The reduction of Ireland being thus completed, baron Ginckel returned to England, where he was solemnly thanked by the house of commons for his great services, after he had been created earl of Athlone by his majesty. When the parliament met on the twenty-second day of October, the king in his speech insisted upon the necessity of sending a strong fleet to sea early in the season, and of maintaining a considerable army to annoy the enemy abroad, as well as to protect the kingdom from insult and invasion; for which purposes, he said, sixty-five thousand men would be barely sufficient. Each house presented an address of congratulation upon his majesty’s safe return to England, and on the reduction of Ireland: they promised to assist him to the utmost of their power, in prosecuting the war with France; and, at the same time, drew up addresses to the queen, acknowledging her prudent administration during his majesty’s absence. Notwithstanding this appearance of cordiality and complaisance, a spirit of discontent had insinuated itself into both houses of parliament, and even infected great part of the nation.
A great number of individuals who wished well to their country, could not, without anxiety and resentment, behold the interest of the nation sacrificed to foreign connexions, and the king’s favour so partially bestowed upon Dutchmen in prejudice to his English subjects. They observed, that the number of forces he demanded was considerably greater than that of any army which had ever been paid by the public, even when the nation was in the most imminent danger; that instead of contributing as allies to the maintenance of the war upon the continent, they had embarked as principals and bore the greatest part of the burden, though they had the least share of the profit. They even insinuated that such a standing army was more calculated to make the king absolute at home, than to render him formidable abroad; and the secret friends of the late king did not fail to enforce these insinuations. They renewed their animadversions upon the disagreeable part of his character; they dwelt upon his proud reserve, his sullen silence, his imperious disposition, and his base ingratitude, particularly to the earl of Marlborough, whom he had dismissed from all his employments immediately after the signal exploits he had performed in Ireland. The disgrace of this nobleman was partly ascribed to the freedom with which he had complained of the king’s undervaluing his services, and partly to the intrigues of his wife, who had gained an ascendancy over the princess Anne of Denmark, and is said to have employed her influence in fomenting a jealousy between the two sisters. The malcontents of the whiggish faction, enraged to find their credit declining at court, joined in the cry which the Jacobites had raised against the government. They scrupled not to say, that the arts of corruption were shamefully practised to secure a majority in parliament; that the king was as tender of the prerogative as any of his predecessors had ever been; and that he even ventured to admit Jacobites into his council, because they were known tools of arbitrary power. These reflections alluded to the earls of Rochester and Kanelagh, who, with sir Edward Seymour, had been lately created privy-counsellors. Rochester entertained very high notions of regal authority; he proposed severity as one of the best supports of government; was clear in his understanding, violent in his temper, and incorrupt in his principles. Ranelagh was a man of parts and pleasure, who possessed the most plausible and winning address; and was capable of transacting the most important and intricate affairs, in the midst of riot and debauchery. He had managed the revenue of Ireland in the reign of Charles II.; he enjoyed the office of paymaster in the army of King James, and now maintained the same footing under the government of William and Mary. Sir Edward Seymour was the proudest commoner in England, and the boldest orator that ever filled the speaker’s chair. He was intimately acquainted with the business of the house, and knew every individual member so exactly, that with one glance of his eye he could prognosticate the fate of every motion. He had opposed the court with great acrimony, questioned the king’s title, censured his conduct, and reflected upon his character. Nevertheless, he now became a proselyte, and was brought into the treasury.
The commons voted three millions, four hundred and eleven thousand, six hundred and seventy-five pounds, for the use of the ensuing year: but the establishment of funds for raising these supplies was retarded, partly by the ill-humour of the opposition, and partly by intervening affairs that diverted the attention of the commons. Several eminent merchants presented a petition to the house against the East-India company, charging them with manifold abuses; at the same time, a counter-petition was delivered by the company, and the affair referred to the examination of a committee appointed for that purpose. After a minute inquiry into the nature of the complaints, the commons voted certain regulations with respect to the stock and the traffic; and resolved to petition his majesty, that, according to the said regulations, the East-India company should be incorporated by charter. The committee was ordered to bring in a bill for this establishment; but divers petitions being presented against it, and the company’s answers proving unsatisfactory, the house addressed the king to dissolve it, and grant a charter to a new company. He said it was an affair of great importance to the trade of the kingdom; therefore, he would consider the subject, and in a little time return a positive answer. The parliament was likewise amused by a pretended conspiracy of the papists in Lancashire, to raise a rebellion and restore James to the throne. Several persons were seized, and some witnesses examined: but nothing appeared to justify the information. At length one Fuller, a prisoner in the king’s bench, offered his evidence, and was brought to the bar of the house of commons, where he produced some papers. He obtained a blank pass from the king for two persons, who he said would come from the continent to give evidence. He was afterwards examined at his own lodgings, where he affirmed that colonel Thomas Délavai and James Hayes were the witnesses for whom he had procured the pass and the protection. Search was made for them according to his direction, but no such persons were found. Then the house declared Fuller a notorious impostor, cheat, and false accuser. He was, at the request of the commons, prosecuted by the attorney-general, and sentenced to stand in the pillory; a disgrace which he accordingly underwent.
A bill for regulating trials in cases of high treason having been laid aside by the lords in the preceding session, was now again brought upon the carpet, and passed the lower house. The design of this bill was to secure the subject from the rigours to which he had been exposed in the late reigns: it provided, That the prisoner should be furnished with a copy of his indictment, as also of the panel, ten days before his trial; and, that his witnesses should be examined upon oath as well as those of the crown. The lords, in their own behalf, added a clause enacting, That upon the trials of any peer or peeress, for treason or misprison of treason, all the peers who have a right to sit and vote in parliament, should be duly summoned to assist at the trial; that this notice should be given twenty days before the trial; and that every peer so summoned, and appearing, should vote upon the occasion. The commons rejected this amendment; and a free conference ensued. The point was argued with great vivacity on both sides, which served only to inflame the dispute, and render each party the more tenacious of their own opinion. After three conferences that produced nothing but animosity, the bill was dropped; for the commons resolved to bear the hardships of which they complained, rather than be relieved at the expense of purchasing a new privilege to the lords; and without this advantage, the peers would not contribute to their relief.
WILLIAM AND MARY, 1688—1701.
The next object that engrossed the attention of the lower house, was the miscarriage of the fleet during the summer’s expedition. Admiral Russel, who commanded at sea, having been joined by a Dutch squadron, sailed in quest of the enemy; but as the French king had received undoubted intelligence that the combined squadrons were superior to his navy in number of ships and weight of metal, he ordered Tourville to avoid an engagement. This officer acted with such vigilance, caution, and dexterity, as baffled all the endeavours of Russel, who was moreover perplexed with obscure and contradictory orders. Nevertheless, he cruised all summer either in the channel or in soundings, for the protection of the trade, and in particular secured the homeward-bound Smyrna fleet, in which the English and Dutch had a joint concern amounting to four millions sterling. Having scoured the channel, and sailed along great part of the French coast, he returned to Torbay in the beginning of August, and received fresh orders to put to sea again, notwithstanding his repeated remonstrances against exposing large ships to the storms that always blow about the time of the equinox. He therefore sailed back to soundings, where he continued cruising till the second day of September, when he was overtaken by a violent tempest, which drove him into the channel, and obliged him to make for the port of Plymouth. The weather being hazy, he reached the Sound with great difficulty: the Coronation, a second-rate, foundered at anchor off the Ram-head; the Harwich, a third-rate, bulged upon the rocks and perished; two others ran ashore, but were got off with little damage; but the whole fleet was scattered and distressed. The nation murmured at the supposed misconduct of the admiral, and the commons subjected him to an inquiry: but when they examined his papers, orders, and instructions, they perceived he had adhered to them with great punctuality, and thought proper to drop the prosecution out of tenderness to the ministry. Then the house took into consideration some letters which had been intercepted in a French ship taken by sir Ralph Delaval. Three of these are said to have been written by king James, and the rest sealed with his seal. They related to the plan of an insurrection in Scotland, and in the northern parts of England: Legge, lord Dartmouth, with one Crew, being mentioned in them as agents and abettors in the design, warrants were immediately issued against them; Crew absconded, but lord Dartmouth was committed to the Tower. Lord Preston was examined touching some ciphers which they could not explain, and, pretending ignorance, was imprisoned in Newgate, from whence however he soon obtained his release. The funds for the supplies of the ensuing year being established, and several acts* passed relating to domestic regulations, the king on the twenty-fourth day of February closed the session with a short speech, thanking the parliament for their demonstrations of affection in the liberal supplies they had granted, and communicating his intention of repairing speedily to the continent. Then the two houses, at his desire, adjourned themselves to the twelfth day of April, and the parliament was afterwards prorogued to the twenty-ninth day of May, by proclamation. 035 [See note H, at the end of this Vol.]
* The laws enacted in this session were those: an act for abrogating the oath of supremacy in Ireland, and appointing other oaths; an act for taking away clergy from some offenders, and bringing others to punishment; an act against deer-stealing; an act for repairing the highways, and settling the rates of carriage of goods; an act for the relief of creditors against fraudulent devices; an act for explaining and supplying the defects of former laws for the settlement of the poor; an act for the encouragement of the breeding and feeding of cattle; and an act for ascertaining the tithes of hemp and flax.
The king had suffered so much in his reputation by his complaisance to the presbyterians of Scotland, and was so displeased with the conduct of that stubborn sect of religionists, that he thought proper to admit some prelatists into the administration. Johnston, who had been sent envoy to the elector of Brandenburgh was recalled, and with the master of Stair, made joint secretary of Scotland; Melvil, who had declined in his importance, was made lord privy-seal of that kingdom; Tweedale was constituted lord chancellor; Crawford retained the office of president of the council; and Lothian was appointed high commissioner to the general assembly. The parliament was adjourned to the fifteenth day of April, because it was not yet compliant enough to be assembled with safety; and the episcopal clergy were admitted to a share of the church government. These measures, instead of healing the divisions, served only to inflame the animosity of the two parties. The episcopalians triumphed in the king’s favour, and began to treat their antagonists with insolence and scorn: the presbyterians were incensed to see their friends disgraced, and their enemies distinguished by the royal indulgence. They insisted upon the authority of the law, which happened to be upon their side: they became more than ever sour, surly, and implacable; they refused to concur with the prelatists or abate in the least circumstances of discipline; and the assembly was dissolved without any time or place assigned for the next meeting. The presbyterians pretended an independent right of assembling annually, even without a call from his majesty; they therefore adjourned themselves, after having protested against the dissolution. The king resented this measure as an insolent invasion of the prerogative, and conceived an aversion to the whole sect, who in their turn began to lose all respect for his person and government.
As the highlanders were not yet totally reduced, the earl of Breadalbane undertook to bring them over, by distributing sums of money among their chiefs; and fifteen thousand pounds were remitted from England for this purpose. The clans being informed of this remittance, suspected that the earl’s design was to appropriate to himself the best part of the money, and when he began to treat with them made such extravagant demands that he found his scheme impracticable. He was therefore obliged to refund the sum he had received; and he resolved to wreak his vengeance with the first opportunity on those who had frustrated his intention. He who chiefly thwarted his negotiation was Macdonald of Glencoe, whose opposition rose from a private circumstance which ought to have had no effect upon a treaty that regarded the public weal. Macdonald had plundered the lands of Breadalbane during the course of hostilities; and this nobleman insisted upon being indemnified for his losses, from the other’s share of the money which he was employed to distribute. The highlander not only refused to acquiesce in these terms, but, by his influence among the clans, defeated the whole scheme, and the earl in revenge devoted him to destruction. King William had by proclamation offered an indemnity to all those who had been in arms against him, provided they would submit and take the oaths by a certain day; and this was prolonged to the close of the present year, with a denunciation of military execution against those who should hold out after the end of December. Macdonald, intimidated by this declaration, repaired on the very last day of the month to Fort-William, and desired that the oaths might be tendered to him by colonel Hill, governor of that fortress. As this officer was not vested with the power of a civil magistrate, he refused to administer them; and Macdonald set out immediately for Inverary, the county-town of Argyle. Though the ground was covered with snow, and the weather intensely cold, he travelled with such diligence, that the term prescribed by the proclamation was but one day elapsed when he reached the place, and addressed himself to sir John Campbell, sheriff of the county, who, in consideration of his disappointment at Fort-William, was prevailed upon to administer the oaths to him and his adherents. Then they returned to their own habitations in the valley of Glencoe, in full confidence of being protected by the government to which they had so solemnly submitted.
Breadalbane had represented Macdonald at court as an incorrigible rebel, as a ruffian inured to bloodshed and rapine, who would never be obedient to the laws of his country, nor live peaceably under any sovereign. He observed, that he had paid no regard to the proclamation, and proposed that the government should sacrifice him to the quiet of the kingdom, in extirpating him with his family and dependents by military execution. His advice was supported by the suggestions of the other Scottish ministers; and the king, whose chief virtue was not humanity, signed a warrant for the destruction of those unhappy people, though it does not appear that he knew of Macdonald’s submission. An order for this barbarous execution, signed and countersigned by his majesty’s own hand, being transmitted to the master of Stair, secretary for Scotland, this minister sent particular directions to Livingstone, who commanded the troops in that kingdom, to put the inhabitants of Glencoe to the sword, charging him to take no prisoners, that the scene might be more terrible. In the month of February, captain Campbell of Glenlyon, by virtue of an order from major Duncanson, marched into the valley of Glencoe with a company of soldiers belonging to Argyle’s regiment, on pretence of levying the arrears of the land-tax and hearth-money. When Macdonald demanded whether they came as friends or enemies, he answered, as friends, and promised upon his honour that neither he nor his people should sustain the least injury. In consequence of this declaration, he and his men were received with the most cordial hospitality, and lived fifteen days with the men of the valley in all the appearance of the most unreserved friendship. At length the fatal period approached. Macdonald and Campbell having passed the day together, parted about seven in the evening, with mutual professions of the warmest affection. The younger Macdonald, perceiving the guards doubled, began to suspect some treachery, and communicated his suspicion to his brother; but neither he nor the father would harbour the least doubt of Campbell’s sincerity: nevertheless the two young men went forth privately to make further observations. They overheard the common soldiers say they liked not the work; that though they would have willingly fought the Macdonalds of the Glen fairly in the field, they held it base to murder them in cool blood, but that their officers were answerable for the treachery. When the youths hastened back to apprize their father of the impending danger, they saw the house already surrounded; they heard the discharge of muskets, the shrieks of women and children; and, being destitute of arms, secured their own lives by immediate flight. The savage ministers of vengeance had entered the old man’s chamber, and shot him through the head. He fell down dead in the arms of his wife, who died next day distracted by the horror of her husband’s fate. The laird of Auchintrincken, Macdonald’s guest, who had, three months before this period, submitted to the government, and at this very time had a protection in his pocket, was put to death without question. A boy of eight years, who fell at Campbell’s feet imploring mercy, and offering to serve him for life, was stabbed to the heart by one Drummond a subaltern officer. Eight-and-thirty persons suffered in this manner, the greater part of whom were surprised in their beds, and hurried into eternity before they had time to implore the divine mercy. The design was to butcher all the males under seventy that lived in the valley, the number of whom amounted to two hundred; but some of the detachments did not arrive soon enough to secure the passes; so that one hundred and sixty escaped. Campbell having perpetrated this cruel massacre, ordered all the houses to be burned, made a prey of all the cattle and effects that were found in the valley, and left the helpless women and children, whose fathers and husbands he had murdered, naked and forlorn, without covering, food, or shelter, in the midst of the snow that covered the whole face of the country, at the distance of six long miles from any inhabited place. Distracted with grief and horror, surrounded with the shades of night, shivering with cold, and appalled with the apprehension of immediate death from the swords of those who had sacrificed their friends and kinsmen, they could not endure such a complication of calamities, but generally perished in the waste, before they could receive the least comfort or assistance. This barbarous massacre, performed under the sanction of king William’s authority, answered the immediate purpose of the court by striking terror into the hearts of the Jacobite high-landers; but at the same time excited the horror of all those who had not renounced every sentiment of humanity, and produced such an aversion to the government, as all the arts of a ministry could never totally surmount. A detail of the particulars was published at Paris, with many exaggerations, and the Jacobites did not fail to expatiate on every circumstance, in domestic libels and private conversation. The king, alarmed at the outcry which was raised upon this occasion, ordered an inquiry to be set on foot, and dismissed the master of Stair from his employment of secretary: he likewise pretended that he had subscribed the order amidst a heap of other papers, without knowing the purport of it; but as he did not severely punish those who had made his authority subservient to their own cruel revenge, the imputation stuck fast to his character; and the highlanders, though terrified into silence and submission, were inspired with the most implacable resentment against his person and administration.
A great number in both kingdoms waited impatiently for an opportunity to declare in behalf of their exiled monarch, who was punctually informed of all these transactions, and endeavoured to make his advantage of the growing discontent. King William having settled the domestic affairs of the nation, and exerted uncommon care and assiduity in equipping a formidable fleet, embarked for Holland on the fifth day of March, and was received by the states-general with expressions of the most cordial regard. While he was here employed in promoting the measures of the grand confederacy, the French king resolved to invade England in his absence, and seemed heartily engaged in the interest of James, whose emissaries in Britain began to bestir themselves with uncommon assiduity in preparing the nation for his return. One Lant, who was imprisoned on suspicion of distributing his commissions, had the good fortune to be released, and the papists of Lancashire dispatched him to the court of St. Germain’s with an assurance that they were in a condition to receive their old sovereign. He returned with advice that king James would certainly land in the spring; and that colonel Parker and other officers should be sent over with full instructions, touching their conduct at and before the king’s arrival. Parker accordingly repaired to England, and made the Jacobites acquainted with the whole scheme of a descent, which Louis had actually concerted with the late king. He assured them that their lawful sovereign would once more visit his British dominions, at the head of thirty thousand effective men, to be embarked at La Hogue; that the transports were already prepared, and a strong squadron equipped for their convoy; he therefore exhorted them to be speedy and secret in their preparation, that they might be in readiness to take arms and co-operate in effecting his restoration. This officer, and one Johnson a priest, are said to have undertaken the assassination of king William; but before they could execute their design his majesty set sail for Holland.
Meanwhile James addressed a letter to several lords who had been formerly members of his council, as well as to divers ladies of quality and distinction, intimating the pregnancy of his queen, and requiring them to attend as witnesses at the labour. He took notice of the injury his family and honour had sustained, from the cruel aspersions of his enemies concerning the birth of his son, and as Providence had now favoured him with an opportunity of refuting the calumny of those who affirmed that the queen was incapable of child-bearing, he assured them in the name of his brother the French king, as well as upon his own royal word, that they should have free leave to visit his court and return after the labour.*
* The letter was directed not only for privy counsellors, but also to the duchesses of Somerset and Beaufort, the marchioness of Halifax, the countesses of Derby, Mulgrave, Rutland, Brooks, Nottingham, Lumley, and Danby, the ladies Fitzharding and Fretchville, those of sir John Trevor, speaker of the house of commons, sir Edward Seymour, sir Christopher Musgrave, the wives of sir Thomas Stamford, lord-mayor of London, sir William Ashhurst and sir Richard Levert, the sheriffs, and, lastly, to Dr. Chamberlain, the famous practitioner in midwifery.
This invitation however no person would venture to accept. He afterwards employed his emissaries in circulating a printed declaration, importing that the king of France had enabled him to make another effort to retrieve his crown; and that although he was furnished with a number of troops sufficient to untie the hands of his subjects, he did not intend to deprive them of their share in the glory of restoring their lawful king and their ancient government. He exhorted the people to join his standard. He assured them that the foreign auxiliaries should behave with the most regular discipline, and be sent back immediately after his re-establishment. He observed, that when such a number of his subjects were so infatuated as to concur with the unnatural design of the prince of Orange, he had chosen to rely upon the fidelity of his English army, and refused considerable succours that were offered to him by his most christian majesty; that when he was ready to oppose force with force, he nevertheless offered to give all reasonable satisfaction to his subjects who had been misled, and endeavoured to open their eyes with respect to the vain pretences of his adversary, whose aim was not the reformation but the subversion of the government; that when he saw himself deserted by his army, betrayed by his ministers, abandoned by his favourites, and even his own children, and at last rudely driven from his own palace by a guard of insolent foreigners, he had for his personal safety taken refuge in France: that his retreat from the malice and cruel designs of the usurper had been construed into an abdication, and the whole constitution of the monarchy destroyed by a set of men illegally assembled, who, in fact, had no power to alter the property of the meanest subject. He expressed his hope that by this time the nation had fairly examined the account, and from the losses and enormous expense of the three last years, were convinced that the remedy was worse than the disease; that the beginning, like the first years of Nero’s reign, would in all probability be found the mildest part of the usurpation, and the instruments of the new establishment live to suffer severely by the tyranny they had raised; that even though the usurpation should continue during his life, an indisputable title would survive in his issue, and expose the kingdom to all the miseries of a civil war. He not only solicited but commanded his good subjects to join him, according to their duty and the oaths they had taken. He forbade them to pay taxes or any part of the revenue to the usurper. He promised pardon, and even rewards, to all those who should return to their duty, and to procure in his first parliament an act of indemnity, with an exception of certain persons * whom he now enumerated.
* Those excepted were the duke of Ormond, the marquis of Winchester, the earls of Sunderland, Bath, Danhy, and Nottingham; the lords Newport, Delamere, Wiltshire, Colchester, Cornhury, Dunblain, and Churchill; the bishops of London and St. Asaph; sir Robert Howard, sir John Worden, sir Samuel Grimstone, sir Stephen Fox, sir George Treby, sir Basil Dixwell, sir James Oxenden; Dr. John Tillotson, Dr. Gilbert Burnet; Francis Russel, Richard Lovison, John Trenchard, Charles Duncomb, citizens of London; Edwards, Stapleton, and Hunt, fishermen, and all others who had offered personal indignities to him at Feyersham; or had been concerned in the barbarous murder of John Ashton Cross, or any other who had suffered death for their loyalty; and all spies, or such as had betrayed his council during his late absence from England.
He declared that all soldiers who should quit the service of the usurper and enlist under his banners, might depend upon receiving their pardon and arrears; and that the foreign troops, upon laying clown their arms, should be paid and transported to their respective countries. He solemnly protested that he would protect and maintain the church of England, as by law established, in all her rights, privileges, and possessions: he signified his resolution to use his influence with the parliament for allowing liberty of conscience to all his subjects, as an indulgence agreeable to the spirit of the christian religion, and conducive to the wealth and prosperity of the nation. He said his principal care should be to heal the wounds of the late distractions; to restore trade by observing the act of navigation, which had been lately so much violated in favour of strangers; to put the navy in a flourishing condition; and to take every step that might contribute to the greatness of the monarchy and the happiness of the people. He concluded with professions of resignation to the Divine Will, declaring that all who should reject his offers of mercy, and appear in arms against him, would be answerable to Almighty God for all the blood that should be spilt, and all the miseries in which these kingdoms might be involved by their desperate and unreasonable opposition.
While this declaration operated variously on the minds of the people, colonel Parker, with some other officers, enlisted men privately for the service of James, in the counties of York, Lancaster, and in the bishopric of Durham: at the same time, Fountaine and Holeman were employed in raising two regiments of horse at London, that they might join their master immediately after his landing. His partisans sent captain Lloyd with an express to lord Melfoot, containing a detail of these particulars, with an assurance that they had brought over rear-admiral Carter to the interest of his majesty. They likewise transmitted a list of the ships that composed the English fleet, and exhorted James to use his influence with the French king, that the count do Tourville might be ordered to attack them before they should be joined by the Dutch squadron. It was in consequence of this advice that Louis commanded Tourville to fall upon the English fleet, even without waiting for the Toulon squadron commanded by the marquis D’Etrees. By this time James had repaired to La Hogue, and was ready to embark with his army, consisting of a body of French troops, together with some English and Scotch refugees, and the regiments which had been transported from Ireland by virtue of the capitulation of Limerick.
The ministry of England was informed of all these particulars, partly by some agents of James who betrayed his cause, and partly by admiral Carter, who gave the queen to understand he had been tampered with; and was instructed to amuse the Jacobites with a negotiation. King William no sooner arrived in Holland than he hastened the naval preparations of the Dutch, so that their fleet was ready for sea sooner than was expected; and when he received the first intimation of the projected descent, he detached general Ptolemache with three of the English regiments from Holland. These, reinforced with other troops remaining in England, were ordered to encamp in the neighbourhood of Portsmouth. The queen issued a proclamation, commanding all papists to depart from London and Westminster: the members of both houses of parliament were required to meet on the twenty-fourth day of May, that she might avail herself of their advice in such a perilous conjuncture. Warrants were expedited for apprehending divers disaffected persons; and they withdrawing themselves from their respective places of abode, a proclamation was published for discovering and bringing them to justice. The earls of Scarsdale, Litchfield, and Newburgh; the lords Griffin, Forbes, sir John Fenwick, sir Theophilus Oglethorpe, and others, found means to elude the search. The earls of Huntingdon and Marlborough were sent to the Tower; Edward Ridley, Knevitt, Hastings, and Robert Ferguson, were imprisoned in Newgate. The bishop of Rochester was confined to his own house; the lords Brudenal and Fanshaw were secured; the earls of Dunmore, Middleton, and sir Andrew Forrester, were discovered in a quaker’s house, and committed to prison with several other persons of distinction. The trainbands of London and Westminster were armed by the queen’s direction, and she reviewed them in person: admiral Russell was ordered to put to sea with all possible expedition; and Carter, with a squadron of eighteen sail, continued to cruise along the French coast to observe the motions of the enemy.
On the eleventh day of May, Russel sailed from Rye to St. Helen’s, where he was joined by the squadron under Delaval and Carter. There he received a letter from the earl of Nottingham, intimating that a report having been spread of the queen’s suspecting the fidelity of the sea-officers, her majesty had ordered him to declare in her name that she reposed the most entire confidence in their attachment, and believed the report was raised by the enemies of the government. The flag-officers and captains forthwith drew up a very loyal and dutiful address, which was graciously received by the queen, and published for the satisfaction of the nation. Russel, being reinforced by the Dutch squadrons commanded by Allemonde, Callemberg, and Vandergoes, set sail for the coast of France on the eighteenth day of May, with a fleet of ninety-nine ships of the line, besides frigates and fire-ships. Next day, about three o’clock in the morning, he discovered the enemy under the count de Tour-ville, and threw out the signal for the line of battle, which by eight o’clock was formed in good order, the Dutch in the van, the blue division in the rear, and the red in the centre. The French fleet did not exceed sixty-three ships of the line, and as they were to windward Tourville might have avoided an engagement; but he had received a positive order to fight, on the supposition that the Dutch and English squadrons had not joined. Louis indeed was apprised of their junction before they were descried by his admiral, to whom he dispatched a countermanding order by two several vessels; but one of them was taken by the English, and the other did not arrive till the day after the engagement.
WILLIAM AND MARY, 1688—1701.
Tourville therefore, in obedience to the first mandate, bore down alongside of Russel’s own ship, which he engaged at a very small distance. He fought with great fury till one o’clock, when his rigging and sails being considerably damaged, his ship, the Rising-Sun, which carried one hundred and four cannon, was towed out of the line in great disorder. Nevertheless the engagement continued till three, when the fleets were parted by a thick fog: when this abated, the enemy were descried flying to the northward, and Russel made the signal for chasing. Part of the blue squadron came up with the enemy about eight in the evening, and engaged them half an hour, during which admiral Carter was mortally wounded. Finding himself in extremity, he exhorted his captain to fight as long as the ship could swim, and expired with great composure. At length the French bore away for Conquet road, having lost four ships in this day’s action. Next day, about eight in the morning, they were discovered crowding away to the westward, and the combined fleets chased with all the sail they could carry, until Russel’s foretopmast came by the board. Though he was retarded by this accident, the fleet still continued the pursuit, and anchored near Cape La Hogue. On the twenty-second of the month, about seven in the morning, part of the French fleet was perceived near the Race of Alderney, some at anchor, and some driving to the eastward with the tide of flood. Russel and the ships nearest him immediately slipped their cables and chased. The Rising Sun having lost her masts, ran ashore near Cherbourg, where she was burned by sir Ralph Delaval, together with the Admirable, another first-rate, and the Conquérant of eighty guns. Eighteen other ships of their fleet ran into La Hogue, where they were attacked by sir George Rooke, who destroyed them and a great number of transports laden with ammunition, in the midst of a terrible fire from the enemy, and in sight of the Irish camp. Sir John Ashby, with his own squadron and some Dutch ships, pursued the rest of the French fleet, which escaped through the Race of Alderney by such a dangerous passage as the English could not attempt without exposing their ships to the most imminent hazard. This was a very mortifying defeat to the French king, who had been so long flattered with an uninterrupted series of victories; it reduced James to the lowest ebb of despondence, as it frustrated the whole scheme of his embarkation, and overwhelmed his friends in England with grief and despair. Some historians allege that Russel did not improve his victory with all advantages that might have been obtained before the enemy recovered their consternation. They say his affection to the service was in a great measure cooled by the disgrace of his friend the earl of Marlborough; that he hated the earl of Nottingham, by whose channel he received his orders; and that he adhered to the letter rather than to the spirit of his instructions. But this is a malicious imputation, and a very ungrateful return for his manifold services to the nation. He acted in this whole expedition with the genuine spirit of a British admiral. He plied from the Nore to the Downs with a very scanty wind through the dangerous sands, contrary to the advice of all his pilots; and by this bold passage effected a junction of the different squadrons, which otherwise the French would have attacked singly and perhaps defeated. He behaved with great gallantry during the engagement, and destroyed about fifteen of the enemy’s capital ships; in a word, he obtained such a decisive victory, that during the remaining part of the war the French would not hazard another battle by sea with the English.
Russel having ordered Sir John Ashby and the Dutch admiral Callemberg to steer towards Havre de Grace, and endeavour to destroy the remainder of the French fleet, sailed back to St. Helen’s that the damaged ships might be refitted, and the fleet furnished with fresh supplies of provisions and ammunition; but his principal motive was to take on board a number of troops provided for a descent upon France, which had been projected by England and Holland, with a view to alarm and distract the enemy in their own dominions. The queen was so pleased with the victory that she ordered thirty thousand pounds to be distributed among the sailors. She caused medals to be struck in honour of the action; and the bodies of admiral Carter and captain Hastings, who had been killed in the battle, to be interred with great funeral pomp. In the latter end of July seven thousand men, commanded by the duke of Leinster, embarked on board transports to be landed at St. Maloes, Brest, or Rochefort, and the nation conceived the most sanguine hopes of this expedition. A council of war, consisting of land and sea officers, being held on board the Breda to deliberate upon the scheme of the ministry, the members unanimously agreed that the season was too far advanced to put it in execution. Nevertheless, the admiral having detached sir John Ashby with a squadron to intercept the remains of the French fleet in their passage from St. Maloes to Brest, set sail for La Hogue with the rest of the fleet and transports; but in a few days the wind shifting, lie was obliged to return to St. Helen’s.
The queen immediately dispatched the marquis of Carmarthen, the earls of Devonshire, Dorset, Nottingham, and Rochester, together with the lords Sidney and Cornwallis, to consult with the admiral, who demonstrated the impracticability of making an effectual descent upon the coast of France at that season of the year. The design was therefore laid aside, and the forces were transported to Flanders. The higher the hopes of the nation had been raised by this armament, the deeper they felt their disappointment. A loud clamour was raised against the ministry as the authors of this miscarriage. The people complained that they were plundered and abused; that immense sums were extorted from them by the most grievous impositions; that, by the infamous expedient of borrowing upon established funds, their taxes were perpetuated; that their burdens would daily increase; that their treasure was either squandered away in chimerical projects or expended in foreign connexions, of which England was naturally independent. They were the more excusable for exclaiming in this manner, as their trade had suffered grievously by the French privateers which swarmed in the Channel. In vain the merchants had recourse to the Admiralty, which could not spare particular convoys while large fleets were required for the defence of the nation. The French king having nothing further to apprehend from the English armament, withdrew his troops from the coast of Normandy; and James returned in despair to St. Germain’s, where his queen had been in his absence delivered of a daughter, who was born in the presence of the archbishop of Paris, the keeper of the seals, and other persons of distinction.
Louis had taken the field in the latter end of May. On the twentieth day of that month he arrived at his camp in Flanders with all the effeminate pomp of an Asiatic emperor, attended by his women and parasites, his band of music, his dancers, his opera, and, in a word, by all the ministers of luxury and sensual pleasure. Having reviewed his army, which amounted to about one hundred and twenty thousand men, he undertook the siege of Namur, which he invested on both sides of the Sambre with about one-half of his army, while the other covered the siege under the command of Luxembourg. Namur is situated on the conflux of the Meuse and the Sambre. The citadel was deemed one of the strongest forts in Flanders, strengthened with a new work contrived by the famous engineer Coehorn, who now defended it in person. The prince de Barbason commanded the garrison, consisting of nine thousand men. The place was well supplied, and the governor knew that king William would make strong efforts for its relief, so that the besieged were animated with many concurring considerations. Notwithstanding these advantages, the assailants carried on their attacks with such vigour that in seven days after the trenches were opened, the town capitulated and the garrison retired into the citadel. King William, being joined by the troops of Brandenburgh and Liege, advanced to the Mehaigne at the head of one hundred thousand effective men, and encamped within cannon shot of Luxembourg’s army, which lay on the other side of the river. That general however had taken such precautions, that the king of England could not interrupt the siege nor attack the French lines without great disadvantage. The besiegers, encouraged by the presence of their monarch, and assisted by the superior abilities of Vau-ban their engineer, repeated their attacks with such impetuosity that the fort of Cohorn was surrendered after a very obstinate defence, in which he himself had been dangerously wounded. The citadel being thus left exposed to the approaches of the enemy, could not long withstand the violence of their operations; the two covered ways were taken by assault. On the twentieth of May the governor capitulated, to the unspeakable mortification of king William, who saw himself obliged to lie inactive at the head of a powerful army, and be an eye-witness of the loss of the most important fortress in the Netherlands. Louis having taken possession of the place, returned in triumph to Versailles, where he was flattered with all the arts of adulation; while William’s reputation suffered a little from his miscarriage, and the prince of Barbason incurred the suspicion of treachery or misconduct.
Luxembourg having placed a strong garrison in Namur, detached Bounders with a body of troops to La Bassiere, and with the rest of his army encamped at Soignies. The king of England sent off detachments towards Liege and Ghent; and on the sixth day of July posted himself at Genap, resolved to seize the first opportunity of retrieving his honour by attacking the enemy. Having received intelligence that the French general was in motion and intended to take post between Steenkirk and Enghien, he passed the river Senne in order to anticipate his purpose; but in spite of all his diligence Luxembourg gained his point, and William encamped at Lembecq, within six miles of the French army. Here he resolved in a council of war to attack the enemy, and every disposition was made for that purpose. The heavy baggage he ordered to be conveyed to the other side of the Senne; and one Millevoix, a detected spy, was compelled by menaces to mislead Luxembourg with false intelligence, importing that he need not be alarmed at the motions of the allies, who intended the next day to make a general forage. On the twenty-fourth day of July, the army began to move from the left in two columns, as the ground would not admit of their marching in an extended front. The prince of Wirtemberg began the attack on the right of the enemy at the head of ten battalions of English, Danish, and Dutch infantry; he was supported by a considerable body of British horse and foot, commanded by lieutenant-general Mackay. Though the ground was intersected by hedges, ditches, and narrow defiles, the prince marched with such diligence that he was in a condition to begin the battle about two in the afternoon, when he charged the French with such impetuosity that they were driven* from their posts, and their whole camp became a scene of tumult and confusion. Luxembourg, trusting to the intelligence he had received, allowed himself to be surprised, and it required the full exertion of his superior talents to remedy the consequences of his neglect. He forthwith forgot a severe indisposition under which he then laboured; he rallied his broken battalions; he drew up his forces in order of battle, and led them to the charge in person. The duke de Chartres, who was then in the fifteenth year of his age, the dukes of Bourbon and Vendôme, the prince of Conti, and a great number of volunteers of the first quality, put themselves at the head of the household troops, and fell with great fury upon the English, who were very ill supported by count Solmes, the officer who commanded the centre of the allies. The prince of Wirtemberg had taken one of the enemies’ batteries, and actually penetrated into their lines; but finding himself in danger of being overpowered by numbers, he sent an aidecamp twice to demand succours from Solmes, who derided his distress, saying, “Let us see what sport these English bull-dogs will make.” At length, when the king sent an express order commanding him to sustain the left wing, he made a motion with his horse, which could not act while his infantry kept their ground, and the British troops, with a few Dutch and Danes, bore the whole brunt of the engagement. They fought with surprising courage and perseverance against dreadful odds; and the event of the battle continued doubtful, until Bouflîers joined the French army with a great body of dragoons. The allies could not sustain the additional weight of this reinforcement, before which they gave way, though the retreat was made in tolerable order, and the enemy did not think proper to prosecute the advantage they had gained. In this action the confederates lost the earl of Angus, general Mackay, sir John Lanier, sir Robert Douglas, and many other gallant officers, together with about three thousand men left dead on the spot, the same number wounded or taken, a great many colours and standards, and several pieces of cannon.