deceived by the Scottish Government, and at
once gave orders to prohibit the scheme, and sent similar orders to his
consul at Hamburg to forbid the subscription there. The senate of the
city of Hamburg was induced to prohibit the canvassing of the Company's
agents; and the English subscribers, alarmed at the menaces of the
king and Commons, withdrew their names. Nor were these all the enemies
of this scheme. There were Scottish traders united for commerce with
India by the ordinary route, and these joined in the cry. One of these,
Mr. Robert Douglas, attacked the scheme in a very able letter. In this
letter we are first let into the secret that the real destination is
not so much the West Indies as Darien, on the mainland. It is not,
however, from Paterson having mentioned expressly Darien that Douglas
declares it to be that place, but he infers it from the fact that the
locality darkly hinted at by Paterson is at once near the Caribbean
isles, and at the same time so situated "that it will alter the whole
method of trade in Europe, and effectually ruin both the English and
Dutch East Indian Companies, because it opens a shorter, safer, and
more convenient way to the East Indies by the Pacific from England and
Holland."
Douglas then points out that it is not nearer or more convenient than
the old way to the western or Bombay coast of the Indian peninsula;
that it was then a very dangerous route, because our merchant vessels
on that track would have to pass the Dutch, Batavian, and Spice Island
settlements, which would show the utmost hostility to such a traffic;
but still more, that it was impossible, because this Isthmus of Panama
was the track by which Spain conveyed her treasure from Peru to
Portobello; that as to the rightful possession of the country by Spain,
the city of Darien, called Santa Maria, was one of the first cities
built by them on the mainland of America, as the province was the first
province possessed by them. These were sound reasons why the king could
not consent to any such invasion of the territory of Spain, and why
Spain was not likely to concede it by treaty. These reasons should have
made Paterson and the Scots pause.
Unwarned by the great outcry, the firm opposition, and insurmountable
obstacles, Paterson and the Scots went on. The Scottish people, who
conceived the idea of achieving enormous wealth in the golden regions
of Central America, regarded themselves as victims of the jealousy of
William's favourite Dutch, and of the haughty monopolising spirit of
the English, and the whole country was in a ferment. They considered
themselves insulted and most perfidiously treated by the king, who had
freely sanctioned the Company, and then as unceremoniously disowned
and trampled on it. They went on with the subscriptions, and speedily
the amount rose to four hundred thousand pounds. The highest and most
intelligent of the Scottish nobility, as well as the people generally,
were sanguine contributors. Their younger sons saw a new highway to
opulence and distinction suddenly opened. Many lords mortgaged all that
they could to secure an ample share of the expected benefits. Their
tenantry and servants were enthusiastic in their adhesion to it; and
the officers whom the peace had left at large, prepared for fresh
campaigns and adventures in the golden regions.
The Company had a number of stout ships built in Holland to convey
the emigrants and their stores. On the 25th of July, 1698, four of
these ships--the _St. Andrew_, the _Unicorn_, the _Caledonia_, and
the _Endeavour_--containing one thousand two hundred men, set sail
from Leith. Such was the excitement that all Edinburgh seemed to have
poured out to see the departure of the colonists, and hundreds of
soldiers and sailors who could not be engaged clamoured to be taken on
board. Many contrived to get into the vessels and endeavour to conceal
themselves in the hold, and when discovered they clung to the timbers
and riggings, offering service without pay.
When the vessels had sailed, the Scottish Parliament unanimously
addressed the king on behalf of the Company and the validity of the
charter. The Lord President, Sir Hugh Dalrymple, the brother of
Lord Stair, and Sir James Stuart, the Lord Advocate, also presented
memorials defending the rights of the Company. Paterson committed the
error of sailing in the fleet as a private individual. He had incurred
the resentment of the Company by having remitted twenty thousand pounds
to Hamburg for stores, part of which, through no fault of his own, was
embezzled by the agent. The Company, therefore, refused to give him
the command of the colony, but appointed a council of seven members
without a head. This was certain to entail want of unity of purpose,
and consequent failure. Paterson was the only man qualified by his
abilities, his experience, and his knowledge of the country to take
the command. He is said to have seen and conversed with the celebrated
buccaneer Dampier and his surgeon Lionel Wafer on the statistics of
Darien; and, if the expedition was sent at all, it should have been
under his entire control. Nothing, in the political circumstances,
could have insured the establishment of the colony; but Paterson's
guidance would have prevented the dire calamities which ensued. He was
certain that the vessels were not properly furnished with provisions
and stores before setting out, and he in vain urged an examination.
When out at sea a few days, he was enabled to get an examination, when
there was discovered to be a serious deficiency, but then it was too
late. They next sailed for Madeira, where their sealed orders were
opened, and they then bore away for the West Indies. They put into St.
Thomas's, and there might have obtained plenty of provisions from a
ship-captain but for the perverseness of the council. The advice of
Paterson was uniformly rejected out of jealousy. On the 30th of October
they landed in a fine bay on the coast of Darien, capable of holding
one thousand ships, and about four miles east of Golden Island.
The incapable council, in spite of Paterson's advice, would plant their
new town in a bog, but the effects on their health soon forced them to
remove to higher ground. They erected a fort and threw up defences at
Acta, which they named New St. Andrews; and on a hill opposite made a
signal-station, where they placed a corps of Highlanders to keep a good
look-out for the approach of any enemy.
But the miserable management of the council brought speedy misfortune
on the infant colony. The people were suffering from want of
everything. Paterson soon lost his wife, and numbers sank under
disappointment, insufficient food, and the climate. The natives were
friendly to them, but wanted them to go and fight the Spaniards. It was
soon found that the mountains and forests offered enormous obstacles
to a transit to the shores of the Pacific. The different leaders of
the expedition fell to quarrelling, and Paterson endeavoured in vain
to reconcile them. They sent out vessels to the West Indian islands
for provisions. One they lost, and another endeavouring to get to
New York, after beating about for a month, was driven back. Amid the
rapidly-sinking colonists and the fatal feuds of the leaders, they
received on the 18th of May, 1699, the stunning news that the king had
issued a proclamation denouncing the act of the colonists as having
infringed his treaty with Spain by forcibly entering the Spanish
territory of Panama, and forbidding any of the English governors of the
West Indian islands to furnish them with provisions or any necessaries.
The moment Louis XIV. heard of their settling in Darien he had offered
to the king of Spain to send ships and forces and drive them out for
him. The Spanish Minister at London, the Marquis de Canales, on the 3rd
of May presented a remonstrance against this breach of the peace with
his master. Dalrymple, who has left much information on this expedition
in his "Memoirs," says the Dutch and English opponents were at the
bottom of this remonstrance; that Spain had let the affair go on a long
time without noticing it; and that the rights of the Company had been
debated before William, in presence of the Spanish ambassador, before
the colony sailed. All this may be true, for the real destination
of the expedition was kept secret till the fleet arrived at Madeira,
and Spain protested as soon as she discovered whither it had gone.
William, who was just now making treaties with Louis, and anxious to be
on good terms with Spain, strictly enforced the orders to deprive the
suffering colony of all means of remaining. These measures of the king
produced the most fatal consequences in the colony. Every one, says
Paterson, was in haste to be gone from it. In vain he tried to persuade
them to stay for more positive orders. Pennicook, the captain of the
fleet, was reported to be intending to steal away with his ship, on the
supposition that they had all been proclaimed pirates, and would be
hanged. The poor colonists continued to die off rapidly, and news now
came that the Spaniards were marching against them with a strong force.
[Illustration: SCENE AT THE DEPARTURE FROM LEITH OF THE DARIEN
EXPEDITION. (_See p._ 512.)]
Famine, sickness, and the fear of being massacred in their weakness by
the enemy, compelled the colonists to evacuate the place. On the 18th
of June, 1699, the _Unicorn_, _St. Andrew_, and _Caledonia_ sailed from
Golden Island for New York. On the voyage they met the sloop which they
had sent to Jamaica for provisions. It had got none, owing to the royal
proclamation, and they all proceeded on their route. They lost one
hundred and fifty out of two hundred and fifty of their number on the
voyage, and arrived at New York in October, more like skeletons than
living men. On the 13th of November Paterson and his companions reached
England in the _Caledonia_. The indignation of the Scots at their
treatment was beyond bounds, and the more so because, unacquainted with
the real facts of the case, they had sent out a second expedition of
one thousand three hundred men.
The history of this second expedition was as miserable as that of the
first. On arriving, the new adventurers, instead of a flourishing
colony, found the place deserted, and only a few miserable Indians
to tell them the fate of their predecessors. With this new arrival
came four Presbyterian clergymen, who assumed the command, and seemed
to think of nothing but establishing a presbytery in all its rigour
and uncharitableness. Paterson, like Penn in Pennsylvania, and Lord
Baltimore in Baltimore, had proclaimed perfect civil and religious
liberty to men of all creeds and nations. This was now reversed; there
was nothing but the most harsh and senseless Phariseeism. Instead of a
comfort, these men proved one of the worst curses of this unfortunate
colony, thwarting and damping the exertions of the people, and
continually threatening them with hell fire. Two of these ministers
perished.
In the midst of these miseries arrived Captain Campbell, of Ferrol,
with a force of his own men. He attacked and dispersed a body of one
thousand Spaniards sent against him; but this was only a fresh offence
against Spain, and, therefore, against William. They were soon,
however, assailed by a more powerful Spanish squadron. Campbell got
away to New York, the rest of the colony capitulated, and there was an
end of the unhappy expedition to Darien. The Spaniards humanely allowed
the remnant of this wretched company to embark in one of their vessels,
the _Rising Sun_; but as the British authorities at all the islands
refused them any succour or stores whatever, only eighty of them
arrived alive in England.
Scotland was in a frenzy of indignation at this cold-blooded conduct
of the king, who, if he had visited the projectors with severity,
ought to have had some compassion for the poor deluded sufferers. The
exasperated Scots called on the king to withdraw his proclamation
against a Company which had an undoubted right by charter to trade
to the West Indies, if not to the mainland. They demanded that the
Scottish Parliament should be summoned; but William only sent evasive
answers, and the fury of the people rose to such a height that nothing
was talked of but that the king had forfeited his right to the
allegiance of Scotland by his conduct, and of war with England.
Meanwhile the partition treaty had become known to the Court at Madrid,
and William's share in it excited great indignation. At the same time
the agents of Louis had prevailed on the dying king to nominate the
Electoral Prince of Bavaria his heir to the crown. Scarcely, however,
was this done when this young prince died, being only eight years of
age. Louis still kept up the farce of disinterestedness, and persuaded
William to enter into a second treaty, mentioned later on, settling
the crown of Spain on the Archduke Charles, but leaving the Italian
States to the Dauphin. Again were William, Portland, and Tallard,
with an agent of the Emperor, busy on the new partition at Loo. But
whilst they were busy there, the French ambassador was equally busy at
Madrid, inflaming the mind of the imbecile king against William and
the Emperor, and prevailed on him, as we shall see, to leave the whole
Spanish monarchy to the Dauphin's son Philip. The king of Spain was
also induced to send a strong remonstrance against the interference
of William in the affairs of the Spanish monarchy to Mr. Stanhope,
the English Minister at Madrid. Similar remonstrances were presented
for form's sake to the Ministers of France and Holland. The Spanish
Minister in London, Canales, was ordered to present a still stronger
remonstrance to the Lords Justices in London, in which the Court of
Spain informed them that his Spanish Majesty would take the necessary
measures himself for the succession of his crown; adding that if these
proceedings, these machinations and projects, were not speedily put an
end to, there would undoubtedly commence a terrible war, in which the
English, who had felt what the last war had brought upon them, would
have the worst of it. Canales, who had a high personal resentment
against William, who had forbidden him the Court for the insolence
of appearing covered, announced haughtily that on the meeting of
Parliament he should appeal to it against the king's proceedings.
No sooner was this paper transmitted to Loo than William sent orders
to the Spanish ambassador to quit England in eighteen days, and
during that period to confine himself to his house. He was informed
that no communication whatever would be received from him or any of
his servants. Mr. Stanhope was instructed at the Court of Madrid to
complain of this conduct of Canales, as an attempt to excite sedition
in the kingdom by appealing to the people and Parliament against
the king. Mr. Stanhope was then instructed to cease all diplomatic
intercourse with the Court and to return home. The Spanish Court, on
its part, justified the act of its Minister, and Mr. Stanhope took his
leave. The Spanish ambassador at the Hague delivered a similar memorial
to that delivered in London, which the States-General refused to read.
In these circumstances William returned to England about the middle of
October.
The temper of his people had not improved during his absence. The
Tories were bent on driving every Whig from office. They even now
compelled the lately all-powerful Montague to resign his seat at
the Treasury Board as well as the Chancellorship of the Exchequer.
Montague was well aware of the humour of the present House of Commons,
and anticipated an attack on his two offices by his resignation.
Lord Tankerville, formerly Lord Grey of Wark, took his place at the
Treasury, and Smith, another member of that Board, became Chancellor.
At the same time William gave the office of Lord Chamberlain to the
Duke of Shrewsbury, vacant since the retirement of Sunderland. Besides
Shrewsbury, there remained no other Whig in office except Somers, and
the Tories were at this moment endeavouring to spring a mine under his
feet.
William met his Parliament on the 16th of November. He addressed them
with much studied care to avoid topics of offence, but he found it
impossible. He recommended them to take further measures, both by
sea and land, for the safety of the kingdom, to punish unlawful and
clandestine trading, and to devise, if possible, measures for the
employment of the poor. He expressed his resolution to discourage vice,
and declared that he would do anything in his power towards the welfare
of the nation. "And to conclude," he said, "since our aims are only for
the general good, let us act with confidence in each other; which will
not fail, with God's blessing, to make me a happy king, and you a great
and flourishing people."
The very words "let us act with confidence" roused up this captious
Parliament. They sent him a remonstrance instead of an Address of
thanks, complaining of there being some who endeavoured to sow
distrust and dissension between them and the king. It was in vain that
William protested that this supposition was totally unfounded, and
that if any should presume to bring to him any calumnies against his
faithful Commons, he would treat them as his worst enemies; they were
unappeased. They wanted, in fact, occasion to drive Somers from his
councils, and they soon found a plea.
During the war, piracy had grown to a great height upon the coasts
of North America, and the colonists were themselves deep in it. Lord
Bellamont, the Governor of New York, had recommended that a man-of-war
should be sent to clear the pirates away; but the Admiralty objected
that they had not sailors enough to spare for such a service. It was
then determined by the Lord Chancellor Somers, the Duke of Shrewsbury,
the Earls of Romney, Orford, and Bellamont, with a few private
individuals, to send out a vessel at their own expense. This the king
approved of, and promised to contribute one-half of the expense, and
stipulated for one-tenth of the profits. Besides the usual letters of
marque given to privateers, the captain was furnished with a warrant
under the Great Seal, authorising him to make war on the pirates
and the French, both in those and other seas. Unfortunately, this
commission was given to a man who was himself a notorious pirate--one
Captain Kidd, whose fame still lives on the American coasts, and is the
theme of popular ballads. The man promptly showed in his true colours.
The old East India Company complained bitterly of Kidd's outrages in
the Indian seas, declaring that they would bring it into trouble with
the Great Mogul. In the beginning of December a motion was made in the
Commons that "the letters patent granted to the Earl of Bellamont and
others of pirates' goods were dishonourable to the king, and contrary
to the laws of nations and the laws and statutes of the realm, invasive
of property, and destructive of trade and commerce." There was a
violent debate, in which the Tories contended that the Lord Chancellor
Somers had knowingly affixed the Great Seal to the commission to
enrich himself, his colleagues, and the king, out of the plunder of
unfortunate merchants. The motion was rejected by a large majority; the
character of Somers stood too high for such a charge to reach him. But
the Opposition did not rest here; it was determined to wound the king
and his Government in every possible quarter.
There lay a cause in Ireland much more dangerous to the king and his
Chancellor than the affairs of Captain Kidd. William had promised
not to bestow any of the confiscated lands there without consent of
Parliament. In disregard of his word he had conferred immense estates
on his Dutch favourites, Portland, Albemarle, Athlone, and his French
one, Lord Galway (Ruvigny), as well as on his mistress, Mrs. Villiers.
The Commons, therefore, appointed Commissioners to inquire into the
royal grants there. These Commissioners were the Earl of Drogheda, Sir
Francis Brewster, Sir Richard Leving, Hamilton, Annesley, Trenchard,
and Langford. The four last-named Commissioners were earnest supporters
of the Commons' inquiry; but it was soon perceived by them that the
Earl of Drogheda, Brewster, and Leving were in the interest of the
Government. When they came to draw up their report, those three
Commissioners vehemently dissented, and made an appeal to each House
of Parliament, declaring that the report had not their concurrence,
and that it was not borne out by the evidence laid before them. They
complained that the other Commissioners had endeavoured to overbear
them in a most arbitrary manner, trying to influence them by letters
and instructions which they alleged they had received from members of
the Commons. The Commons, however, regarding Drogheda, Brewster, and
Leving as tools of the Court, paid no attention to their remonstrance.
They received the report signed by the other four, who, on their
part, complained that in the prosecution of their inquiry they had
been greatly hindered by the backwardness of the people of Ireland to
give information for fear of the vengeance of the grantees, and from
reports industriously spread that the inquiry, through the influence
of the Crown and the new grantees, would come to nothing. The three
dissentient Commissioners agreed to much of this, but attributed the
fear of the people to the grantees at large, and not to those recently
favoured by Government. They affirmed that John Burke, commonly called
Lord Bophin, had agreed to pay to Lord Albemarle seven thousand five
hundred pounds for procuring from the king letters patent restoring
him to his honours and estates. They gave amazing details of the
wholesale plunder of cattle, horses, sheep, etc., from the Catholics,
which had never been accounted for to the Crown. The report stated the
persons who had been outlawed since the 13th of February, 1689, for
participation in the rebellion amounted in England to fifty-seven, but
in Ireland to 3,921; that the lands confiscated in Ireland since that
period amounted to 1,060,792 acres, with a rental of £211,623; which,
at twenty years' purchase were of the value of over £4,000,000; that
some of these lands had been restored to their ancient proprietors, but
chiefly by heavy bribes to the persons who had betrayed his Majesty's
trust in them. They then gave a list of seventy-six grants under the
Great Seal, amongst which stood prominent those to Lord Romney, who as
Lord Sidney had been Lord-Lieutenant of Ireland, consisting of 49,517
acres; two to the king's recent favourite, Keppel of Guelderland, made
by William Earl of Albemarle, amounting to 106,633 acres; to William
Bentinck, Lord Woodstock, the son of Portland, 135,820 acres; to
Ginkell, Earl of Athlone, 26,480 acres; and to Ruvigny, the Huguenot,
Earl of Galway, 36,148 acres. After all the deductions and allowances,
they valued the estates forfeited since the 13th of February, 1689, and
not restored at £2,699,343--a ridiculous over-estimate.
The Commons instantly set themselves to frame a Bill of Resumption
of all the grants. They ordered the report of the Commissioners, the
speeches and promises of the king regarding these forfeited estates,
and their former resolutions regarding them, to be printed, that the
whole country might judge of this matter for itself. And they resolved
that any member of the Privy Council who should procure or be concerned
in procuring grants from the Crown for their own purposes, should be
deemed guilty of a high crime and misdemeanour. As the Tories were
the means of carrying this Resumption Bill, the Whigs, to avenge
themselves, moved by way of amendment that all grants made since the
6th of February, 1684, should be resumed, and the Tories were caught in
their own snare, for they could not with any show of consistency oppose
a measure of their own originating. Therefore the Bill passed, and they
were compelled to disgorge all the Crown property they had settled on
themselves from the accession of James. Ministers proposed to insert a
clause to reserve one third of the forfeited property for the king's
own disposal; but the Commons would not listen to it, and resolved not
to receive any petition from any person whatever concerning the grants.
That justice might be done to purchasers and creditors in the Act of
Resumption, they appointed thirteen trustees to hear and determine all
claims, to sell to the highest purchasers, and to appropriate the money
to pay the arrears of the army. The Lords introduced some alterations,
but the Commons rejected them, and to prevent the Bill from being lost
in the Lords they consolidated it with a money Bill for the service of
the year. The Lords demanded a conference, and the Commons, exasperated
at their interference in a money Bill, prepared to go greater lengths.
They assumed the aspect of the Commons in Charles I.'s time. They
ordered the doors to be closed, and called for a list of the Privy
Councillors. They then moved that John, Lord Somers, should be expelled
from the service of the king for ever. The resolution was not carried,
but the temper of the House was such as made wise men tremble for an
approaching crisis. The king was disposed to refuse to pass the Bill
even if the Lords did; but when the Commons left the Bill in the hands
of the Lords, and that House was warned on all sides that they would
have to pass the Bill, or the consequences might be fatal, he gave way,
though with undisguised resentment. The Commons were proceeding with a
fresh resolution for an address to his Majesty, praying that not any
foreigner, except Prince George of Denmark, should be admitted to his
Majesty's Council in England or Ireland, the resolution being aimed at
Portland, Albemarle, and Galway, when the king sent a private message
to the peers, desiring them to pass the Resumption Bill, and on the
11th of April he went down to the House, and gave it the royal assent.
He then ordered the Earl of Bridgewater, in the absence of Somers, who
was ill, to prorogue Parliament, and it was accordingly prorogued to
the 23rd of May without any speech.
William left England in the beginning of July, but before his departure
he endeavoured to persuade Somers to give way to the rancour of the
Commons, and resign the Seals. Somers refused to resign voluntarily,
arguing that it would imply a fear of his enemies, or a consciousness
of guilt; but William, who knew the necessity of leaving a better
feeling behind him if possible, sent Lord Jersey to Somers for the
Seals, and offered them successively to Chief Justice Holt, and to
Treby the Attorney-General; both declined, however, what would have
turned the enmity of Parliament on them, and William was eventually
obliged to bestow them on Nathan Wright, one of the Serjeants-at-Law,
a man of no mark and very indifferent qualifications for the office.
William offered the government of Ireland to Shrewsbury; but he, too,
declined the office, and set out for Italy. Every one seemed afraid of
engaging in his Government, so bitter was the Parliament against him.
Even his trusty Portland, now absolutely groaning under the weight of
riches which William had heaped upon him, retired from his place in his
household, and Lord Jersey was appointed Chamberlain, and Lord Romney,
Groom of the Stole. William had never left the kingdom in circumstances
of so much unpopularity, and scarcely had he gone when the Duke of
Gloucester, the only child of the Princess Anne, died at the age of
eleven (July 30, 1700). This gave fresh hopes to the Jacobites. They
sent a messenger to St. Germains with the news, and began to bestir
themselves all over the kingdom. In truth, the outlook was very gloomy
for the Protestant succession. No such successor was as yet appointed.
The health and spirits of William were fast sinking. His person and
government were extremely unpopular. The House of Brunswick had
treated his advances with marked contempt, but they now came forward,
urged by the critical state of things, and made their first visit of
acknowledgment to the king. The Princess Sophia, Electress Dowager
of Hanover, was the person on whom the eyes of the Protestants were
now turned; but the nation was in a state of much uncertainty. It was
rumoured that even Anne had sent a conciliatory letter to her father,
and the public mind was disturbed by fears of a disputed succession,
and of the reviving chances of a Stuart king.
William during this year had been busy concluding the new treaty
of partition. Tallard, Portland, and Jersey had assisted in it. It
was signed by them in London early in March, and by Briord and the
Plenipotentiaries of the States at the Hague on the 25th of October.
It had substituted the Archduke Charles, the second son of the
Emperor, for the deceased Electoral Prince of Bavaria, as heir to
Spain with the Spanish Flanders and colonies; but the Dauphin was
still to possess Naples and the other Italian States, with Lorraine
and Bar, which the Duke of Lorraine was to exchange for Milan. In case
of the archduke dying, some other son of the Emperor was to succeed,
but not the king of the Romans, for it was stipulated that Spain and
the Empire, or France and Spain, were never to be united under one
crown. The first treaty was made known to the different Powers, and
excited much astonishment and disapprobation. The Emperor of Germany,
notwithstanding his son was made successor to the Spanish monarchy,
Flanders, America, and the Indies, was not conciliated. He expressed
his amazement that the kings of other countries should take it upon
them to carve up the Spanish monarchy without the consent of the
present possessor and the Estates of the kingdom. He denied the right
of these Powers to compel him to accept a part when he was heir to the
whole, and to pronounce his forfeiture of even that part if within
three months he did not consent to this unwarrantable proceeding.
The other princes of Germany were unwilling to excite the enmity of
the House of Austria by expressing their approval of the scheme, and
Brandenburg, which was just now in treaty with the Emperor for the
acknowledgment of Prussia as a kingdom, which was signed on the 16th of
November, of course united with him. The Italian States were alarmed at
the prospects of being handed over to France, and the Swiss declined to
sanction the treaty. In Spain the aristocracy, who had vast estates in
Sicily, Naples, and the other Italian provinces, and who enjoyed the
viceroyalties, and governorships, and other good offices there, were
greatly incensed at the idea of all these passing to the French.