In the month of January the earl of Portland had set out on his embassy to France, where he was received with very particular marks of distinction. He made a public entry into Paris with such magnificence as is said to have astonished the French nation. He interceded for the protestants in that kingdom, against whom the persecution had been renewed with redoubled violence: he proposed that king James should be removed to Avignon, in which case his master would supply him with an honourable pension; but his remonstrances on both subjects proved ineffectual. Louis, however, in a private conference with him at Marli, is supposed to have communicated his project of the partition-treaty. The earl of Portland, at his return to England, finding himself totally eclipsed in the king’s favour by Keppel, now created earl of Albemarle, resigned his employments in disgust; nor could the king’s solicitations prevail upon him to resume any office in the household, though he promised to serve his majesty in any other shape, and was soon employed to negotiate the treaty of partition. If this nobleman miscarried in the purposes of his last embassy at the court of Versailles, the agents of France were equally unsuccessful in their endeavours to retrieve their commerce with England which the war had interrupted. Their commissary, sent over to London with powers to regulate the trade between the two nations, met with insuperable difficulties. The parliament had burdened the French commodities with heavy duties which were already appropriated to different uses; and the channel of trade was in many respects entirely altered. The English merchants supplied the nation with wines from Italy, Spain, and Portugal; with linen from Holland and Silesia; and manufactures of paper, hats, stuffs, and silks, had been set up and successfully carried on in England by the French refugees.
By this time a ferment had been raised in Scotland by the opposition and discouragements their new company had sustained. They had employed agents in England, Holland, and Hamburgh, to receive subscriptions. The adventurers in England were intimidated by the measures which had been taken in parliament against the Scottish company. The Dutch East India company took the alarm, and exerted all their interest to prevent their countrymen from subscribing; and the king permitted his resident at Hamburgh to present a memorial against the Scottish company to the senate of that city. The parliament of Scotland being assembled by the earl of Marchmont as king’s commissioner, the company presented it with a remonstrance containing a detail of their grievances, arising from the conduct of the English house of commons, as well as from the memorial presented by the king’s minister at Hamburgh, in which he actually disowned the act of parliament and letters patent which had passed in their favour, and threatened the inhabitants of that city with his majesty’s resentment in case they should join the Scots in their undertaking. They represented that such instances of interposition had put a stop to the subscriptions in England and Hamburgh, hurt the credit of the company, discouraged the adventurers, and threatened the entire ruin of a design in which all the most considerable families of the nation were deeply engaged. The parliament having taken their case into consideration, sent an address to his majesty representing the hardships to which the company had been exposed, explaining how far the nation in general was concerned in the design, and entreating that he would take such measures as might effectually vindicate the undoubted rights and privileges of the company. This address was seconded by a petition from the company itself, praying that his majesty would give some intimation to the senate of Hamburgh, permitting the inhabitants of that city to renew the subscriptions they had withdrawn; that, as a gracious mark of his royal favour to the company, he would bestow upon them two small frigates then lying useless in the harbour of Burnt Island; and that, in consideration of the obstructions they had encountered, he would continue their privileges and immunities for such longer time as should seem reasonable to his majesty. Though the commissioner was wholly devoted to the king, who had actually resolved to ruin this company, he could not appease the resentment of the nation; and the heats of parliament became so violent that he was obliged to adjourn it to the fifth day of November. In this interval the directors of the company, understanding from their agent at Hamburgh that the address of the parliament and their own petition had produced no effect in their favour, wrote a letter of complaint to the lord Seafield, secretary of state, observing that they had received repeated assurances of the king’s having given orders to his resident at Hamburgh touching their memorial, and entreating the interposition of his lordship that justice might be done to the company. The secretary in his answer promised to take the first convenient opportunity of representing the affair to his majesty; but he said this could not be immediately expected, as the king was much engaged in the affairs of the English parliament. This declaration the directors considered, as it really was, a mere evasion, which helped to alienate the minds of that people from the king’s person and government.
WILLIAM, 1688—1701.
King William at this time revolved in his own mind a project of far greater consequence to the interest of Europe—namely, that of settling the succession to the throne of Spain, which in a little time would be vacated by the death of Charles IL, whose constitution was already exhausted. He had been lately reduced to extremity, and his situation was no sooner known in France than Louis detached a squadron towards Cadiz, with orders to intercept the plate fleet, in case the king of Spain should die before its arrival. William sent another fleet to protect the galleons; but it arrived too late for that service, and the nation loudly exclaimed against the tardiness of the equipment. His catholic majesty recovered from his disorder, contrary to the expectation of his people; but continued in such an enfeebled and precarious state of health, that a relapse was every moment apprehended. In the latter end of July king William embarked for Holland, on pretence of enjoying a recess from business which was necessary to his constitution. He was glad of an opportunity to withdraw himself for some time from a kingdom in which he had been exposed to such opposition and chagrin. But the real motive of his voyage was a design of treating with the French king remote from the observation of those who might have penetrated into the nature of his negotiation. He had appointed a regency to govern the kingdom in his absence; and, as one of the number, nominated the earl of Marlborough, who had regained his favour and been constituted governor of the duke of Gloucester. At his majesty’s departure, sealed orders were left with the ministry directing that sixteen thousand men should be retained in the service, notwithstanding the vote of the commons by which the standing army was limited to ten thousand. He alleged that the apprehension of troubles which might arise at the death of king Charles induced him to transgress this limitation; and he hoped that the new parliament would be more favourable. His enemies, however, made a fresh handle of this step to depreciate his character in the eyes of the people.
Having assisted at the assembly of the states-general, and given audience to divers ambassadors at the Hague, he repaired to his house at Loo, attended by the earls of Essex, Portland, and Selkirk. There he was visited by count Tallard the French minister, who had instructions to negotiate the treaty concerning the Spanish succession. The earl of Portland, by his majesty’s order, had communicated to Secretary Vernon the principal conditions which the French king proposed; he himself wrote a letter to lord chancellor Somers, desiring his advice with regard to the propositions, and full powers under the great seal, with blanks to be filled up occasionally, that he might immediately begin the treaty with count Tallard. At the same time he strictly enjoined secrecy. The purport of Portland’s letter was imparted to the duke of Shrewsbury and Mr. Montague, who consulted with the chancellor and Vernon upon the subject, and the chancellor wrote an answer to the king as the issue of their joint deliberation; but before it reached his majesty, the first treaty of partition was signed by the earl of Portland and sir Joseph Williamson. The contracting powers agreed, that in case the king of Spain should die without issue, the kingdom of Naples and Sicily, with the places depending on the Spanish monarchy, and situated on the coast of Tuscany or the adjacent islands; the marquisate of Final, the province of Guipuscoa, all places on the French side of the Pyrenees, or the other mountains of Navarre, Alva, or Biscay, on the other side of the province of Guipuscoa, with all the ships, vessels, and stores,—should devolve upon the dauphin in consideration of his right to the crown of Spain, which, with all its other dependencies, should descend to the electoral prince of Bavaria, under the guardianship of his father; that the duchy of Milan should he settled on the emperor’s second son, the archduke Charles; that this treaty should be communicated to the emperor and the elector of Bavaria, by the king of England and the states-general; that if either should refuse to agree to this partition, his proportion should remain in sequestration until the dispute should be accommodated; that in case the electoral prince of Bavaria should die before his father, then the elector and his other heirs should succeed him in those dominions; and should the archduke reject the duchy of Milan, they agreed that it should be sequestered and governed by the prince of Vaudemont. It may be necessary to observe that Philip IV., father to the present king of Spain, had settled his crown by will on the emperor’s children; that the dauphin was son to Maria-Theresa, daughter of the same monarch, whose right to the succession Louis had renounced in the most solemn manner; as for the electoral prince of Bavaria, he was grandson to a daughter of Spain. This treaty of partition was one of the most impudent schemes of encroachment that tyranny and injustice ever planned. Louis, who had made a practice of sacrificing all ties of honour and good faith to the interest of his pride, vanity, and ambition, foresaw that he should never be able to accomplish his designs upon the crown of Spain while William was left at liberty to form another confederacy against them. He therefore resolved to amuse him with a treaty, in which he would seem to act as umpire in the concerns of Europe. He knew that William was too much of a politician to be restricted by notions of private justice; and that he would make no scruple to infringe the laws of particular countries, or even the rights of a single nation, when the balance of power was at stake. He judged right in this particular. The king of England lent a willing ear to his proposals, and engaged in a plan for dismembering a kingdom in despite of the natives, and in violation of every law human or divine.
While the French king cajoled William with this negotiation, the marquis d’Harcourt, his ambassador to Spain, was engaged in a game of a different nature at Madrid. The queen of Spain, suspecting the designs of France, exerted all her interest in behalf of the king of the Romans, to whom she was nearly related. She new-modelled the council, bestowed the government of Milan on prince Vaudemont, and established the prince of Hesse Darmstadt as viceroy of Catalonia. Notwithstanding all her efforts, she could not prevent the French minister from acquiring some influence in the Spanish councils. He was instructed to procure the succession of the crown for one of the dauphin’s sons, or at least to hinder it from devolving upon the emperor’s children. With a view to give weight to his negotiations, the French king ordered an army of sixty thousand men to advance towards the frontiers of Catalonia and Navarre, while a great number of ships and galleys cruised along the coast, and entered the harbours of Spain. Harcourt immediately began to form his party; he represented that Philip IV. had no power to dispose of his crown against the laws of nature and the constitution of the realm; that, by the order of succession, the crown ought to descend to the children of his daughter in preference to more distant relations; that if the Spaniards would declare in favour of the dauphin’s second son, the duke of Anjou, they might train him up in the manners and customs of their country. When he found them averse to this proposal, he assured them that his master would approve of the electoral prince of Bavaria rather than consent to the succession’s devolving upon a son of the emperor. Nay, he hinted that if they would choose a sovereign among themselves, they might depend upon the protection of his most christian majesty, who had no other view than that of preventing the house of Austria from becoming too formidable to the liberties of Europe. The queen of Spain, having discovered the intrigues of this minister, conveyed the king to Toledo, on pretence that the air of Madrid was prejudicial to his health. Harcourt immediately took the alarm. He supposed her intention was to prevail upon her husband in his solitude to confirm the last will of his father; but his doubts were all removed when he understood that the count de Harrach, the Imperial ambassador, had privately repaired to Toledo. He forthwith took the same road, pretending to have received a memorial from his master with a positive order to deliver it into the king’s own hand. He was given to understand that the management of foreign affairs had been left to the care of cardinal Corduba at Madrid, and that the king’s health would not permit him to attend to business. The purport of the memorial was, an offer of French forces to assist in raising the siege of Ceuta in Barbary, which the Moors had lately undertaken; but this offer was civilly declined. Harcourt, not yet discouraged, redoubled his efforts at Madrid, and found means to engage cardinal Portocarrcro in the interests of his master. In the meantime Louis concluded an alliance with Sweden, under the pretext of preserving and securing the common peace by such means as should be adjudged most proper and convenient. During these transactions king William was not wanting in his endeavours to terminate the war in Hungary, which had raged fifteen years without intermission. About the middle of August, lord Paget and Mr. Colliers, ambassadors from England and Holland, arrived in the Turkish camp near Belgrade, and a conference being opened under their mediation, the peace of Carlowitz was signed on the twenty-sixth day of January By this treaty, the emperor remained in possession of all his conquests; Caminieck was restored to the Poles; all the Morea, with several fortresses in Dalmatia, were ceded to the Venetians; and the czar of Muscovy retained Azoph during a truce of two years: so that the Turks by this pacification lost great part of their European dominions. The cardinal primate of Poland, who had strenuously adhered to the prince of Conti, was prevailed upon to acknowledge Augustus; and the commotions in Lithuania being appeased, peace was established through all Christendom.
In the beginning of December the king arrived in England, where a new parliament had been chosen and prorogued on account of his majesty’s absence, which was prolonged by contrary winds and tempestuous weather. His ministry had been at very little pains to influence the elections, which generally fell upon men of revolution-principles, though they do not seem to have been much devoted to the person of their sovereign; yet their choice of sir Thomas Lyttleton for speaker, seemed to presage a session favourable to the ministry. The two houses being convened on the sixth day of December, the king in his speech observed that the safety, honour, and happiness of the kingdom would in a great measure depend upon the strength which they should think proper to maintain by sea and land. He desired they would make some further progress in discharging the national debt; contrive effectual expedients for employing the poor; pass good bills for the advancement of trade, and the discouragement of profaneness; and act with unanimity and despatch. The commons of this new parliament were so irritated at the king’s presuming to maintain a greater number of troops than their predecessors had voted, that they resolved he should feel the weight of their displeasure. They omitted the common compliment of an address; they resolved that all the forces of England, in English pay, exceeding seven thousand men, should be forthwith disbanded; as also those in Ireland exceeding twelve thousand; and that those retained should be his majesty’s natural born subjects. A bill was brought in on these resolutions and prosecuted with peculiar eagerness, to the unspeakable mortification of king William, who was not only extremely sensible of the affront, but also particularly chagrined to see himself disabled from maintaining his Dutch guards and the regiments of French refugees, to which he was uncommonly attached. Before the meeting of the parliament, the ministry gave him to understand that they should be able to procure a vote for ten or twelve thousand, but they would not undertake for a greater number. He professed himself dissatisfied with the proposal, observing that they might as well disband the whole as leave so few. The ministers would not run the risk of losing all their credit by proposing a greater number; and, having received no directions on this subject, sat silent when it was debated in the house of commons.
Such was the indignation of William, kindled by this conduct of his ministry and his parliament, that he threatened to abandon the government, and had actually penned a speech to be pronounced to both houses on that occasion; but he was diverted from this purpose by his ministry and confidants, and resolved to pass the bill by which he had been so much offended. Accordingly, when it was ready for the royal assent, he went to the house of peers, where having sent for the commons, he told them that although he might think himself unkindly used in being deprived of his guards, which had constantly attended him in all his actions; yet, as he believed nothing could be more fatal to the nation than any distrust or jealousy between him and his parliament, he was come to pass the bill according to their desire.
At the same time, for his own justification, and in discharge of the trust reposed in him, he declared that in his own judgment the nation was left too much exposed; and that it was incumbent upon them to provide such a strength as might be necessary for the safety of the kingdom. They thanked him in an address for this undeniable proof of his readiness to comply with the desires of his parliament. They assured him he should never have reason to think the commons were undutiful or unkind; for they would on all occasions stand by and assist him in the preservation of his sacred person, and in the support of his government, against all his enemies whatsoever. The lords presented an address to the same effect; and the king assured both houses he entertained no doubts of their loyalty and affection. He forthwith issued orders for reducing the army to the number of seven thousand men, to be maintained in England under the name of guards and garrisons; and hoping the hearts of the commons were now mollified, he made another effort in favour of his Dutch guards, whom he could not dismiss without the most sensible regret. Lord Ranelagh was sent with a written message to the commons, giving them to understand that the necessary preparations were made for transporting the guards who came with him into England, and that they should embark immediately, unless out of consideration to him, the house should be disposed to find a way for continuing them longer in the service; a favour which his majesty would take very kindly. The commons, instead of complying with his inclination, presented an address, in which they professed unspeakable grief that he should propose anything to which they could not consent with due regard to the constitution which he had come over to restore, and so often hazarded his royal person to preserve. They reminded him of the declaration, in which he had promised that all the foreign forces should be sent out of the kingdom. They observed, that nothing conduced more to the happiness and welfare of the nation than an entire confidence between the king and people, which could no way be so firmly established as by intrusting his sacred person with his own subjects, who had so eminently signalized themselves during the late long and expensive war. They received a soothing answer to this address, but remained firm to their purpose, in which the king was fain to acquiesce; and the Dutch guards were transported to Holland. At a time when they declared themselves so well pleased with their deliverer, such an opposition in an affair of very little consequence savoured more of clownish obstinacy than of patriotism. In the midst of all their professions of regard, they entertained a national prejudice against himself and all the foreigners in his service. Even in the house of commons, his person was treated with great disrespect in virulent insinuations. They suggested that he neither loved nor trusted the English nation; that he treated the natives with the most disagreeable reserve, and chose his confidants from the number of strangers that surrounded him; that after every session of parliament, he retired from the kingdom to enjoy an indolent and inglorious privacy with a few favourites. These suggestions were certainly true. He was extremely disgusted with the English, whom he considered as malicious, ignorant, and ungrateful, and he took no pains to disguise his sentiments.
The commons having effected a dissolution of the army, voted fifteen thousand seamen, and a proportionable fleet, for the security of the kingdom; they granted one million four hundred and eighty-four thousand and fifteen pounds for the services of the year, to be raised by a tax of three shillings in the pound upon lands, personal estates, pensions, and offices. A great number of priests and Roman catholics, who had been frighted away by the revolution, were now encouraged by the treaty of Ryswick to return, and appeared in all public places of London and Westminster with remarkable effrontery. The enemies of the government whispered about that the treaty contained a secret article in favour of those who professed that religion; and some did not even scruple to insinuate that William was a papist in his heart. The commons, alarmed at the number and insolence of those religionists, desired the king, in an address, to remove by proclamation all papists and nonjurors from the city of London and parts adjacent, and put the laws in execution against them, that the wicked designs they were always hatching might be effectually disappointed. The king gratified them in their request of a proclamation, which was not much regarded; but a remarkable law was enacted against papists in the course of the ensuing session. The old East India company, about this period, petitioned the lower house to make some provision that their corporation might subsist for the residue of the term of twenty-one years granted by his majesty’s charter; that the payment of the five pounds per cent. by the late act for settling the trade to the East Indies, might be settled and adjusted in such a manner as not to remain a burden on the petitioners; and that such further considerations might be had for their relief, and for the preservation of the East India trade, as should be thought reasonable. A bill was brought in upon the subject of this petition, but rejected at the second reading. Discontents had risen to such a height, that some members began to assert they were not bound to maintain the votes and credit of the former parliament; and, upon this maxim, would have contributed their interest towards a repeal of the act made in favour of the new company: but such a scheme was of too dangerous consequence to the public credit to be carried into execution.
That spirit of peevishness which could not be gratified with this sacrifice, produced an inquiry into the management of naval affairs, which was aimed at the earl of Orford, a nobleman whose power gave umbrage, and whose wealth excited envy. He officiated both as treasurer of the navy and lord commissioner of the admiralty, and seemed to have forgot the sphere from which he had risen to title and office. The commons drew up an address complaining of some unimportant articles of mismanagement in the conduct of the navy; and the earl was wise enough to avoid further prosecution by resigning his employments. On the fourth day of May the king closed the session with a short speech, hinting dissatisfaction at their having neglected to consider some points which he had recommended to their attention; and the parliament was prorogued to the first of June.* In a little time after this prorogation, his majesty appointed a regency; and on the second day of June embarked for Holland.
* About the latter end of March, the earl of Warwick and lord Mohun were tried by their peers in Westminster-hall, for the murder of captain Richard Coote, who had been killed in a midnight combat of three on each side. Warwick was found guilty of manslaughter, and Mohun acquitted.
In Ireland nothing of moment was transacted. The parliament of that kingdom passed an act for raising one hundred and twenty thousand pounds on lands, tenements, and hereditaments, to defray the expense of maintaining twelve thousand men, who had been voted by the commons of England; then the assembly was prorogued. A new commission afterwards arrived at Dublin, constituting the duke of Bolton, the earls of Berkeley and Galway, lords-justices of Ireland. The clamour in Scotland increased against the ministry, who had disowned their company, and in a great measure defeated the design from which they had promised themselves such heaps of treasure. Notwithstanding the discouragements to which their company had been exposed, they fitted out two of four large ships which had been built at Hamburgh for their service. These were laden with a cargo for traffic, with some artillery and military stores; and the adventurers embarking to the number of twelve hundred, they sailed from the Frith of Edinburgh, with some tenders, on the seventeenth day of July in the preceding year. At Madeira they took in a supply of wine, and then steered to Crab-island in the neighbourhood of St. Thomas, lying between Santa-Cruz and Porto Rico. Their design was to take possession of this little island; but when they entered the road, they saw a large tent pitched upon the strand, and the Danish colours flying. Finding themselves anticipated in this quarter, they directed their course to the coast of Darien, where they treated with the natives for the establishment of their colony, and taking possession of the ground, to which they gave the name of Caledonia, began to execute their plan of erecting a town under the appellation of New Edinburgh, by the direction of their council, consisting of Patterson the projector, and six other directors. They had no sooner completed their settlement, than they wrote a letter to the king containing a detail of their proceedings. They pretended they had received undoubted intelligence that the French intended to make a settlement on that coast; and that their colony would be the means of preventing the evil consequences which might arise to his majesty’s kingdom and dominions from the execution of such a scheme. They acknowledged his goodness in granting those privileges by which their company was established; they implored the continuance of his royal favour and protection, as they had punctually adhered to the conditions of the act of parliament, and the patent they had obtained.
By this time, however, the king was resolved to crush them effectually. He understood that the greater part of their provisions had been consumed before they set sail from Scotland, and foresaw that they must be reduced to a starving condition if not supplied from the English colonies. That they might be debarred of all such assistance, he sent orders to the governors of Jamaica and the other English settlements in America, to issue proclamations prohibiting, under the severest penalties, all his majesty’s subjects from holding any correspondence with the Scottish colony, or assisting it in any shape with arms, ammunition, or provisions; on pretence that they had not communicated their design to his majesty, but had peopled Darien in violation of the peace subsisting between him and his allies. Their colony was doubtless a very dangerous encroachment upon the Spaniards, as it would have commanded the passage between Porto-Bello and Panama, and divided the Spanish empire in America. The French king complained of the invasion, and offered to supply the court of Madrid with a fleet to dislodge the interlopers. Colonna, marquis de Canales, the Spanish ambassador at the court of London, presented a memorial to king William, remonstrating against the settlement of this colony as a mark of disregard, and a breach of the alliance between the two crowns; and declaring that his master would take proper measures against such hostilities. The Scots affirmed that the natives of Darien were a free people, who the Spaniards had in vain attempted to subdue; that therefore they had an original and incontrovertible right to dispose of their own lands, part of which the company had purchased for a valuable consideration. But there was another cause more powerful than the remonstrances of the Spanish court to which this colony fell a sacrifice; and that was the jealousy of the English traders and planters. Darien was said to be a country abounding with gold, which would in a little time enrich the adventurers. The Scots were known to be an enterprising and pertinacious people; and their harbour near Golden Island was already declared a free port. The English apprehended that their planters would be allured into this new colony by the double prospect of finding gold and plundering the Spaniards; that the buccaneers in particular would choose it as their chief residence; that the plantations of England would be deserted; that Darien would become another Algiers; and that the settlement would produce a rupture with Spain, in consequence of which the English effects in that kingdom would be confiscated. The Dutch too are said to have been jealous of a company which in time might have proved their competitors in the illicit commerce to the Spanish main; and to have hardened the king’s heart against the new settlers, whom he abandoned to their fate, notwithstanding the repeated petitions and remonstrances of their constituents. Famine compelled the first adventurers to quit the coast: a second recruit of men and provisions was sent thither from Scotland; but one of their ships, laden with provisions, being burnt by accident, they likewise deserted the place. Another reinforcement arrived, and being better provided than the two former, might have maintained their footing; but they were soon divided into factions that rendered all their schemes abortive. The Spaniards advanced against them; when finding themselves incapable of withstanding the enemy, they solicited a capitulation, by virtue of which they were permitted to retire. Thus vanished all the golden dreams of the Scottish nation, which had engaged in this design with incredible eagerness, and even embarked a greater sum of money than ever they had advanced upon any other occasion. They were now not only disappointed in their expectations of wealth and affluence, but a great number of families were absolutely ruined by the miscarriage of the design, which they imputed solely to the conduct of king William. The whole kingdom of Scotland seemed to join in the clamour that was raised against their sovereign, taxed him with double dealing, inhumanity, and base ingratitude, to a people who had lavished their treasure and best blood in support of his government, and in the gratification of his ambition; and had their power been equal to their animosity, in all probability a rebellion would have ensued.
William meanwhile enjoyed himself at Loo, where he was visited by the duke of Zell, with whom he had long cultivated an intimacy of friendship. During his residence in this place, the earl of Portland and the grand pensionary of Holland frequently conversed with the French ambassador, count Tallard, upon the subject of the Spanish succession. The first plan of the partition being defeated by the death of the young prince of Bavaria, they found it necessary to concert another, and began a private negotiation for that purpose. The court of Spain, apprized of their intention, sent a written remonstrance to Mr. Stanhope, the English minister at Madrid, expressing their resentment at this unprecedented method of proceeding, and desiring that a stop might be put to those intrigues, seeing that the king of Spain would of himself take the necessary steps for preserving the public tranquillity in case he should die without heirs of his body. A representation of the same kind was made to the ministers of France and Holland; the marquis de Canales, the Spanish ambassador at London, delivered a memorial to the lords-justices couched in the most virulent terms against this transaction, and even appealing from the king to the parliament. This Spaniard was pleased with an opportunity to insult king William, who hated his person, and had forbid him the court, on account of his appearing covered in his majesty’s presence. The regency had no sooner communicated this paper to the king, than he ordered the ambassador to quit the kingdom in eighteen days, and to remain within his own house till the time of his departure. He was likewise given to understand that no writing would be received from him or any of his domestics. Mr. Stanhope was directed to complain at Madrid of the affront offered to his master, which he styled an insolent and saucy attempt to stir up sedition in the kingdom, by appealing to the people and parliament of England against his majesty. The court of Spain justified what their minister had done, and in their turn ordered Mr. Stanhope to leave their dominions. Don Bernardo de Quiros, the Spanish ambassador in Holland, prepared a memorial on the same subject to the states-general; which however they refused to accept. These remonstrances did not interrupt the negotiation, in which Louis was so eager that he complained of William as if he had not employed his whole influence in prevailing upon the Dutch to signify their accession to the articles agreed upon by France and England; but his Britannic majesty found means to remove this jealousy.
About the middle of October, William returned to England, and conferred upon the duke of Shrewsbury the office of chamberlain, vacant since the resignation of Sunderland. * Mr. Montague at the same period resigned his seat at the treasury-board, together with the chancellorship of the exchequer; either foreseeing uncommon difficulty in managing a house of commons after they had been dismissed in ill humour, or dreading the interest of his enemies, who might procure a vote that his two places were inconsistent. The king opened the session of parliament on the sixteenth day of November, with a long speech, advising a further provision for the safety of the kingdom by sea and land, as well as the repairs of ships and fortifications; exhorting the commons to make good the deficiencies of the funds, discharge the debts of the nation, and provide the necessary supplies. He recommended some good bill for the more effectual preventing and punishing unlawful and clandestine trading; and expressed a desire that some method should be taken for employing the poor, which were become a burden to the kingdom. He assured them his resolutions were to countenance virtue and discourage vice; and that he would decline no difficulties and dangers where the welfare and prosperity of the nation was concerned. He concluded with these words: “Since then our aims are only for the general good, let us act with confidence in one another; which will not fail, with God’s blessing, to make me a happy king, and you a great and flourishing people.” The commons were now become wanton in their disgust. Though they had received no real provocation, they resolved to mortify him with their proceedings. They affected to put odious interpretations on the very harmless expression of “Let us act with confidence in one another.” Instead of an address of thanks, according to the usual custom, they presented a sullen remonstrance, complaining that a jealousy and distrust had been raised of their duty and affection; and desiring he would show marks of his high displeasure towards all persons who had presumed to misrepresent their proceedings to his majesty. He declared, in his answer, that no person had ever dared to misrepresent their proceedings, and that if any should presume to impose upon him by such calumnies, he would treat them as his worst enemies.
* Villers, earl of Jersey, who had been sent ambassador to France, was appointed secretary of state in the room of the duke of Shrewsbury. This nobleman was created lord chamberlain; the earl of Manchester was sent ambassador extraordinary to France; the earl of Pembroke was declared lord-president of the council; and lord viscount Lonsdale keeper of the privy-seal.
WILLIAM, 1688—1701.
The house was not in a humour to be appeased with soothing promises and protestations; they determined to distress him by prosecuting his ministers. During the war the colonies of North America had grown rich by piracy. One Kidd, the master of a sloop, undertook to suppress the pirates, provided the government would furnish him with a ship of thirty guns well manned. The board of admiralty declaring that such a number of seamen could not be spared from the public service, Kidd was equipped by the private subscription of the lord Chancellor, the duke of Shrewsbury, the earls of Romney, Orford, and Bellamont, sir Edward Harrison, and colonel Livingstone of New York. The king promised to contribute one-half of the expense, and reserved to himself one-tenth of the profits; but he never advanced the money. Kidd being thus equipped, and provided with a commission to act against the French, as well as to make war on certain pirates therein mentioned by name, set sail from Plymouth; but instead of cruising on the coast of America, he directed his course to the East Indies, where he himself turned pirate, and took a rich ship belonging to the Moors. Having divided his booty with his crew, ninety of whom left him in order to join other adventurers, he burned his own ship and sailed with his prize to the West Indies. There he purchased a sloop in which he steered for North America, leaving part of his men in the prize, to remain in one of the Leeward Islands until they should receive further instructions. Arriving on the coast of New York, he sent one Emmet to make his peace with the earl of Bellamont, the governor of that province, who inveigled him into a negotiation, in the course of which he was apprehended. Then his lordship sent an account of his proceedings to the secretary of state, desiring that he would send for the prisoners to England, as there was no law in that colony for punishing piracy with death, and the majority of the people favoured that practice. The admiralty, by order of the lords-justices, despatched the ship Rochester to bring home the prisoners and their effects; but, after having been tossed for some time with tempestuous weather, this vessel was obliged to return to Plymouth in a shattered condition. This incident furnished the malcontents with a colour to paint the ministry as the authors and abettors of a piratical expedition, which they wanted to screen from the cognizance of the public. The old East India company had complained to the regency of the capture made by Kidd in the East Indies, apprehending, as the vessel belonged to the Moors, they should be exposed to the resentments of the Mogul. In the beginning of December, this subject being brought abruptly into the house of commons, a motion was made, That the letters patent granted to the earl of Bellamont and others, of pirates’ goods, were dishonourable to the king, against the laws of nations, contrary to the laws and statutes of the land, invasive of property, and destructive of trade and commerce. A warm dispute ensued, in the course of which some members declaimed with great bitterness against the chancellor and the duke of Shrewsbury, as partners in a piratical scheme; but these imputations were refuted, and the motion was rejected by a great majority. Not but they might have justly stigmatized the expedition as a little mean adventure, in which those noblemen had embarked with a view to their own private advantage.
While this affair was in agitation among the commons, the attention of the upper house was employed upon the case of Dr. Watson, bishop of St. David’s. This prelate was supposed to have paid a valuable consideration for his bishopric; and, after his elevation, had sold the preferments in his gift with a view of being reimbursed. He was accused of simony; and, after a solemn hearing before the archbishop of Canterbury and six suffragans, convicted and deprived. Then he pleaded his privilege: so that the affair was brought into the house of lords, who refused to own him as a peer after he had ceased to be a bishop. Thus disappointed, he had recourse to the court of delegates, by whom the archbishop’s sentence was confirmed. The next effort that the commons made, with a view of mortifying king William, was to raise a clamour against Dr. Burnet, bishop of Sarum. He was represented in the house as a very unfit preceptor for the duke of Gloucester, both as a Scottish man, and author of that pastoral letter which had been burned by order of the parliament, for asserting that William had a right to the crown from conquest. A motion was made for addressing his majesty that this prelate might be dismissed from his employment, but rejected by a great majority. Burnet had acted with uncommon integrity in accepting the trust. He had declined the office, which he was in a manner forced to accept. He had offered to resign his bishopric, thinking the employment of a tutor would interfere with the duty of a pastor. He insisted upon the duke’s residence all the summer at Windsor, which is in the diocese of Sarum, and added to his private charities the whole income of his new office.
The circumstance on which the anti-courtiers built their chief hope of distressing or disgracing the government, was the inquiry into the Irish forfeitures, which the king had distributed among his own dependents. The commissioners appointed by parliament to examine these particulars, were Annesley, Trenchard, Hamilton, Langford, the earl of Drogheda, sir Francis Brewster, and sir Richard Leving. The first four were actuated by all the virulence of faction; the other three were secretly guided by ministerial influence. They began their inquiry in Ireland, and proceeded with such severity as seemed to flow rather from resentment to the court, than from a love of justice and abhorrence of corruption. They in particular scrutinized a grant of an estate which the king had made to Mrs. Villiers, now countess of Orkney, so as to expose the king’s partiality for that favourite, and subject him to an additional load of popular odium. In the course of their examination the earl of Drogheda, Leving, and Brewster, opposed the rest of the commissioners in divers articles of the report, which they refused to sign, and sent over a memorial to the house of commons explaining their reasons for dissenting from their colleagues. By this time, however, they were considered as hirelings of the court, and no regard was paid to their representations. The others delivered their report, declaring that a million and a half of money might be raised from the sale of the confiscated estates; and a bill was brought in for applying them to the use of the public. A motion being made to reserve a third part for the king’s disposal, it was overruled: then the commons passed an extraordinary vote, importing that they would not receive any petition from any person whatsoever concerning the grants, and that they would consider the great services performed by the commissioners appointed to inquire into the forfeited estates. They resolved, That the four commissioners who had signed the report had acquitted themselves with understanding, courage, and integrity; and, That sir Richard Leving, as author of groundless and scandalous aspersions cast upon his four colleagues, should be committed prisoner to the Tower. They afterwards came to the following resolution, which was presented to the king in form of an address,—That the procuring and passing those grants had occasioned great debts upon the nation, and heavy taxes upon the people, and highly reflected upon the king’s honour; and, That the officers and instruments concerned in the same had highly failed in the performance of their trust and duty. The king answered, That he was not only led by inclination, but thought himself obliged in justice to reward those who had served well in the reduction of Ireland, out of the estates forfeited to him by the rebellion in that kingdom. He observed, that as the long war had left the nation much in debt, their taking just and effectual ways for lessening that debt and supporting public credit was what, in his opinion, would best contribute to the honour, interest, and safety of the kingdom. This answer kindled a flame of indignation in the house. They forthwith resolved, That the adviser of it had used his utmost endeavours to create a misunderstanding and jealousy between the king and his people.
They prepared, finished, and passed a bill of resumption. They ordered the report of the commissioners, together with the king’s promise and speeches, and the former resolutions of the house touching the forfeited estates in Ireland, to be printed and published for their justification; and they resolved, That the procuring or passing exorbitant grants by any member now of the privy council, or by any other that had been a privy councillor in this or any former reign, to his use or benefit, was a high crime or misdemeanor. That justice might be done to purchasers and creditors in the act of resumption, thirteen trustees were authorized and empowered to hear and determine all claims relating to those estates, to sell them to the best purchasers; and the money arising from the sale was appropriated to pay the arrears of the army. It passed under the title of a bill for granting an aid to his majesty by the sale of forfeited and other estates and interests in Ireland; and that it might undergo no alteration in the house of lords, it was consolidated with the money-bill for the service of the year. In the house of lords it produced warm debates; and some alterations were made which the commons unanimously rejected. They seemed to be now more than ever exasperated against the ministry, and ordered a list of the privy council to be laid before the house. The lords demanded conferences, which served only to exasperate the two houses against each other; for the peers insisted upon their amendments, and the commons were so provoked at their interfering in a money-bill, that they determined to give a loose to their resentment. They ordered all the doors of their house to be shut that no members should go forth. Then they took into consideration the report of the Irish forfeitures, with the list of the privy councillors; and a question was moved, That an address should be made to his majesty to remove John lord Somers, chancellor of England, from his presence and councils for ever. This however was carried in the negative by a great majority. The king was extremely chagrined at the bill, which he considered as an invasion of his prerogative, an insult on his person, and an injury to his friends and servants; and he at first resolved to hazard all the consequences of refusing to pass it into a law; but he was diverted from his purpose by the remonstrances of those in whom he chiefly confided.* He could not, however, dissemble his resentment. He became sullen, peevish, and morose; and his enemies did not fail to make use of this additional ill humour as a proof of his aversion to the English people. Though the motion against the chancellor had miscarried, the commons resolved to address his majesty that no person who was not a native of his dominions, except his royal highness prince George of Denmark, should be admitted into his majesty’s councils in England or Ireland. This resolution was levelled against the earls of Portland, Albemarle, and Galway; but before the address could be presented, the king went to the house of peers, and having passed the bill which had produced such a ferment, with some others, commanded the earl of Bridge-water, speaker of the house in the absence of the chancellor, who was indisposed, to prorogue the parliament to the twenty-third day of May.
* Consisting of the lord-chancellor, the lord-president, the lord privy-seal, the lord-steward of the household, the earl of Bridge-water, first commissioner of the admiralty, the earl of Marlborough, the earl of Jersey, and Mr. Montague.