m^M^i!'g'j?£m mK..-2u.l YALE UNIVEESITY LIBEAEY FORMED BY James Abraham Hillhouse, B,A, 1749 James Hillhouse, B,A, 1773 James Abraham Hillhouse, B.A. 1808 ¦ James Hillhouse, B.A, 1875 Removed 1942 from the Manor Souse in Sachein's Wood GIFT OP GEORGE DUDLEY SEYMOUR HISTORY THE REVOLUTION m 1688. HISTORY OF THE REVOLUTION IN ENGLAND IN 1688. COMPRISING A VIEW OF THE REIGN OF JAMES II. FROM Hts ACCESSION, TO THE ENTERPRISE OF THE PRJNCE OF ORANGE, BY THE LATE RIGHT HON. Sill JAMES MACKINTOSH; AND COMPLETED, TO THE SETTLEMENT OF THE CROWN. TO WHICH IS PREFIXED, A NOTICE OF THE LIFE, WRITINGS, AND SPEECHES OF SIR JAMES MACKINTOSH. VOL. I. PARIS, BAUDRY'S EUROPEAN LIBRARY, RUE DU COQ, NEAK THE IX)naiE. SOLD ALSO BY AMYOT, RUE DE LA PAIX ; TRUCHY, BOLXEVARD DES ITALIENS ; TIIEOrniLE BARROIS, TON., BDE RICHELIEU: HBRAIRIE DES ETRANGERS, KUE NEOVE-SAINT-AUGUSTIN; and FRENCH AND ENGLISH LTERARV, RDB VrVIENNK. 1834. ADVERTISEMENT. Sir James Mackintosh long tneditated a History of Eng land, beginning with the Revolution of 1 688. That portion of it which he executed is given inthe present Volume. He lookup the History at the Ascension of James II., referred to the chief incidents in the reign of Charles II. , developed the causes, remote and proximate, of the approaching Revolution, and broke off on the eve of that collision between James and the Prince of Orange which transferred the Crown from the Xing to the Prince. It remained only to narrate the catastrophe. TJnder these circumstances, it has been thought expedient to continue the Narrative to the Settlement of the Crown. The advantages of access to the original and invaluable ma nuscript authorities used by Sir James, rendered this course slill more advisable. Some interesting extracts from them will be found in the Appendix. In the Continuation, it will be observed that the glimpses of opinion on the character of the Revolution, and on the characters and motives of the chief persons who figured in it, do not always agree with the views of Sir James Mackintosh. But it should not be forgotten, that Sir James was avowedly and emphatically a Whig of the Revolution, — and that, since the agitation of Religious Liberty and Parliamentary Reform became a national movement, the great transaction of 1 688 vi ADVERTISEMENT. has been more dispassionately, more correctly, and less highly estimated. The writer of the Continuation believed himself unbiassed by any predilection for either Whigs or Tories, and not only borne out but bound by the facts. He felt, in fine, that his first duty to the reader and to himself was good faith. The latter period of the history was one essentially of action and events. Hence, and from the necessity of taking up the career of the Prince of Orange where it was dropped by Sir James, the Continuation has swelled to an unexpected com pass. CONTENTS. Notice op the Life, Writings, and Speeches of Sir J. Mackintosh. Page 1 , HISTORY OF THE REVOLUTION. CHAPTER I. General State ofAtFairs'at Home. — Abroad. — Characters ofthe Ministry Sun derland. — Rochester. — Halifax. — Godolphin. — Jeffreys. — Feversham. — His Conduct after the Victory of Sedgemoor. — Kirke. — Judicial Proceedings in the West. — Trials of Mrs. Lisle. — Behaviour ofthe King. — Trial of Mrs. Gaunt and others. — Case of Hampden. — Prideaux. — Lord Brandon. — Delamere. 175. CHAPTER II. Dismissal of Halifax, — Meeting of Parliament. — Debates on the Address.— Pro rogation of Parliament.— Habeas Corpus Act. — State of the Catholic Party. Character of the Queen. — Of Catherine Sedley. — Attempt to support the dis pensing Power by a Judgment of a Court of Law. — Godden v. Hales. — Consi deration ofthe Arguments.— Attack on the Church. — Establishment of the Court of Commissioners for Ecclesiastical Causes. — Advancement of Catholics to OfBces. — Intercourse with Rome, . . . '. . 206. CHAPTER III. State of the Army. — Attempts of the King to convert the Army. — The Princess Anne. — Dryden. — Lord Middleton and others.— Revocation of the Edict of Nantes. — Attempt to convert Rochester. — Conduct of the Queen. — Religions Conference. — Failure of flie Attempt. — His Dismissal . ... 239. CHAPTER IV. SCOTLAND. Administration of Queensberry. — Conversion of Perth. — Measures contemplated by the King. — Debates in Parliament on the King's Letter. — Proposed Bill of To leration. — Unsatisfactory to James. — Adjournment of Parliaraent. — Exercise of Prerogative. CONTENTS. IRELAND, Cliaracter of Tyrconnel, — Review of the State of Ireland, — Arrival of Tyrconnel. — His Appointment as Lord Deputy, — .idvancement of Catholics to Offices, — Tyr connel aims at the .Sovereign Power in Ireland, — Intrigues with Prance. . 258, CHAPTER V. Rupture with the Protestant Tories. — Increased Decision of the King's Designs. — Encroachments on the Church Establishment. — Charter House. — Oxford Uni versity College. — Christ Church. — Exeter College, Cambridge. — Magdalen Col lege', Oxon, — Declaration of Liberty of Conscience, — Similar Attempts of Charles, — Proclamation at Edinburgh. — Resistance of the Church. . . 284, CHAPTER VI. Attempt to conciliate the Nonconformists. — Review of their Sufferings. — Baxter. — Banyan.— Presbyterians. — Indepeiidents, — Baptists. — Quakers. — Addresses of Thanks for the Declaration . , . S06. CHAPTER VII. D'Adda publicly received as the Nuncio. — Dissolution of Parliament. — Final Breach. — Preparations for a new Parliament. — New Charters.— Removal of Lord Lieu tenants. — Patronage of the Crown. — Moderate Views of Sunderland. — House of Lords. — Royal Progress.— Pregnanpy of the Queen. — London has the Appear ance of a Catholic City . ggg. CHAPTER VIII. Remarkable Quiet, ^Its peculiar Causes.— CoaUtion of Nottingham and Halifax.—^ Fluctuating Counsels of the Court.—" Parliamentum Pacificum."— Bill for Li berty of Cohscienoe,— Conduct of Sunderland. — Jesuits. . . . 355. NOTICE THE LIFE, WRITINGS, AND SPEECHES SIR JAMES MACKINTOSH. Sir James Mackintosh will be remembered as a man of letters and member of the House of Commons. He cultivated literature without incidents or disputes, and spoke in Parliament without participation in the counsels, either of party or of the government. The following notice, therefore, contains little that is merely per sonal. * It will but present a passing and imperfect view of the exercise of his faculties, and development of his principles, in his writings and speeches. Some few particulars, however, of his private and early life may be given. He was born on the 24th of October, 1 765, in the county of Inverness. It appears, from the following passage in one of his speeches, referring ta a grant from the civil list by the late king for the erection of a monument at Rome to Cardinal York, that his family were Jacobites, and es poused the cause of the Pretender : — " I trust that I shall not be thought unfeeling, if I confess, that I cannot look in tbe same light on a sum of public money, employed in funeral honours to the last prince of a royal family, who were declared by our ancestors unfit to reiga over this kingdom. That they should be treated as princes, in the relief of their distress — that they should be treated a,s princes, even to soothe their feelings, in * It is right to state that the family of Sir James Mackintosh have had no part in the preparation of 'this notice. 2 NOTICE OF THE LIFE, WRITINGS, the courtesies of soci^— I most cheerfully allow. Neither the place of my hirth, nor the actions; and sufferings of thos.e from whom I have descended, dispose me to consider them with sternness; but, I own, that to pay funeral honours to them. in the name of the country, orits sovereign, appears to me (to speak guardedly) a very amhiguousfand questionable act." His father, a military officer of social habits and careless temper, had already encumbered and wasted the family patrimony, and was, for the most part, absent from Scotland with his regiment on fereign serviee. Fortuitatel;^, neither the ^jsence; nor the impru dence of Captain Mackintosh interfered with the education of his. son. Sir James received his first instruction from a female relative, who was conversant with books, and to whose lessons he ever after acknowledged himself under lasting obligations. A bequest to him, whilst jet a ehiW, Iby. an iHuclev supplied the means of con tinuing and corapleting his studies. He was placed, first at the school of Fortrose, in Ross-shire; next at King's College, Aberdeen; and gave, at both, decisive promise of his future eminence. His- friends selected for him the profession ofa physician. He accord ingly became, about the age of twenty, a medical student at the University of Edinburgh. Here the study of medicine is said to have occupied the lesser, whilst literature, philosophy, and dissi pation, engaged the greater portion of his time. One of the most fascinating and exciting objects of ambition, especially in youth, is- oratory. Mackintosh, distinguished himself as a speaker 'in two debating societies, the one limited' to medical subjects, the other embracing a wider range in matters of taste and speculation. The ascendant of his talents was such, that it grew into a fashion among the students to copy him, even in tbe negligence of his dress. With his distaste for the study of medicine, he yet took the degree of doctor in 1787, and printed, according to immemorial usage on the occasion, a thesis in Latin. He took, for his subject, Muscular Action. The probationary thesis of Sir James, in the midst of his distractions, could not add much to physiological science. He is said to have distinguished himself in what the Scotch call Humanity whilst at the University of Aberdeen ; and he loved to quote tho Roman classics in hisiwritings and speeches. Yet this composition ofhis youth, when he must have been most familiar with Latin writers, is no signal exception to the latinity of physicians. The dedication may he cit^d as a specimen the most favourable to the author, and most intelligible to the unprofessioHal reader. AND SPEECHES OF SIR J. MACKINTOSH. AMICO SUO OOLIELMO ALEXANDER, &C. &C. JACOBUS MACKINTOSH, S. P. D. " Cum mihi dulce magis decorumque videatur, sancto amicitiae numini, quates amicum deceat * honores impendere, quam inanes Optimatium titulos inaniori laude conspurcare, ut huicce opusculo dignitatis aliquid conciliaretur, itemque ut ser- vilioris obsequii crimen effugerem, illud tibi, amicorum amicissime, nuncupandum existimavi. Mecum igitu? hodie suavissime agitur, cum gratissimis gratissimse necessitudinis vocibus auscultare, unaque ingenuae ingenui animi superbiffi non obsurdescere contingat ; neque tibi injucundum fore arbitrarer, si dum multi, iique amore observantiaque digiiissimi consuetudinem mecum nee declinant nee dedignantur, (mihi etenim in fatis fuit, ut nunquam non juventus mea talibus ami cis bearetur :) Te, hos inter, principem conjunctissimumque compellarem. Si quid igitur ex mentis mea industria fostuve, nomini possem tuo laudis decorisve fcenerari, sive quodlibet tibi possem nuncupare opus, cujus olim memoria oblivione non obrueretur, tunc meam in te deficere voluntatem haudquaquam suspicareris. Quare mihi, credo, mmime subirasceris, si inauguralibus hisce Academiarum no men amici, praeficere non reformidem. Atqui inania mihi haec frivolaque, ut ut puerilia quandoque fastidienti, hoc saltem subridcbit voluptatis, quod pectus mihi illorum recordatione pertentabitur, quorum consentientibus studiorum ratlonibus inflammabar, quorum ex judiciis judicio meo lumen roburque accedebat, quorum labores horarum subsecivarum mutuis mutui oblectamentis condiebantur, quorum denique unanimia in te vota precesque mecum hie hodie concinunt conspirantque ; neque haec, si Diis placeat, sive materno sive novercali fortuna me lumine in- tueatur, ex ' Sanctis unquam mentis meae recessibus * ' exulabunt : quin crescentes crescentium, annorum curas solicitudinesque permulcendo, ope, illaque haud illaetabili, tristia senectutis taedia recreabunt, quod (sors etiamsi obtingat humilior nomenque sileatur), non una amicitiae facryma amici cineribus parentaverit. Vale amice, amici valete. " Dab. Edin. Prid. ante Id. Septemb. A. 1787. " There is, in this dedication, and in the , note on Dr. Parr^s preface to Bellendenus, subjoined to it with more ambition than propriety, much pretension to idiom and conceit of scholarship, * Neque hie a mente mea mens vel ipsius V^erulamii abl^orret. Vide de Aug- mentis Scientiarum, lib. i. p. 29. * " Vide perelegantem in nuperam Bellendini operum edit. Lond. excusam Praefat. " Atque hie mihi neminenl, dummodo Attice Romaneque vel tantillum sapiat, succensurum crediderim, si quantum ex aureo hocce opusculo perlegendo vo luptatis perceperim (ab illo etenim lectitando 'aure' adhuc 'ferveo vaporata') intempestive fortasse quamvis, attamen vel importunus profitear. Hocque mihi ideo antiquius visum est, quod amicum quem hie alloquor (ille etenim ab optimis nunquam, nunquam a sapientibus discrepuit), de republica, cum auctore gravi literatissimoque, idem semper velle, idem semper sentire, non ignorabam. Hujus equidem scriptoris Latinissimi, sive Procerum varias variarum indolum facies scite adumbrare; sive eosdem, prout debeatur meritis, vel infamiae- notis inustos, vel immortaU condecoratos gloria posteritati tradere, famas quasi largitoris jure, tam exculto limatoque ingenio, haud inique condonaveris. Ipsius enimvero nutui adeo advolant et famulantur, quaecunque habeat antiquitas leporum et venustalis, ut omnia e proprio penu deprompsisse potius, quam ' ut alienum libasse,' videatur. Verbo dicam— Romanae hinc et inde Cecropiaeque puUulantes elegantis flosculos ita carpsit curiose, ut in sertum quasi germanum, maritalesque corollas sponte coalescerent. Sed quid ego haec autem— mene Antalcidese immemorem sententiae, — Tif •ya.ji auTov -^iyti ; » i NOTICE OF THE LIFE, WRITINGS, with forced constructions, far-sought and ill-chosen expressions, and that sort of effort between obscurity and sense, from which it may be suspected that the writer derived his inspirations from the dictionary. The dedication to a familiar friend, rather than to a patron, contrary to usage, was independent ; but the phrase " laude conspurcare" is not merely improper — it suggests a disgusting image. The first sentence of the thesis contains a glaring mistake of language. " A'uxiliantibus musculorum fibris omnia omnino vitae munera defungi quotidiano usu commonemur." Deceived by the passive termination of the deponent verb def'ungor, he misuses it in a passive sense. His motto from Persius is very happily chosen, — Latet arcan^ non enarrabile fibra. Sir James Mackintosh has been described by others, and by himself, as indolent and dilatory at every period of his life. A curious instance of this disposition is related of him on the occasion of taking his degree. He not only put off the writing of his thesis to the last moment, but was an hour behind his time on the day of examination, and kept the academic senate waiting for him in full conclave. The latter instance, not so much of indolence as of gross negligence and bad taste on the part of a student, and of patient condescension on the part of the professors, is scarcely credible. The bar is considered the proper sphere for a young man without fortune, who appears qualified to become a public speaker. Mac kintosh signalised himself among the unfledged orators of the Medical and Speculative Societies, so called ; and the profession of the law was recommended to him before he yet left Edinburgh. He, however, came to England with the intention to practise physic, and with recommendations to Dr. Fraser, a physician at Bath. Young, carejess, and dissipated, he had squandered his money on becoming his own master ; and before he left the University of Edinburgh, his uncle's legacy was exhausted. His relatives, who now supplied him, most probably dictated the continued pursuit of physic ; and, on the advice of Dr. Eraser, he had thoughts of com mencing practice at Bath. In 1788, however, he came to London, and resided in the house of a wine-merchant, also named Fraser, in Clipstone Street. This residence proved one of the fortunate circumstances of his life. It led to his acquaintance with Miss AND SPEECHES OF SIR J. MACKINTOSH. .% Stuart, whom he married in January, 1789 ; so privately, that the pew-openers of Mary-le-bone Church were the witnesses. Mac kintosh, with this seeming romance, was captivated wholly by the good sense and amiable character of this excellent woman. It will be found that she exercised the happiest influence on the conduct of his life and employment of his time. But the friends of both parties were equally incensed. The brothers of the lady were dissatisfied at her marriage with a young man who had neither fortune nor industry, and of whose capacity they had yet no idea. He had, indeed, on his arrival in London, published a pamphlet on the Regency question then pending, in support of the claims of the Prince of Wales and the views of the Whigs. But this first essay in politics failed to attract the notice either of the party or of the public. His family, to indulge their anger, or punish his impru dence, now withheld their supplies ; and his situation would have been one of the most embarrassing, if his wife had not been pos sessed of some funds. This enabled and determined them to visit the Netherlands in the spring of 1'789. The Revolution now agitated France and Europe. Its principles, its passions, and its visions, were nowhere more deeply felt than in Brabant. Mackintosh continued in the Netherlands, residing chiefly at Brussels, until the end of the year. Arrived in London at the commencement of 1 790, he found himself without money or means of living. But if his residence abroad exhausted his finances, it furnished him in return with a stock of information and enthusiasm, respecting foreign politics and the Revolution, which he was soon enabled to turn to account. Mr. Charles Stuart, the brother of his wife, was a contributor to the fugitive literature of the theatres and public press of London. Mackintosh, by his advice, aspired to become a journalist, and was introduced by him to that multifarious editor, John Bell, then editor and pro prietor of a newspaper called The Oracle. The authorship of the defunct pamphlet, the advantages of having parsed the pre ceding year on the Continent, and the title of Dr. Mackintosh, then borne by Sir James, were imposing recommendations in the eyes of the proprietor of the journal, and he was soon installed its sole organ in the department of foreign politics. It was agreed between the parties that the amount of remuneration should be regulated by admeasurement in the printed columns of The Oracle. Sir James, with the vigour and freshness of his youth, his opinions, 6 NO'^'IOE OF THE LIFE, WRITINGS, and his feelings, and inspired, moreover, by that which the Roman satirist ranked with Parnassus and the Pierian spring,* was de clared by the proprietor ruinously prolific. One week his labours measured ten pounds sterling. "No paper," said Mr. Bell, with frank simplicity, " can stand this." An average was struck, and Sir James wrote at a fixed price. Few persons think of asking others or themselves who is thc writer of what they read in a newspaper; — either because the matter is so strictly ephemeral, and each daily impression obliterates that of the preceding day, or because the constant readers personify the journal itself by clothing its name with the attributes of au thorship. Mackintosh, however, wrote so ably, that whilst the mass of constant readers quoted The Oracle with increased de ference, the better informed and more inquisitive asked after the writer. He became acquainted, among others, with Felix Macarthy, an Irish compound of rake, gladiator, writer, and politician ; the companion of Sheridan in his orgies and election scenes, and the humble follower of Lord, Moira. Felix, as he appears to have been habitually called, both by strangers and his friends, made Mackintosh acquainted with the unfortunate Gerald, by whom he was thus early introduced to Doctor Parr. The l^others of Mrs. Mackintosh were now not only i-econciled to the marriage, but attached to him personally, and proud of him. They advised him to attempt something more worthy of him than the diurnal supply of political vaticination, through the medium of The Oracle. Thus encouraged, he attended a public meeting of the county of Mid dlesex, and made a speech which was received with great applause. His friend Felix was present, and sounded the praises ofthe speaker and the speech among his numerous friends, whose number and constancy he was accustomed to attest by a punning quotation : — Donee eris Fe& mnltos nnmerabis amicos. The career of Mackintosh in London was now interrupted for a moraent by the death of his father. He found it necessary lo visit Scotiand. Mrs. Mackintosh, with an infant of a few weeks old ' Nee labra fonte prolni eabalHnOj Nee in bicipiti somniasse Parnasso Memiui, etc. , , . , Magister artis inge nique largitor. Venter, etc. Persius. AND SPEECHES Oli' SIR J. MACKINTOSH, 7 accompanied him. So fond was he of her persou and society, that the shortest separation from, ber was painful, and a long absence intolerable to him. Having sol4 that part cf the faraily property whidi came into his hands on his father^s death, he re turned to London with a few hundred pounds, took a house at Ealing, and undertook the hardy task of answering Burke's " Re flections on the French RevolntioH." He had a host of competitors already in the field. There were not wantiog prudent counsellors who would divert him from a beaten subject, — ^^upon which, they said, nothing new could be advanced, — and dissuade hira from a vain trial wliere he bad so many rivals to conteud.with. A subject is exhausted to those only whose fearren or exhausted mediocrity can prod«ce nothing new, — and there is, accordiog to Swift, in the greatest crowd, room enough for hina who can reach it, above their heads. Mackintosh proved both these truths, by persisting in his purpose. His tal^rts, however, were already known and es&^ mated. Paioe, whilst writing his " Bights of Man," heard that Mackintosh also was employed in answering Burke. " Tell your friend," said he to an acquaintance of Sir James, " that he will come too late, unless he hastens ; for, after the appearance of my reply, nothing more will remain to be said." It wOuid seem that Paine instinctively knew the only rival whose work should divide opinion with him. The Vindicias Galhcae appeared among the latest ofthe replies to Buiie, The work occupied the author several months. From a pamphlet, which he designed it should be, it came out a volume of 380 pages, in April, 1791. The period of composing it was, pro bably, the happiest of his life. The more generous principles and brighter views of human nature, society, and government, — of his own ambition and hopes, — which then engaged his faculties and exalted his imagination, were assuredly not compensated to him by the commendations which he subsequently obtained for practical wisdom, matured prudence, and those other hackneyed phrases which are doubtless often justly bestowed, but which are still oftener but masks for selfi^sh calculation and grovelling arabrtion. His domestic life was, at the same time, the happiest that can be conceived. He had indulged, by his own avowal, iu the vices ef dissipation up to the period ofhis marriage; bitt now his Hfe was passed in the soh tude of his house at Ealing, without seeking or desiring any other enjoyment than the composition ofhis work, and the society ofhis 8 NOTICE OF THE LIFE, WRITINGS, wife, to whom, by way of recreation in the evening, he read what he had written during the day. The Vindiciae Gallicae, accordingly, though not the most profound or learned of his productions, was never after equalled by him in vigour and fervour of thought, style, and dialectics. He sold the copyright for 30/. Published in April, it reached a third edition jn August; and the publisher had the li berality to give the author more than triple the stipulated sum. Mackintosh had been already introduced by his brother-in-law to Sheridan, who was then what may be called manager of the press to the Whig party. ' Sheridan said that he supposed a hundred or two from the fund at Brookes's would not come amiss to the author of the Vindiciae. The suggestion was no doubt readily assented to, butwent>nQ farther. The fund was at the time impounded, in con sequence of the Whig schism on thesubject ofthe French Revolution. The author ofthe Vindiciss Gallicae started at once into celebrity. His acquaintance was sought by the chief Whigs, — by Fox, Grey, Lauderdale, Erskine, Whitbread; and he was invited to the Du chess of Gordon's rout. He was not only courted, but defamed; there could, therefore, be no doubt of the reality of his success. " The vulgar clamour," says he, in an advertisement to the third edition, "which has been raised with such maUgnant art against the friends of freedom, as the apostles of turbulence and sedition, has not even spared the obscurity of my name. To strangers I can only vindicate myself by defying the authors of such clamours to discover one passage in this volume not in the highest degree favourable to peace and stable government. Those to whom I am known would, r beUeve, be slow to impute any sentiments of violence to a temper which the partiaUty of my litiends must confess to, be indolent, and the hostility, of enemies \yiU notdenj^tobp mild." , • Who does not kno\y Burke's chivalrous and celebrated allusion to .the Queen of France,' in a' piaspage of which the 'taste may be criticised, but of whichthe eloquence will never'be unfelt by those who can appreciate ' imagination aild sentiment? The following lilay be called an antagonist passage by Mackintosh in reply : — , " In the eye of Mr. Burke, these crimes and excesses assume- an aspect far more important th^n <^an be communicated to them by their own insulated "uilt. They form, in his opinion, the crisis of a revolution, far more important than any change of governriienit ; a revolution; in! which tie sentiments and opinions that have iformed theJmanners of the European nations are to perish. ' The a^e of chivalry is gone, and the glory of Europe extinguished for ever;' He follows this exclamation by an eloquent eulogium on chivalry, and by gloomy predictions of the future slate of Europe, when the: nation that has been so long accustomed to give her the tone in arts and manners is thus debased and cdrrupted. A caviller AND SPEECHES OF SIR J. MACKINTOSH. 9 might remark, that ages much more near the meridian fervour of chivab-y than ours have witnessed a treatment of queens as little gallant and generous as that of tbe Parisian mob. He might remind Mr. Burke, that, in the age and country of Sir Philip Sidney, a Queen of France, whom no blindness to accomplishment, no malignity of detraction, could reduce to the level of Maria Antoinetta, was, by 'a nation of men of honour and cavaliers,' permitted to languish in captivity and expire on a scaffold ; and, he might add, that the manners of a country are more surely indicated by the systematic cruelty of a sovereign, than by the licentious frenzy of a mob." This and another passage were made the subject of much obloquy by his opponents, and disapproved, it would appear, by some of his friends. In the advertisement before cited, he says, — " I have been accused, by valuable friends, of treating with ungenerous levity the misfortunes of the royal family of France. They wiU not, however, suppose me capable of deliberately violating tbe sacredness of misery in a palace or a cot tage ; and I sincerely lament that I should have been betrayed into expressions which admitted that construction." The reign of Louis XIV., and the successive counsels which swayed France in the two feeble reigns which intervene between that celebrated age and the Revolution, are sketched by a few vi gorous touches at the opening of the work : — " The intrusion of any popular voice was not likely to be tolerated in tbe reign of Louis XIV., — a reign whicb has been so often celebrated as the zenith of •warlike and literary splendour, but which has always appeared to me to be the consummation of whatever is afflicting and degrading in the history of the human race. Talent seemed, in that reign, robbed ofthe conscious elevation, ofthe erect and manly port, which is its noblest associate and its surest indication. Thc mild purity of Ffiusion, the lofty spirit of Bossuet, the masculine mind of Boileau, the sublime fervour of Corneille, were confounded by the contagion of ignominious and indiscriminate servility. It seemed as if the 'representative majesty' of the genius and intellect of man were prostrated before the shnne of a sanguinary and disso lute tyrant, who practised the corruption of courts without their mildness, and incurred the guilt of wars without their glory. His highest praise is to have sup ported the stage trick of royalty with effect ; and it is surely difficult to conceive any character more odious and despicable, than that ofa puny libertine, who, under tbe frown of a strumpet, or a monk, issues the mandate that is to murder virtuous citizens, to desolate happy and "peaceful hamlets, to wring agonising tears from widows and orphans. Heroism has a splendour that almost atones for its excesses ; but what shall we think of him, who, from the luxurious and dastardly security in which he wallows at Versailles, issues vrith calm and cruel apathy bis order to butcher the Protestants of Languedoc, or to lay in ashes the villages of tbe Pa latinate ? On the recollection of such scenes, as a scholar, I blush for the prosti tution of letters ; as a man, 1 blush for the patience of humanity. " But the despotism of this reign was pregnant with the great events whicb have signalised our age. It fostered that literature which was one day destined to destroy it. Its profligate conquests have eventually proved the acquisitions of humanity ; and the usurpations of Louis XIV, have served only to add a larger portion to the great 10 NOTICE OF THE LIFE, WRITINGS, Ijody of freemen. The spirit of its policy was inherited by the succeeding reig«. The rage of conquest, repressed for a wiite by the torpid despotism offleury, burst forth with renovated violence in the latter part of the reign of Louis XV. France, ex- bausted aUke by .the misfortunes of one war and the victories of another, groaned under a weight of impost and debt, which it was equally difficult to remedy or to endure. The profligate expedients were exhausted, by which successive ministers had attempted to avert the great crisis, in which the credit and power of the gov«rn- raent must perish. " The wise and benevolent administration of M. Turgot, though long enough for his glory, was too short, and, perhaps, too darly, for those .salutary and grand reforms which his genius had conceived and his virtue would have effected. The aspect of purity and talent spread a natural alarm among the minions of a court, and they easily succeeded in the expulsion of such rare and obnoxious intruders. " The magnificent ambition of M. de Vergennes ; the brilUant, profuse, and ra pacious career of M. de Calonne;the feeble and irresolute violenceof M. Brienne; all contributed The obj«ct of his plans was to facilitate fiscal oppression. 4 The motive of theirs is to fortify general liberty. They have levelled all Frenchmen as men ; he would have levelled thera all as slaves. it" The assembly of the Notables, however, soon gave a memorable proof, how dangerous are aU public meetings -of men, even without legal powers at control, to the permanence of despotism. They had been assembled by M. Calonne, to admire 4be plausibility and splendour ofhis speculations, aud to veil the extent and atroci^ of Ms rapine. But the faUacy of the one, and tJie profligacy of the other, were detected with equal ease. Illustrious and accomplished orators, who have since Itound a nobler sphere for their talents in a more free and powerful assembly, m^ posed this plunderer to the Notables. Detested by the npbles and elergy, of whose privUeges he had suggested the abolition ; undermined in the favour of the Queen, by his attack on one of her favourites ( Breteuil ) ; exposed to the fury of the people, and dreaiduig the terrors of judicial .prosecution; he speedily sought refuge in i&ig- land, wiflioat the r,eEollectiou of one virtue, or the applause lOf one party, to con- «ole bis retreat," AND SPEECHES OF SIR J. MACKINTOSH. 11 The French soldiers, by abandoning the court, and sidiag with the people in the crisis ofthe Revolution, decided the great strugle between privilege and democracy. Their conduct called forth execrations from one party, eulogies from the other, eloquence frora both, — and remains one of the great lessons bequeathed by that awful epoch to nations and their governments. Stigmatised by Burke, they are thus defended by Mackintosh : — " These soldiers, whom posterity wiU celebrate for pati'iolic heroism, are stig matised by Mr. Burke as ' base hireling deserters,' who sold their king for an increase of pay. This position he everywhere asserts or insinuates, but nothing seems more false. Had the defection been confined to Paris, there mi^ have been some speciousness in tbe accusation. The exchequer of a faction might have been equal to the corruption of the guards. The activity of intrigue might have seduced by promise the troops cantoned in the neighbourhood of the capital. But what policy or fortune eould pervade by tbeir agents or donatives an army of 150,000 meu dispersed over so great a monarchy as France. The spirit of resistance to uncivic commands broke forth at once in every part of the empire. The garrisons of the cities of Rennes, Bordeaux, Lyons, and Grenoble refused, almost at tbe same moment, to resist the virtuous insurrection of their fellow-citizens. No largesses could, have seduced, no intrigues could hate reached, so vast and divided a body. Nothing but sympathy with the national spirit could have produced their noble disobedience. The remark of Mr. Hume is here most applicable, that what depends on a few may be often "attributed to chance {secret circumstances), but that the action of great bodies must be ever ascribed to general causes. . It was the appre hension of Montesquieu, that the spirit of increasing armies would terminate in converting Europe into an immense camp, in changing our artisans and cultivators into military savages, and reviving the age of Attila and Genghis. Events are our preceptors, and France has taught us that this evil contains in itself its own resiedy and limit. A domestic army cannot be increased without increasing the number of its ties with the people, and of the channels by which popular sentiment may enter. Every man who is added to the army is a new link that unites it to the nation. If all citizens were compelled to become soldiers, all soldiers must of necessity adopt the feelings of citizens, and the despots cannot increase their army without admitting into it a greater number of men interested to destroy thom. A small army may have sentiments different from the .great body of the people, and no interest in common with them ; but a numerous soldiery cannot. This is the bar rier which nature has opposed to the increase of armies. They cannot be numerous enough to enslave tbe people, without becoming the people itself. The effects ©f this truth have been hitherto conspicuous Only in the mililarj'. defection of Prance, because the enlightened sense of general interest has been so much more diffused in that nation than in any other despotic monarchy erf' Europe. But they must be felt by all. An elaborate discipline may for a while in Germafly debase and brutalise soldiers too much to receive any impressions from their fellow men ; — artificial and local institutions are, however, too feeble to resist the ertefgy of natural causes. The constitution of man survives the transient fashions of despotism, and the history of the next century will probably evince on how frail and tottering a basis the military tyrannies of Europe stand." The army having decided that there should be a reveluliOB, the 12 NOTICE OF THE LIFE, WRITINGS, Constituent Assembly determined its form and extent. Burke de scribed this memorable assembly as the greatest architect of ruin which the world had ever seen. One of the most remarkable innovations of the Constituent Assembly was the abolition of feudal tides of nobility. The measure was literally improvised, and took Europe by surprise. Burke's illustration of Corinthian capitals is familiar to most readers. The following is Mackintosh's reply :— " Thus feeble are the objections against the authority of the assembly. We now resume the consideration of its exercise, and proceed to enquire whether they ought to have reformed or destroyed their government? The general question of mnovation is an exhausted common-place, to which the genius of Mr. Burke has been able to add nothing but splendour of eloquence and fehcity of illustration. It has long been so notoriously of this nature, that it is placed by Lord Bacon among the sportive contests which are to exercise rhetorical skill. No man will support- the extreme on either side. Perpetual change and immutable estabUshment are equally indefensible. To descend, therefore, from these barren generalities to a more near.view ofthe question, let us state it more precisely. Was the civil order m France corrigible, or was it necessary to destroy it ? Not to mention the extirpa tion ofthe feudal system, and the abrogation of the civil and criminal code, we have first to consider the destruction of the three great corporations-of the Nobi-, bty, the Church, and the Parliament, These three aristocracies were the piUars which, m fact, formed the government of France. The question, then, of forming or destroying these bodies is fundamental. There is one general principle appli cable to them all, adopted by the French legislators, that the existence of orders is repugnant to the prmc-iples ofthe social union. An order is a legal rank— a body of men combined and endowed with privileges by law. There are two kinds of meqiiahty; the one personal-that of talent and virtue, the source of whatever is excellent and admirable in society; the other that of fortune, which must exist because property alone can stimulate to labour; aud labour, if it were not necessary to the existence, would be indispensable to the happiness, of man. But though it be necessary, yet, in its excess, it is the great malady of civil society. The accumu lation of that power, which is conferred by wealth, in the hands of the few, is the perpetual source of oppression and neglect to the mass of mankind. Thepower of n,ir r " ''"''*" <"'°''«"*''«'«d by their tendency to combination, from which number, dispersion, indigence, and ignorance equally preclude the poor. The Z^^LT^T^^.'T *"'''"' ^^ '^"'¦^ professions, their different degrees of sS in all CO T*^' *^!''.''--'^''=-' --l •heir smaU number. Thef neces sarily, in aU countries, admimster government, for they alone have skill and labour fnevftir , ' ."'•™"'«t''»ced, nothing can be more evident than their mevitable preponderance m the political scale. The preference of partial to gene ral m crests IS, however, the greatest of all public evils: it should, therefore have been the object of all laws to repress this malady; but it has been their perpetual endency to aggravate it. Not content with the inevitable inequality f'oTuS hey have superadded to it honorary and poUtical distinctions. Not conte™t the inevitable tendency of the wealthy to combine, they have embodied hem 1 cteses; they have fortified those conspiracies against the general inttrest wW h they ought to have resisted, though they could not disarm. Laws it Tssatd Jnlt they cannot cure ? . Laws cannot inspire unmixed patriotism ; but ought they for AND SPEECHES OF SIR J. MACKINTOSH. 13 that reason to foment that corporation spirit whicb is its most fatal enemy ? ' All professional combinations,' said Mr. Burke in one of his late speeches in pariiament, ' are dangerous in a free state.' Arguing on the same principle, the National .\ssembly lias proceeded further. - They have conceived tbat the laws ought to create no inequaUty of combination, to recognise all only in their capacity of citizens, and to offer no assistance to the natural preponderance of pjirtial over general interest.'t ." Hitherto all had passed unnoticed ; but no sooner did the Assembly, faithful to their principles; proceed to extirpate the external signs of ranks which they no longer toleaated, than all Europe resounded with clamours against their Utopian and levelling madness. The incredible decree of the 19th of June, 1 790, for tbe sup pression of titles, is the object of aU these invectives ; yet, without that measure, the Assembly would certainly have been guilty of the grossest inconsistency and ab- .surdity. An untitled nobility forming a member of the state, had been exemplified in some commonwealths of antiquity ; such were the patricians in Rome. But a titled nobility, without legal privileges, or political existence, would have been a monster new in the annals of legislative absurdity. The power was possessed, with out the bauble; by the Roman aristocracy ; the bauble would have been reverenced, while the power was trampled on, if titles had been spared in France. A titled nobility is the most undisputed progeny Of feudal barbarism. Titles had, in all nations, denoted offices ; it was reserved for Gothic Europe to attach them to ranks : yet this conduct of our remote ancestors admits explanation ; for with them offices were hereditary, and hence the titles denoting them became hereditary too. But we, who have rejected hereditary office, retain an usage to which it gave rise, and which it alone could justify. " So egregiously is this recent origin of titled nobility misconceived, that it has been even pretended to be necessary to the order and existence of society, a narrow and arrogant bigotry, which would Umit aU political remark to the Gothic states of Europe, or estabUsh general principles on events that occupy so short a period of history, and manners that have been adopted by so slender a portion of the human race. A titled nobility was equally unknown to the splendid monarchies of Asia, and to the manly simplicity of the ancient commonwealths. It arose from the pecu liar circumstances of modern Europe ; and yet its necessity is now erected on the basis of universal experience, as if these other renowned and polished states were effaced from tbe records of history, and banished from the society of nations. ' No bility is the Corinthian capital of polished states;' the august fabric of society is deformed and encumbered by such Gothic ornaments. The massy Doric that sus tains it is labour ; and the splendid variety of arts and talents, tbat solace and em beUish life, form the decoration of its Corinthian aud Ionic capit.ils." The boldest, and at the same time the most permanent, reform effected by theConstituent Assembly, was that of the French church'. No one of its measures was more vehemently reprobated in the " Reflections." It is defended with less passion, and equal vi gour, in the Vindiciae Gallicas. " The fate of the church, the second great corporation that sustained the French despotism, has peculiarly provoked the indignation of Mr. Burke. The dissolution of the church as a body, the resumption of its territorial revenues, and the new organisation ofthe priesthood, appears to him to be dictated by the union of robbery and irreligion, to glut the rapacity of the stock-jobbers, and to gratify the hostility j4 NOTICE OF THE LIFE, WRITINGS, of Atheists. AU the outrages and proscriptions of ancient or modern tyrants vanish, in his opinion, in the comparison with this confiscation of the property of the Gal lican church. Principles had, it is true, been on this subject explored, and reasons had been urged by men of genius, which vulgar men deemed irresistible. But with these reasons Mr. Burke wiU not deign to combat. ' You do not imagine. Sir,' says he to his correspondent, ' that I am going to compliment this miserable description of persons with any long discussion?' WTiat immediately follows this contemptu ous passage is so outrageously offensive to candour and urbanity, that an honour able adversary vrill disdain to avail himself of it. The passage itself, however, de mands a pause. It alludes to an opinion of which, 1 trust, Mr. Burke did not know the origin. That the church lands were national property, was not first asserted among the Jacobins, or inthe Palais Royal. The author of that opinion, the master of that wretched description of persons whom Mr. Burke disdains to encounter, was one whom he might have combated with glory, with confidence of triumph in vic tory, and without fear of shame in defeat. The author of thatopinion was Turcot ! — a name now too high to be exalted by eulogy, or depressed by invective. That benevolent and philosophic statesman delivered it in the article Fondation, in the Encyclopedic, as the calm and disinterested opinion of a scholar, at a moment when he could have no view to palliate rapacity, or prompt irreUgion. It was no doc trine contrived for the occasion by the 4gents of tyranny ; it was a principle dis covered in pure and harmless speculation, by one of the best and wisest of men. I adduce the authority of Turgot, not to oppose the arguments (if there had been any), but to counteract the insinuations of Mr. Burke. The authority of his asser tions forms a prejudice, which is thus to be removed before we can hope for a fair audience at the bar of reason. If he insinuates the flagitiousness of these opinions by the supposed vileness of their origin, it cannot be unfit to pave the way for their reception, by assigning them a more illustrious pedigree." The following prophecy is subjoined by Sir James in a note : — "Did we not dread tbe ridicule of political prediction, it would not seem difficult to assign its period. Church power (unless some revolution auspicious to priest craft should replunge Europe in ignorance) will certainly not survive the nineteenth century." The following, again, is Mackintosh's antagonist's coup d'oeil of the Revolution : — " Thus various are the aspects which the French Revolution, not only in its in fluence on Uterature, but in its general tenor and spirit, presents to minds occupied by various opimons. To the eye of Mr. Burke it exhibits nothing but a scene of horror. In his mind it inspires no emotion but abhorrence of its leaders, commi seration of their victims, and alarms at the influence of an event which menaces the subversion of the policy, the arts, and the manners of the civiUsed world. Minds who view it through another medium are filled by it with every sentiment of admi ration and triumph — of admiration due to splendid exertions of virtue, and of tri umph inspired by widening prospects of happiness. " Nor ought it to be denied by the candour of philosophy, that events so gregt are never so unmixed as not to present a double aspect to the acuteness and exagge ration of contending parties. The same ardour of passion which produces patriotic and legislative heroism becomes the source of ferocious retaUation, of visionary novelties, and precipitate change. The attempt were hopeless, to increase the fer- AND SPEECHES OF SIR J. MACKINTOSH. J5 tility without favouring the rank luxuriousness ofthe evil. He that on such occa sions expects unmixed good, ought to recollect that the economy et nature ha» in variably determined the equal influence of high passions in giving birth to virtues aod tO' crimes. The soil of Attica was remarked by antiquity as producing at once the most deUcious fruits and the most virulent poisons. K is thus with the human mind ; audio the frequency of convulsions in the ancient commonwealths, they owe those examples of sanguinary tumult and virtuous heroism whieh distinguish their history from the monotonous tranquillity of modern states. The passions of a na tion cannot be kindled to the degree whicb renders it capable of great achieveraents without endangering the commission of violences and crimes. The reforming ar dour of a senate cannot be inflamed sufficiently to combat and overcome abuses, without hazarding the evils which arise from legislative temerity. Such are the immutable laws, which are more properly to be regarded as libels on our nature than as charges against the French Revolution. The impartial voice of history ought, doubtless, to record the blemisbes as well as the glories of that great event ; and to contrast the deUneation of it which might haye been given by tbe specious and temperate Toryism of Mr. Hume, with tbat which we have received from the repulsive and fanatical invectives of Mr. Burke, might still be amusing and in structive. Both these great men would be adverse to the Revolution ; but it would not be difficult to distinguish between the undisguised fury of an eloquent advocate, and the well-dissembled partiality of a philosophical judge. Such would, probably, be the difference between Mr. Hume and Mr. Burke, were they to treat on the French Revolution. The passions of the latter would only feel the excesses which had dishonoured it; but the philosophy ofthe former would instruct him that the human fbelings, raised by such events above the level of ordinary situations, be come the source of a guilt and a heroism unknown to the ordinary affairs of nations ; that sucb periods are only fertile in those sublime virtues and splendid crimes which so powerfully agitate and interest the heart of man." The Vindiciae Gallicae had two leading objects; first to defend the French Revolution, next to vindicate its Enghsh admirers. The great schism among the Whigs may be reduced to the question, Which of the two parties, — the opponents or the admirers of the French Revolution of 1789, — were the true Whigs of the English Revolution of 1688 ? This question was treated by Burke incidentally in the " Reflections," and afterwards in a separate publication. It is touched on as follows by Mackintosh : — " The Revolution of 1688 is confessed to have estabUshed principles, by those who lament that it has not reformed institutions. It bas sanctified the theory, if it has not insured the practice, of a firee government It declared, by a memorable precedent, the right of the people of England to revoke abused power, to frame the govemment, and bestow tbe crown. There was a time, indeed, when some wretched followers of Fihner and Blackwood lifted their heads in opposition. But more than half a century had withdrawn them from public contempt to the amnesty and obU vion which their innoxious- stupidity had purchased. " It was reserved for the latter end of the eighteenth century to construe these innocent and obvious inferences into libels on the constitution and the laws. Dr. Price had asserted (I presume without fear of contradiction), that the Honse of If, NOTICE OF THE LIFE, WRITINGS, Hanover ovves tbe crown of England to the choice of the people ; that the Revolu* tion has established our right ' to choose our own governors, to cashier them for their misconduct, and to frame a government for ourselves.' The first proposition, says Mr. Burke, is either false or nugatory. If it imports that England is an elect ive monarchy, 'it is an unfounded, dangerous, illegal, andmnconstitutional position.' If it alludes to thc election of his Majesty's ancestors to the throne* it no more legalises. the government of England than that of other nations, where the founders of dynasties have generaUy founded their claims on some sort of election. The first member of this dflemma merits no reply. The people may certainly, as they have done, .choose, hereditary rather than elective monarchy. They may elect a race in stead of an individual. Their right is in aU these cases equally unimpaired. It wiU be in vain to compare the pretended elections in which a council of barons, or an army of mercenaries, have imposed usurpers' on enslaved and benighted kingdoms, with the solemn, deliberate, national choice of 1688. It is, indeed, often expedient to sanction these deficient titles by subsequent acquiescence. It is not among the projected innovations of France, to revive the claims of any of the posterity of Pha ramond and Clovis, or to arraign the usurpation of Pepin or Hugh Capet. Public tranquillity tbus demands that a veil should be drawn over the successful crimes through which kings have so often waded to the throne. But wherefore should we not exult, that the supreme magistracy of England is free from this blot ; that, as a direct emanation from the sovereignty of the people, it is as legitimate in its origin as in its administration ? Thus understood, the position of Dr. Price is neither false nor nugatory. It is not nu'gatory, for it honourably distinguishes the English monarchy among the governments of the world ; and if it be false, the whole history of our Revolution must be a legend. , The fact was shortly, that the Prince of Orange was elected King of England, in contempt of the claims, not only of tbe ex iled monarch and his son, but of the Princesses Mary and Anne, the undisputed pro geny of James II. The title of William III, was, then, clearly not succession ; and the House of Commons ordered Dr. Burnet's tract to be burnt by the hands of the common hangman for maintaining that it was conquest. "There remains only election, for these three claims to royalty are aU that are known among men. It is futile to urge, that the convention deviated very slenderly from the order of succession. The deviation was, indeed, slight, but it destroyed the principle, apd estabUshed the right to deviate, — the point at issue. The principle that justified the elevation of WiUiam III,, and the preference of the posterity of Sophia of Hanover to those of Henrietta of Orleans, would equally, in point of right, have vindicated the election of Chancellor Jeffries or Colonel Kirk, The choice was, Uke every other choice, to be guided by views of policy and prudence, but it was a choice stiU. "From those views arose that repugnance between the conduct and the language of the Revolutionists, of which Mr. Burke bas availed himself. Their conduct was manly and systematic. Their language was conciliating and equivocal. They kept measures with prejudice, which they deemed necessary to the order of society. They imposed on the grossness of the popular understanding by a sort of compro mise between the constitution and the abdicated family. 'They drew a politic weU- wrought veil,' to use the expression of Mr, Burke, over the glorious scene which they had acted. They affected to preserve a semblance of succession, to recur for the objects of their election to the posterity of Charles and. James, that respect and loyalty might with less violence to public sentiment attach to the new soverei"n. Had a Jacobite been permitted freedom of speech in the parliament of WUUam III. he might thus have arraigned the Act of Settlement :— ' Is the language of your statutes to be at eternal war with truth ? Not long ago you profaned the forms of devotion, by a thanksgiving, which either means nothing, or insinuates a lie. You thanked Heaven for the preservation of a king and queen on the throne of their an- AND SPEECHES OF SIR J. MACKINTOSH. 17 cestors — an expression which either was singly meant of their descent, which was frivolous, or insinuated their hereditary right, which was false. With the same con tempt for consistency and truth, we are this day called on to settle the crown of England on a princess of Germany, because she is the granddaughter of James I. If that be, as the phraseology intimates, the true and sole reason of the choice, con sistency demands that the words after "exceUent" should be omitted, and in their place be inserted " Victor Amadeus, Duke of Savoy, married to the daughter of the most excellent princess Henrietta, late Duchess of Orleans, daughter of our late sovereign lord Charles I. of glorious memory." Do homage by loyalty in your ac tions or abjure it in your words ; avow the grounds of your conduct, and your man- Uness wiU be respected by those who detest your rebelUon.' What reply Lord Somers or Mr. Burke could have devised to this phiUppic, I know not, unless-they confessed that the authors of the Revolution had one language for novices and ano-- ther for adepts. Whether this conduct was the fruit of caution and consummate wisdom, or of a narrow, arrogant, and dastardly policy, which regarded the human race as only to be governed by being duped, it is useless to enquire, and might be presumptuous to determine ; but it certainly was not to be expected that any contro versy should have arisen by confounding their principles with their pretexts. With the latter, the position of Dr. Price has no connexion ; from the former, it is an in fallible inference." The phrase of cashiering kings for misconduct was one of the most bandied in the controversies of the Revolution. It conveyed the essence of the question put in the extreme, and levelled royalty by a familiar expression. Dr. Price first launched it in a political sermon which inflamed the passions of adverse parties, and drew upon its author all the anger and eloquence of Burke, The preacher is ably defended by Mackintosh. " The next doctrine of this obnoxious sermon that provokes the indignation of Mr. Burke is, that the Revolution has estabUshed ' our right to cashier our go vernors for misconduct.' Here a plain man could have foreseen scarcely any di versity of opinion. To contend that the deposition of a king for the abuse of his powers did not establish a principle in favour of tbe like deposition when the like abuse should again occur, is certainly one of the most arduous enterprises that ever the heroism of paradox encountered. He has, however, not neglected the means of retreat. ' No government,' he tells us, ' could stand a moment, if it could be blown down with any thing so loose and indefinite as opinion of misconduct.' One might suppose, from the dexterous levity with which the word misconduct is introduced, that the partisans of democracy had maintained the expediency of de posing kings for every frivolous and venial fault, of revolting against a monarch for the choice of titled or untitled valets, for removing his footmen, or his lords of the bedchamber. It would have been candid in Mr. Burke not to have dissembled what be must know, that by misconduct was meant that precise species of miscon duct for which James II. was dethroned -^ a conspiracy against the liberty of his country. " Nothing can be more weak, than to urge the constitutional irresponsibilittf of kings or parliaments. The law can never suppose them responsible, because their responsibility supposes the dissolution of society, which is the aimihilation of law. In the governments which have hitherto existed, the power of the magistrate is the I. 2 J 8 NOTICE OF THE LIFE, W^RITINGS, only article in the social compact : destroy it, and society is dissolved. A legal provision for the responsibility of kings would infer, that the authority of laws could co-exist with their destruction. It is because they cannot be legally and constitutionaUy, that they must be morally and rationally, responsible. It is because thereare no remedies to be found within the pale of society, that we are to seek them in nature, and throw our parchment chains in the face of our oppressors. No man can deduce a precedent of la-m from the Revolution; for law cannot exist in the dissolution of government. A precedent of reason and justice only can be estabUshed on it; and perhaps the friends of freedom merit the misrepresentation with; which they have been opposed, for trusting their cause to such frail and frivolous auxiliaries, and for seeking in the profUgate practices of men what is to be found in the sacred rights of nature. The system of lawyers is, indeed, widely different ; they can only appeal to usage, precedents, authorities, and statutes. They display their elaborate frivolity, their pefidious friendship, in disgracing freedom with the fantastic honour of a pedigree. A pleader at the Old Bailey, who would attempt to aggravate the guilt of a robber, or a murderer, by proving tbat King John, or King Alfred, punished robbery and murder, would only provoke derision. A man . who should pretend that the reason why we had a right to property is, because our ancestors enjoyed that right 400 years ago, would be justly contemned. Yet so little is plain sense heard in the mysterious nonsense which is the cloak of poUtical fraud, that the Cokes, the Blackstones, and Burkes, speak as if our right to freedom de pended on its possession by our ancestors. In tbe common cases of moraUty, we would blush at such an absurdity : no man would justify murder by its antiquity, or stigmatise benevolence for being new. The genealogist who should emblazon the one as coeval with Cain, or stigmatise the other as upstart with Howard, would be disclaimed even by the most frantic partisan of aristocracy. This Gothic trans fer of j^eMea/osry to truth or justice is peculiar to politics. The existence of robbery in one age makes its vindication in the next, and the champions of freedom have abandoned the stronghold of right for precedent, which, when the most favourable, is , as might be expected, from the ages which furnish it, feeble, fluctuating, partial, and equivocal. It is not because we have been free, but because we have a right to be free, that we ought to demand freedom. Justice and liberty have neither birth nor race, youth nor age. It would be the same absurdity to assert tbat we have a right to freedom because the EngUshmen of Alfred's reign were free, as that three and three are six because they were so in the camp of Genghis Khan. Let us hear no more of this ignoble and ignominious pedigree of freedom. Let us hear no more ofher Saxon, Danish, or Norman ancestors. Let the immortal daughter of reason, and of God, be no longer confounded with the spurious abortions that have usurped her name." The society of " the Friends of the People," for the purpose of obtaining a parliamentary reform, was instituted early in 1792, undej- the auspices of the present prime minister, then Mr. Grey. It comprised members of both houses of parliament, and some of the most eminent professional, literary, and mercantile men in England. Mackintosh was one of the original members, and be came its secretary. The petition of this society, presented to the House of Commons by Mr. Grey, in May, 1793, remained a deadly arrow, fast and festering, in the side of borough oligarchy from that period to the passing ofthe Refoi-m Bill. The ultimate triumph AND SPEECHES OF SIR J. MACKINTOSH. 19 of the facts and arguments, which it recorded with admirable com pactness, is rather a disheartening proof of the slow progress of human reason, even in a country where reason is least trammelled, than a consoling one of the superior force of truth. There are, however, in the fluctuations of public opinion, the vicissitudes of political party, and the fortunes of party leaders, few events more curious than that it should be reserved for Lord Grey lo carry into effect, in his advanced age, the principles ofhis early youth, after the awful lapse of forty years over his head, and after they had been renounced or despaired of even by himself Some have supposed that the petition was drawn up by Sir James Mackintosh : but that remarkable document does not bear the impress ofhis mind or style. It was written by the late Mr. Tierney. He, however, wrote several ofthe manifestoes, and conducted the correspondence of "the Friends of the People" with great ability. The well- known " Declaration of the Friends of the People" was written by him. A pamphlet written by him on the apostasy of Mr. Pitt from the cause of reform, obtained him from the Society a vote of thanks. He obtained also the honours of denunciation by the Attorney-Ge neral in Parhament. That conservative law officer. Sir John Scott, now Lord Eldon, called upon the House of Commons, in 1795, to continue the suspension of the Habeas Corpus Act, as they feared the writings and principles of Paine, Mackintosh, Mrs. Wolstoncraft, aad "the Friends ofthe People." In two years more the Vindiciae Gallicae were cited not only with respect, but as an authority, by the adversaries of reform. This change of tone drew the following observations from Mr. Fox : — " An honourable gentleman," says he, " has quoted a most able book on the subject of the French Revolution, the work of Mr. Mackintosh ; and I rejoice to see that gentleman begin to acknowledge the merits of that eminent writer ; and that the impression that it made upon me at the time is now felt and acknowledged even by those who disputed its authority. The honourable gentleman has quoted Mr. Mackintosh's book on account of the observation which he made on the article which relates to the French elections. I have not forgotten the sarcasms that were flung out on my approbation of this celebrated work : that I was told of my ' new library stuffed with the jargon of the Rights of Man ;' it now appears, however, that I did not greatly over-rate this performance, and that those persons now quote Mr. Mackintosh as an authority, who before treated him with splene tic scorn. " Now, Sir, with all my sincere admiration of this book, I think the weakest and most objectionable passage in it is that which the honourable gentleman has quoted; I think it is that which the learned author would himself be the most desiroas to correct. Without descending to minute and equivocal theories, and 30 NOTICE OF THE LIFE, WRITINGS, without enquiring further into the Rights of Man than what is necessary to our purpose, there is one position in which we shall all agree,— that man has the right to be well governed." Sir James Mackintosh, on engaging actively in politics, renounced medicine, and entered himself of Lincoln's Inn. Called to the bar in 1795, he derived littie emoluments from his profession, but was not without resources. The death of an annuitant released the property left by his father from an absorbing charge ; and he was enabled to raise money upon it, for his present necessities, by a mortgage. With his characteristic improvidence, he was about to sell it disadvantageously, but was dissuaded by his wife. He, at the same time, employed himself in contributions to the daily and periodical press, but, with his want of ecdnomy and prudence, and with the expenses ofa family, it will be readily supposed that he was often embarrassed. His political opinions now underwent a change, which was va riously judged. It has been ascribed to a visit of some days to Burke. There are two versions of the origin of his acquaintance with his great adversary. According to one account, he was in duced to write to Burke, without having yet had any personal in tercourse with him, a letter of recommendation or introduction of some third person : according to the other, Burke charged Doctor Lawrence with a long letter to him, containing an invitation to Beaconsfield. A change of religious opinion, under such circum stances, is credible for obvious reasons. But that the political con version of Mackintosh should be effected in a few days; even by so eloquent and zealous a propagandist as Burke, can be brought within the limits of probability only by assuming that he had what physicians call a predisposition when he went to Beaconsfield. A humane man would naturally recoil from the turn of affairs in France, and humanity was predominant in the career of Sir James Mackintosh. Yet he might have recollected that, if the Revolution produced men of blood, religion had generated persecutors, and monarchy tyrants, to become as bloody scourges ofthe human race. ^ The supposition that his pohtical opinions were made thus suddenly to veer about, would shake his claim to that depth, firmness, and force of principles and character, which are the growth of the first order of minds. Other disgusts than those of Jacobinism and the Revolution may be easily conceived to have been felt by him. With talents and ambition, he had his fortune to make. Notwithstand- AND SPEECHES OF SIR J. MACKINTOSH. ^I ing his intimacy with the leading Whigs, ahd their estimation of him, he was still but the pioneer of a party ; and he must have found the cause of liberty and the people a barren service. The man who would attach himself to the Whigs, or serve the people, must not be dependent for his fortune upon either, if he would aspire to political station, or escape disgusts. What was Burke but the subaltern — the very slave of a party — and the pensioner of Lord Rockingham — degraded, rather than distinguished, by the paltry title of a privy counsellor? If Huskisson became a leading cabinet minister, and Canning the chief of an administra tion, it was because they renounced whiggism at the threshold of public life. Thus humanity, ambition, and his necessities may have predisposed Sir James Mackintosh to become a convert; and the knowledge of this predisposition would account for the spontaneous advances and invitation of Burke. His conversion, however, was not yet openly avowed, and he continued on terms of political and personal intimacy with the leading Whigs. He professed an enthusiastic admiration of Burke's genius, without sharing his principles; and, on the death of that celebrated man, in 1797, asked Fox to move, in parliament, the erection of a monument to his memory. Mr. Fox declined being the mover, but expressed his readiness to support the motion if made by another. Sir James Mackintosh appears to have cherished the memory of Burke with a feehng of affectionate piety. Dr. Parr had an acknow ledged, or assumed, pre-eminence as a writer of Latin in what is called the lapidary style : recourse was bad to the Foxite Doctor, probably through Sir James, for an epitaph on Burke, — a proof, by the way, that rhetoric is more consulted than truth in those mor tuary eulogies. There is, in the pubUshed correspondence of Parr, a letter from Mackintosh on the subject of the epitaph, curious for the artifices of expression, and surcharged compliments, in which it was necessary to envelop the suggestion of even a critical doubt to the jealous Latinist. The letter professes to be a joint production, Mackintosh holding the pen. ' " Scarlet, Sharp, and G. PhiUps, are in town. The two first are within you» permission as to the epitaph, and my admiration is too warm for me not to be eager to communicate it to men so well qualified to feel its exceUence. I need not teU you how they felt it. My wonder increases with famiUarity, contrary to the common course of our feeUngs ; but it is because I cannot peruse it or think o f it without discovering new difficuUies overcome, and new beauties attained. We gjj NOTICE OF THE LIFE, WRITINGS, aU admire it so much, that we hope you wiU think us authorised to lay before you onr doubts (we shaU not caU them criticisms) respecting one part of it. It is that which follows 'Gritico,' and which I presume you mean to apply to the book on the Sublime and Beautiful. - "Onr first doubt relates to the first Une, ' qui verborum quotidianorum vun reconditam iUustravit.' How is this praise peculiarly appropriate to the book ? Has it any reference to our idiomatic style, or does it not rather refer to the philosophical illustration of terms which had been generaUy but vaguely used be fore ? Our next difRculty relates to the third line, ' Adumbratas rerum imagines multo expressiores reddidit, muJtoque dilucidiores.' The construction of this line is easy, and the phraseology beautiful ; but we are perplexed by the ap plication of it to the work which it is designed to characterise. It seems to us capable of more than bne meaning. This perplexity arises, no doubt, from our ignorance ; but there wiU be many readers of the epitaph stiU more ignorant than we are." Strong signs of the new faith of Mackintosh may be observed in his anonymous contributions at this period to the Reviews of the day. He wrote a great number of papers, and upon a great variety of subjects, in the Monthly Review. Among these are notices of Burke's " Letter to a Noble Lord," and " Thoughts on a Regicide Peace." The contemplation of Burke's writings, genius, and afflictions ap pears to have inspired him with a sentinient of reverential kindness. He vindicates, by antiquarian research, the ancestor of the Duke of Bedford from the eloquent diatribe of his assailant, but condemns the provocation given, and writes with restraint and^difficulty be tween the adverse distractions of party and private feehng, — the Whigs, the alarmists, Fox and Burke. "All the writings of Mr, Burke possess so many powerful attractions, that even the irksome and ungrateful topics of personal altercation become interesting in his hands. The publication beftwre us has taken its rise from a parhamentary dis cussion on his pension ; a discussion, which (vrith the utmost respect for the noble persons with whom it originated) we always thought had too much the aip of a harsh and unseemly proceeding. Many circumstances wUl suggest themselves to the unprejudiced mind, which might have been sufficient to silence any rigorous scrutiny into the merits of the present grant. The venerable age of a great man, his transcendent genius, his retirement from the world, his domestic calamities, ought surely to have prevailed over party resentment, and, perhaps, even to have disarmed the severity of public virtue herself. At least we might have expected a similar effect from simUar causes, in generous and amiable natures, such as we most sincerely believe to be those of the Duke of Bedford and the Earl of Lauderdale. We agree with these noble persons in doubting the proj^iety, if not the legaUty, of applying the fund from which this pension is dr?rwn to such a purpose ; and we believe that Mr. Burke himself has severely tlelt (though he has not chosen to express it in this pamphlet) the mortification of receiving, as a clandestine gift, that which he expected to have been voted by AND SPEECHES OF SIR J. MACKINTOSH. 23 parliament as an offering of national gratitude. In this honourable and parlia mentary way, it would, probably, have been not merely allowed, but zealously supported, by Mr. Fox; the tenderness of whose friendship survives the con nexions of politics, and whose mind is so happily framed that he can feel the ardour of rivalship without jealousy, and display the activity of opposition without rancour. The behaviour of this great statesman towards the friend of so many years, amply justifies the character which has been delineated by the masterly pencil of Mr. Gibbon. ' I admired the powers of a superior mau as they are blended, in his (Mr. Fox's) attractive character, with the softness and simplicity of a child. Perhaps no human being was ever more free from the taint of malevo lence, vanity, or falsehood.'" There are, in the same volume, short notices by Sir James Mac kintosh of minor publications, which followed in the train of Burke's letter, offering homage or annoyance, both, for the most part, equally beneath that extraordinary man. The strictures of Sir James are tempered, sometimes, by personal acquaintance or pub hc respect ; but he is, in general, unsparing of his castigation and contempt. Among the pamphleteers whom he dismisses gently are Messrs. Street, Thelwall, and O'Brien. Gilbert Wakefield is cen sured by him in passing, with good taste and just respect. There is something curious in the comparison of his tone, as a critic, at this early period, with that of his later years. Latterly, his censure was qualified, his praise unreserved ; formerly, his praise was mo derate, his censure unrestrained. He had then little indulgence for presumption or mediocrity. Among the objects ofhis critical seve rity was a prohfic pamphleteer of the day, naihed Miles. Mr. Miles was scurrilous in his language, had the reputation of being not quite incorrupt in his practice, and is treated accordingly. A reply to him passes next in review :— " The author of this pam phlet," says the critic, " has retaliated on Mr. Miles in his own furious and abusive language." He then adds, "the style of this writer is indeed less intolerable than that of Mr. Miles, and the fol lowing retort is not without ingenuity. ' If you seriously propose any end from these extraordinary means, it must be to persuade the world that 3Ir. Burke meant, in the Duke of Bedford, to attack the whole aristocracy of the country. The falsity of such a deduc tion is too obvious to require refutation. As well might you say, that in attacking you, I meant to attack all the literary men of the day who have combated Mr. Burke, when, perhaps, there cannot be found in nature a greater contrast than a Mackintosh and a Miles. Such is the magic which can soften a reviewer, and seduce him into quotation : such the infirmity of authorship and of human na- 24 NOTICE OF THE LIFE, WRITINGS, ture ;— not of Sif James Mackintosh. The following passage, from a notice of one of the adversaries of Burke, may be interesting as a specimen of the style in which Sir James distributed his severer justice, — and of the delirious imbecility of the pamphleteers of that day:— " We could not without some astonishment proceed in reading this extraordi nary and incomprehensible production, tiU we found the solution of the riddle in the fifth page. The writer there says, in a strain of obsequious poUteness, which we beUeve was never before shown to any author by his answerer, — ' My labours shaU, I trust, be uniform^ Where the antagonist is warra, I shall also be warm ; where phlegmatic, I shall be phlegmatic ; where absurd, I shall exemplify that ab-- surdity ; if at any time, in any of his flights, he acts the madman, I shall even act that part too F After the last declaration, we can no longer wonder at any thing in the writings of this author. Of any other writerj who bad made a less sublime declaration, we should have been strongly tempted to ask the meaning of those choice phrases with which this pamphlet abounds : ' ephemerous horrors of hideous self views,' p. 2. ; ' the republic ot periodic wit,' ib. ; ' corybantiate shrieks, p. 3.; 'champion of infernality,' p. 4; 'dulciated minister,' p. 13. He tells us that Mr. Burke was ' in his closet a demagogue.' The idea ofa man playing the part of a demagogue in his closet , haranguing mobs of books , and arranging factions of chairs, is unrivalled by any thing but the description , by Cervantes, of the unfor tunate knight of La Mancha mistaking wine-skins for giants, and the wine for their blood. Forums and senate-houses used to-be the scenes in which the character of the demagogue was displayed ; and even the most restless and turbulent spirits were supposed, till the discoveries of Mr. Macleod appeared, to lay aside, in some measure, the demagogue, when they entered the quiet retreat of their closets." • The French Convention gave way to the Directory in 1 795. Mr. Pitt sent Lord Malmesbury to negotiate with the Republic in 1796. The negotiator's instructions were so restricted or imperfect that he could not make one step in advance without fresh authority from London ; and the Parisians said his was a mission of bags and couriers. No reflecting person expected peace. Burke had lived for some time retired from the world, at Beaconsfield, broken down by parental sorrow, political disappointments, angry disputes, and bodily infirmities. The bare idea of peace with the regicide re public excited him to an access of distempered vigour, and he threw off a series of letters against the " regicide peace," with all the fer vour of his eloquence and force of his genius in his best days. They are reviewed by Sir James Mackintosh with the same admiration of the author as in reviewing the " Letter to a Noble Lord," and witb the same tacking course ; bearing alternately upon war and peace, and settling in neither, but with a leaning to the former. He in- direcUy assimilates the position of Burke to that of Demosthenes AND SPEECHES OF SIR J. MACKINTOSH. 25 rallying the degenerate Greeks in defence of their country; to Cicero, strugghng to avert " an ignominious negotiation with a wretch who was then a rebel, and who soon afterwards became one of the most cruel and profligate of tyrants," to WiUiam III. ; " a more recent and a domestic example," says Sir James, " men tioned by Mr. Burke, of which we equally applaud the patriotism and the wisdom." The name of King WiUiam acted like' a spell upon the imagination of Sir James Mackintosh. Reviewing Burke's " Letters on a Regicide Peace," he starts off into the following ela borate and irrelevant panegyric on that prince : — " The mind which has acquired a true relish for moral beauty wiU turn from more dazzling heroes, to admire the simplicity, the consistency, the usefulness, the solid wisdomi the calm and patient perseverance of his unostentatious and un- boastful character. There is scarcely another instance of a man so singularly fa voured by heaven, that no object of his ambition could ever be obtained, except by rendering signal services to mankind. Ambition and public virtue became in him the same principle, acting throughout his whole life for the same ends, and by the same means. They inspired him with that courageous wisdom which saved HoUand, which deUvered England, and which preserved Europe from the domination of Louis XIV. His life was a complete and uniform system ; and it requires not only intrepid honesty but rare felicity in a political man, to be able to pursue for thirty years, with undeviating and undaunted constancy, amid the opposition of factions , the discontent of the people, and the most calamitous reverses of fortune, one no ble object; that of maintaining the internal freedom and establishing the external security of nations. His zeal for religion was, during an intolerant age, pure from the spirit of persecution ; his heroism was imdebased by affectation or parade. He did for Europe much more than he seemed to do. He contributed even by the defeats which he suffered to break the power of France, and to pave the way for the briUiant successes ofthe glorious war which followed. He formed and animat ed that grand aUiance which could alone have set bounds to the ambition of Louis XIV., and to hira a great part of its victories and of that general safety which was the happy fruit of these victories ought in justice to be ascribed : the glory has been reaped by Eugene and Marlborough, but much of the real merit belongs to the provident mind of William. It there be any man in the present age who de serves the honour of being compared with this great prince, it is George Washing ton. The merit of both is more soUd than dazzUng. The same plain sense, the same simpUcity of character, the same love of their cquntry, the same unaffected heroism, distinguish both these illustrious men ; and both were so highly favoured by Providence as to be made its chosen instruments for redeeming nations frqm bondage. As William had to contend with greater captains, and to struggle with more compUcated poUtical difficulties, we are able more decisively to ascertain his martial prowess, and his civil prudence. It has been the fortune of Washington tq give a more signal proof of his disinterestedness, as he has been placed in a situa tion in which he could without blame resign tbe supreme administration of that commonwealth which his valour had guarded in its infancy against foreign force, pr which his wisdom has since guided through stiU more formidable domestic perils." The same admiration of WiUiam III., the same views of his life 26 NOTICE OF THE LIFE, WRITINGS, and character, in almost the same language, will be found in the present work of Sir James Mackintosh. But it is the property of admiration to exaggerate merits, to leave faults out of view, to exalt human nature into ideal perfection ; and the foregoing charac ter, especially the comparison of WiUiam III. with Washington, is rather a rhetorical trial of eloquence and ingenuity, than the faithful delineation of a painter from history. In the anonymous and fu gitive literature of a Review, this may be unimportant or excusable ; but it biassed the mind of Sir James in his graver works. To aban don this digression, and return to the review : having touched on the contents of the publication, he gives the following character of the style and genius of Burke : — " Such is the outUne of this publication, of which, if it be considered merely as a work of literature, it might be sufficient to say, that it is scarcely surpassed in exceUence by any of the happiest productions of the best days of its author. The same vast reach and comprehension of view; the same unbounded variety of allu sion, iUustration, and' ornament, drawn from every province of nature and of science ; the same unrivaUed mastery over language ; the same versatility of imagi nation, which at will transforms itself from sublime and terrific genius, into gay and playful fancy; the same happy power of reUeving the harshness of political dis pute, by beautiful effusions of sentiment, and of dignifying composition by grave and lofty maxims of moral and civil wisdom ; the same inexhaustible ingenuity in pre senting even common ideas under new and fascinating shapes ; the same unUmited sway over the human passions, which fills us at his pleasure with indignation, with horror, or with pity, —which equally commands our laughter or our tears ; in a word, the same wit, humour, pathos, invention, force, dignity, copiousness, and magnificence, are conspicuous in this production, vvhich wiU immortalise the other writings of Mr, Burke. There is nothing ordinary in his view of a subject : he has parts of aU writers ; he is one of whom, it may be said with the most strict truth, that no idea appears hackneyed in his hands ; no topic seems common-place when he treats it. When the subject must (from the very narrowness of human conception, which bounds even the genius of Mr. Burke) be borrowed, the turn of thought and the manner of presenting it are his own : the attitude and drapery are pecuUar to the master. It is, perhaps, scarcely becoming in us to animadvert on the faults of so great a writer ; yet it is our duty to deliver our opinion on this subject with mo desty, indeed, but with freedom. With faults in argument, with indecorum and intemperance in language, we have, at present, no concern. These are matters of which the consideration belongs to logic, to prudence, and to manners. We consi der these letters now merely in the capacity of literary critics. He exerts the pri vilege of his reputation in the frequent adoption of aU the licences of style ; and though he often exercises with happy boldness his power over language, yet he sometimes abuses the renewal of antique phraseology. The use of language exclu sively poetical, and even of foreign idioms, is more frequent in this pamphlet, than in any of the former productions of the author : the first of these is, undoubtedly, one of the happiest artifices that can be employed to exalt and enrich the composi tion ; yet it must be cautiously employed, if a writer would escape the charge of affectation, and if he be desirous of preserving the charms of ease and nature. The adoption of poetical language is a Ucence which can only be pardoned in writers of AND SPEECHES OF SIR J. MACKINTOSH. 27 the first class, and which, if it be not used with the most sparing hand, has an inevitable tendency to confound aU the distinguishing characters of the most differ ent kinds of composition ; to deprive prose of its sobriety, and to rob verse of that dignity which it derives from the appropriation of a pecuUar phraseology to its use. The coinage of new words is, indeed, a prerogative which is due to great writers ; but its existence could only be tolerated on account of its infrequent exer cise. The intermixture of foreign idiom, we scarcely think even tolerable. The French structure of Hume's sentences, and the French phraseology of BoUngbroke, were justly, though severely, censured by Johnson, when he expressed his appre hension that 'we should soon be reduced to babble a dialect of France.' {Preface to his Dictionary.) It is in vain to say that the free use of licences enables us to express our ideas with more strength and felicity than is reconcilable witb the preservation of a tame and frigid correctness. It is the part of a good writer not to acquiesce with indolent precipitation in the first glowing word which presents itself to his heated fancy, but to seek within the Uraits of propriety for language to convey his idea. The rules of good sense and taste are, indeed, restraints, but they are restraints which conduce to excellence, and to which a good writer must submit. He wiU struggle with the ditficulty which they create, and wiU display his power and skill in vanquishing it. It comparatively is easy either to be vigorous without correctness, or correct without vigour : the art and merit of a good author con sists in combining these two qualities. After aU, if such licences were confined to those who have acquired such a right to employ them as Mr. Burke has obtained, the evil would be little. But the danger arises from the herd of imitators, who can neither copy nor discover his'excellencies ; but who can easily ape those defects ; and who, if they be not speedily checked by severe criticism, and by the decided disapprobation of the pubUc, threaten to destroy the purity of EngUsh idiom, and the propriety of EngUsh style." Had Sir James written his great article on Burke, as it was called by Lord Byron, he could hardly have produced any thing superior for eloquence and fidelity to this early sketch. There is in it a force and freshness of touch which memory and imagination would in vain labour to recall. He develops another feature of the cha racter, or, perhaps, rather a dominant idea in the mind of Burke, which well deserves to be reproduced. " The foUowing extract contains, we fear, not only a poignant and vigorous sa tire, but a just and correct statement of facts : — " ' The creatures of the desk, and the creatures of favour, had no reUsh for the principles of the manifestoes. They promised no governments, no regiments, no revenues from whence emoluments might arise, by perquisite or by grant. In truth, the tribe of vulgar politicians are the lowest of our species. There is no trade so vile and mechanical as govemment in their hands. Virtue is not their habit. They are out of themselves in any course of conduct recommended only by conscience and glory. A large, liberal, and prospective view of the interests of states passes with them for romance ; and the principles that recommend it, for the wan derings of a disordered imagination. The calculators compute them out of their senses. The jesters and buffoons shame them out of every thing grand and ele vated. Littleness in object and in means, to them appears soundness and sobriety. They think there is nothing worth pursuit, but that which they can handle ; which they can measure with a two-foot rule ; which they can teU upon ten fingers.' B8 NOTICE OF THE LIFE, WRITINGS, " This is a subject which, if we may judge from Mr. Burke's frequent recurrence to it in his writings, has often thwarted and exasperated him in his passage through life. It was likely to do so. His character is not only pure from the low vices of these vulgar politicians, but may possibly be suspected of some bias towards the opposite extreme. Perhaps something more of flexibility of character and accommo dation of temper — a mind more broken down to the practice of the world — would have fitted him better for the exertion of that art which is the sole instrument of political wisdom, and without which the highest political vrisdom is but barren spe culation—we mean the art of guiding and managing mankind. The very passage before us, when we compare it with the general scheme of policy proposed by Mr. Burke, furnishes a remarkable proof of the truth ofthe observation which we have hazarded. How could Mr. Burke have forgotten that these vulgar poUticians were the only tools with which he had to work, in reducing his scheme to practice ? These creatures of the desk and creatures of favour unfortunately govern Europe. These narrow and selfish men were the sole instruments that could be employed in reaUsing schemes, of which the success (according to Mr. Burke's own repre sentation) depended on their disinterestedness. There were no other men pos sessed of power to carry the plan into execution. The ends of generosity were to be compassed alone through the agency of the selfish ; and the objects of pro spective wisdom were to be attained by the exertions of the short-sighted. There never was a project in which the means and the end were so fatally at variance. It was a scheme of policy, to be carried into execution by men who, from the state ment of Mr. Burke, and f^om the very necessity of their character, must deride the whole plan as chimerical. It is surely not a little remarkable, that he, who as an observer of human life, has so admirably painted the character of these men, and, as a speculative philosopher, has so well traced their conduct to its principles, should, as a practical poUtician, have so utterly overlooked the inefficiency of the only tools which he had to employ." There is in the fulness and earnestness of this passage something like secret fellow-feeling. The ambition and pride of Mackintosh had already known disappointments and disgusts. He concludes with a panegyric on Fox, somewhat unexpectedly and awkwardly introduced; and suggested, perhaps, by the very consciousness of receding from him. The base-minded follow up their desertion of a party, a principle, or a friend, by malice and defamation; — better spirits are but the more scrupulously and studiously just, by way, perhaps, of disguising or atoning for their own infirmity even to themselves : — " We cannot close a subject on which we are serious, even to melancholy, with out offering the slender but unbiassed tribute of our admiration and thanks to that illustrious statesman, the friend of (what we must caU) the better days of Mr. Burke, whose great talents have been devoted to the cause of liberty and of man kind ; who, of aU men, most ardently loves, because he most thoroughly under stands, the British constitution ; who has made a noble and memorable, though unavaiUng, struggle to preserve us from the evils and dangers of the present war; who is requited for the calumny of his enemies, the desertion of his friends, and the ingratitude of his country, by the approbation of his own conscience, and by a well-grounded expectation of the gratitude and reverence of posterity, who never AND SPEECHES OP SIR J. MACKINTOSH. 29 can reflect on the event of this great man's counsels, without caUing to mind that beautiful passage of Cicero, in which he deplores the death of his illustrious rival, Hortensius : Si fuit tempus ullum cum extorquere arma posset e manibus iratorum civium boni ^ivis auctoritas et oratio ; tum profecte fuit cum patrocininm pacis exclusum est aut errore hominum aut timore." In a subsequent number of the Monthly Review Mackintosh re sumes the subject, for the purpose of controverting the opinions ex pressed in the eloquent war-whoop of Burke. It would seem to be an after-thought, and is executed in atone of languor, disinclination, and humility. Lord (then Mr.) Erskine's " View of the Causes and Conse quences of the War," passed through the friendly ordeal of the Monthly Review, in the hands of Sir James Mackintosh. The aim of the reviewer was rather to manage or minister to the vanity of the author, than characterise his talents or his work, and no extract would instruct or interest the reader. Gibbon's posthumous works, and Roscoe's " Life of Lorenzo de' Medici," are the only standard or important publications of the day, in literature, reviewed by him. In treating the latter, he scarcely goes out of the contents of the history, and does not cha racterise the historian otherwise than by general eulogies, coloured withthe partiality of friendship. The reviewer, indeed, whatever his general reading, was not sufficiently acquainted with the history of Italy in the various arts of civilisation at the period, to follow and judge the author. To decide upon the merits of such a work, the critic should have gone over the ground trodden by the his torian, and, perhaps, travelled even beyond him. Hence it is that so few reviews of works of research deserve credit and authority. There are doubtiess exceptions, and two may be cited : the review of Dr. Wordsworth on the Eikon Basilike, by Sir James Mackin tosh,* and that upon a passage of Dr. Lingard's " History of Eng land," avowed by Mr. Allen.* But the critics, in both instances, were stimulated by the interests of personal controversy and their reputations. The genius, the style, tbe character, and the opinions of Gibbon, would be expected to bring the faculties of Sir James Mackintosh into full play. He has merely noticed in passing a few trails of the man rather than of the writer, and has left almost untouched the historian of the Roman empire. The review, for the most part, • Ed, Rev. No, LXXXVII. 30 NOTICE OP THE LIFE, WRITINGS, contains only the substance of the Memoirs^ of Gibbon, extracted and compressed for the use of the reader. There are, however, a few passages which have the merits of eloquence and discrimination. After citing Gibbon's account Of the theological fluctuations of Chil lingworth, he remarks upon it as follows :— " To this eloquent account we have only one objection, that it too lightly adopts that rumour which was propagated against ChiUingworth by the bigots and impos* tors of his own age, of his having subdivided into that philosophic indifference, which might have been honourable in the eyes of Mr. Gibbon, but which we do not beUeve to have been so in those of Chillingworth. To adopt the charges of bigots is not worthy of a philosopher. ChiUingworth was called an infidel, by the zealots of his age, because he was moderate, candid, and rational; in the same manner that impostors, clad in the disguise of bigots, now caU Priestley worse than an atheist ! The Christianity of ChiUingworth is certainly not altogether in dog ma, and not af aU in spirit, the same with thaf of Horsley : but it is perfectly coincident, both in doctrine and spirit, with the Christianity of Locke and Clarke,_ of Watson and Paley. As long as the religion of fhe Gospel continues to be pro fessed and defended in its own genuine spirit, by the greatest masters of human reason, if can neither be exposed by the scoffs of enemies, nor even endangered by the fury of pretended friends." " I was directed," says Gibbon, " to the wTitings of Swift and Addison. Wit and simplicity are their common attributes ; but the style of Swift is supported by manly original vigour ; that of Addi son is adorned by the female graces of elegance and mildness. The perfect composition, the nervous language, the weU-turned periods of Dr. Robertson, inflamed me to the ambitious hope that I might one day tread in his footsteps. The calm philosophy, the careless inimitable beauties of his friend and rival, often forced me to close the volume wkh a mixed sensation of delight and despair." Upon this passage in the Memoirs of Gibbon the reviewer makes the fol lowing observation : — "The reader wifl not learn without wonder that Swift and Addison were among the earliest models on which our celebrated historian laboured to form his taste and style. If the composition of these writers continued to be the object of his imita tion, the history of Uterature does not afford so striking an example of a man of such great talents so completely disappointed in his purpose. If may be observed that, even in the very act of characterising Swift and Addison, he has deviated not a little from the beautiful simpUcity which is the pecuUar distinction of those pure and classical writers. Nor can we think thaf Mr. Gibbon, however he may have in some measure emulated fhe historical merit, has exacUy trodden in the literary footsteps of Dr. Robertson. Inferior, probably, to Mr. Gibbon, in fhe vigour of his powers; unequal to him, perhaps, in comprehension of intellect, and variety of knowledge ; the Scottish historian has far surpassed him in simpUcity and perspi cuity of narration ; in picturesque and pathetic description ; in tbe sober use of AND SPEECHES OF SIR J. MACKINTOSH. 31 figuraUve language ; and iu the delicate perception of that scarcely discernible boundary which separates ornament from exuberance, and elegance from affectation. He adorns more chastely in addressing the imagination ; he narrates more clearly for the understanding; and he describes more affectingly for tbe heart. The defects of Dr. Robertson arise from a less vigorous inteUect ; the faults of Mr. Gibbon from a less pure taste. If Mr. Gibbon be the greater man. Dr. Robertson is the better writer." Hume said, in a letter to Gibbon, " Your use of the French longue has led you into a style more poetical and figurative, and more highly coloured, than our language seems to admit of in his torical composition : for such is the practice of the French writers, particularly the more modern ones, who illuminate their pictures more than custom wiU permit us." The following remarks of Sir J. Mackintosh, though perhaps not quite applicable to Gibbon, or quite just to the French writers ofthe age of Louis XV., are, in the abstract, raost valuable, and profoundly just : — " As France had attained, perhaps, somewhat sooner than Great Britain, the Au gusta age of pure taste, so her degeneracy was proportionably more early. Those ingenious and happy turns of thought, which give an occasional and unaffected bril liancy to the productions of good writers, were pursued with such avidity, that the pages of French authors were crowded wifh sjiowy conceits. That natural grandeur which belongs to the effusions of genius, betrayed a rabble of inferior writers into a perpetual effort, which produced nothing but a cold and insipid fustian. The passion for a degree of precision, perhaps greater than the freedom of popular dis course will admit, whicb is so natural in a speculative age, infected language with false refinement and fantastic subtilty. Even fhe variety and tbe extent of know ledge were injurious to taste ; for it gave rise to allusions and similitudes drawn from sciences which must ever be inaccessible to the majority of readers, and thus produced a deviation from fhat address to tbe universal sentiments and syrapathy of mankind, which is an indispensable quality of good writing. Style became an art instead of a talent, and lost its value because it might be used without genius. The ornaments of composition, when they appear to be suggested by the occasion, and to flow from the imagination of the writer, are natural and charming ; but, when tbey are perpetually repeated, they are viewed with indifference, and even with disgust, as the easy tricks of a rhetorician. In this stage of literary progress, the ear, rendered fastidious by the music of fhose finished periods which are artfuUy scattered throughout classical compositions, requires an effeminate preference of sound to energy and meaning, and produces a monotonous cadence, destructive of that very harmony to which so many other exceUencies are sacrificed. Such is the progress, perhaps the inevitable progress, to which fhe Uterature of nations is sub jected ; and such are some of the faults, wh'ich, to tbe simple and austere taste of Mr. Hume, probably appeared to have infected, in some degree, the composition of Mr. Gibbon." When Sir James Mackintosh wrote those observations, the age of Louis XIV. had an undisputed pre-eminence in French litera- 38 NOTICE OF THE LIFE, WRITINGS, ture. The French writers of the succeeding epoch were charged with degeneracy and false taste, compared with their immediate predecessors. This depreciation of the age of Louis XV. may be ascribed to the writers themselves who figured in it. Voltaire, and the other men of genius, whose works constitute its literature, exalted their predecessors from generous admiration ; the meaner multitude of scribblers, from envy of contemporary fame; and Europe took its ton^ from the universal voice of France. The share which the French philosophers of the eighteenth century were supposed to have in preparing the Revolution, increased the ten dency to exalt an age in which genius prostrated itself with the same bhnd obedience before the altar and the throne. The high Protestant alarmists for social order in England forgot that the loyalty of that age in France was slavery, and its devotion idolatry. Even the antipathies of religion wiU give way, for a moment, to some other passion or interest still more grovelUng. But opinion has been re-adjusted in France, and in other countries ; a higher range and greater compass of intellect are conceded to the age of Louis XV. ; and its writers are commended, not censured, for giv ing freedom and variety to French style. It is assuredly a merit, , not a vice, in the hterature of an age, to have produced, at the same time, the pure and perfect masterpieces of Voltaire, the re dundant and impassioned eloquence of Rousseau, the style, empha tically so called, of Buffon, the sententious vigour and briUiant con trasts of Montesquieu. It is easy to impute vicious taste to Mon tesquieu or Gibbon ; but there are few readers, competent to appre ciate them, who would not hesitate before they indulged the wish that either the " Spirit of Laws," or the " Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire," had been written in another style. This age, it is true, produced the glittering fustian of Thomas ; but that of Louis XIV. had its Pradons and Cottins. The only pre-eminence of the boasted reign of Louis XIV. is in the drama. Corneille and Racine have found a rival, rather than an equal, in Voltaire ; and Mohere stands alone in unapproaehed supremacy. Sir James Mackintosh, in 1797, put forth the prospectus of a course of lectures to be dehvered by him on the Law of Nature and Nations. His object may have been to exercise his faculties on a subject which should bring him profit and fame in a region beyond the strife and passions of political party. He had not the tempera ment of a tribune of the people :— " My nature, perhaps," says he. AND SPEEeHES OF SIR J. MACKINTOSH. 33 in a letter written from India to the Baptist minister, Robert HaU, " ivould have been better consulted, if I had been placed in a quieter station, where speculation might have been my business, and visions of the fair and good my chief recreation." This distinctive constitutional pecuharity should not be omitted among the causes of what has been called his conversion. The VindicicE GalliccB may have been the result of a transient access of enthusiasm, alien ioi his nature. A barrister of Lincoln's Inn, he requested the use of the Hall for the delivery of his lectures. He was still in the odour of Jacobinism with the Benchers, and they refused him the nse of their Hall. Lord Rosslyh, then ChanceUor, and Sir John Scott (Lord Eldon), Attorney General, signified their pleasure to the Benchers ; and the latter, as might be expected, obsequiously complied. The liberality of the actual and future Chancellors has been opposed to the meanness of the Benchers. Lord Rosslyn and Sir John Scott may have been really more liberal, but they were also better informed. They knew well the change-which had come over the mind of Mackintosh, and had no fear that the HaU of Lin coln's Inn would undergo the desecration of Jacobinism. He de livered and pubhshed, nearly at the same time, his introductory lec ture. It obtained high, and universal, and merited praise. Mem bers of the government were among his chief admirers and eulo gists. Lords Rosslyn and MelviUe, Mr. Addington, Mr. Canning, and Mr. Pitt himself, wrote him letters of compliment. No course of lectures was remembered to have found an audience so distin guished. From twenty^five to thirty peers, double the number of commoners, and a crowd of the most learned and accomplished persons in the metropoUs, were attracted to Lincoln's Inn HaU. The subject, however, was unattractive to an English auditory. TheEnglish have no taste for inquiries essentially speculative, which neither admit of demonstrative certainty nor practical results. If pohtical economy has obtained some favour, it is only because it is associated with the wealth of nations and of individuals. Accord ingly, the lectures qf Sir James, though they continued to be praised, ceased to be followed. They can now be judged only by the open ing lecture. It is equal in profound thought and range of informa tion, superior, perhaps, in method and order, to any thing which he has produced. He begins with a soniewhat sarcastic apology to the Bar for this unprofessional employment of his time and talents. 34 NOTICE' OF THE LIFE, WRlTIltfGS, " I have always been unwiUing fo waste, iu unprofitable inactivity, that leisure which the first years of my profession usually aUow, and which diligent ipeUj even wifh moderate talents, might ofte'rf employ in a manner neither discreditable to themselves, nor whoUy useless fo ofliers. Desirous that my own iWsure should not be consumed in sloth, I aoixiously looked aboiit for some way of filling it up, which might enaljle me, according to the measure of my humble abilities, to contribute somewhat to the stock of general usefulness. I had long been con vinced that public .lectures, whioh have been used in most ages and countries, to teach the elements of almost every part of learning, were fhe most convenient mode in which these elements could be taught; that they were fhe best adapted for fhe important purposes of awakening the attention of the student, of abridging his labours, of guiding his enquiries, of reUeving the tediousness of private study, and of impressing on his recollection the principles of science. I saw no reason why the Law of England should be less adapted to this mode of instruction, or less likely to benefit by it, than ahy other part of knowledge. * * » * * * - t! * * " It appeared fo me thaf a course of lectures on another science closely con nected with aU liberal professional studies, and which had long been the subject of my own reading and reflection, might not only prove a most useful introduction to the Law of England, but might also' become an interesting part of general ,study, and an important branch of the education of those who were not destined for the profession of the law. I was confirmed in my opinion by the assent and ap probation of men,'whose names, if it were becoming fo mention them on so slight an occasion, would add authority to truth, and furnish some excuse even for error. Encouraged by their approbation, I resolved without delay to commence the undertaking, of which I shall now proceed fo give some account; without interrupting, the progress of my discourse by anticipating or answering the remarks of those who may, perhaps, sneer at me for a departure from the usual course of my profession, because I ain desirous of employing in a rational and useful pursuit that leisure, of which fhe same men would have rpquired no account, if it had been wasted, on trifles, or even abused in dissipation." After tracing, or rather glancing over, the origin and progress of the science up to the seventeenth century, he thus characterises its modern founder : — " The reduction of the Law of Nations to a system was reserved for Grofius, It ifvas by the advice df Lord Bacon and Pciresc, that he undertook this arduous task. He produced a work which we now, indeed, justly deem imperfect, but which is, perhaps, t^e most complete that the world has yet owed, at so early a stage in the progress! of any science, to fhe genius and leaming of one man. So great is the uncertainty of posthumous reputation, and so liable is fhe fame, even ofthe greatest men, to Jfipbbscured by those new fashions of thinking and writing, which succeed each othep so rapidly among polished nations, that Grotius, who fdled so large a space in the eye of his contemporaries, is now, perhaps, known to some of my readers only by name. Yet, if we fairly estimate both his endowments and his virtues, we- may -Jiistly consider him as one of the most memorable men who have done honour to modern tiipes. He combined the discharge of the. most important duties of active and pubUc Ufe, with the attainment of thaf. exact and various learning which is generally the portion only of the recluse student. He was distinguished as an advocate and a magistrate, and he composed the mest AND SPEECHES OF SIR J. MACKINTOSH. .-$5 Valuable works on the law of his own country ; he was almost equally celebrated as an historian, a scholar, a poet, and a divine ; a disinterested statesman, a phi losophical lawyer, a patriot who united moderation with firmness, and a theologian who was taught candour by his learning. Unmerited exile did not damp his pa triotism ; the bitterness of controversy did not extinguish his charity. The sagacity of his numerous and fierce adversaries did not discover a blot on his ipharacfer ; and in the midst of all the hard trials and galling provocations of a turbulent poUtical Ufe, he never once deserted his friends when they were unfor tunate, nor insulted his enemies when fhey were weak. In times of the most furious civU and religious faction he preserved his name unspotted, and he knew how to .reconcile fidelity to his own party with moderation towards his opponepts. Such was the man who was destined to give a new form to the Law of. Nations, or rather to create a science, of whicli only rude sketches and indigested materials were scattered over the writings of those who had gone before him. By tracmg the laws of his country to their principles, he was led to the contemplation of the law of natu]fe, which he justly considered as the parent of aU municipal law." He next gives an admirable coup d'oeil of the advantages which the jurists of the eighteenth had over those ofthe preceding cen tury :— " Nor is this the only advantage which a writer of the present age would possess over the celebrated jurists of the last century. Since that time, va'st additions bave been made to fhe stock of our knowledge of human nature. Many dark periods of history have since been explored. Many hjtherto unknown regions of the globe have been visited and described by travellers and navigators not less intelUgent than intrepid. We may be said to stand at the confluence of the greatest niunber of streams of knowledge, flowing from the most distant sources, thaf ever met af one point. We are not confined, as the learned of Jthe lasf age generaUy were, to the history of those renowned nations who are our masteirs in literature. We can bring before us man in a» lower and more abject condition than any in which he was ever before seen. The records have been partly opened to us of those mighty empires of Asia, where the beginnings of civiUsation are lost in the darkness of an unfathomable antiquity. We can make human society pass in review before our mind, from the brutal and helpless barbarism of Terra del Fuego, and fhe raild and voluptuous savages of Otaheite, to the tame, but ancient and immoveable^ civiUsation of China, which bestows its own arts on every suc cessive race of conquerorSj — to the meek and servile natives of Hindostan, who preserve their ingenuity, their skiU, and their science through a long series of ages, under the yoke of foreign tyrants— to the gross and incorrigible rudeness of the Ottomans, incapable of improvement, and extinguishing the reraains of civilisation among- their unhappy subjects, once the most ingenious nations of the earth. We can examine almost every imaginable variety in the -character, manners, opinions, feelings, prejudices, and institutions of mankind, into which they can be thrown, either by the rudeness of barbarism, or by fhe capricious corruptions of refine ment, or by those innumerable corabinations of circumstances, which, both in these opposite conditions, and in all the interraediate stages between them, influence or direct the course of human affairs. History, if I may be allowed the expression, is now a vast museum, in which specimens of every variety of human nature raay be studied. From these great accessions to knowledge, lawgivers and statesmen, but, above all, moraUsts and political philosophers, may reap the most important SG NOTICE OF THE LIFE, WRITINGS, instruction. They may plainly discover, in all the useful and beaufil\il variety Of governments and institutions,' and under aU the fantastic multitude of usages and rites which have prevailed among men, the same fundamental, comprehensWe truths, the sacred master-principles which are the guardians of human society, recognised and revered (wifh few and slight exceptions) by every nation upon earth, and uniformly taught (vrith stiU fewer exceptions) by a succession of wise men, from the first dawn of speculation fo the present moment. The exceptions, few as they are, will, on. more reflection, be found rather apparent than real. If we could raise ourselves fo that height from which wC ought to survey so vast a subject, these exceptions would altogether vanish; the brutality of a handful of savages would disappear in, fhe immense prospect of human nature, and the murmurs of a few licentious sophists would not ascend fo break the general har mony. This consent of mankind in first principles^ and this endless variety in their appUcation, which is one among many valuable truths which we may collect from our present extensive acquaintance wifh the history of man, is itself of vast importance. Much of the majesty and authority of virtue is derived from their consent, and almost the whole of practical wisdom is. founded on their variety." He' now prepares and invites his hearers and the. reader by sim-^ plifying and defming the science of morals: — " The being whose actions fhe law of nature professes to regulate, is man. It is on the knowledge of his nature thaf the science of his duty must be founded. It is impossible to approach the threshold of moral philosophy, without a previous examination of the faculties and habits of the human mind. Let no reader -be repelled fipom this examination, by fhe odious and terrible name Of metaphysics ; tor it is, in truth, nothing more than fhe employment of good sense in observing our own thoughts, feelings, and actions ; and when fhe facts which are thus ob served, are expressed, as they ought to be, in plain language, it is, perhaps, above all other sciences, most on a level vrith the capacity and information of the generality of thinking men. When if is thus expressed, [if requires no previous qualification, but a sound judgment^ perfectly to comprehend it ; and . those who wrap it up in a technical and mysterious jargon, alvrays give us strong reason to suspect thaf they are not phUosophers, but impostors. Whoever thoroughly un derstands such a science, mnst be able to teach it plainly to aU men of common sense. The proposed course wdl therefore open with a very short, and, I hope, a very simple and intelligible account orthe powers and operations of the human mind. By this plain statement of facts, it wiU not be difficult to decide many cele brated; though frivolous, and merely verbal controversies, which have long amused the leisure of the schools, and which owe both their fame and their existence to the ambiguous obscurity of scholastic language. It wiU, for example, only require an appeal to every man's experience, to prove thaf we often act purely from a regard fo the happiness of others, and are therefore social beings; and it is not necessary to be a consummate judge of fhe deceptions of language, fo despise the sophistical trifler, who tells us, that, because we experience a gratification, in our benevolent actions, we are therefore exclusively and uniformly selfish. A correct examination of facts wiU lead us to discover that quality which is comraon to all virtuous actions, and which distinguishes them from those which are vicious and criminal. But we shall see that if is necessary for man to be govemed, not by his own transient and hasty opinion upon the tendency of every particular action, but by those fixed and unalterable rules which are fhe joint result of the impartial judgment, the natural feelings, and the embpdied experience of mankind. The AND SPEECHES OF SIR J. MACKINTOSH. 37 anthority of these rules is, indeed, founded only on fheir tendency to promote private and public welfare ; but the morality of actions will appear solely to consist in their correspondence With the rule. By the help of this obvious distinction we shaU vindicate a just theory, which, far from being raodern, is, in fact, as ancient as philosophy, both from plausible objections, and frora the .odious imputation of supporting those absurd and monstrous systems which have been built upon if. Beneficial" tendency is the foundation of rules, and the criterion by which habits and sentiments are to be tried; but it is neither the immediate standard, nor call it ever be the principal motive, of action. An action, to be completely virtuous, must accord with raorai rules, and raust ilow from our natural feelings and affections, moderated, ihatured, and" improved into steady habits pf right conduct." Having taken a general view of the subject, he states in detail the order and distribution which he proposes to follow, and con cludes with a psfssage, which characterises him as a philosopher, and does honour to bim as a inan : — *' I know not whether a philosopher ought to confess, that in his enquiries after truth he is biassed by any consideration ; even by fhe love of virtue. But I, who ¦conceive , that a real philosopher ought to regard truth itself chiefly on account of its subserviency to the happiness of mankind, am not ashamed to confess, that I shall feel a great consolation af the conclusion bf these lectures, if, by a wide survey and ah exact examination of fhe conditions and relations of human nature, I shall have confirmed but one individual in the conviction, that justice is the permanent interest of all men and of all commonwealths. To discoyer one new link of that eternal chain by which the Author' of the universe bas bound together the hap piness and tbe duty of his creatures, and indlssolubly fastened their interest to eaph other, would fill my hearf witb more pleasure than all the fame with which the most ingenious paradox ever crowned the most eloquent sophist. " I shall, conclude this discourse in tbe noble language of two great orators and, philosophers, who have, in a few words, stated the substance, the object, and the result of all molality, and politics, and law. *' ' Nihil est quod adhuc de republica putem dictura, et quo possim longius pro- gredi, nisi sit confirmatum, non modo falsum esse iUud, sine injuria non posse, sed hoc verissimum, sine summa justitiA republicam regi non posse.' — Cic Frag, Ub. iii. de Repub. " ' Justice is itself the great standing policy X>t civil society; and any eminent departure frora it, under any circumstances, Ues under the suspicion of being no policy at all.' — Burlce's Workf, vol. iU. p. 2,07." This course bf lectures not only established his reputation, but opened a way for him to fortune. An under-secretaryship is said to have been proposed to him by Mr. Pitt. , It is certain that Mr, Canning, who was his personal friend, caUed upon him with an offer of official patronage and place from the Minister. He declined the offer, it was said, from reluctance to sever himself so palpably from Mr. Fox. It may be thought strange that he, who rejected place from Pitt, should accept it from Addington ; but it wiU pre- 38 NOTICE OF THE LIFE, WRITINGS, sentiy appear that his refusal could not have been absolute, and that his name was placed upon the Minister's list among those who were to be pi;oyided for. If his lectures propitiated the champions of social order, so called, they provoked the resentment of tbe more vehement bf hif early political friends. He appears to hsjye avowed expressly that his pohtical opinions had undergone a change, and he was reproached with it. His introductory, lecture alone has been printed. Ofthe succeeding lectures, it is said that only the nates or heads from which he delivered them remain. There are no means of judging how far the lecturer on the law of nations disavowed the author of tfie " Vindiciae Gallicae," In the opening discourse, the foUow ing is the only passage which bears directly on the question. It must be confessed that his definition of liberty is not satisfactory, and that the development which foUgws has an air. of vagueness, ambiguity, and compromise. , ' " I have already given the reader to understand that the description of liberty which seems fo me fhe most comprehensive, is that of security against -wrong. Liberty is therefbre fhe object of aU government. Men are more free under every government, even the most imperfect, than they would be if it were jpossible for I them to exist without any government af all : fhey are more secure from wrong, Tnore undisturbed in th& exercise, of their natural powers, and therfore more free, . even in the most .obvious and the grossest sense of the word, \haii if they were altogether unprotected against injury from each other. But, as general securi^ is enjoyed in very different degrees under different governments, those which guard it most perfectly are, by way of eminence, caUed free. Such governments attain most completely the end which is common to aU government. A free constitution. of government, and. a goojl eonstifufion of government, are, therefore, different expressions for the same idea, " Another material distinction, however, soon presents itself. In most civilised states, the subject is tolerably protected against gross injustice from his feUows, by impartial laws, which it is the majiifest interest of the sovereign to enforce. But some commonwealths are so happy as to be founded, on a principle of much more , refined and provident wisdom. The subjects of such commonwealths are guarded not only against the injustice of each ofher, but (as far as human prudence can contrive) against oppression from the magistrate. Such states,_like aU other ex traordinary examples of pubUc or private exceUence ahd happiness, are thinly scattered over the different ages and countries of the world. In fhem the wiU of the sovereign is limited with so esact a measure, that his protecting, authority is not weakened. Such a combination of skUl and fortune is not often to be expected, and indeed never can arise, but flpom the constant though gradual exertions ot vrisdom and virtue to improve a long succession of most favourable circumstances.. " There is, indeed, scarce any socie^ so wretched as to be destitute of spme sort of weak provision against the injustice of their governors. ReUgioiis institutions, favourite prejudices, national manners, havc, in different countries, with uiiequal degrees of force, checked or mitigated the exercise of supreme power. The pri- AND SPEECHES OF SIR J. MACKINTOSH. 39 vileges of a powerful nobility, of opulent mercantile communities, of great judicial corporations, have, in sorae monarchies, approached more near to a control on the sovereign, Means have been devised, with mbre or less wisdom, to temper the despotism of an aristocracy pver their subjects ; and, in democracies, to protect the minority against the majority, and the whole people against the tyranny- of demagogues. But, inthese unmixed forras of government, -as the right of legislation is vested in pne individual or in one order, it is obvious that the legislative power raay shake off aU thc restraints which the laws have imposed On it. All such go'vernments, thetefope, tend towards despotism; and the securities which they admit against misgovernment are extremely feeble and precarious. The best se curity which human wisdora can devise, seeras to be the distribution of political authority among different individuals and bodies, with separate interests and se- . parate characters, corresponding to the variety of classes of which civil society is composed, each interested to guard their own order frora oppression by the rest ; each also interested to prevent any of the othera frora seizing on exclusive, and therefore despotic, power ; and all having a common interest to co-operate in carrying on the ordinary and necessary administration df governraentv If there were not an interest to resist each other in extraordinary cases, there would not be Uberty. If there were not an interest to co-operate in the ordinary course of affairs, there could be no governraent. The object of such wise institutions, which make the selfishness of governors a security against their injustice, is to protect inen against wrong, both frora their rulers and their fellows'. Such governments are, with justice, peculiarly and emphatically caUed/™e;.and, in ascribing that liberty to the skilful combination of mutual dependence and mutual check, I feel my own con viction greatly strengthened by calling to mind, fhat in this opinion I agree with all the wise men who have ever deeply considered fhe principles of politics ; vrith Aristotle and Polybius, with Cicero and Tacitus, with Bacon and Machiavel, with Montesquieu and Hurae. " To the weight of these great naraes, let me add the opinion of two illustrious men of the present age, as both fheir Opinions are combined by one of them in the foUowing passage?: — ' He,' Mr. Fox, ' always' thought any of the simple unbalanced governments bad : simple monarchy, simple aristocracy, simple democracy; he held them aU iraperfect or vicious: all were bad. by theraselves : the coraposition alone was good. These had been always his principles, in which he agreed with' his friend, Mr. Burke.'— Mr. -Fox on the Army Estimates. 9th February, 1790. " In speaking of both these illustrious men, whose names, I here join, as they will be joined in fame by posterity, which will forget their temporary differences itt the rfecollection of their genius and their friendship, I do not entertain the vain imagination that I can add to their glory by any thing that I can say : but it is a gratification to me fo give utterance to my feelings; to express the profound vene ration vritb which I am filled for the memory of the one, and fbe warm affection which I cherish for the other, whom no one ever heard in public without admi ration, or knew in private life without loving." The secession of Mackintosh from the new, and his approxima tion to the, old Whigs, — as the two divisions into which the party split were designated by Burke, — became daily more marked. He rebukes Priestley in a letter to Robert HaU, pubhshed in the life of that eloquent minister. " I had," he says, " last night, a conver sation about the sermon with Mr. Windham, at the Duchess of 40 NOTICE OF THE LIFE, WRITINGS, Gordon's rout. He had recommended it to Lord Grenville, who seemed sceptical about any thing good coming from the pastor of a Baptist congregation. This, you see, is the unhappy impression which Priestiey has made." That virtuous teacher of philosophy and freedom might surely dispense with the approbation, and disregard the censure, even of Lord Grenville. "I niet," continues Sir James, in the same letter, " a combination in Ovid, the other day, which would have suited your sermon. Speaking of the human descendants of the giants, he says, — '- — ¦ Sed et ilia propago Contemptrix supemm sspvaeque avidissima csedis. Et violenta fuit, Scires e saqgnipe nqtos. The union pf ferocity with irreligion is agreeable to your reasoning." It may be said that Sir James should not be judged rigorously by an effysion in a private letter, intended, perhaps, to minister in a harmless and kind spirit to the weakness of an. author and a friend. But there are cited, in the same volume, as written by Sir James, two critical notices of (he same sermon, in a spirit little consonant with the tolerant philosophy of his later, and the liberal zeal of his earlier, years. The first is from the " Monthly Review" for Febrtiary, the second from the " British Critic" for August, 1800. In the former he denounces, with some moderation, a new s.ect of infidels, which, according to him, had arisen in that age, to- .revive and di^eminate the detestable paradoxes which lay neglected in the forgotten volumes of Cardan and Spinoza.. The foUowing is the passage cited from the latter publication by the biographer of Robert HaU. -The. critic, it should be observed, is replying to Mr. Flower, editor ofthe Cambridge Chronicle, and author of strictures, on the sermon which Mr. HaU had preached and pubhshed against " Modem Infidelity." " Now, mark the conduct of this man, Mr, HaU,, his townsman, and, as we understand, formerly his pastor, is vrell known to have lately published a most admirable sermon, in which he employed aU fhe powers of reason, and aU the vigour and splendour of eloquence, in displaying fhe abominable consequences of Atheism. ' The very head and front ofhis oj^ending hath this extent, no farther. -* His whole guilt consisted in this: thaf, being a' minister of Christianity, he had the illiberality and cruelty to attack poor Atheism, and its meek ahd unbloody apostles, the amiable French repubUcans. For this great crime, the miserable scribbler attempts to raise a louder clamour against Mr. Hall" than has beeh raised against other dissenting ministers for renouncing their belief in God, Bishops may be libelled, kings may be slandered, aU laws, human and divine, may be insuUcd and reviled. AND SPEECHES OF SIR J. MACKINTOSH. « but France and Atheism arp sacred things, which, it seems, no EngUshman, or; at least, no dissenting minister, is to attack with impunity — which he cannot reason, against without" having his character stigmatised as a tune-server; the warm lan guage of his youth cited against Kis more mature opinions ; and all the prejudices of his sect, or even of his congregation, artfully inflamed against his -good- name, his professional usefulness, and, perhaps, his professional existence. The black and feU malignity whicb pervades this man's attack on Mr. HaU, raises it to a sort of diaboUcal importance, of which its folly, and ignorance, and vulgarity, cannot entirely deprive if. TWs must be our excuse for stooping so low as to examine it. " His first charge is, that Mr. HaU now speaks of the French .Revolution in dif ferent language frpm that which he used in 17.93. How many men have retained the sarae opinions on that subject? There may be sorae, and Mr. Benjamin Flower may be one ; for there are raen who have hearta too hard to he moved by crimes, or heads too stupid tobe instructed by experience. The, second accusation against Mr. Hall is, that he has imputed a great part ofthe horrors of the last ten years to the immoral, antirsocial, and barbarising spirit of Atheism. WiU this man deny, on principles of reason, that Atheism has .such a tendency ? If he does, what becomes pf bis pretended zeal for religion ? Or wiU he, pn the authority of exjerience, deny that Atheism has actually prtfdueed such effects? If he does, we refer him, not to Professor Robinson, or the Abb^ Barruel, of whose labours he, as might be ex pected, speaks with real rancour and affected contempt ; but to theifvorks of Atheists and anarchists themselves, which he wiU think much better authority. Has he read the correspondence of Voltaire, of Diderot, of D'Alembert ? Has be consulted any of the publications which have issued during the lasf ten years from the Paris press ? Does he know that aU fhe fanatical Atheists qf Europe (and England is hot free frbm this pest) almost publicly boast, that in thirty years no man in a civ-iUsed cquntry wiU beUeve in God? Has he never heard that tbe miners of Gorh'wall were in stigated to seU their clothes, in (wder to purchase the irapious ravings of Tom Paii(e ? or that they vyere gratuitously distributed araong the people of Scotland, with such fatal effects, that a large body of that once religious people made a bonfire of their Bibles, ' in honour of the new ajKJstle ? Has he been informed that the London Corresponding Society (enUghtened by tbe Systeme de la Nature, of which the. translation was hawked, in penny numbers at every stall iii the metropolis) deUbe- rated whether they ought not to uncitizen Tom Paine, for superstitiously professing some belief jn the existence of God? Does he know that the same society RESOLVED, THAT THB BELIEF PE A GOD WAS. SO PERNICIOUS AN OPINION, AS TO EE AN EXCEPTION ^TO THE GENERAL PRINCIPLE OP TOLERATION? DOCS he pcfccive the mischievous and infernal art with which only Deism is preached to the deluded' peasantry of Scotland, whilst Atheism is reserved for the raore illuminated ruffians ofLondon? All this, and pkobably mdch more, we eeae he knows but too WELL ! Y^ it is in the midst of these symptoms of a meditated revolt against all reUgion, and of blpody persecution practised wherever Atheists are strong, and projected where they are weak, against fhe Christian worship, and aU its ministers of aU sects and persuasions, that this man has the^effrontery to make it a matter of accusation against Mr. Hall, that he-exhorted nonconformists, not to abandon their dissent, but merely to unite .their efforts with those of the church, in resisting the prpgress of Atheism. He, it seems, hates the church more than he loves religion. He has more zeal for dissent than for the belief of the existence of a Deify. His pious zeal would prefer slavery, under the disciples of Condorcef and Tolney, to a temporary cooperation with the chfirch which produced Taylor and Barrow ! That, such shpuld be the sentiraents ef an obscure scribbler, is a matter of smaU moment; though, notwithstanding bis coraplaints of the state of fhe press, this is the first tirne, since,£ngland was a nation, that any man w'ould have dared to publish thera " 42 NOTICE OF THE LIFE, WRITINGS, The defence of humanity and rehgion against fhfidehty affd fero city was worthy, but the style and temper here displayed were not worthy, of Sir James Mackintosh. It might have occutred, or been rephed to him, that though the union of ferocity with irreligion may have been, to use his own words, "agreeable to the reasoning ' of an alaripist of that period, the union of ferocity with fanaticism was much more congenial, frequent, and cruel ; that the French philosophy of the eighteenth century, thus stigmatised by him with the imputation of an immoral, anti-social, barbarising spirit, and savage appetite for blood, expunged the torture from the criminal procedure, — persecution from the criminal jurisprudence of France, — and brought the French Protestants within the pale of Christian society. He should have remembered that the obloquy of irreligion was east upon himself before he became reconciled to the self-called champions of the altar and the throne, and that mere railing, even where the reproach of infidelity may be well founded, is the re source of dispute usually employed by persons of mean capacity, and base nature. But an able and complete, reply to the reviewer of the " British Critic" is supplied by the author of the Vindid-cB Galicm : — " That the philosophers," says he, '' did prepare the Revolution hy their writ ings, it is the glory of its admirers to avow. " What the speculative opinions of these philosophers were on remote and mys terious questions, is here of no importance. It is not as Atheists,' or Theists,hut as political reasoners, that they are to he considered in a political Revolution*. AH their writings on the subjects of metaphysics and theology are foreign to the'ques- tipn. If Rousseau has had any influence in promoting the Revolution, it is not by his Letters from the Mountain, but by his Social Contract. If Voltaire contri buted to spread Uberality in France, if was not by his Philosophical Dictionary, but by his ' Defences of Toleration.' The obloquy bf their Atheism (if it existed) ¦ is personal ; it does not belong to the Revolution ; for that event could neither have been promoted nor retarded by abstract discussions of theology. The supposition qf their conspiracy for the abolition ofChristianity* is one -ofthe' most extravagant chimeras thatever entered ihe human imagination. Let us grant their, infidelity in the fuUest extent. Their philosophy must have taught them that fhe passions, whether rational or -irrational, from which religion arises, could be eradicated by no huraan power from the hearf of man. Theiip incredulity must havemade them indifferent what particular mode of reUgioh niight prevail. These philosophers were not the apostles of any new revelation thaf was to supplant fhe faith of Christ. They knew that the heift can on this subject bear no void, and fhey had no in terest in substituting the Vedam, or the Koran, for the Gospel. They could have no reasonable motives to promote any revolution in fhe popular faith. Their pur pose was accompUshed when the priesthood' was disarmed." " Mr. Burke's remark on the English Free-thinkers is unworthy of him. It more resembles thc rant by which priests inflame the languid bigotry of their fana- AND SPEECHES OF SIR J. MACKINTOSH. 43 tical adherents, than the calm, ingenuous and maWy criticism of a philosopher ahd a scholar. Had he made extensive enquiries among his learned friends, he must havefound many who read and admired CoUins's incomparable tract on Liberty and Necessity. Had he looked abroad intp the world, he would have fbund raany who StiU read the philosophical works of Bolingbroke, not as philosophy, but as eloquent and splendid declamation. What he raeans by 'their successors,' I will not cpnjecture. i wifl net supppse that, with Dr. Hurd, he regards David Hurae as ' a puny dialectician from the Nprth ! ' yet it is hard to iinderstand him iji any other sense." The angry tone, and apparent bigotry, of the former of these extracts, may be accounted for, and, in some degree, excused. Hall was his friend, and the case was his own. He, too, was charged with the derelioti'on of his principles : this irritated him ^' and sallies of temper, such as the foregoing, should be viewed, not as indicative ofhis disposition, but as examples of that infirmity from "which the best constituted minds are not exempt. , • Sir James sought practice at the bar, but obtained little in the Courts of Westminster. His business was chiefly before Parlia mentary Committees. He no doubt performed the duties of counsel with ability, but his opportunities did not admit of his-particularly distinguishing himself. A single speech, in a memorable case, brought him the reputation of being a forensic orator of the first order; and the translation of it, by Madame de Stael, into French, obtained him European celebrity. He deserved his celebrity, but his claim to be regarded as a master in the art of advocacy is more doubtful. It is necessary to refer for a moment to the occasion and nierits of this applauded speech. Roilaparte had become First Consul of the French republic, and made peace with England. Peltier, a French emigrant, and agent of the Bourbons, printed in London a French newspaper, called the " Ambigu," chiefly for the purpose of dissemination in France. It contained in the form of an ode, pretending to be written by Chenier, an instigation to assassinate the First Consul, He applied for redress to the government and laws of England ; the Attorney- General filed a criminar information; and Peltier "was brought to trial before Lord EUenborough, in February, 1803. He selected Mackintosh for his leading counsel, in order to afford a splendid opportunity to a friend. It required the intrepidity of conscious tsJent, with Mackintosh's want of experience and station at the bar, to take this lead. The vast range of topics, and elaborate com position, frove that the advocate employed much time in prepa- 44 NOTICE OF THE LIFE, WRITINGS, ;' ration, and strained his faculties to the utmost. But for this, among other reasons, his speech is a failure as a piece of forensic oratory. The views are too ambitious ; the topics and the knowledge are vast and various, but sometimes irrelevant ; thc eloquence is over wrought, and the rhetoric that rather of an essayist than of an orator. In his wide survey of the French Revolution, the consular government, and the state of Europe, with more than a due pro portion of political philosophy and eloquent abstraction, he loses sight of his client and the case, and the jury of course lose sight of him. His speech is a dissertation, a tract, a splendid piece of political literature— any thing but a pleading. It wants the in- . genious turns, the happy movements, the dexterous play upon the imagination or the passions, which distinguish the forensic artist The foUowing passages are selected to display the speaker's* or rather the writer's, talents, — not to illustrate these remarks. After passing the several states of Europe in review, — Holland, Switzer land, the Italian States, their past liberty and present thraldom,^- he returns to England, and to Westminster HaU, with the inference ¦^that the present was the first of a series of conflicts between the greatest power in the world and the only free press remaining in Europe. The passage is not only eloquent, but has a direct and dexterous bearing on the case, and is therefore one of the best ia the speech, "One asylum of free discussion is stiU inviolate. There is still one spot in En- rope where man can freely exercise his reason on the most important concerns of society , where he can boldly publish his judgment on fhe acts of the proudest and most powerful of tyrants : the press of England is stiU free. It is guarded by the free constitution of pur forefathers. It is guarded by the hearts and arms of Eng Ushmen ; and I trust I may venture to say, that if it be to fall, it will fall only un der the ruins of the British Empire. "It is an awfiil consideration, gentlemen. Every other monument of European liberty has perished. That ancient fabric, which has been gradually reared by the wisdom and virtue of out fathers, stiU staqds. It stands, thanks be to God! solid and entire — ' but if stands alone, and it stands amidst ruins. " In these extraordinary circumstances, I repeat, that 1 must consider this as the first of a long series of conflicts between the. greatest power in the world, and the only free press remaining in Europe ; and I trust that you will consider yourselves as fhe advanced guard of liberty, as having this day to fight the first battle of-freft discussion agairist the most formidable enemy that if ever encountered. You will, therefore, excuse me, if, on so important an occasion, I remind you, af more length than is usual, of those general principles of law and policy on this subject, which have been handed down to us by our ancestors." AND SPEECHES OF SIR J. MACKINTOSH. 45 A long, able, and irrelevant dissertation foUows. The orator comes to the French Revolution. " Gentlemen, the french Revolution — I miist paijse, after I have uttered words which present such an overwhelming idea. But I have not now to engage in an enterprise se far beyond my force as that of exaraining and judging that tremendous revolution. I have only to consider the character of fhe factions which it must have left behind it : — the French Revolution began with great and fatal, errors. These errors produced * atrocious crimes. A mild aiid feeble monarchy was suc ceeded by bloody anarchy, which very shortly gave birth fo railitary despotism. France, in a few years, described the whole circle of human society. " AU this was in the order of nature : — jvhen every principle of authority and civil discipUne, when every principle ijvhich enables some men to comraand and dis poses others to obey was extirpated froin the raind by atrocious theories, and stiU more atrocious examples ; wlien every old institution was trampled down with con tumely, and every new institution covered in its cradle with blood ; when the princi ple of property itself, the sheet-anchor of society, was annihilated ; when, in the persons of tbe ne'w possessors, whom fhe poverty of language obliges us to caU pro prietors, it was contaminated in its source by robbery and murder, and if b&ame separated from fhat education and those raanners, frora that general presuraption of superior knowledge and raore scrupulous probity, which form its only Uberal titles to respect ; when the people were taught to despise every thing old, and com pelled to detest every thiqg new, there remained only one principle sfrong enough to hold society together — a principle utterly incompatible, indeed, with liberty, and unfriendly to civiUsation itself— a tyrannical anJl barbarous principle, but, in fhat miserable condition of humau affairs, a refuge from still more intolerable evUs — I raean the principle of railitary power, which gains strength frora thaf confusion and bloodshed in which aU the other elements of society are dissolved, and' which, in these terrible extreinities, ife the cement that preserves it from total destruction. "Under such circumstances, Bonaparte usurped the supreme power in France. I say usurped, because an iUegal assuraption of power is an usurpation. But usur pation, in its strongest moral sense, is scarcely appUcable fo a period of lawless and savage anarchy. The guilt of military usurpation, in truth, belongs to the authors of thbse confusions which sooner or later give birth to such an usurpation." It is obvious that the advocate of Peltier retained of the author of the Vindiciae only his talent. No licence of advocacy will account for opposition so violent and complete, without a complete change of principles, or it may be more fair to say, of opinions. The speaker delivers himself not with the reserve, management, and adroitness of a mere advocate acting a part, but with studious, elaborate, and gratuitous ostentation. He travels out of the road ; he digresses, dUates, and exaggerates like one making a profession of faith, of which the sincerity might be suspected, because it was not always his : — " In a word, gentlemen, the great body of the people of France have been se verely trained in those convulsions and proscriptions, which are the school of 46 NOTICE OF THE LIFE, WRITINGS, ' slavery. They are capable of no mutinous, and even of ho bold' and manly poUtical sentiments. And if this Ode professed to print tjieir opinions, it would be a. most unfaithful picture. But it is otherwise with those who have heen fhe actors and leaders in the scene of blood ; if is otherwise with the numerous agents of the most indefatigable, searching, multiform, and omnipresent tyranny that ever existed, which pervaded every class of society, which had ministers and victims in every viUage iri France. " Some of them, indeed — ^the basest of the race — the Sophists, the Rhetors, the Poet-laureats of murder— who were cruel only from cowardice and- calculating self ishness, are perfectly wiUing to transfer their venal pens to any government that does not disdain their infamous support. These men, republicans from servi lity, who pubUshed rhetorical panegyrics on massacre, and who reduced plunder to a system of ethics, are, as ready fo preach slavery as anarchy. But the more daring .—I had almost said the more respectable — ruffians cannot so easily bend their heads under fhe yoke. These fierce spirits have not lost ' the unconquerable vriU, fhe study of revenge, -immortal hate.' They leave the luxuries of servitude to the- mean and dastardly hypocrites, to the Belials and Mammons of the infernal faction. They pursue their old end of tyranny under, their old pretext of liberty. The recoUec tion of their unbounded power renders every inferior condition irksome and vapid, and f^eir former atrocities form, if I, may so speak, a sort of moral destiny , which irresistibly impels them to the perpetration of new crimes. They have no place left for penitence on earth ; they labour under the most awful proscription of opi^iion fhat ever was pronounced against human beings. They have cut down every bridge by Which they could retreat into the society of men. Awakened, frora their dreams of democracy, fhe noise subsided that deafened fheir ears fo the voice of humanity— the film fallen from their eyes which hid from fhem the blackness of their own deeds, — haunted by fhe memory of their inexpiable guilt — condemned .daily to look on fhe faces Of those whom their hands made widows and orphans — they are goaded and scourged by these real furies, and hurried into the tumult of new crimes,-which vrill drown fhe cries of pemorse.j or, if they be too dejpr'aved for remorse, will silence fhe curses of mapkind. Tyrannical'power is their orily refuge from the just vengeance, of their fellow-creatures ; m'urder is their only raeans of usurping power. They have no taste, no- occupation^ no pursuit, but power and blood. If their- hands are tied, they must at least have the luxury of murderous projects. They have drunk too deeply of human blood ever to reUnquish their cannibal appetite. Such a faction exists in France. * ' * * * *, ' *, * "I have used the word republican, because if is the name by which this atrocious faction describes itself. The assumption of that name is one of their crimes. They are no more repubUcans than royaUsts ; fhey are fhe common enemies of aU human society., God forbid, thaf, by the use of that word, I should be supposed fo re flect on the members of those respectable republican communities which did exist in Europe before the French Revolution! That revolution has spared many mo narchies, but if has spared no republic within the sphere of its destructive energy. One republic only now exists in fhe world — a republic of EngUsh blood, which was originally composed of repubUcan societies, under the protection of a inonarchy, which had therefore no great and perilous change in their infernal constitution to effect, and of which (I speak if with pleasure and pride) the inhabitants, even in the convulsions of a most deplorable separation, displayed humanity as weU as valour, which, I trust, I may say they inherited from their forefathers. " Nor do I mean by the use of-the word ' republican,' fo confound this execrable faction with all those who, in the liberty of private speculation, may prefer a re- AND SPEECHES OF SIR J. MACKINTOSH. i 47 publican form p< governinent. I own, that, after much reflection, I am not able to conceive an error more gross than that of those who believe in. the possibility of erecting a republic in any of the old monarchical countries of Europe, who believe that in such cpuntries an elective suprerae magistracy can prpduce any thing but a successipn pf stern tyrannies and bloody civil wars. It is a- supposition which is belied by aU experience, and which betrays the greatest ignorance of the first prin ciples pf.the cpnstitution of society. It is an error which has a false appearance of •superiority over vulgar prej,udice; it is therefore too 'apt to be attended vvith the roost criminal rashness and presumption, and too easy to be inflaraed into thc most iraraoral and anti-social fanaticism. But as long as if remains a mere quiescent error, it is not the proper subject of moral disapprobation." , Having taken onqe more a vigorous flight over history, and paused upon its leading epochs, — the reigns and characters of EUzabeth, of Louis XIV., of WiUiam III. ; the invasion of Holland, the peace of Ryswick, the partition of Poland, — he returns to the case, and approaches the close. " I am aware, gentlemen, tbat I have already abused your indulgence, bilt I must entreat you to bear with me fbr a short time longer, to allow me fo suppose a case which might have occurred, in which you will see the horrible consequences of enforcing rigorously principles of law, which I cinnot contest against pplitical writ ers. We raight have been af peace with France during the whole »t that terrible period which elapsed between August, 1792, and 1794, which has been usually called the reigu of Robespierre ! The only series of criraes, perhaps, in histpry, which, in spite pf the common disposition to exaggerate extraordinary facts, has been beyond measure underrated in public opinion. I say this, gentleraen, after an investigation which I think entitles m.e to affirm it with confidence. Men's minds were oppressed by the atrocity and the multitude of crimes ; their humanity and their indolence took refuge in scepticism from such an overwhelming mass of guilt ; and the consequence was, thaf aU these unparaUeled- enormities, though proved, not only with the fullest historical, but with the strictest judicial evidence, were at the time only half beUeved, and are no'w scarcely half remembered. When these atrocities were daily perpetrating, of which the greatest part are as little kijown to the pubHc in general as the campaigns of Genghis Khan, but are still protected from the scrutiny of men by the iraraensity of those voluminous records of guilt in which . they' are related, and under the raass of which they will lie bliried, tiU sorae histo rian be found with patience and courage enough to drag them forth into Ught, for the shame, indeed, but for the instruction of mankind ; when these crimes were per petrating—crimes which had the pecuhar malignity,' frora the pretexts with which they were covered, of raaking fhe noblest objects of huraan pursuit seem odious and detestable^-which hjd almost made the naraes of liberty, reformation, and huraa nity, synonymous with anarchy, robbery, and murder — which thus threatened not only to extinguish every principle' of improvement, to arrest the progress of CiviUsed society, and tp disinherit future generatiens pf thaf rich succession which they were entitled to expect from the knowledge and wisdom pf the present, but to destroy the civilisation of Europe, which never gave such a proof of its vigour and robustness as in being able to resist their destructive power: — when all these florrors were acting in the greatest empire of the Continent, I wiU ask my learned friend, if we had fhen been at peace with France, how English writers were to relate thera so as to escape the charge of libeUing a friendly .government ? 48 NOTICE OF THE LIFE, WRITINGS, "When RobespierrCi in the debates in the National Convention' on the mode of murdering their blameless sovereign, objected fo the formal and tedious mode of riiurder c^led a trial, and proposed to put hiift immediately to death without trial, '"on the principles of JMSKrrecrioM,' because, to doubt the guUt pf the king wbuld be to doubt of the innocence of the Convention, and if the king were not a traitor, the Convention must be rebels; would my learned friend have had an English ¦writer state aU this with 'decorum and moderation?' .v/ould he have had an EngUsh 'writer state, that though this reasoning was not perfectly agreeable to our national \aWS, or perhaps f p our national -prejudices, yBt it was not for him to make any observations on the judicial proceedings of foreign states ? "When Marat, in the "same Convention, called for 270,000 heads, must onr EngUsh writers have said, fhat the remedy did, indeed, seem to their weak judg ment rather severe ; but that it wras npf for thera to judge the conduct, of so iUustrious an assembly as fhe National Convention, or. the suggestl^CK of so enlightened a statesman aS M. Marat ? -'^i "When thaf Convention resounded with "applause at the news Of several hun dred aged priests being thrown into fhe Loire, and particularly at the exclamation of Carrier, who communicated the inteUigence, ' what a revolutionary torrent is the Loire I'- — when these suggestions and narratives of murder, , which have hitherto been only hinted and whispered in the most secret cabals, in the darkest caverns of banditti, were triumphantly uttered,- patiently endured, and even loudly applauded by an assembly of 700 men, acting in the sight of aU Europe-r^would my learned friend haiVe wished that there had been found in England a single writer so base as fo deliberate upon the most safe, decorous, and polite manner of relating all fhfsc things to his countrymen ? " when Carrier ordered 500 children under fourteen years fo be shpf, the greater part of whom escaped the fire fi'om fheir si^e — when the poor vicfuns ran for protection to the soldiers, and were bayoneted clinging round their knees, would my friend — but I cannot pursue the strain of Interrogation — it is too much ! it would be a viol'ence which I cannot practise, on my own feelings — if would be an outrage to my friehd — it would be an afftont to you — it would- be an insult to humanity. No ; better, fen thousand limes better, would it be fhat every press in fhe world vvere burnt, that the very use of letters were abolished, that we were retumed to the honest ignorance of the rudest tinies — than thaf the' results of civilisation should be made subservient to fhe purposes of barbarism, — than that literature should be employed fo teaqh a toleration for cruelty, f o weaken moral hatred for guilt, to deprave and brutaUse the human mind. I know Jhat I speak my friend's feeUngs as weU as my own, when I say, God forbid that the dread of any punishment should ever make "any EngUshman an accomplice in so corrupting his countrymen — a public teacher of depravity and barbarity!" It may be remarked that hitherto he has passed by the period of the Commonwealth and P-rotectorate. He reserved CromweU for his conclusion, and concludes with him as follows : — " In the court where we ave now met, CromweU twice sent a satirist on his tyranny to be convicted and punished as a libeller, and iu this court, almost in sight of the 'scaffold streaming wifh fhe blood of his sovereign, within hearing of the clash of his bayonets, which drove out parliaments with contumely, two suc cessive juries rescued the intrepid satirisf* from his fangs, and sent out with * Colonel Lilburne, AND SPEECHES OF SIR J. MACKINTOSH. 49 defeat and disgrace the usurper's Attorney-General frora what he had the insolence to caU his court ; even then, gentlemen, when aU law and liberty were trarapied under the feet of miUtary banditti ; when fhose great crimes were perpetrated on a high place and with a high hand against those who were fhe objects of public veneration, which, more than any thing else upon earth, overwhelra the minds of men, break their spirits, and confound their moral sentiments, obliterate the distinctions between right and wrong in their understanding, and teach fhe mul titude fo feel no longer any reverence for that justice which they thus see triumphantly dragged af the chariot wheels of a tyrant ; — even then, when this unhappy country, triumphant indeed abroad, but enslaved at home, had no pros pect but that of a long succession of tyrants wading through slaughter to a throne ; — even then, I say, when all seemed lost, the unconquerable spirit of English liberty survived in the hearts of English jurors. That spirit is, I trust in God, not extinct ; and if any modern tyrant were, in the drunkenness of his in solence, to hope to overawe an English jury, I trhst and I believe that they would tell bira, ' Our ancestors braved the bayonets of CroraweU; we bid defiance to yours. Contempsi Catllints gladios ; non pertimescam titos ! ' " This short and vigorous passage, pointed by a classic quotation, and elevated by classic recollections, has been regarded as the happiest movement of the speech. But there appears a fatal deficiency in the citation andthe paraUel: — itis the want of appli cation. Had the advocate told the jury, in plain English, that they and he were defying poniards or bayonets, they would have stared or laughed — and, pleading as the advocate of an apostle of assassi nation, he talked of defying assassins with a bad grace. Peltier was found guilty; but the war was soon renewed, and he was never called up for judgment. This celebrated oration should be classed among the political writings of Sir James Mackintosh. It would form an interesting, as well as curious, pendant to the Vindiciae Gallicae. The reader, viewing the same objects and epochs represented under phases of such complete opposition, finds it almost impossible to imagine the personal identity of the writer with the speaker ; whilst he, at the same time, discovers in every page the identity of style and faculty. Sir James Mackintosh was now removed to a new and distant scene. It is necessary to revert for a moment to some incidents in his private life. He was visited by the severest domestic afflic tion in 1797. His wife died in the raonth of April of that year. It would imply an equal want of discretion and taste to say one word of her character and his grief in the same page with the following letter, written onthe occasion by himself. It is addressed to Dr. Parr. " I use the first moment of composure to return my thanks to you for having thought of me in my affliction. It was impossible 50 NOTICE OF THE LIFE, WRITINGS,' for you to know the bitterness of that affliction ; for I, myself, scarce knew the greatness of my calamity till it had fallen upon me ; nor did I know the acuteness of my own feelings till they had been subjected tothis trial. Alas! it is only now that I feel the value of what I have lost. In this state of deep but quiet melan choly, which has succeeded to the first violent agitations of sorrow, my greatest pleasure is to look back with gratitude and pious affec tion on the memory of my beloved wife; and my chief consolation is the soothing remembrance of her virtues. Allow me, in justice to her memory, to tell you what she was, and what I owed her. I was guided in my choice only by the blind affection of my syouth, and might have formed a connexion in which a short-Uved passion would' have been followed by repentance and disgust ; but I found au intelligent companion, a tender friend, a prudent monitress ; the most faithful of wives, and as dear a mother as ever chUdren had the misfortune to lose. Had I married a woman who was easy or giddy enough to have been infected by my imprudence, or who had rudely and harshly attempted to correct it, I should, in either case^ have been irretrievably ruined : a fortune, in either case, would, with my habits, have been only a shorter cut to destruction. But I met a woman, who by the tender management of my weak nesses gradually corrected the most pernicious of them, and rescued me from the dominion of a degrading and ruinous vice. She, became prudent from affection ; and, though of the most generous nature, she was taught economy and frugality by her love for me. During the most critical period of my life, she preserved order in my affairs, from the care of which she relieved me ; she gentiy reclaimed me from dissipation; she propped my weak and irreso lute nature ; she urged my indolence to all the exertions that have been useful and creditable to me ; and she was perpetually at hand to admonish my heedlessness and improvidence. To her I owe that I am not a ruined outcast; to her whatever I am; to her whatever I shall be. In her solicitude for my interest, she never, for a moment, forgot my feehngs or my character. Even in her occasional resent ment, — for which I but too often gave just cause (would to God that I could recall these moments !), she had no sullenness or acrimony: her feelings were warm and impetuous, but she was placable, tender; and constant : she united the most attentive prudence with the most generous and guileless nature, with a spirit that disdamed the shadow of meanness, and with the kindest and most honest heart. AND SPEECHES OF SIR J. MACKINTOSH. 51 Such was she whom I have lost ; and I have lost her when her exceUent natural sense was rapidly improving, after eight years of struggle and distress had bound us fast together, and moulded our tempers to each other ; when a knowledge of her worth had refined my youthful love into friendship, before age had deprived it of much of its original ardour. I lost her, alas ! (the choice of my youth and the partner of my misfortunes) at a moment when I had the prospect of her sharing my better days. This, my dear Sir, is a calamity which the prosperity of the world cannot repair. To expect that any thing on this side of the grave can make it up, would be a vain and a delusive expectation. If I had lost the giddy and thoughtless companion of prosperity, the world could easily repair the loss ; but I have lost the faithful and tender partner of my misfortunes ; and my only consolation is in that Being under whose severe but paternal chastisement I am cut down to the ground. The philosophy which I have learned only teaches me that virtue and friendship are the greatest of human blessings, and that their loss is irreparable. It aggravates my calamity, instead of consoling me under it. My woilnded heart seeks another con solation; governed by these feelings, which have, in every age and region of the world, actuated the human mind, I seek rehef and I find it in the soothing hope and consolatory opinion, that a bene volent wisdom inflicts the chastisement, as well as bestows the enjoyments of human Ufe ; that superintending goodness wUl one day enlighten the darkness which surrounds our nature, and hangs over our prospects ; that this dreary and wretched life is not the whole of man; that an animal so sagacious and provident, and capable of such proficiency in science and virtue, is not like the beasts that perish ; that there is a dwelling place prepared for the spirits ofthe just; and that the ways of God will yet be vindicated to man. The sentiments of religion which were implanted in my mind in my early youth, and which were revived by the awful scenes which I have seen passing before my eyes in the world, are, I trust, deeply rooted in my heart by this great calamity. I shall not offend your rational piety by saying that modes and opi nions appear to me matter of secondary importance ; but I can sincerely declare, that Christianity, in its genuine purity and spirit, appears to me the most amiable and venerable of all the forms in which the homage of man has ever been offered to the Author of his being. These sentiments have served somewhat to tran- 52 NOTICE OF THE LIFE, WRITINGS, qulllise me since I have been in this place (which is at present solitary enough for the state of my Spirits), and will, I trust, soon enable me to resume my exertjons in active life, which I owe to the hapless chUdren of my dearest Catherine, and which I am fully sensible wiU be a truer performance of the sacred duty which I owe to her memory, than vain and barren lamentation. You will not wonder that I sometimes find a pleasing employment for my mind in thinking of those honours which are due to the memory of her whom I have lost. I have given directions for a marble tablet, on which it is my wish to inscribe a humble testimonial of her virtues; but I am divided in opinion whether the inscription shall be in Latin or English. English seems more unostentatious and more suitable to her sex, but Latin is better adapted to inscription, and I think it difficult to compose an English inscription, which ^hall be simple enough, without being meagre. I could judge better if I saw the attempt made in both languages. I shall myself try it in English. Will you, my dear Sir, send me a sketch of a Latin inscription ? It is a thing of great moment in the hour of my affliction, and I hope you will not refuse to aid me in this labour of love. If I fix on the English, I shall send it to you for correction. The topics are so obvious that I need not suggest them : her faithful and lender discharge of the duties of a wife and a mother, my affliction, the irreparable loss to her orphans ; these are the topics, with a solemn colouring of rehgion given to the whole. I cannot suppress my desire to expatiate on her worth, at greater length than may, perhaps, be consistent with the severe simplicity of a classical inscription ; yet my feelings are too sincere lo relish any thing rhetorical or ostentatious." "I never," says Dr. Parr, in reply, " received from mortal man a letter which, in point of composition, can be compared with that which you wrote me the other day ; and were you to read it your self at some very remote period, you iwould be charmed with it as I have been, and you would say, as Cicero did of his work De Senectute, ' Ipse, mea legens, sic afiicior interdum, ut Catonem, non me, loqui existimem.' I have myself sometimes experienced a simUar effect from the less exceptionable parts of my own writing, long after their publication. I have read them as if they were the production of some other man, and the delight they give me in this calm and ripened state of the mind, is far more exquisite than the confused and tumultuous joy which I feel in the first ardour of AND SPEECHES OF SIR J. MACKINTOSH. 53 composition. But I have to tell you. Sir, and it is with sincerity I tell you, that some of the impressions made by your letter are of a much higher order than the pleasures of taste. You have written seriously upon a serious event; you have ascended to the highest tone of thinking, and, expressing your thoughts upon subjects of the highest moment, to the highest capacities of our rational moral nature. You did not offend what is rational in my piety; you seized upon the sympathies of all that is ardent in my love or sin cere in my veneration of that Almighty and Omniscient Being by whom we are made to listen, not to the deceitful suggestions of that cold and crooked phUosophy which would impute this effect to the infirmity of man. It flows from a purer and a nobler source ; it is the result of those calm and profound reflections by which we pass through difiiculties to probability, through anxiety to hope, through a sense of our imperfect faculties to a sense of our indis pensable duty. " My opinion is, that an inscription, such a one, 1 mean, as would be most worthy of your character, most adapted to your feelings, and most satisfactory to your ultimate judgment, calls for the use of the Latin language. You know my sentiments, and from mine you probably have borrowed some of your own on the best form of epitaphs. The person of whom we are to speak was your wife, and the mother of your chUdren. Let us speak of her with tenderness, with simplicity, and with dignity. Let us say that which scholars ought to say for the perusal of scholars. Tell me the day and year of her birth and her death ; the place of both ; her age, the number of chUdren, her Christian name, and the cause which removed her from this lower world. I will write the Latin, and in the meantime you may try your strength in Enghsh ; and then, after the honest and consolatory feehng we shall have in this office, we shall make our choice of what is best, without any alloy of blind and chUdish partiality for what is our own." Thc following epitaph, written by Parr, is iascribed on a marble tablet in the south-west staircase of St. Clement's Church, in the Strand, where Mrs. Mackintosh was buried. 51 NOTICE OF THE LIFE, WRITINGS, CATHARINAE • MACKINTOSH FEMINAE ¦ PVDICAE • FRVGI PIAE MATRIFAMILIAS VIRI ¦ TRIVM ¦ QVE • FILIARVM QVOS • SVPERSTITES • SVI • RELIQVIT AMANTISSIMAE VIXIT • ANN • XXXII • MENS • XI * DIEB XXI. FECIT ¦ CVM MARITO ¦ ANN • VIU ¦ MENS • I • DIEB • XXI DECESSIT SEXTO^- ID • APRIL * ANNO ¦ SACRO M • DCC XCVII UCOBVS • MACKINTOSH H M • CON- BMP SPERANS • HAVD ¦ LONGINQVVM' INTER • SE • ET • CATHARINAM • SVAM DIGRESSVM • FORE SIQVIDEM VITAM • NOBIS • COMMORANDI • DIVERSORIVM NON ¦ HABITANDI DEVS • IMMORTALIS • DEDIT Sir James, Iiaving remained about two years a widower, married Miss Allen, the daughter of a gentleman residing in Pembrokeshire. His income, professional and literary, was precarious. To secure a more steady and permanent provision for his famUy, he became a shareholder in the property ofthe Morning Post, and engaged to write in it at a yearly salary. The conversion, or the moderation of Sir James Mackintosh, brought him into communication and favour with the Minister and his friends. Mr. Pitt, it has been stated, offered, through Mr. Can ning, to provide for him; and his refusal of the offer, it has been also suggested, could not have been decisive. Mr. Pitt went out of office; ostensibly because he was unable to redeem his promise of emancipation to the Catholics, and was succeeded by Mr. Addington, in 1801. His retirement was said tobe a confederate juggle be tween himself and his successor, in order that the latter might conclude with the French Republic a peace which had become necessary, but which he could not himself conclude without humi liation. Sheridan, drawing, as he professed, upon the Greek scho liast, but in point of fact appropriating somewhat unscrupulously, as it has since appeared, both the reading and its application from another, said that Pitt went ont of office leaving his sitting part behind him on the Treasury bench. It is certain that there was a good understanding between the retiring Minister and his successor; AND SPEECHES OF SIR J. MACKINTOSH. 55 and Canning, who went out with Pitt, obtained from him, on his retirement, a written request or memorandum to the new Minister to provide for Mackintosh. Mr. Addington, from want of opportu nity or inclination, did not immediately comply wiih the recom mendation of his predecessor. HostUities with France were re newed in 1803; the war and its policy were vindicated by Mackin tosh, in the columns of the Morning Post; and the Minister, now more sensible of his merit, offered him the vacant recordership of Bombay. This appointment, with its emolument and honour, must 'yet have been regarded by him as a check and limit in the career of his ambition and fame. It removed him from the European com munity of men of letters, among whom he had taken his place ; and from that first object in England to every man of popular talent and aspiring, the House of Commons. But his want of fortune, his embarrassments, the necessity of present and duty of future maintenance for his numerous and young family, the equivocal po sition in which he stood between the two great political parties which then divided opinion in England and in Europe, the neutral character ofa judicial office ; all these considerations prevailed with him. India, too, 'with her variety of rehgions, manners, races, languages, her arts of civihzation, and her barriers against its pro gress, presented a rich and wide field to his love of knowledge, speculative temper, and benevolent phUosophy. He had before him the fresh example of Sir William Jones, whose name was not the less celebrated in Europe because Asia was the object and the theatre ofhis studies. Sir James Mackintosh, having received his appointment, and what is called the honour of knighthood, saUed from England in January, and arrived at Bombay early in June, 1804. His judicial duties could occupy but a small portion of his time. His projects were comprehensive and various for the civUisation of India, and the instruction of Europe. It is easy to trace, in his life and writ ings at this period, that he took Sir WiUiam Jones for his model, or for an olg'ect of generous emulation. But he was constitutionaUy indolent in the vigour of his youth, in his native clime, and amidst the stirring elements of commotion, social and political. Under the influence of a distant and relaxing climate, with delicate health, and his habitual love of quiet, his mind appears to have been un strung. There are visible the outiines of beneficent projects and sagacious designs ; but there is nothing achieved worthy the rival 56 NOTICE OF THE LIFE, WRITINGS, of Sir WiUiam Jones. He was superior to Sir WiUiam, in the endowments and acquirements of a moral philosopher, but he wanted the activity and industry, the spirit of literature in matters of taste and imagination, the graces of scholarship, the promptitude and facUity in acquiring and communicating knowledge, of that accomplished person. Sir James did not, like him, master, or evenacquire a tincture of, the Eastern languages; hewas, of course, a stranger to Eastern literature; he was not what is affectedly, but expressively, called an OrientaKst, and was thus barred at the threshold of Eastern enquiry. A literary society had been instituted at Calcutta, under the aus pices of Sir William Jones. One of the first acts of Sir James Mackintosh in India was to establish a similar society at Bombay, He was its founder, and continued its honorary President from his return to Europe lo his death. The object of this society may be collected from the foUowing passage of his inaugural oration : — " The smallest society brought together by the love of knowledge is respectable in the eye of reason, and the feeble efforts of infant literature in barren and in hospitable regions are in some respects more interesting than fhe most elaborate works and fhe most successful exertions of the human mind : they prove the dif fusion, at least, if not the advancement, of science ; and they afford some sanction to the hope that knowledge is destined one day to'visit the whole earth, and in her beneficent progress to iUuminate and humanise fhe whole race of man. " It js, therefore, with singular pleasure, that I see a smafl but respectable body of men assembled here by such a principle. I hope that we agree in considering aU Europeans, who visit remote countries, whatever their separate pursuits may be, as detachments from the main body of civilised men, sent out to levy contributions of knowledge, as well as to gain victories over barbarism. " When a large portion of a country so interesting as India feU into the hands of one of the most inteUigent and inquisitive nations of the world, if was natural to expect that its ancient and present state should at least be fuUy disclosed. These expectations were, indeed, for a time, disappointed : during the tumult of revolution and war, it would have been unreasonable f o have entertained them ; and. when tranquiUity was established in that country which continues to be the centre of the British power in Asia, it ought not to have been forgotten, that every Englishman was fuHy occupied by commerce, by mUitary service, or by administration ; that we had among us no idle public of readers, and consequently no separate profession of writers, and fhat every bour bestowed on study was to be stolen from fhe leisure of men often harassed by business, enervated by the cUmate, and more disposed to seek amusement than new occupation in the intervals of their appointed foils. It is, besides, a part of our national character; that we are Seldom eager to display, and nol always ready to communicate what we have acquired. Ia this respect we differ considerably from other lettered nations ; our ingenious and polite neighbours on fhe Continent of Europe, to whose enjoyment the applause of others seems more indispensable ; whose faculties are more nimble and restless, if not more vigorous than ours ; are neither so patient of repose, nor so likely to be contented by a secret AND SPEECHES OF SIR J. MACKINTOSH. 57 hoard of knowledge: they carry, even into their literature, a spirit of bustle and pa rade ; a bustle, indeed, which springs from activity, and a parade which animates enterprise ; but which are incompatible wifh our sluggish and suUen dignity. Pride disdains ostentation, scorns false pretension, despises even petty merit, refuses to obtain the objects of pursuit by flattery or importunity, and scarcely values any praise but that which she has the right to command : that pride with whicb fo reigners charge us, and which, under fhe narae of a sense of dignify, we claira for ourselves, is a lazy and unsocial quaUty ; and in these respects, as in most others, tbe very reverse of the sociable and good-humoured vice of vanity. It is not> therefore, to be wondered at, if in India our national character, co-operating with local circumstances, should have produced sorae real, and, perhaps, more apparent inactivity in working the mine of knowledge, of which we had becorae the masters. Yet some of fhe earUest exertions of private Englishmen are too important to be passed over in silence. The compUation of laws by Mr. Halhed, and the Ayeen Akbaree, translated by IJtIr. Gladwin, deserve honourable mention. Mr. Wilkins gained the raeraorable distinction of having obtained the treasures of a new learned language to Europe." Having pronounced an elaborate, and somewhat overcharged, eulogy on the genius, accomplishments, and achievements of Sir WiUiam Jones, in the form ofa character of him, he proceeds : — If is not for me to atterapt an estimate of those exertions for the advancement of knowledge, which have arisen from the example and exhortations of Sir William Jones. In aU judgments pronounced on our contemporaries, it is so certain that we shall be accused, and so probable fhat we may be justly accused, of either par tiaUy bestowing, or invidiously withholding, praise, that it is in general better to atterapt no encroachraent on the jurisdiction of thera, who alone irapartially and justly estimate the works of raen. But it would be unpardonable not to speak of the CoUege at Calcutta, of which the original plan was, doubtless, tbe raost raagni- , ficent atterapt ever made for the promotion of learning in the East. I ara not conscious that I ara biassed, either by personal feeling or Uterary prejudices, when 1 say that I consider tbat original plan as a wise and noble proposition, of which the adoption, in its fuU extent, wouJd have had fhe happiest tendency to secure the good governraent of India, as weU as to promote fhe interests of science. Even in its present mutUated state, we have seen, at the last public exaraination, Sanscrit de- claraations by EngUsh youth ; a circumstance so extraordinary,* that if it be followed by suitable advances, it will raark an epoch in fhe history of learning among the humblest fruits of this spirit. I take thp liberty to mention the project of forming this society, which occurred to me before Ueft England, but whicb never could have advanced, even to its present state, without your hearty concurrence, and which raust depend on your active co-operation for all hopes of future success. You wiU not suspect rae of presuming to dictate the nature and object of our comraon ex ertions ; to be valuable, they must be spontaneous ; and no literary society cau subsist on any other principle tban that of equality. In the observations which I shall * " It must be remembered that this discourse was read in 1804. In the present year, 1818, this circurastance could no longer be called extraordinary: frora the learned care of Mr. Hamilton, late Professor of Indian Language at the East India CoUege, a proficiency in Sanscrit has become not uncommon in an European insti tution." 58 NOTICE OF THE LIFE, WRITINGS, make on the plan and subject of dur enquiries, I shaU offer myself to you only as the representative of the curiosity of Europe. I am ambitious of no higher oflBce than that ofi faithfully conveying to India the desires and wants of the leamed at home, and of stating fhe subjects on which they wish and expect satisfaction from enquiries which can be pursued only in India. In fulfiUing the duties of this mis sion, I shaU not be expected fo exhaust so vast a subject, nor is it necessary that I should atterapt an exact distribution of science ; a very general sketch is aU thaf I can promise, in which I shall pass over many subjects rapidly, and dweU only on fhose parts on which, from my own habits of study, I may think myself least diaquaUfied to offer useful suggestions. " The objects of these enquiries, as of aU human knowledge, are reducible fo two classes, which, for want of more significant and precise terms, we must be content to call physical and moral." ' He next divides the two great classes of objects of enquiry into various branches, and proposes the systematic coUection of statis tical facts and observations under each branch. His object, and the tendency, beyond all [question, of the enquiries which he pro poses, are the promotion of humanity and civUization — above all, the good of the native people of the East. Medicine is one of the branches of enquiry which he particularly recommends. He di lates upon its importance with the predilection of a student, or the bias of a valetudinarian. The French Revolution and its conse quences still haunted- him beyond the Pacific Ocean. He con cludes his discourse as follows : — " On these principles, nothing can be a means of improveraent which is not also a means of preservation. If is not only absurd but contradictory to speak of sacrificing the present generation for the sake of posterity ; the moral order of the world is not so disposed. It is impossible to promote the interest of future gene rations by any measures injurious to the present ; and he who labours industriously to proraote fhe honour, the safety, and the prosperity of his own country by iimocent and lawful means, may be assured thaf he is contributing, probably as much as the order of nature wiU perrait a private individual, towards the welfare of all mankind. , " These hopes of improvement havc survived, in my breast, all the calamities of ' our European world, and are not extinguished by that general condition of national insecurity which is the most formidable enemy of improvement. Founded on snch principles, they are, af least, perfectly innocent — they are such as, even if tbey were visionary, an admirer or cultivator of letters ought fo be pardoned for cherishing. Without them, literature and philosophy can claim no more than the highest rank among the amusements and ornaments of human life. With these hopes, they assume the dignity of being part of fhat discipline, under which the race of man is destined to proceed to the highest degree of civilisation, virtue, and happiness, of which our nature is capable." If Sir James Mackintosh was too sanguine in his early specula tions, he was afterwards as much too easUy disheartened. But it AND SPEECHES OF SIR J. MACKINTOSH. 5B is not an uncommon delusion, to suppose that civUization and the age have retrograded, deviated, or become stationary, because the world does not proceed according to our particular notions. The transactions of this Society, pubhshed in London, in 1819, under his direction, contain but one paper contributed by himself. The subject is among the last which he would have been expected to choose — a plan for classifying the words common to the several dialects of India. It assuredly would have been useful, but nothing could have been more dry, and he knew nothing ofthe Eastern lan guages. After his return to England, he was requested to sit for a bust of him, to be placed in the Society's library; and was regarded with the reverence due to one who was its chief ornament as well as founder. The speech of Sir John Malcolm, on moving the trans mission of the request to him, is given in the Transactions ; but, through the delicacy of Sir James, that part of it which more im mediately related to him is suppressed. This is a matter of regret. The suppressed part must have been the most interesting. It can not have consisted of mere eulogy. It must have sketched the views and designs of Sir James — the extent to which he realised them, and the far greater extent to which they remained unexecuted, — for the mutual exchange of knowledge between the continents of Europe and Asia. It has been said, that, as chief criminal judge of Bombay, his charges to grand juries, and judgments in trials, were among the most able and splendid specimens of English judiciary eloquence. There are existing in print no sufficient remains from which to de cide upon the justice of this high praise ; but there is enough to show the care with which he made himself acquainted with the moral state ofthe native community within his jurisdiction, his clear sight and impassive temper as a judge, and, above all, his sagacious, philosophic, and therefore mUd, views of criminal jurisprudence. The following is an extract from a report of his first charge to the grand jury of Bombay, delivered on the 21st of July, 1804. " Here, gentlemen, I might close my address. But, on this first occasion of speak ing to you, I cannof forbear making some observations on other subjects, which, though not iraraediately connected with any single law or any single crirae, are, nevertheless, of the utmost importance tp the general adrainistration of justice, English judges have at all times spoken to grand juries, and, through them, to the public, in that tone of friendly (aUow me to say, of paternal) admonition, which is not unbecoraing the judicial character. On my arrival here, I conceived it to be my first duty to coUcct spme infprmatipn about the character and mprality pf fhe 60 NOTICE OF THE LIFE, WRITINGS, people, the degree and kind of vice prevalent in the Uttle community intrusted to my care : and, just as a physician would first examine the books of an hospital, so I first looked into the records of this Court ; which, though narrow, and liable to some exceptions thaf I shaU afterwards mention, have at least the advantage of being, .is far as they go, authentic. " Since fhe institution of this Court, in the year 1798, I observe that sixty-four persons have been fried for various felonies ; of whom thirty-three have been con victed, thirty-one acquitted, and nine have suffered capital punishment. If 1 were to estimate the moraUty of this community from our records alone, I should not form a very unfavourable opinion of it; for, in that part of the British dominions in Europe where capital punishment is much the least frequent (I raean in Scot land), we know, from the authority of Mr. Hume, Professor of Law at Edinburgh, that, on an average of thirty years, six had annually suffered death out of a popu lation which is probably not far from 1,800,000. If this state of things be compared with fhe situation of Bombay, where there have been three capital punishments every two years, ont of » population of 150,000, the result is, no doubt, consi derably against this island. But the comparison between a large seaport town, as this island may be called, and an extensive country, is not fair : a more equitable comparison furnishes a more favourable result. The same author (Mr. Hume) teUs us that the city of Edinburgh, which, vrith its port and suburbs, cannot contain a population much above 100,000, has, on an average of twelve years, furnished three executions every two years. I believe I may venture to say, without any fear of contradiction, thaf if is fortunate and honourable for a people to find its morality nearly approaching to that of fhe inhabitants of Edinburgh. But I fear we cannot raake so favourable an inference from our criminal records : here they are not so exact a criterion of the prevailing moral diseases as fhey would be in most eountries. The difference of manners and language, and, perhaps, the hostile pre judices of many of the natives, render the detection of crimes difficult, and increase the chances of total concealment, in a proportion which we cannot exactly calculate, but which we know to be very great. Much of w'hat passes among the lowest natives must be involved in a darkness impenetrable to the eyes of the most vigilant police : after fhe existence of a crime is ascertained, fhe same obstacles stand in the way of identifying the criminal ; and even after he is perfectly known, our local situation, which is that of a large fown in a smaU territory, is that which an ex perienced offender would select for the opportunity of concealment and the facility of escape. And such is fhe unfortunate prevalence of the crime of perjury, that the hope of impunity is not extinguished by the apprehension of the delinquent. If to this you add the supine acquiescence of many English inhabitants in the pecu lations of their domestic servants, which, from an opinion of the rooted depravity of the natives, we seem fo look upon as if fheir vices were immutable and in flexible, like the laws of nature ; and if you add, also, those summary chasUsement's Which are, in my opinion, almost always useless as examples ; you will not wonder that 1 do not consider the records of the criminal Court as a raeasure of the guilt of the comraunity : indeed, the universal testimony of Europeans, however much I may suspect occasional and partial exaggeration, is an authority too strong for me to struggle with ; and I observe thaf the accomplished and justly celebrated person (Sir W. Jones) who carried vrith him to his country a prejudice in favour of thc natives, which be naturally imbibed in the course of his studies — and which in him, (though not perfectly rational, was neither unamiable nor ungrateful' — I observe that even he, after long judicial experience, reluctantly confessed their general depravity. The prevalence of perjury, which he strongly states, and wiiich I have myself already observed, is, perhaps, a more certain sign of the general dissolution AND SPEECHES OF SIR J. MACKINTOSH. 61 of moral principle than other more daring and ferocious criraes, much raore horrible to the imagination, and of which the immediate consequences are raore destructive to society. For perjury indicates the absence of aU the coramon restraints which withhold men frora crimes : perjury supposes the absence "of all fear of human justice, and bids defiance to all human laws ; if supposes, also, either a contempt for public opinion, or (what is worse) a state of society in which public opinion has ceased to brand with disgrace actions that ought to be infamous. It is an attack upon reUgion and law in the very point of their union for the protection of human society : it is that crirae which tends to secure the irapunity of all other criraes ; and if is tbe only crirae which weakens the foundation of every right, by rendering the administration of justice, on which they aU depend, difficult, and, in many cases, impossible. " But, gentlemen, though it be reasonable to examine the character of those over whom we have authority, and to calculate the raischievous consequences of criraes — and thpugh if be useful to spread an abhorrence of these crimes by just representations of their nature and tendency — it is very useless and very unreason able to indulge ourselves in childish anger and chUdish invective, when we are speaking of the raorai diseases of great nations. The reasonable questions always are, How bave fhey been produced ? and bow are they to be cured ? " These are questions which all wise men acknowledge to be of infinite difficulty, even when we are content with those probable results which are sufficient for mere speculation : and their difficulty, it raust be owned, is raightily increased, when we require that certainty on which, alone, prudence could act in matters which so nearly concern fhe happiness of raultitudes of human beings. Difficult, however, as they are, it is a difficulty with -vvhich it is, in my humble opinion, the bounden duty of every lawgiver and magistrate (however hurable his station, and however weak his raeans of usefulness, or obscure his sphere of action) constantly and re solutely to struggle ; neither depressed by disappointraent, nor deterred by enmities'; but considering that the raain end of Ufe is to make sorae, af least, of the human race happier, which is most effectually done by making them better ; that many ineffectual attempts must be made, in order tbat a few sbould succeed ; and that, if we faU of increasing the happiness and virtue of others, the very atterapt will constitute our own happiness, and iraprove our own virtue. " With these feeUngs, I have not suffered the short tirae which has elapsed since I carae fo this country to pass without sorae meditation on the causes and cure of the raorai maladies of which I have spoken. My speculations are at present so crude, and my information so imperfect, that it would be absurd to communicate my thoughts to any one : when they are more raatured, I may have the honour of laying some of them before the governraent; and for sucb as wiU be best carried into effect by the voluntary exertions of private individuals, I shaU have the honour of imparting them fo you. " I have this morning, gentleraen, examined the prison ; and I ara happy to say, thaf, considering it either as a place of detention for the accused, or for the debtor, or as a place of punishraent for those who are convicted of criraes, it is so con- / structed as to prevent the loss of liberty frora being aggravated by any unnecessary severities. The sheriff has, however, some reason to cOraplain of its insecurity; and I cannot but lament that it is not better adapted for a house of correction, especially as I have the strongest repugnance to capital punishment, and as I have no high opinion of the efficacy of transportation either for reformation or example. " Tbe deficiencies of a prison, as an instrument of public policy, are matters to be discussed with coolness. If I bad found any deficiencies on the score of huraanity towards the prispners, I shpuld have spoken to you in a very different tone. I am 6-2 NOTICE OF THE LIFE, WRITINGS, persuaded that your feelings would have entirely accorded with mine ; convinced that, bofh as jurors and as private gentlemen, you will always consider yourselves as intrusted, in this remote region of the earth, with the honour of fhat beloved country, which, I trust, becomes more dear to you, as I am sure if does to me, during every new raoment of absence : fhat, in your intercourse with each other, as weU as with the natives of India, you vriU keep unspotted the ancient character of the British nation— renowned in every age, and in no age more than the present for valour, for justice, for humanity, and generosity ; for every virtue which supports, as well as for every talent and accomplishment which adorns, human society." A famine visited several provinces of India in the summer ofthe same year. It forms the chief subject of his charge to the grand jury of Bombay on the 20th of October. ^ "I might have suffered you to 'proceed fo the discharge of your duty 'without further interruption, if I had not thought it important to the interest of humanity to embrace this opporfuriity of making public some facts, of such a nature fhat it seemed fo me fit to promulgate them in the most authentic form, and on the raost solemn occasion known among us. "When we are assembled to administer criminal justice — to perform the highest and most invidious, though raost necessary, functions of political authority — it is consolatory to reflect, and it cannof be unbecoming fo observe, that the raore pleasing duties of bounty and charity have not been forgotten, and that the British government of this territory is as forward to relieve the miseries as to punish fhe crimes of its subjects. " You must already have perceived that I am about to speak of the successful exertions which have been made to avert fhe calamities of famine from our own dominions, and fo alleviate fhe sufferings of those wretched emigrants who have sought refuge among us from the famine which has laid waste the neighbouring continent. " What fhe causes are, which in all ages seera to have rendered famine so frequent and so peculiarly severe in India, is a question of great curiosity, and, indeed, of great practical importance, but not very fit to be examined in this place, and to which I have not yet the means of giving a satisfactory answer. One general observation, however, I will venture to raake. The sarae unfortunate state of things existed among our ancestors in Europe four or five centuries ago. The same unfavourable seasons which now only produce scarcity, fhen, almost uniformly, produced famine. Various causes have, doubfless, c5ntributed to the great and happy change which has since taken place, aU of fhem connected with fhe progress of European nations in the arts, institutions, and manners of civiUzed life ; but the principal cause is, beyond aU doubt, commerce : for only one of two expedients against dearth can be imagined : either we must consume less food, or we must procure raore, and in general both raust be combined; we must have recourse both to retrenchment and to importation. Both these purposes are effected by commerce. The home trade in grain reduces consumption ; and this it does by thaf very operation of enhancing its price, which excites so much clamour among fhe vulgar of all ranks ; and the foreign trade in grain makes the abundance of one country supply the wants of another. Thus famine is banished from what 'inay properly be called the coraraercial world. So powerful and so beneficial are the energies of fhe great civiUzing principle of commerce, which, ¦ counteracted as it every where is, by the stupid prejudices of the people, and by AND SPEECHES OF SIR .1. MACKINTOSH. 63 the absurd and mischievous interference of governments, has yet accompUshed so great a revolution in the condition of so large a part of mankind, as totaUy to exempt them from the dread of the greatest calaraity which afflicted their ances tors. Whether commerce could effect so great a change in India, I shall not un dertake to determine. Perhaps there are physical difiiculties which are insuperable ; and others, arising frpm the cpndition and habits of the people, which would be extremely difficult to overcorae. Tbese, certainly, are circurastances which must diminish and retard such a beneficial change. " But to return from generalities, in which I ought not perhaps to have dwelt so long. — You are weU aware that from a partial faUure of the periodical rains in 1802, and from a raore complete failure in 1803, a faraine has arisen in fhe adjoining provinces of India, especially in the territories of the Peishwa, which I shall not attempt to describe, and which I believe no raan can truly represent to the European public -without the hazard of being charged with extravagant and in credible fiction. Sorae of you bave seen its ravages ; all of you have heard accounts of them from accurate observers. I have only seen the fugitives who have fled before it, and who have found an asylum in this island ', but even I have seen enough to be convinced that it is difficult to overcharge a picture of Indian desolation. " I shaU now state to you from authentic documents, what has been done to save these territories from fhe miserable condition of tbe neighbouring country. From fhe 1st of September, 1803, to the present time, there have been imported or purchased by government 414,000 bags of rice; and there remain 180,000 bags contracted for, which are yet to arrive ; forming an aggregate of nearly 600,000 bags, and amounting fo the value of 50 lacks of rupees, or 600,000/. sterling. During fhe sarae time there have been imported by private merchants 408,000 bags of rice, making; in aU, an iraportation of 1,000,000 bags, and amounting in value to 1,000,000/. sterling. " The effects of this importation on the population of our own territories it is not very difficult to estimate. The pppulation of fhe islands of Borabay, Salsette, and Caranja, and of the city of Surat, I designedly under-esfimate at 400,000. I am entitled to presume, that if fhey had continued subject to native governments, they would have shared the fate of the neighbouring provinces which still are so subject. I shaU not be suspected of any tendency towards exaggeration, by any man who is acquainted with the stale of fhe opposite continent, when I say that in such a case an eighth of that population must have perished. Fifty thousand human beings have therefore been saved from death, in its most miserable form, by tbe existence of a British government in this island. I conceive myself entitled to fake credit for the whole benefits of the importation, — for that which was im ported hy private merchants, as weU as for fhat which was directly imported by the government ; because, without the protection and security enjoyed under a British government, that commercial capital and credit would not have existed by which the private importation was effected. " The next particular which I have to ^state relates to those unhappy refugees who have found their way into our territory. From fhe month of March to fhe present tirae, such of them as could labour have been employed in useful public works, and have been fed by government. The monthly average of these persons since March is 9135 in Bombay, 3162 in Salsette, and in Surat a considerable number, though frora that city I have seen no exact returns. • " But many of these miserable beings are, on their arrival here, whoUy unable to earn their subsistence by any, even tbe most moderate, labour. They expire in the road before they can be discovered by the agents of our charity ; they expire 64 NOTICE OF THE LIFE, WRITINGS, in the very act of being carried to the place where they are to receive relief. Td obviate, or at least to mitigate, these dreadful evils, a Humane Hospital was estabUshed by governraent for fhe reUef of those emigrants who were unable to> labour. The monthly average of those who have been received since March into this hospital, is 1030 in Bombay, about 100 at Salsette, and probably 300 af Surat. " I myself visited this hospital, in company with my exceUent friend Dr. Scott, and I witnessed a scene of which the impression wiU never be effaced from my raind. The average monthly mortality of this estabUshment is dreadful ; it amounts to 480, At fir,5t sight this would seem to argue some monstrous defects in the plan or ma nagement of the institution. And if there were great defects in so new an estab lishment, hastily provided against so unexampled an evU, those who are accustoraed fo raake due allowance for human frailty would find more to lament than to blame in such defects. But when if is considered fhat almost all these deaths occur in the first four or five days after admission, and that scarcely any disease has 'been ob served among the patients but the direct effects of famine, we shall probably view the raortality as a proof of the deplorable state of the patients, rather than of any defects in fhe hospital ; and instead of making fhe hospital answerable for the deaths, we shall deem it entitled to credit for the Ufe of every single survivor. " Those who know me will need no assurances that I have not made these ob servations from a motive so unworthy of my station and my character as that of paying court to any government. I am actuated by far other motives. I believe that knowledge on subjects so important cannot be foo widely promulgated. I be lieve, if every government on earth were bound to give an annual account before an .ludience whom they respected, and who knew the facts of what they had done during the year for improving the condition of their subjects, fhat this single and apparently sUght circumstance would better the situation of all mankind ; and I am desirous that, if any British government of India should ever, in similar calamitous circumstances, forget its most iraportant and sacred duties, this example should be r ecorded for their reproach and disgrace. " Upon the whole, 1 am sure that I considerably understate fhe fact, in saying that the British government in this island has saved fhe lives of 100,000 persons; and, what is mbre important, fhat it has prevented the greater part of fhe misery through which theymust have passed before they found refuge in death, besides the miseries of all those who loved them, or who depended upon their care. " The existence, therefore, of a British government in Bombay in 1804 has been a blessing fo its subjects. Would to God that every government of fhe world could with truth make a similar declaration ! " Many of you have been, and many wiU be, entrusted wifh authority over mul titudes of your fellow creatures. Your means of doing good wiU not, iijdeed, be so great as those of which I have now described to you the eraployment and the effect; but they wiU be considerable. Let me hope fhat every one of you wiU be ambitious to be able to say to your own conscience, — ' I have done something fo better the condition of fhe people intrusted to my care.' I take the liberty to assure you, that you wiU not find such reflections among the least agreeable or valuable part of that store which you lay up for your decUuing years." The following extract from his charge to the grand jury on the 19th of April, 1806, throws a melancholy and instructive lighten the moral character and habUs of the natives of India : \ AND SPEECHES OF SIR J. MACKINTOSH. 63 " I do not foresee that you will require legal instruction in any part of the duty which you are now to perforra : yet some of the offences likely to corae under your- cognisance are of so singular, and pthers are pf so heinous a nature, thaf I cannot prevail on rayself altogether to pass thera over in silence, " Araong thera is a case of child murder, — a crime very rare, and justly consi dered as raost unnatural in all countries wbere its prevalence cannot easily be ac counted for, either from sorae sanguinary superstition, or frora fhe distresses of excessive population, or frora misapplied principles of severe morality. Aud even in these cases, the life of the infant is usually destroyed at the moraent of its birth, before the mind has been habituated to consider it as a Uving being, before it can advance its powerful clairas on corapassion, before it can have created thaf strong interest which helpless innocence naturally inspires. The murderers do a sort of homage to nature by their, as it were, confessing, that if they were to leave tirae for the native attractions of infancy to operate, even their hearts would be subdued. The deliberate murder of children after they bave reached tbat most interesting age at which sensibility and reason begin to dawn, is, I believe, pecuUar to this country, where it is rauch more prevalent than could have beforehand been ex pected from a people araong whose vices that of active cruelty is certainly not to be numbered. The truth seems fo be, as I observed to you on a former occasion, that the natives of India, though incapable of the crimes which arise frora violent pas sions, are, beyond every other people on the earth, addicted to those vices which proceed frora the weakness of natural feeUng, and the almost total absence of mo ral restraints. This observation raay, in a great measure, account for that raost aggravated species of child raurder which prevails among them. They are not actively cruel, but they are utterly insensible. They have less ferocity, perhaps, than most ofher nations, but they have still less compassion. Araong them, there fore, infancy has lost its natural shield. The paltry templation of getting posses sion of fhe few gold and silver ornaments, -with which parents in this country load tbeir infants, seems sufficient fo lead these timid and mild beings to destroy a child without pity, without anger, without fear, without reraorse, with little apprehension of punishment, and with no apparent shame on detection. Whether it would be wise in the public authority to take away this temptation to murder, by the prohibi tion of these ornaments uuder a certain age, is a question whicb I will not undertake tp decide. It is our duty to remeraber thaf this abominable crime is easily cora raitted, and very easily hid ; tbat, in our crowded and fluctuating population, fhe disappearance of a poor child is a fact not likely fo excite rauch attention ; that this, therefore, is a subject which requires aU fhe vigUance of the public, and deserves the most serious investigation in a criminal court." One of the most curious incidents in judicial history occurred in the case of two British officers, Lieutenants Macguire and Cauty, brought up to receive judgment from Sir James Mackintosh. Two Dutchmen had become objects of animosity to those officers, in consequence of legal proceedings, which, if not vindictive on the part of the former, were ruinous to the latter. The officers, in a state of drunken excitement, resolved to waylay and assault the Dutchmen. The latter took a different route on the evening in question from that which they were expected to take, escaped at tack, and prosecuted Lieutenants Macguire and Cauty for the offence ao NOTICE OF THE LIFE, WRITINGS, of lying in wait with the intent to murder. The jury found the of fenders guilty, and they were brought up for judgment. Sir James thus addressed them : — " Bryan Macguire and George Cauty, yon have been convicted of the offence of conspiring to waylay and assault by night two unarmed foreigners, John and Jacob Vandersloot; and if appears that you lay in wait for fhem fo execute your design, with the assistance of two other persons, aU of you armed wifh bludgeons, pistols, or rauskets. Your avowed motive for this project of barbarous revenge was, that one of these foreign gentleraen had brought an action against one of you in this Court. " The observations which you have now made on the evidence in support of this charge would have been too late, even if fhey had been new or .important. 1 am not the judge of evidence; that is the province of the jury ; and, after their verdict, I can see only with their eyes, and hear only with fheir ears. But, in fact, you have now only repeated fhe observations which you raade on your trial, which I then stated to the jury, and which, in my opinion, fhey did weU to disregard. " It is now, therefore, ray duty to pronounce the judgment of this Court upon you; and 1 should content myself with the above short statement of the nature and circumstances of your offence, if I were not induced to make a few observations, by some faint hope of being useful to you, and by a strong sense of the duty which any man of experience owes to the numerous inexperienced young men, such as I see around me, who are deprived so early of parental guidance ; and who may see, in your deplorable but most instructive example, how easily conviviality may de generate into excess, and how infaUibly habitual excess, with its constant attendant, bad society,, leads to such unhappy situations as that in which you now stand. " I know thaf the brutish vice of drunkenness, with all the noisy and turbulent vices which foUow in her train, has a false exterior of spirit and manliness, which sometimes seduces weak and ignorant boys. Not that this can be said in the pre sent case. A plan for overpowering two defenceless men under cover of darkness, with more than double their numbers, armed wifh deadly weapons, can have nothing attractive to any but such as are ' fhe stain of raanhood and of arms.' " But I know that the raischievous character from which such acts spring, soraetimes dazzles and allures inexperienced eyes. Let rae rub off a liftle of the varnish vifhich hides from them its deformity. A disposition to engage in quarrels and broUs is hot, as fhey may suppose, a mere excess of martial spirit, which is to actuate fhem on greater occasions. It is the very reverse of it : if is as unrailifary as it is unsocial and iramoral ; it is an offence against fhe first principle which holds armies together; if is a violation of that prompt, eager, active obedience to autho rity, far more necessary in armies than in any other bodies of men, and without which they must speedily degenerate into a ferocious rabble. One of fhe greatest and wisest of men has, in one comprehensive sentence, concentrated every thing thaf can be said on the relation of an army to the internal order of the state : ' An armed disciplined body is dangerous to liberty ; an armed undisciplined body is dangerous to society itself.' ' " Much morc is this turbulent disposition inconsistent with fhe pecuUar character ofa British soldier. That, which distinguishes him not only from a raere ruffian, but from a mercenary slave, is, thaf he has taken up arms fo protect the rights of his fellow-citizens, and to .preserve the public quiet. He is ap armed minister of the laws, and we expect from hira a pecuUar affection and veneration for those unarmed law,'!- aud magistrates whom he has girt on his sword to guard. Every AND SPEECHES OF SIR J. MACKINTOSH, 67 true soldier must have too great a reverence for the noble virtue of courage, to suUy and degrade it in the wretched frays of sottish ruffians. It is reserved for nobler objects : he will not prostitute it on such ignoble and vile occasions. True courage is too serious, too grave, too proud a qnaUty to endure such degradation, " Such vices arc most unofficerlike, because they are most ungentiemanlike. As long as courage continues to be one of the distinctive qualities of a gentleraan, so long raust the profession of arms be regarded as the depositary and guardian of all the feelings and principles which constitute that character. A gentleman is a man of more refined feqlings and manners than his fellow men. An officer is, or ought to be, peculiarly and erainentiy a gentleman. But there is nothing so low and vulgar as the fame of a buUy, and the renown of midSiighf brawls. They imply every ijuality of a highwayman but his courage, and fhey very often lead to his fafe. " In considering the punishraent to be inflicted on you, I observe thaf you build some hopes of mercy on your disraissal frora the service by a Court Martial for other offences. As these offences have proceededfrora fhe sarae wretched vice of disposition which has placed you at this bar, I am not unwiUing fo consider them as part of the visitation which your mischievous turbulence has brought upon you, and therefore as sorae justification for raild punishment to a Court which eagerly looks out for such justifications. It has been my fate in this place to be obUged to justify the lenity, rather than the severity, of the penalties inflicted here. I think it is likely to confinue so. I have more confidence in the certainty than in the severity of punishment. I conceive it to be the first duty of a criminal judge to exert and to strain every faculty of his mind fo discover, in every case, the sinaUest possible quantity of punishment fhat may be effectual for tbe ends of amendment and example. I consider every pang of the criminal, not necessary for these objects, as a crime in the judge ; and in conformity with these principles, I was employed in considering the mildest judgment whicb pubUc duty would suffer me to pronounce oh you, when I learned, from undoubted authority, that your thoughts towards rae were not quite of fhe sarae nature. I was credibly, or rather cerfainly, informed, thaf you bad admitted into your minds the desperate project of destroying your own lives at the bar where you stand, and of signalising your suicide by the previous destruction of at least one of your judges. If that murderous project had been executed, I should have been the first British magistrate who ever stained with his blood the bench on which he sat to administer justice. But I never can die better than in fhe discharge of my duty. When I accepted the office of a minister of justice, I knew that I must ,be unpopular araong the eneraies of justice ; 1 knew thaf I ought to despise unpopularity and slander, and even death itself. Thank God, I do despise thera ; and I solemnly assure you that I feel raore compassion for the gloomy and desperate state of mind which could harbour such projects, than resentraent for fhat part of thera which was directed against myself. " It is my duty to remind you, that your despair is premature and groundless. At your age, iri a new society, where you may not be followed by the memory of your faults, you raay yet atone for thera, and regain that station in society fo which the fond hopes of your unfortunate relations had probably, at parting, destined you. The road which leads back to character and honour is, and ought to be, steep ; but ought not to be, and is not, inaccessible. On the other hand, if any of the corarades , of your excesses be present, any of those who have been arrested on the brink of * destruction by their penitence, or by their tiraely fears, or by fortunate accidents, or by fbe mercy of others, I most earnestly conjure them never f o forget the situation in which they this day see you. Let those who stand, take heed lest they fall . The declivity is slippery from fhe place where they stand fo that where you lie prostrate. "I should consider myself as indelibly disgraced, if a thought of your projects 5* gg NOTICE OF THE LIFE, WRITINGS, against rae were to influence my judgment. Thaf, however, I believe, you your selves wiU scarcely suppose. "^The judgment of this Court is, that you, the said Bryan Macguire and George Cauty, be, for this your offence, imprisoned in the gaol of Bombay for twelve ca lendar months." The following note on this singular circumstance appeared in the Bombay Courier : — " The Recorder's private information of this atrocious and alraost incredible pro ject must, of course, have been confidential, and therefore can never be disclosed. Many gentlemen saw in fhe bands ofthe sheriff fhe arms which had been seized on one of the prisoners (B, Macguire) : they consisted of four pistols of various dimen sions, three of thera double barreUed, in a case made fo resemble a writing desk, which he had With him in court on the day of his trial, under pretence of carrying his papers. The pistols were loaded with slugs, in a manner for which, in this island, it Is not easy to assign an innocent motive." There is reason to believe, from other sources of information, that the communication made to Sir James was a misapprehension ; that Macguire protested against the remotest idea of such a pur pose ; that he submitted to inspection his writing desk, which, from raere singularity, he had caused to be so constructed as to serve the double purpose of a writing desk and pistol case ; and that the pistols which it contained were not charged. He some years after wards attracted much notice in Dublin, by his peculiarities of man ner and costume. His great ambition was to be a point blank pistol duellist, and he gave the most eccentric and unequivocal evidence of his skill. But his disposition was not quarrelsome ; he was good- tempered in private society with his acquaintance ; his duels arose, for the most part, from rival pretensions ; and the fact, that of the many in which he was engaged not one proved fatal, was ascribed, by those who knew hira, to his forbearance and humanity. There are some improbable circumstances in the version above cited. If the communication was made to Sir James before he began to pro nounce judgment, it appears to have been an inconceivable impru dence to remain gratuitously exposed, even for a second, to assas sination ; if it was made to him in the course of his address, and he believed that the purpose of a crime so heinous to have been really entertained, the impunity of the criminals, and the lenity of the sentence, was not magnanimity, but weakness. The following is his fareweU charge, delivered on the 20th of July, 1811:— AND SPEECHES OF SIR J. MACKINTOSH. 69 " Gentlemen of the Grand Jury, ¦" The present calendar is unfortunately remarkable for fhe number and enormity of crimes. " To what cause we are fo irapute the very uncomraon depravity which has, in various forras, during fhe last twelve raonths, appeared before this Court, it is diffi cult, and perhaps impossible, to determine. But the length of this calendar may probably be, in a great measure, ascribed to the late coraraendable disuse of irre gular punishment at the Office of Police ; so that there is not so much an increase of criraes as of regular trials. <¦ To frarae and raaintain a system of police, warranted by law, vigorous enough for protection, and with sufficient legal restraints to afford a security against oppression, must be owned to be a raatter of cpnsiderable difficulty in the crpwdcd, mixed, and shifting population of a great Indian sea-port. It is no wonder, then, that there sbould be defects in our system, bofh in the efficacy of its regulations and the le gality of its principles : and this maybe mentioned with the more liberty, because these defects have priginated long before tbe fime of any one now in authority ; and have rather, indeed, arisen frora the operation of fime and chance on human insti tutions, than fVora the fault of any individual. The subject has of late occupied much of my attention. Governraent have been pleased to perrait me to lay my thoughts before them ; a permission of which I shaU iu a few days avail myself ; aud 1 hope that my dUigent enquiry and long reflection may contribute somewhat to aid theup judgment in the estabUshment of a police which may be legal, vigorous, and unoppressive. " In reviewing the adrainistration of law in this place since I have presided here, two circumstances present themselves, which appear to deserve a public explanation. •" The first relates to fhe principles adopted by the Court in cases of commercial insolvency. " In India, no law compels fhe efc[ual distribution of the goods of an insolvent merchant ; we have no system of bankrupt laws. " The consequence is too well known. Every mercantile failure has' produced a disreputable scramble, in whichj no individual could be blamed; because, if he were to forego his rights, they would i^ot be sacrificed fo equitable division, but to the clairas of a corapetitor better entitled than hiraself. A few have recovered all, and the rest have lost aU. Nor was this the worst. " Opulent commercial houses, either present, or well served by vigilant agents, almost always foresaw insolvency in such time as to secure themselves. But old officers, widows, and orphans in Europe, could know nothing of the decaying cre dit of their Indian bankers, and they had no agents but those bankers themselves : they, therefore, were the victims of every failure. The rich generally saved what was of little consequence to thera, and fhe poor alraost constantly lost their aU. These scenes have frequently been witnessed in various parts of India. They have formerly occurred here. On the death of one unfortunate gentleman, since I have been here, the evil was rather dreaded than felt. " Soon after my arrival, I laid before the British merchants of this island a plan for the equal distribution of insolvent estates, of which accident then prevented the adoption. Since that tirae, the principle of the plan has been adopted in several cases of actual or of apprehended insolvency, by a conveyance of the whole estate to trustees, for fhe equal benefit of ajl the creditors. Some disposition to adopt similar arrangeraents appears of late to manifest itself in Europe ; and cer tainly nothing can be better adapted to tbe present dark and unquiet condition of the commercial world. Wherever they are adopted early, they are likely to prevent banlkruptcy, A very inteUigent merchant justly observed to rae, that, under such 70 NOTICE OF THE LIFE, WRITINGS, a system, the early disclosure of embarrassment would not be attended witb that shame and danger which usually produce concealment and final ruin. In all cases, and at every period, such arrangements would limit fhe evils of bankruptcy to the least possible amount. " It cannot, therefore, be matter of wonder thaf a Court of justice should protect such a system with aU the weight of their opinion, and to the utmost extent of their legal power. " I by no means presume to blame fhose creditors who, on fhe first proposal of this experiraent, withheld their consent, and preferred fhe assertion of their legal rights. They had, I dare say, been Ul used by their debtors, who raight personally be entitled to no indulgence frora tbem. If is foo much to require of men, that, under the influence of cruel disappointment and very just resentment, they should estimate a plan of public utUity in the same manner with a dispassionate and disin terested spectator. But experience and reflection wiU in fime teach them, thaf, in seeking fo gratify a just resentment against a culpable insolvent, they, in fact, direct their hostility against the unoffending and helpless part of their fellow- creditors. " One defect in this voluntary system of bankrupt laws must be owned to be con siderable : it is protected by no penalties against the fraudulent concealraent of property. Theire is no substitute for such penalties, but the determined and vi gilant integrity of trustees. 1 have, therefore, with pleasure, seen fhat duty undertaken by European gentlemen of character and station. Besides the great considerations of justice and humanity to the creditors, I wiU confess thaf I am grafified^by fhe interference of English gentlemen to prevent the faU of eminent or ancient commercial farailies among fhe natives of India, " The second circumstance which I think myself now bound to explain, relates to the dispensation of penal law, " Since my arrival here, in May, 1804, the punishraent of death has not been inflicted by this Court. " Now, the population subject to our jurisdiction, either locaUy or personally, cannot be estimated at less than 200,000 persons. " Whether any evil consequence has yet arisen from so unusual (and in the British dominions unexampled) a circumstance as the disuse of capital punishment, for so long a period as seven years, among a population so considerable, is a question which you are entitled to ask, and to which I have the means of affording you a satisfactory answer. " The criminal records go back to the year 1756. "From May, 1756, to May, 1763, fhe capital convictions amounted lo 141, and the executions were forfy-seven. The annual average of persons who suffered death was rimost seven, and the annual average of capital criraes ascertained to have been perpetrated was nearly twenty. " From May, 1804, to May, 1811, there have been 109 capital convictions. The annual average, therefore, of capital crimes, legally proved fo have been perpe trated during thaf period, is between fifteen aud sixteen. During this period there has been no capital execution. " But as the population of this island has much more than doubled during the last fifty years, the annual average of capital convictions during the last seven years ought to have been forty, in order to show the same proportion of criminality with that of thc first seven years. But between 1756 and 1763, fhe military force was comparatively sraaU, A few factories or smaU ports only depended on this govern ment. Between 1804 and 1811, 500 European officers, and probably 4 000 European soldiers, were scattered over extensive territories. Though honour and morality AND SPEECHES OF SIR J. MACKINTOSH. 71 be powerful aids of law with respect to fhe first class, and railitary discipline with respect to the second, yet it might have been expected, as experience has proved, that the more violent enorraities would be perpetrated by the European soldiery, uneducated and sometimes depraved as many of thera must originaUy be, often in a state of mischievous idleness, comraanding, in spite of all care, the means of in toxication, and corrupted by contempt for the feeUngs and rights of the natives of this country. " If these circumstances be considered, it will appear that fhe capital crimes cora raitted during the last seven years, with no capital execution, have, in proportion to the population, not been rauch more than a third of those committed in the first seven years, notwithstanding the infliction of deatlr on forty-seven persons. " The intermediate periods lead to the sarae results. " The nuraber of capital criraes in any one of these periods, does not appear to be diminished either by the capital executions of fhe same period, or of that im mediately preceding. They bear no assignable proportion to each other, " In fhe seven years immediately preceding the last, which were chiefly in the presidency of my learned predecessor. Sir WiUiara Syer, there was a very re markable diminufioncof capital punishments. The average feU frora about four in each year, which was that of the seven years before Sir WiUiara Syer, to somewhat less than two in each year. Yet the capital convictions were diminished about one third. " The punishment of death is principally intended to prevent the more violent and atrocious criraes. Frora May, 1797, there were eighteen convictions for murder, of which I omit two, as of a very particular kind. In that period there were ^twelve capita' executions. " From May, 1804, to May, 181 1, there were six convictions for murder, omitting one which was considered by the jury as in substance a case of manslaughter witb some aggravation. Tbe murders in fhe forraer period were, therefore, very nearly as three to one to those in fhe latter, in which no capital punishraent was inflicted. " From the number of convictions, I, of course, exclude fhose cases where the prisoner escaped ; whether he owed his safety to defective proof of his guilt, or to a legal objection. This cannot affect the justness of a coraparative estiraate, because the proportion of crirainals who escape on legal objections before courts of the same law, must, in any long period, be nearly the sarae. " But if the two cases, — one where a formal verdict of raurder, with a recora raendation to raercy, was intended to represent an aggravated raanslaughter ; and the other of a raan who escaped by a repugnancy in the indictment, where, how ever, the facts were more near manslaughter than murder, — be added, then the murders of the last seven years will be eight, while those of the former seven years wiU be sixteen. "This sraall experiraent has, therefore, been raade without any dirainution of the security of the lives and properties of men. Two hundred thousand men have been governed for seven years without a capital punishraent, and without any increase of crimes. If any experience has been acquired, it has been safely and innocently gained. " It was, indeed, impossible that the trial could ever have done harm. It was made on no avowed principle of impunity or even lenity. It was in its nature gradual, subject fo cautious reconsideration in every new instance, and easUy capable of being altogether changed on the least appearance of danger. Though the general result be rather reraarkable, yet the usual raaxiras jvhicb regulate judicial discretion have in a very great majority of cases been pursued. Thc iijstances 72 NOTICE OF THE LIFE, WRITINGS, of deviation from fhose maxims scarcely amount to a twentieth of the whole con victions. " 1 have no doubt of fhe right of society to inflict the punishment of death on enormous crimes, wherever an inferior punishment is not sufficient. I consider it as a mere modification ofthe right of self-defence, which may as justly be exercised in deterring from attack, as in repeUing it. " I abstain from the discussions in which benevolent and enlightened men have, on more sober principles, endeavoured to show the wisdora of, at least, confining the punishment of death to the highest class of crimes. I do not even presurae in this place fo give an opinion regarding the attempt which has been made by one whom I consider as among the wisest and most virtuous men ofthe present age, to render the letter of our penal law more conformable to its practice. My only object is to show thaf no evil has hitherto resulted frora the exercise of judicial discretion in this Court. 1 speak with the less reserve, because the present sessions are likely to afford a test which wiU determine whether I have been actuated by weak ness or by firmness, by fantastic scruples and irrational feelings, or by a calm and steady view fo what appeared to me the highest interests of society. " I have been induced to make these explanations by fhe probabUity of this being the last time of ray addressing a grand jury from this place. "His Majesty has been graciously pleased to approve of my return to Great Britain, which the state of ray health has for some time rendered very desirable. It is therefore prpbable, though not certain, fhat 1 raay begin my voyage before fhe next sessions. "In that case, gentleraen, I now have the honour to take my leave of you, with those serious thoughts that naturally arise at the close of every great division of human life ; with the most ardent and unmixed wishes for the welfare of the com raunity with which I have been for so many years connected by an honourable tie ; and with thanks to you, gentlemen, for the assistance which raany of you have often afforded rae in fhe discharge of duties, which are necessary, indeed, and sacred, but which, fo a single judge, in a recent Court, and sraaU society, are peculiarly arduous, invidious, and painful." From this interesting discourse it appears that the views and prin ciples of criminal jurisprudence, urged by Sir James Mackintosh as a member ofthe House of Commons, had already been acted on by bim as a judge, and thus rested not only upon his meditations but upon his experience. The following address from the grand jury was presented to him by the foreman : — " My Lord, "We, fhe Grand Jury, have learned with regret, by the valedictory charge deUvered fo us at the commencement of these sessions, thaf the connexion which has for seven years subsisted between your Lordship and us, in the administration of pubUc justice, is on the eve of dissolution. But we trust that those splendid talents, which have rendered your Lordship so conspicuous among fhe eminent men of the present times, wiU soon be caUed forth for the public service in a raore ex tended sphere. "As a raark of respect, we reqhest you wiU do lis the honour to sit for your portrait, which we are desirous of placing in the HaU where you have so long pre- AND SPEECHES OF SIR J. MACKINTOSH. 73 sided with such distinguished ability ; and with cordial wishes for your safe return to your native country, we have the honour to be, "My Lord, "Your Lordship's obedient Servants, " W. T. Money, "Grand jury Room, 16th July, ISU. "Foreman." The following answer was returned by Sir James : — " Bombay, nth July, 1811. "Sir," " I request that you wiU present my grateful acknowledgraents to the grand jury for fhe address with which they have honoured me. " Conscious rectitude must often be the sole support ofa magistrate, whose most unpopular duties may be the most useful ; but it would betray unbecoming confidence to be indifferent to the deliberate and final approbation of a body of gentlemen, most of whom have been long and near observers of my official conduct ; and who, both from fheir private character and their public functions, are entitled to speak in thesame ofthe coramunity. " However humbly I may estimate my understanding, and how much soever I must, therefore, question the justness of your coramendations, I cannot doubt their sincerity. Flattery is not an English vice, and there can be no raotive fo flatter a person frora whora nobody has any thing to hope. " I raust, fhen, ascribe the partiality which has dictated tbese praises, fo your long observation of a quality which I raay claira for rayself without hesitation and without presuraption, — a most earnest desire to administer justice according to fhe dictates of conscience and hum.anity. " In tbat conviction, I receive these praises as a higher honour than if I had pre sumed f 0 think thera raore strictly just. "As soon as I reach Great Britain, I shall take measures for complying with fhe desire, so honourable to me, which the grand jury have been pleased to express. " I have the honour to be, "Sir, " Your most obedient hurable Servant, " James Mackintosh." The chief occupation of Sir James Mackintosh, besides the en gagements already stated, was writing what has been described by himself as " a Sketch of his Life." It is said that he also not only projected, but cominenced, whilst in India, the " History of Eng land," beginning with the Revolution. This idea seems to have been uppermost in his mind from an earlier period. Upon his change of political opinion, he professed himself a Whig of 1688, and took every opportunity of eulogising the great transaction of that period, and the character of William III. This reaUy great, but not faultless prince — 'what prince or man was ever faultless ? — became the god of his idolatry. By exalting William and the Re- 74 NOTICE OF THE LIFE, WRITINGS, volution of 1688, he disguised from himself his change of princi ples, identified his own character with the character of the Revolu tion, and worked himself unconsciously into a retrospective partisan, by way of proving, that the man who renounced the principles of the " Vindiciffi Gallicse," was stUl the friend of freedom. This bias of his ideas will be discerned in the present volume. Writing as a historian, he assigns to the Prince of Orange the same fault less constitution of mind, the same incredible perfection of virtue, the same impossible superiority to ambition and interest — to human passions and motives, — with which, he invested his hero when writing anonymously in the " Monthly, Review." Sir James wrote but littie if any portion of his history before his return to Europe. It is said, however, that he sketched in India, and on his way home, characters of some of the leading per sonages who were to figure in his work. These sketches were either lost by himself, or stolen by some person who had access to his papers. He learned, after some time, that they were offered for sale in France, aud unexpectedly recovered them. The sketches of the chief members of James's cabinet, given at the opening of this volume, were doubtless araong the number. Mr. Fox died in the suramer of 1806. The following character of him, by Sir James Mackintosh, appeared in a Bombay newspaper of the following January : — " Mr. Fox united, in a most reraarkable degree, the seemingly repugnant cha racters of fhe mildest of men and the most vehement of orators. In private life he was gentle, modest, placable, kind, of simple manners, and so averse from dogmatism, as to be not only unostentatious, but even something inactive in con versation. His superiority was never felt but in the instructipn which he imparted, or in fhe attention which his generous preference usuaUy directed to the raore obscure raembers of the company. The simplicity of his manners was far from excluding that perfect urbanity and amenify, which flowed stiU more from the mUdness of his nature than from familiar intercourse with the most poUshed society of Europe. The pleasantry, perhaps, of no raan of wit had so unlaboured an appearance ; it seemed rather to escape frora his mind, than to be produced by it. He had lived on fhe most intimate terms with all his contemporaries distinguished by wit, politeness, or philosophy, or learning, or the talents of public life. In the course of thirty years, he had knovra almost every man in Europe whose inter course could strengthen, or enrich, or poUsh the raind. His own literature was various and elegant. In classical erudition, which, by fhe custora of England, is more peculiarly caUed learning, he was inferior to few professed scholars. Like aU raen of genius, he delighted to take refuge in poetry, from the vulgarity and irritation of business. His own verses were easy and pleasant, and might have claimed no low place araong those which the French call vers de societe. The poetical character of his mind was displayed by his extraordinary partiality for the AND SPEECHES OF SIR J. MACKINTOSH. 75 poetry of the two raost poetical nations, or at least languages, of the West, — those of the Greeks and of the ItaUans, 113 disliked political conversation, and never willingly took any part in if. "To speak of hiin justly as an orator would require a long essay. Every where natural, he carried into public soraething of that simple and negligent exterior which belonged to him in private. When he began to speak, a common observer might have thought him awkward ; and even a consummate judge could only havc been struck with fhe exquisite justness of his ideas, and the transparent simplicity of his manners. But no sooner had be spoken for some tirae, than he was changed into another being. He forgpt himself and every thing arpund him. He thought only of his subject. His genius warmed and kindled as he went on. He darted fire into his audience. Tolrrents of impetuous and irresistible eloquence swept along their feeUngs and conviction. He certainly possessed, above all moderns, that union of reason, simplicity, and vehemence, which formed the prince of orators. He was the most Demosfhenean speaker since the days of Demos thenes. ' I knew hira,' says Mr, Burke, in a paraphlet written after their unhappy difference, ' when he was nineteen ; since which time he has risen, by slow de grees, to be the most brUliant and accomplished debater the world ever saw.' " The quiet dignity of a mind roused only by great objects, the absence of petty bustle, fhe contempt of show, fhe abhorrence of intrigue, the plainness and down- rightness, and tbe thorough good-nature, which distinguished Mr. Fox, seem to render bim no unfit representative of fhe old English character, which, if it ever changed, we should be .'anguine indeed to expect to see succeeded by a better. The simplicity of his character inspired confidence, fhe ardour of his elpquence roused enthusiasm, and the gentleness of bis manners invited friendship. 'I ad mired,' says Mr. Gibbon, after describing a day passed with hira af Lausanne, ' the powers of a superior raan, as fhey are blended, in his attractive character, with all the sofi^ness and siraplicity of a child : no huraan being was ever more free from any taint of raalignity, vanity, or falsehood.' " The raeasures which be supported or opppsed may divide the opinion of posterity, as they have divided those of fhe present age. But he wiU most cerfainly command the unanimous reverence of future generations, by his pure sentiraents towards fhe comraonwealth, by his zeal for the civil ahd reUgious rights of aU men ; by his liberal principles, favourable to mild government, fo fhe unfettered exercise of fhe huraan faculties, and the progressive civUisation of mankind ; by his ardent love for a country of which the weU-being and greatness were, indeed, inseparable from his own glory ; and by his profound reverence for fhat free constittition, which he was universaUy adraitted to understand better than any ofher man of his age, both in an exactly legal and in a comprehensively philo sophical sense." This character of Fox, though much admired, did not give entire satisfaction. Parr pronounced it a very elaborate and masterly sketch, but took offence at the tone in which Sir James cited Burke's estimate of Fox. The friends of Mr. Fox, he said, had littie cause to be pleased with the claim set up for the credit not only of Burke's taste, but of his justice, and perhaps of his placabihty. Burke, he adds, must have well known that the epithets " most briUiant and accomplished" did not make the term " debater" co-extensiVe with 76 NOTICE OF THE LIFE, WRITINGS, the aggregate of Mr. Fox's merits as a public speaker .... The slightest touch of his wand might "have transformed debater into orator ... but the former term was preferred, from low jealousy. and the inglorious artifice of damning with faint praise. Sir James does not escape the lash of his early friend. " To me, indeed," continues Parr, " it appears that the republication of the remark reflects littie credit on the magnanimity of him who made, or the discretion of him who would disseminate it. The writer to whom I aUude has, himself, shown Mr. Fox to be more than a brilliant and accomplished debater .... Why did the learned author of the sketch run the hazard of counteracting the stronger praise which was bestowed by himself, [by the introduction of the weaker praise bestowed by Mr. Burke? ... If he meant to exaU Mr. Burke, as I suspect he did, his attempt was not wise .... His present partiality in favour of Mr. Burke's politics is greater than my own ; his habi tual adrairation of Mr. Burke's talents is not." To caU Fox " the most brilliant and accomplished debater," was assuredly to depreciate him : and the sketch of hira by Sir James would have been more worthy of its subject and its author, were it more single-minded. The jealous adrairation, and even angry zeal, of Parr, may not only be excused but respected. The health of Sir Jaraes was seriously impaired two years before his return. Lady Mackintosh left Bombay for England in 1809, for the purpose of negotiating his retirement, on the ground of his state of health, and succeeded. He returned to Europe in 1812, received from the Corapany a pension of 1200/. a year, and the professorship of law and general polity in the East India College. The subjects of his lectures here raust have been, to a consider able extent, identical with those of his lectures on the law of nations in the HaU of Lincoln's Inn. It is scarcely conceivable that the courses, on both occasions, should have been prepared and de livered by him without his leaving any written remains in a state to be given to the public. His materials, whether from meditation or research, however destitute of form, order, or connexion, would be valuable and interesting to the reader — more valuable and inte resting than most finished discourses. The reader would be thus admitted within his study, to view his mthd. exercising its powers in an undress. Lady Mackintosh appears to have raanaged his interests with no comraon capacity, on her arrival in England. She succeeded in ' AND SPEECHES OF SIR J. MACKINTOSH. 77 negotiating not only his retirement from India, but his return to Parliament. He was elected, in 1812, representative for the smaH county of Nairn, through the influence of Lord Cawdor. His first speech, without any failure of talent, yet wholly faUed of effect. It was delivered by him on the 14th of December, 1813. The French empire now trembled to its centre : the Rhine was passed, and France invaded by the Allies on the one side ; the Duke of Welling-, ton wa» approaching the barrier of the Pyrenees on the other ; and the English guards were already arrived in HoUand, to support the Dutch in their unexpected state of insurrection against Napoleon in favour of the House of Orange. Pending events so momentous. Lord Castiereagh gave notice of a long adjournment of Parliament. Sir James Mackintosh announced that he should resist the motion. On the 13th of December, the Minister moved an adjournment of the House to the 1st of March following, without adding a single reason or observation in support of his motion; the pro priety of which was, he said, too obvious to require proof Sir James came prepared to tear and trample the flimsy web of oratory which made up that minister's parliamentary speeches, — his mind and memory charged with an oration in which he should pass the state of Europe in review. Hewas taken by surprise: the man oeuvre of the minister left him no ground to stand upon ; he had to discharge his speech in the air ; and thus a speech redundant with eloquence and information, delivered without spirit, under a sense of disappointment and surprise, dropped cold and lifeless as a pre lection upon a thin and dull auditory. Thus mainly does the success of a pubhc speaker depend upon tact and the occasion, indepen- deaily of mere talent. He was not only out-manceuvred by the minister, but abandoned to his fate by the Whigs. Sir Samuel Romilly and Mr. Abercromby alone came to his relief They praised his speech, and supported his amendment, that the adjournment should extend only to the 24th of January. The Whigs can hardly be said to have deserted him in a situation so critical to his reputation. He respmed, on his re turn, the same neutral positipn between parties in which he had placed himself before he went to India. So unpledged or uncon nected was he considered on his return, that Lord Moira offered him a seat in Parliament though the influence ofthe Court. The effect of this failure was long felt by him. It took him two 78 NOTICE OF THE LIFE, WRITINGS, orthree sessions to rally his ambition and energy, recover the ground which he had lost, and reassert his reputation and authority. But the faUure was confined within the walls of Parliament. His continuation of Hume's History of England was announced : the talents of the author, and the merits of the work, were estimated by the magnificent price which he was to receive ; and the public, upon his word, placed him by anticipation, as the classic historian of his country and age, by the side of Hume, Robertson, and Gib bon. He possessed the talent of conversation ; and his reputation in society raised still higher the expectations of the world. Society is said to be less cultivated in London than in other great capitals. It attained at this period its greatest eclat since the age of Anne. The genius and popularity of English living poets, the high estima tion of the art, the marveUous events and extraordinary excitement of the time, the iuflux of distinguished foreigners from the different countries of Europe, rendered certain circles in London brilliant beyond example. Lord Byron was now at the height of his eccen tric career; and Madame de Stael, after having paraded herself and her grievances, during ten years, from city to city on the Con tinent, came to London for the purpose of gathering homage through every gradation, from Grub-street to HoUand House. Sir James Mackintosh squandered his mornings, his evenings, and his faculties on those dazzling circles. He did the honours of the genius of Madarae de Stael; he escorted, introduced and exhibited her; he was himself among those whose acquaintance was sought by stran gers, as one ofthe leading intellects ofhis nation : his presence was thought necessary wherever distinguished talents and the best com pany were combined for social enjoyment or for ostentation. . But what were those frivolous successes of society — those perishable vanities of an hour — compared with the sacrifice of so large a por tion of the small compass of human life, which might have been de voted in thesoUtude of his cabinet to the production of lasting mo numents to his reputation ? The only reraains of his labours at this period are a few occasional papers in the " Edinhurgh Review." Of his contributions to this publicatigp some obtained a certain ce lebrity, and were known to be his : others are less known to the general reader, and were not read as his beyond the literary coteries of London. » f The first paper by him appeared ill November, 1812, on Dugald AND SPEECHES OF SIR J. MACKINTOSH. 79 Stewart's account of a boy born deaf and blind. .\ more interesting subject could not present itself to one who had made the philosophy of mind his particular study. Sir James gives the following account of the means which the sister of this singular creature had invented for communicating with him: — " His sister has devised means for establishing that coraraunication between hira and ofher beings, from which nature seeraed for ever to have cuf bira off. By various raodifications of touch, she conveys to him her satisfaction or displeasure at his conduct^ Touching his head with ber hand is her principal method. This she does with various degrees of force, and in various manners ; and he seems readily to understand fhe intimation intended to be conveyed. Wben she would signify her highest approbation, she pats hira much and cordiaUy, on the head, back, or hand. This expression more sparingly used signifies simple assent ; and she has only to refuse hira these signs of approbation entirely, and repel hira gently, to convey to hira in the most effectual manner the notice of her displeasure. In this manner she has contrived a language of touch, which is not only fhe raeans of com raunication, but the instrument of sorae raorai discipline. To supply its obvious and great defects, she has had recourse fo a language of action, representing those ideas which none of the simple natural signs cognisable by tbe sense of touch could convey. Wben his mother was frora home, his sister aUayed his anxiety for her return, by laying his head gently down on a piUow once for each night that his mother was f o be absent ; implying that he would sleep so many times before ber return. It was once signified to hira that he raust wait two days for a suit of new clothes, and this also was effectually done by shutting his eyes, and bending down his head twice. In the mode of communicating his ideas to others, there is a very remarkable peculiarity. When his eye was pressed by Dr. Gordon, he stretched out his arm, as if to denote that the pressure reminded him of the operation per forraed at fbe raost distant place which he had visited. When he wishes for raeat, he points to the place where he knows it to be ; and when he was desirous of in forming his friends that he was going fo a shoemaker's shop, he imitated the action of making shoes. But though no inforraation is intentionally communicated to hira without touching sorae part of his body, he did not atterapt in any of these cases to touch that of others. To say that he addressed these signs to their sight would be incorrect ; but he raust have been conscious that they were endowed with sorae raeans of interpreting signs without contact, by an incomprehensible faculty which nature had refused to hira." '¦' " As the materials of all human thought and reasoning enter fhe mind, or arise in it at a period which is prior fo fhe operation of memory^ and under the simulta neous action of all the senses, it is extremely difflcult to ascertain what perceptions belong originally and exclusively to each of tbe organs of external sense. Our no tion of every object is made up of the impressions which if makes on all the organs. Whatever may be thought of fhe mental acts which originally unites these various impressions, it seeras evident that, in the actual state of every human understand ing, the labour is to disunite them. Every common man thiuHs of thera, and em ploys thera in their compound state. To analyse them is an operation suggested by philpspphy ; and which, in the usual state of things, must always be most imper fectly perforraed. A' raan who, frora tbe beginning, had aUhis senses coraplete, must havc had all these impressions ; and never can banish any of thera from his mind. 80 NOTICE OF THE LIFE, WRITINGS, He can, indeed, attend to some of thera so rauch more than to others, that he may seem to exclude altogether that which he neglects. But to the perceptions of which he is conscious much wiU adhere, coraposed of ingredients so minute and subtle, as to elude the power of wiU,and to escape the grasp of consciousness. He can ap^ proach analysis only hy efforts of attention very imperfectly successful, and by sup positions often precarious, and, when pressed to fheir ultiraate consequences, often also repugnant and inconceivable. For such purposes some philosophers have ima gined inteUigent beings with no ofher sense than that of vision ; and others have represented their own hypothesis respecting the origin and progress of perception, linder the history of a statue successively endowed with the various organs of sense. If is evident, however, that such suppositions can do no more than iUustrate the peculiar opinions of the supposer, and cannot prove that which, in the nature of things, they pre-suppose. " But when one inlet is entirely blocked up, we fhen really see fhe variation in the stale of the compound, produced by the absence of part of its ingredients ; and hence it has happened, that the cure and education of the deaf and blind, besides their higher character among the triumphs of civUised benevolence, acquire a con siderable, though subordinate, value, as almost the only great experiments which metaphysical philosophy can perform. Even these experiraents are incomplete. Knowledge, opinion, and prejudice, are infused into the blind through the ear ; and when they are accustomed to employ the mechanisra of language, they learn the use of words as signs of things unknown, and speak with coherence and propriety on subjects where fhey raay have no ideas. To fix the limits of the thoughts of a Wind raan who hears and speaks, is a problera beyond the reach of our present at tainments in phUosophy. That Saunderson and Blacklock could use words cor rectly and consistently, without corresponding ideas, seems to be certain ; but how far their privation of thought extended beyond fhe province of light and colours, we do' not seem yet to possess the raeans of deterraining. On the other hand, the deaf eraploy the sense of sight, — fhe most rapid and comprehensive of fhe subordinate faculties, of the highest imngrtance for the direct original information which it con veys, as well as for the great variety of natural signs of which it takes cognisance, and for the conventional signs which fhe abbreviation of its natural language sup pUes. Massieu, evidently a mind of a far higher order than that of the poet or the raathematician whom we have mentioned, is also excluded from less knowledge ; and if he were to reason on the theory of sound, there appears no ground for expecting that he might not employ his words with as much exactness as Sanderson displayed in the employment of algebraic signs. The information conveyed by the ear, respect ing the condition of outward objects, is comparatively smaU. But its great iraportance consists in being fhe organ which renders it possible to use a conventional language on an extensive scale, and nnder almost aU circumstances. The eye is fhe grand interpreter of natural signs. A being alraost entirely deprived of bofh is a new object of phUosophical examination." Sir James Mackintosh had not wUnessed the theatric exhibitions of Massieu at the school of the deaf and dumb in Paris, when he thus supposed him to possess a higher order of mind than San derson. The prodigy in Massieu was his dictating by signs, with the precision and rapidity of speech, to another deaf and dumb pupil who wrote down the verses of Voltaire or Racine, in the "Hen- riade" or the " Andromaque." But this proved rather the perfection AND SPEECHES OF SIR J. MACKINTOSH. 81 to which the laoguage of signs had been brought, than the capacity of those who executed the process. His definitions of terms ex pressing complex ideas were fanciful or sentimental, rather than metaphysical or correct; his understanding ofthe vocabulary of the French language was limited and uncertain ; he gave no proof of his being more than ordinarily endowed with the reasoning and inventive power. The next appearance of Sir James is in the number dated Oc tober, 1813, as the reviewer of "Poems by Samuel Rogers." He speculates upon the philosophy of poetry as foUows : — "It raay seem, very doubtful, whether the progress and the vicissitudes of the elegant arts can be referred fo fhe operation of general laws, with the same plan- ¦sibUity as the exertions of the more robust faculties of the human raind, in the Severer forms of science and of useful art. The action of fancy and taste seems to be affected by causes fco varipus and minute to be enuraerated with sufflcient cora- plefeness for the purposes of phUosophical theory. To explain thera may appear to be as hopeless an atfetnpt as to account .for one summer beil^ more warm and geniai than another. The difficulty must be owned fo be great. It renders cPm- plefe explanations impossible ; and it would be insurmountable, even in framing the most general outline of theory, if the various forms ass|imed by imagination, in fbe fine arts, did not depend on some of the most conspicuous as well as JJOWerful agents in fhe raorai world. They arisfe from revolutions of popular sentiments. They are connected with the opinions of the age, and with the manners of the refined class, as certainly, though not as much, as with the passions of tbe ttulli- tuder The cpmedy pf a polished ^ raonarchy never could be of the same character with that ofa bold and tumultuous democracy. Changes of religion and df govern ment, civil or fo»eign wars, conquests which derive splendour from distanee, or extent, or difficulty; long tranquillity; — all these, and, indeed, every coikoeivable modification ofthe state of a coramunity, show themselves in the tone of its poetry, and leave long and, deep traces on every part of its Uterature. Geometry is the same,, not only at London and Paris,' but in the extremes of Athens and Samarcand. But the state of the general feeUng i« England, at this, moment, requires a .dif ferent poetry from fhat whichxIeUghted our ancestors inthe time of Luther or Alfred. It ought to be needless to guard this language from misconception, by an obser-; vation so obviously implied, as that there are some qualities which-yiUSt be ootn'mon to all delightful poems of every time and country. " During the greater part of fhe eighteenth century, the connexion of the cha racter of English poetry with the state of the country was very easily traced. The period 'Which extended frohi the Engli^ to the French Revolution was the golden age of authentic history. Governments were secure; nations tranquij; impr'ove- Bients rapid ; manners raild beyond the example of any former age. The English • natiPrt, which possessed th6 greatest pf all human blessings, a wis^ly-construCted poptflaf goVei'ntnent, netesSiirily enjoyed the largest share of every other benfefit- ITie tranquillity of th,it fortunate period was not disturbed by any of those cala- mhlPWS, of even extraordinary, evenfjs, which excite the imaginatien and inflame the passiptl'S. Np age was raofe eiempt from the prevalence of any species of popular enthusiasm. Poetry, in this state bf things, partook of thaf calra, argumentative, moral, and directly useful character, into which if natui'ally subsides, when there I. 6 82 NOTICE OF THE LIFE, WRITINGS, are no events which^call up the higher passions ; 'when every talent is allured into the immediate service ofa prosperous and improving society ; and when wit, taste, diffused litterature, and fastidious criticism, combine to deter the young writer from the more arduous enterprise of poetical genius. In such an age, every art becomes rational. Reason is fhe power w'hich presides in a calra ; but reason guides rather than impels ; and though it miist regulate every eiertion of genius, if never can rouse if to vigorous action." It maybe doubted, from the foregoing passage, whether the mind and habsb of Sir James Mackintosh were not better suited to gene ralise upon morals and metaphysics than upon works of imagination and taste. The reader may ask himself how far he is enlightened by this passage, and will, perhaps, detect some obvious truisms disguised in the vocabulary of speculation. It is easy to perceive that he was already touched with the German fashion of literary criticism, but without those abstruse principles, the difficulty of fathoming which may arise from darkness as well as from depth. Having followed the progress of poetry, and traced the history of taste, from the rude ages to his own time, he thus characterises the genius of two living poets, then objects of distant gaze to the reading public, and inhaling in person the luxurious incense of fashionable society in London. Of Byron he says, — "Even the direction given fo fhe traveller by the accidents of war has not been without its influence. Greece, the mother of freedom and of poetry in the West, which had long employed only the antiquary, the artist, and the philologist, was at length destined, after an interval of many silent and inglorious ages, to awaken the genius ofa poef. Full of enthusiasm for those perfect forms of heroism and liberty; which his imagination had placed in the recesses of antiquity, he gave vent to his impatience of the imperfections of living men and real institutions, in an. original strain of subUme satire, which clothes moral anger in imagery of an almost horrible grandeur; and which, though it cannot coincide with the estimate of reason, yet could only flow from that worship of perfection, which is fhe soul of all true poetry." The following, with an equivocal bow in passing to the supre macy of Scott, is his sketch of Moore :^- " The tendency of poetry fo become national was in more than one case remark able. WhUe the Scottish middle age inspired the rapst popular poef, perhaps, of fhe eighteenth century, the national genius of Ireland at length found a poetical representative, whose exquisite ear and flexible fancy wantoned in all the varieties of poetical luxury.-^from fhe levities to the fondness of love, from polished plea santry to ardent passion, and from the social joys, of private life to a tender and mournful patriotisra, taught bythe melancholy fortunes of an illustrious country, -with a range adapted to every nerve in the coraposition of a people susceptible of aU feeUngs which have the colour of generosity, and raore exempt, probably, than any other frora degrading and unpoetical vices." AND SPEECHES OF SIR J. MACKINTOSH. ' 83 There is something dexterously antibiguous in the supremacy adjudged to Scott. The reflection could not escape the reader, and assuredly did not escape Sir James, that the first poets of their respective ages have rarely been the most popular. It re mains to give his estimate of the accomphshed poet whose name figures at the head of the review : — "In estimating the poetical rank of Mr. Rogers, if raust, not be forgotten that popularity never can arise from elegance alone. The vices of a poem may render it popular, and virtues of a faint character may be sufficient to preserve a languish ing and cold reputation ; but lo be both popular poets and classical writers, is the rate lot of those few who are released from all solicitude about their literary fame. If often happens to successful writers, that the lustre of their first productions throws a temporary cloud over some of those which follow. Of all Uterary misfor tunes, this is the most easily endured, and fhe most speedUy repaired. It is gene rally no more than a raoraentary illusion produced by disappointed admiration, which expected more from fhe talents of the admired writer than any talents .could perform. " Mr. Rogers has long passed tbat period of probation, during which it may be excusable to feel some painful solicitude about the reception of every new work. Whatever may be the rank assigned hereafter to his writings, when compared fo each other, the writer has most certainly taken his place among the classical poets of his country." The supposition is more than poetically "probable, that, on the evening of the day on which this solemn arbitration of poetical claims was promulgated to the town, the judge and the parties regaled together unmasked. It has been said of the Roman au gurs, that they could scarcely have met without laughing in each other's faces. The history of priestcraft would not afford more edifyiiig disclosures than the history of reviews. But profane iii- trusion upon the one may be as inadvisable as upon the other^ and periodical criticism would not the less remain what it is, — the great Standing mystification of the age. Lord Byron, in the'journal kept by.him at this period, records the event with a gravity which shows that a person endowed with the quickest and most unscrupulous sense of humour and the ridiculous may be insensible to both where he is himself concerned. "Redde," says he, "the Edinburgh Review of Rogers ; he is ranked highly, but where he should be. There is a summary view of us aU, — Moore aiid me among the rest; and both (the first justly) praised, thtJugh by impfication (justly again) placed beneath our memorable friend. Mackintosh is the writer, and also of the critique on Stael. His grand essay Dl NdflCE OP THE tiPE, WRitllSIGS, m Bwi*ei I hear, is for th* nett nniiiber." * Sir James's gtand essay m Bttt-I* was afever ^vriltefl. Tbe saMe Humbw contains his revie* ofth* "(^ermatij?" of Madame de Stael. Tht vttga* of Madame de StaSl, the curittslty *f <*e puWic f*Sp6t3littg the work. And the reputation of the re viewer, soon proclaimed to be Sir James Mackintosh, made the article an object of particular notice ; its popularity was such, that k was soon repHblished in the form of a pamphlet. It is easy to s«e Ihat whete Sir James proiaouncEs on the merits of the lady, and ot the book, he must have drawn upon his skill in panegyric rather than upon his literary conscience ; and that therefore his Opittiofts on the geneiral Sulg'etit are thc more valuable, whilst his compliments may be the more ingenious, parts of his review. After adverting to the stat« and progress of literature in otber natitjfts, hfe says vi Gennatiy,— "Snt Gtermafiy remained a solilaf-y esattple of a civilised, learned, and Sdtentific HatiPh Withftnt A Htefature. The chivalrous ballads of the middle age, and the <*roW;S pf the Sihisian fiPfetS M the beginning of the seventeenth cenlttry, were just stflficietrt to render the general deftect raorfe 'Striking. French \vas the langaagfe of every court ; and fhe number of courts in Germany rendered this circumstancfe almost equivalent to fhe exclusion of German from every society of rank. Phi- lOBpphers employed a barbarous Latin, as they bad throughout all Europe, tUI wb ReforMation had ^vCh dignity to the vernacular tongues, by employing them ia IKe setvice of reUgion ; iand till Montaigne, GaUleo, and &co» brf&e apw* fhe -batriers bettwebn the lefirned aitd the people, by philosophising in a popular. lm« guage, the German language continued to be the mere instrument of the raost viilgaf intercourse of life. Gerraany liad, therefore, no exclusive mental posses- >ait**, fi* fpstry and «Idt[«ietfce majr, and in sofne measure Must, he national : btft luiowledge, Whieh is the epramou patrimony vt liivilised raet, can be ajiproprieited by nojieeple. " A great revolution, however, at length began, vfhich in the course of Wlf a cattui^ tewnHiatieA A bewowittg on Germany a Uterature, perhaps fh« itro«t eharacteristie possessed ^sy any fiwrcqieati nation. It had the itnpartant petMliarif])' of being the first which had its birth in an enlighten«d age. The imagination ahd sfensibility of an infant poetry were singularly blended with the refineraents of •ptSosbjIhy. X studimis and learned peojile, fauilliay; in the •poets of bther natidni w** «ie -flist sinJpliei^ of nature atnl feeliig, were top ofteft terapted va seekno^ velfy in tlie sanguh*, the excessive, -aad 4he moAeti-OHS. Thdr *»»<* whS attracted towards the deformities and diseases of moral nature ; the wUdness of an ihfant ¦fiseiraltffe, tJbrahmed -vVilh the eccentric and fearless speCuialiOfls bf a philosb^hifcal age. Some rff the -^aWieft of th* eHfldhWl *f aw were united to OthWB Vrtirtdi ««HaUy attend its fdSoUne., G«Nhan ISteraturfe, various, riohj, bold, and at Jei^, by an inversion ef the usual progress, working itself into originality, was tainted ? immA M Ldra «5>fo«, in Mtiote's t?ffe."Meftsfes the spettih^ "*feide, titSttgW- o«t thfe ilownal, From'-irftedatimi, «r-'becanse his niibd tmwnscioitsty ketamje imbued with arcaisms in composing "'tlhilde Harold," AND SPEECHES OF SIR I MACKINTOSH. ^ with'tjie exa^geratio^ natural to the imitator, afld to ?ill (hpsft vvfeo Hnow Ito passions rather by study than by feeling." The foUowtng may be taken as a sample of his skill in compli ment: — ^ The voice of PnTepe has aloeady applauded th« genius of a iiatipnal painter 'm the fiifthor of 'Corinne ; but it was there ?ided by the ppfwer of a p ^:|l^.tic f (jtioii— by the variety and opposition of natipnal charactei-a-and by t>e cbarm a so i&terestitig to Sir Jam^s Maokintosh, from his sense of public jiisticie and kaowl&dgfc of pubfit right, could not have passed untouched by bim. His speech on this, as on many suhse- tpweat ©ecaSfoos, appesHfs lo hav« been iaiperfeetly rep»rt«d. He feys down fhe prindpfe of tig'ht as foBow*S :— 94 NOTICE OF THE LIFE, WRITINGS, " Puffendorff holds, that a prince might withdraw biS garrisons ; might recaU his officers; and might transfer his own right to, another ; but that he could not cede or sell men. He could not, in fact, carry on a whife slave trade. ''The comraonwealth, no matter under what form it was administered, — whether by a senate, a king, or any other authority, — was the patrimony of the people. Their rights could not be ¦ transferred without their consent." The blockade was called " merciful" by Mr. Stephen. He was thus answered by Sir James : — " Whether the insurrection in Norway were the act of the Norwegian people, or the work of a mere faction, had, it seeraed, become a question ; and this question fhe British rainisters proposed truly to decide by starving fhe whole, in order to render them unanimous ! Yet this was denominated, by his learned friend who spoke last, a merciful war. What! thaf war merciful which threatened to famish a people, only because fhey loved their country, and refused to submit fo a foreign power which they detested — -only because they preferred independence to sub jugation ; and he heartily wished they might succeed in maintaining fhat inde pendence." He took a more conspicuous and important share in the debates of the following year. The war with America terminated early in the session. A wretched triumph in that disreputable war — the devastation of the city of Washington's noticed and stigma tised by him as follows : — For every justifiable purpose of present warfare it wbs almost impotent. To every wise object of prospective poUcy jf was bosfUe. It was an attack, not against fhe strength or the resources of a state, but against the national honour and public affections of a people. After twenty-five years of the fiercest Warfare, in which every great capital of the European continent had been spared, he liad alraost said respected, by eneraies, it was reserved for England to violate all thaf decent cour tesy towards the seats of national dignify, which, in fhe midst of enmity, manifests the respect pf nations for each other, by an expedition deliberately and principally directed against palaces of government, haUs of legislation, tribunals of justice, re- ppsitories of fhe -muniments of property and of the records of history ; objects among civiUsed nations exempted frora the ravages of war, and secured, as far as possible, even frora its accidental operation, because they contribute nothing to the means of hostility, but are consecrated to purposes of peace, and minister to the comraon and perpetual interest of all human society. It seemed to him an aggra vation of this atrocious measure, that ministers had .attempted to justify the de struction of a distinguished capital, as a retaliation for some violences of Inferior American officers, unauthorised and disavowed by their govemment, against he knevv not what village in Upper Canada. To make such retaliation just, there must always be clear proof pf the oiitrage ; in general, also, sufficient evidence that the adverse government refuSed to make due reparation for it ; and at least, some pro- portio"n of the punishment f o the offence. Here, there was very imperfect evidence of the outrage ; no proof of refusal to repair ; and deraonstration of the excessive and monstrous iniquify'of vyhatwas falsely called retaliation. The value of a capital AND SPEECHES OF SIR J. MACKINTOSH. .9.5 is not to be estimated by its houses, and warehouses, and shops. It consisted chiefly in what could be neither nurabered nor weighed. It was not even by the elegance or grandeur of its monuments that it was most dear fo a generous people. They looked upon it with affection and pride, as the seat of legislation, as the sanc tuary of public justice, often as linked with the meraory of past times, sometiraes still raore as connected wifh their fondest and proudest hopes of greatness to corae. To put all these respectable feelings of a great people, sanctified by the iUustrious name of Washington, on a level with half a dozen wopden sheds in fhe temporary seaf of a provincial government, was an act of intolerable insolence, and iraplied as much contempt for the feelings of America as for the coraraon sense of raankind." The chief object of this speech, on the treaty with the United States, seems to have been the popularity of his name in America ; and he completely succeeded. His reputation appears to have been exalted, and his name cherished with partial kindness, by the Americans, from this period to his death. The marvellous episode of the escape of Napoleon drew from him an eloquent speei,ch in Support of a motion on the subject by Mr. Abercrombie. The foUowing passage may be cited as a specimen of his employment of sarcasm as a weapon of debate — in the use of which, without being distinguished, he was by no means inexpert: — " But the most serious question undoubtedly reraained ! :^apoleon was an inde pendent prince. If would be an insult fo his dignify to watch his raovements. It , would be a violation of his independence to restrain them. They who had starved Norway intosubjectioii — they who sanctioned the annihilation of Poland, and the subjugation of Venice — ^they whose hands were scarcely withdra\vn frora the in-, strument which transferred Genoa to a hated' raaster — ^were suddenly seized with the most profound reverence for the independent sovereign of Elba, ahd shrunk with horror from the idea of saving the peace of Europe .by preventing fhe departure of Napoleon Bonaparte from Porto Ferrajo ! He must believe, that if the danger had Been discussed at the Congress of Vienna, and if any paradoxical minister had raade any scruples about the independence of Elba, his scruples would have been received with a general laugh. Count Nesselrode could quote the precedent of Stanislaus at Moscow. Prince TaUeyrand would have been ready vvith that of Ferdinand at Valencay. The Congress would scarcely have avowed that aU their respect for independence was monopoUsed by Napoleon." . The speech delivered by him in this session, on the. transfei? of Genoa, is among the ablest which he made in parliament. It was his own motion; and he now appears, for the first tiine, put forward and supported by the great body of the Whigs. His speech is an elaborate composition : he seems to have felt that his reputation would rise or fall with the event. It may be necessary to state briefly the circumstances under which Genoa was annexed OB- NOTICE OF THE HFE, WRITINGS, to Sardinia. Lord WiUiam Bentinck, representative of the English government in Italy, called upon the Italians, in the name of inde- ptodence and their country, to expel the French. They trusted to this pledge of British faith and honour. It was redeemed by consigning Venice and the whole of Lombardy to the barbarian despotism of Austria, and Genoa to the odious and despised sovereignty of Sardinia. The Genoese had a much stronger case than the Milanese or 'Venetians. Lord William Bentinck, when occupying Genoa with British troops, in April, 1814, proclaimed " the Genoese nation restored to that ancient govern ment under which it enjoyed liberty,, prosperity, and indepen dence;" and the ancient construction was resjored. All went on happily to the following December, when Lord Castlereagh announced to them,' from the Congress of Vienna, their. incorpo ration with the continental teritories of the king of Sardinia. Genoa, " the sup^b," thus despoiled of her laws, liberties, inde pendence, andexistence as. a state, was one of the finest subjects of popular oratory. Sir James brought to bear upon it all his resources as a student of public right and of the philosophy of historyi, " What, fhen, wUl the House decide concerning the morality of compelling Genoa to submit to the yoke of Piedmont, — a state which the .Genoese have constantly dreaded and hated, and against whora their hatred was sharpened by continual apprehensions for thejr independence ? Whatever construction raay be atterapted of Lord WiUiam Bentinek's proclaraations^whafever sophistry raay be used suc cessfully to persuade you that Genoa was disposable as a conquered territory — vpiU yon affirm thaf the disposal of it to Piedraont was a just and humane exercise Pf your power as a conqueror ? " If is for this reason, among others, thaf I detest and execrate fhe modern doc trine of rounding territory, and following natural boundaries, and melting down BmaH states into masses, and substituting lines of defence, and right and left flanks, instead df justice andthe law of nations, and ancient possession and national feel ing ; the system of Louis XIV. and Napoleon, of the spoilers of Pplaad, and the spoUers of "Norway and Genoa-, — the systera which the noble Lord, when newly ar rived frora the Congress, and deeply imbued with its doctrines, had delivered, in his ample and elaborate invective against fhe memory and principles of ancient Eu rope, when he condensed fhe whol The question of Bank forgeries was submitted by him to the House of Commons twice in the course of this session. A series of resolutions which he proposed were adopted by tbe House. His next proceeding was to move a committee of enquiry. Tbe previous exertions of Sir James Mackintosh, and of Sir Samuel Roniilly from an early period, had already made such an impres sion on the public, that tbe government admitted the necessity of enquiry, and substituted, as an amendment, the appointment of commissioners under the great seal. Tbe amendment was carried. The death of Sir Samuel Romilly, under mournful circumstances, took place before tbe next meeting of Paijiament ; and tbe task of proposing mitigations of the criminal code devolved solely on Sir James Mackintosh. On tbe 3d of March, in the following session of 1819, be moved the appointment of a committee to enquire into so much of the criminal laWs as related to capital felonies. The speech with which he introduced his Motion was prsliSed by Mr. Canning as a combination of luminous arrangement and pow erful argument, with chaste and temperate eloquence. It was an admirable statement of facts and reasons ; and, therefore, 10 he justly estimated, must be read as a whole. He was met by minis ters with the previous question: his motion was carried by a majority of 147 to 128, and the House rang with cheers. 102 NOTICE OF THE LIFE, WRITINGS, it is observable that Sir James Mackintosh, since bis entrance into Parliament, confined his speeches almost wholly to questions of foreign pohcy, and to subjects of domestic legislation, in which party had little share. His name does not appear in the strife of party and debate upon , those measures of the government and motions of the opposition which grew out of public distress, discontent, popular excesses, and criminal organisations, among large masses of the labouring people. The passing of the Foreign Enlistment Act, out of complaisance to Ferdinand VIL, King of Spain, or rather to the spirit of despotic power in the Holy Al liance, remains a signal proof of the parliamentary strength and inherent meanness of the administration of that day. It was opposed by Sir James Mackintosh, in a speech of surpassing elo quence and effect, of which, unhappUy, there are but very imperfect remains. The close of the passage in his speech, of which the following version in the Parliamentary Debates is but an imperfect outline, was received by the House of Commons witb acclama tion : — " What would fhe scrupulous politicians of the present times say, when he men tioned the name of one ofthe greatest princes and most valiant leaders fhat Europe had ever beheld, — a raan whose sword had vindieated fhe cause of civU and religious libertyagainst the corabined efforts of tyrannical power, — what, he asked,- would they say when he referred thera to fhe instance of Gustavus Adolphus, who had in his pay, not a SmaH proportion of British troops, not a Uttle smuggled array, headed by a few half-pay ofEcers, on board a transport or two in the Downs, but a band of 6000 men, raised in Scotland ; and by whose co-operation with a handful of ofher troops he was enabled fo traverse a- great part of Europe, fo vanquish fhe host that opposed him, and to burst fhe galUng fetters of Gerraany? And who was the chief by whora those 6000 British troops were led ? Not an adventurer, — not a gir Gregor M'Gregor, of whom he knew litfle, and for whora he cerfainly cared less, — but the Marquis of Harailtoh ; a man of the first distinction and consequence in his own country — fhe personal friend of fhe king — frpm whom, however, he had no licence. At that time the Spanish and Imperial arabassadors were resident in Londonj but neither of theip presuraed fp remonstrate, or to make a demand Uke thaf Which had been made in fhe present day. It was expressly laid down by V.ittel, that a nation did not commit a brieach of neutrality by allowing its suhj&ts f b enter info the service of one beUigerent, and refusing the same permission with respect to another. There was one case more, which occurred in the reign of James I., to which he could not help adverting. At that period a great body of English troops, commanded by one of the most gallant captains of his day. Sir Horace Vere, served against the Spaniards, and received pay frora a foreign power. Yet Gondemar, the Spanish ambassador, whom King Jaraes was endeavouring by the. raost servile and abject submission to conciliate— who raight be alraost terraed the viceroy of Spain in this country— who had suflicient influence to cause the murder of that most distinguished individual, the ornament ofhis native country and of Europe, who AND SPEECHES OF SIR J. MACKINTOSH. 103 united in himself more kinds of glory than had perhaps ever been combined in an individual — that intrepid soldier, that skUful mariner, thaf historian, that poet, that phUosopher, that statesman — Sir Walter Raleigh; — Gondomar, whose power pro tected him from the punishment he deserved for such an act, dared not go so far as fo require the boon which his Majesty's ministers now caUed on the House of Commons of England to have the condescension fo grant ! The present was not a more important question as it affected the ruined cpmraerce of a great country, (han as it established a raost- dangerpus precedent. Wifh what authority would the envoys of despotic powers henceforward besiege the doors of a British rainister wifh the most disgraceful clairas ! Witb what unanswerable force would they say, ' You granted this with facUity to Spain, and you granted if when Spain was under the dorainion of Ferdinand VII. : on what ground can you withhold if from OS ?' - Dangerous and degrading would it indeed be, if Ferdinand VII. could prevail' on an assembly of British gentlemen fo establish a precedent which would subject the British government f o be dictated to in future tiraes by persons — if any such there could possibly be — resembling bira in character. What they had refused to ¦the greatest of modern military tyrants and despotic sovereigns — what they had denied to Louis XIV. and PhiUp II. — they, were required to give to such a raan as Ferdinand VILi The reigning sovereign of Spain, whose character he would not trust himself to describe, bad achieved an object in which all his predecessors had (ailed. He had roade those bend to him — "Quos nee Tydides nee Larissseus AchiUes,'" Mr. Grattan died in 1820. The mover of a new writ for Dub lin to supply his place would be expected to pronounce an eulogy . upon bis character. Sir John Newport declined the motion, as requiring a species of eloquence inconsistent with his 'ambition and style. The task was imposed upon Sir James Mackintosh. Whether from the want of preparation, of which there is some evidence, or because the success of such performances depends ¦ upon graceful turns of phrase, touching allusions, happy in spirations, and a famiUar knowledge of the deceased, the eulogy of Sir James is a failure. His prelude on funeral orations in general is longer than his eulogy of the subject of bis own. Pane gyric on the dead was, be observed, not consistent with the character, habits, and simplicity of Englishmen. It was a, practice more suited to a land of slaves than to a land of freemen. He here meant evidently to contrast the English with the French— not, perhaps, in his best taste — and proscribed the funeral eulogies of the French pulpit and French academy. The academy may be given up to bim ; it has produced little else than ingenious pieces of rhetoric and adulation. Rut it sbould be remembered that the French puIpU produced the funeral panegyrics of Bossuet, Fle- chiec, Bourdaloue, and Massillon, Slaverv no more inspired Ihe 104 NOTICE OF THE LIFE, WRITINGS, eloquence of those immortal orations, than it inspired the^funeral character of the Duke of Bedford by fox, or that of Franklin by Mirabeau. There is not, perhaps, a finer or a more fitting theme for sacred or civic eloquence than the bier. If it could be culti vated by slaves, how much more nobly might it be exercised by the free? It is; doubtiess, little to be abused and vulgarised ; but this is the lot of every talent and eyery art. Sir James having shown that panegyrics of the dead are forbidden by the character of the English people ; that, however, on certain rare occasions, the House of Commons might depart from the rule ; and that the late member for Dublin came within the range of exceptive cases ; gives the foHowing sketch of Grattan in his pubhc and private life:— " Mr. Grattan had been particularly distinguished in the course of his parliament ary career. He was the first (so far as he was informed), and certainly he was the only, individual of onr age fo whora Pariiament had voted a recompence for services rendered fo the country by one who was no more than a private gentleman, and who had neither civil nor mUitary honours< Mr. Grattan was the only raan to whora a parliamentary grant, under such honourable circumstances, had ever been made. If was near' forty years since fhe Irish parliaraent voted an estate to Mr. Grattan and his family for his publie services ; not, indeed, as a recompence, because it was wholly impossible f o recompence snch services, but, as the vote itself ex pressed it, ' as a testimony of t'he national gratitude for great national services.' , TheSe were the words of the grant. He need not remind the House what those Services were, or what were the pecuUar terras on which they were acknowledged ; the only thing necessary to be said was this,-^fhat he was the founder of the liberties bf his country/ Mr. Grattan found that country a dependent province upon England, and he made her a friend and an equal : he gave to her native li berties, and he gave a narae araong the nations of the ea*th to a brave and generous- people. So fer as he (Sir James Mackintosh) knew, this was the only raan recorded in history, whose happiness attd glory it was to have Uberated his country from the doraination of a foreign poweff, not by arras and blood, but by his wisdom and eloquence. It was IMr. Grattan's peculiar felicity, that he enjoyed as* much con sideration in that coufilry whose power over his own ,he had done his utraost to decrease, as he enjoyed in that for which he had achieved that important liberation.- But there were stiU more peculiar features in the general character and respect which he was so fortunate as fo maintain in both kingdoms. It must be admitted that no grfeat political services could be rendered to raankind withput incurring a variety of opinions, and of honourable poUtical enmities. ' It was, then, to be con sidered as the pecuUar felicity ofthe man whose loss they deplored, that he survived them for a period of forty years ; he survived fiU the mild, mellowing hand of time, aM the Jirivate virtues of advanced age, in him so particularly conspicuous,, had produced so general an impression, that that House, divided as it waS on other subjects, aU united to do honour to his talents and merits; and, foUowc^d by their adrairation to the end of his career,' he doubted not that the tribute which he caUed on the House to render to his memory would be deep, sincere, and unanimous. He had said that stfch hoiiottrs should only be bestowed in cast's Wherfe posterity AND SPEECHES OF SIR J. MACKINTOSH. 105 would be sure to approve the decision. Grattan, he was certain every one must feel, would be a great name in our annals. His life would fill a most important space Upon fhe page of history; for if would be connected with the greatest events of the last century. Fertile as the British empire had been in great men during our •'^ys (*s fertile as It had been in any former period of our histpry), Ireland had undoubtedly contributed her full share of them. But none of these — npne of her mighty names, not even those of Burke, and Sheridan, and. WeUington— were raore certain of honourable fame, or wpuld descend with' mure glpry fo future ages, than that pf Grattan." * * • it * * "If he might be permitted fp mention the circumstance, he would observe that there was one ' strong peculiarity in Mr. Grattan's parliamentary history, which was, perhaps, not true of any other man who ever sat in that House. He was the sole person, in the history of modern oratory, of whom it could be said fhat he - had arrived at the first class of elpquence in two pariiaments, differing frora each other in fheir opinions, tastes, habits, and prejudices, as much, possibly, as any "two assemblies of two different nations. Confessedly the first orator of his own country (of which he would say that wit and humour sprang up thefe more. spon taneously than in any other soil), he had come over to this country at a time when the taste of that House had been rendered justiy severe by its daily habit of hear ing speakers such as the world had rarely before witnessed. He had, therefore, to encounter great names on the one hand, and unwarrantable expectations on the otjier. These were his difficulties, and he overcame fhem aU. He had out stripped the affectionate expectations of his friends ; and he had raade those bend to his superior genius, who had, perhaps, forraed a very different estimate of his powers." * ic * * ,* "This great raan died in the attempt to diseharge"'his- parliamentary duties. He did not, indeed, die in fhat House, but he died in his progress fo it, fo continue his efforts in that cause of which he had so long been the eloquent advocate. He expired in the public service, sacrificing his life with the same willingness and cheerfulness with which he had ever devoted his exertions to the same cause. ' "-ft * * • * " The purify of his private fife was equal to the brightness of his public glory. He was one of the few private men whose private virtues were followed by pubUe fame ; he was one of the few public men whose private virtues were tp be cited as examples to fhose who would foUow his public steps. He was as eminent in his observance of all the duties of private life as he was heroic in the discharge of his- pubUc ones. He (Sir J. Mackintosh) had not fhe honour to know Mr. Grattan until late in life. Among those men of genius whom he (Sir J. Mackintosh) had had the happiness of knowing, he had always found a certain degree of simplicity accompanying the possession of fhat splendid endowment. But, among aU the men of genius he had known, he had never, in advanced age, met wifh a man irt whom native grandeur of mind, with vast stores of knowledge at his command, was so happily blended- with rational playfulness and infantile siraplicity — such , native grandeur of soul accompanying aU the wisdom of age, and aU the simplicity of genius — as in Mr. Grattan. He had never knpwn any pne in whom the softei^ quaUties of the soul corabined so happily with the mightier powers of the intellect. In short, if he were to describe his character briefly, he should say, with the- ancient historian, that he was ' vitA innocentissimus ; ingenio florentissiraus ; pre posito sanctissiraus.' As it had been the object of his life, so it was his dying prayer, that all Classes of men might be uiiited bythe ties Pf amity and peace. 106 NOTICE Of the life, WRITINGS, The last words whieli he uttered were, in fact, a prayer that the interests of the two kingdoms of Great Britain and Ireland might be for ever united in the bonds of affection ; that they might both cling to their ancient jind free constitution ; and (as most conducive to effect bofh these objects) that legislature might at length see the wisdom and propriety of adopting a measure which should efface the last stain of religious intolerance from our institutions. He trusted that he should not be thought too fanciful, if he expressed his hope that'the honours paid to Mr. Grat tan's raemory in -this country might havc sorae tendency to proraote the great objects ofhis life, by showing to Ireland how rauch we valued services rendered to her, even at the expense of our own prejudices and pride. The man who had so served her must ever be the object of the reverential gratitude and pious re collections of every Irishraan. When the iUustrious dead were gathered into one coramon tomb, aU national distinctions faded away, and fhey seeraed fo be con- - nected with us by a closer union than laws or governments could produce. It was natural fo -dwell on fheir.merits, and on their prpbable reward ; and he felt thaf he could not better close what he had to say on this subject, than by applying to Mr. Grattan the Unes written on one who had successfuUy laboured to refine our faste and our manners, but who had nothing in coraraon with Mr. Grattan but a splendid imagination and a spotless Ufe. Of Mr. Grattan, when he should be carried fo that spot where slept fhe ashes of kindred greatness, might truly be said, — _ . ' Ne'er to those Chambers where the mighty rest, Since their foondation came a nobler guest ; « Nor e'er was to the bowers,of bUas convey'd; A purer spirit, or more welcome shade.' " The year 1820 was signalised by the momentary success of the attempts in Spain and Italy to deliver those great European peninsulas from slavery. It is unnecessary to do more than recall to the memory of the reader the events of that period, and the part played by the British ministry of that day in its rela:tions with the Holy Alliance. Several motions relating to the state of Europe, ' and the specific wrongs of particular nations, were made by the Opposition in both Houses. The case of Naples excited a strong interest. It was submitted to the House of Commons, by Sir James Mackintosh, on the 21st of February, 1821. His speech, evidently revised by him for the press, remains a valuable monu ment of his talents, and of the eloquence of Parliament. Sir James never forgot the mano8uvre by which Lord Castlereagh impeded his success, and humUiated his pride, at the commencement of his career in the House of Commons. He lost no occasion in private of decrying the capacity, and ridicuUng the oratory, of that minister. It was not, however, till after a considerable lapse of time that he ventured to engage Lord Castiereagh in open combat. This speech contains one of bis most vigorous sallies against an anta gonist, who, from the union of creeping and languid declamation AND SPEECHES OF SIR J. MACKINTOSH. 107 with a certain eluding suppleness of vocabulary, and a tempera ment of spui which could neither be daunted nor inflamed, and might easUy be provoked, was at once feeble and dangerous in debate. " And now he must take the liberty of bespeaking particularly the attention of the House to this part of the irapeachraent againSt Prince Metternich, which was so qbly conducted by the noble Lord. The case stood thus : — Prince Metternich, and the fljther ministers of the allied powers, had proposed to the government of Great ' Britain a system of measures which would enable the present -or any future ad ministration to invite- inf o this country an army, for instance, of 100,000 Russians or AustrianS'. It was in effect a proposition for encamping a whole horde of Cos sacks or Croats in Hyde Park, and for protecting the- free and unbiassed deli berations of that House by an army of Germans and Russians. He begged permission to offer some observations upon this matter. A raeasure, for the first time since the reign of Charles II., had been proposed to his Majesty's governraent by foreign courts, the object of which was no less than for this governraent to enter into a soleran agreement to receive mercenary armies from the Continent to dictate laws to the people of England. Iri case of civil danger, or that which a bad rainister raight be pleased to call civil danger, such a proposition might possibly be entertained ; but those foreign courts had the audacity fo propose to rainisters that they should adrait into the kingdom foreign troops without Urait or restriction. When he said that such a case had not occurred since fhe reign of Charles II., he should have added fhat the present proceeding was, in one respect at least, infinitely more audacious; for the mysterious comraunication which subsisted between Charles and Louis was involved, as such transactions should be, in darkness and obscurity. But, in fhe present instance, this scandalous proposition was pubUshed in the face of all Europe, and intiraation of it had been given to every minister in every court. In the face of Europe, Great Britain was required to receive foreign armies to compose our doraestic quarrels, and to preserve the national tranquilUty. Now, he sbould be ashamed of himself, and of those whora he bad the honour of addressing — he should blush for his country and her Parliaraent — if he could iraagine thaf there was a single EngUshraan among them whose blood did not boil with resentment at the bare suggestion of a foreign power interposing in our doraestic governraent, or a foreign bayonet interfering in our private quarrels. From fhe highest visionary or enthusiast in the country on fhe side of liberty, to the lowest and raost humble labourer it contained; such a proposal would raeet with indignant rejection. " He would pray the House to observe the manner in which this prpppsal of these great miUtary, powers was put forward. Not confent with laying down in theory a principle which they described as appUcable in practice fo aU states, they dared to propose it to England. Upon the whole it appeared, fhen, that they had required the suppression of that which had been framed and instituted upori the greatest authority ; that their proposal went to annihilate a sacred law, which had existed for ages in this country — a corner stone of that venerable constitution around which so raany trophies and memorials of it^ greatness and its policy had been reared in the lapse of centuries. This was the demand of those who had waged war upon fhe Uberties of states, and had violated the rights of raan. If this were so, as he had stated it, the most serious part of the matter before the House re mained untold. These sovereigns, or their ministers, told us, in fheir circular, that they had no dPubt of tbe assent of the British government to the principles 108 NOTICE OF THE LIFE, WRITINGS, • * which if contained ; that is, f o a system of measures which would reduce Gfeat Britain to the state of a province — a raiserable and infaraous dependency on the despots ofthe Continent. This was the plain inference. After so many of these demonstrations and declarations, and ' nboucheinefis des rois,' all raade in the true spirit of thaf Holy AlUance which fostered these just, and virtuous, and equitable maxims, the result was, that those courts gave us to understand thaf Great Britain must consent to a.principle fhat should justify the landing of 100,000 Croats and Cossacks af Dover. Those courts would, surely, be very much aggrieved and irri tated at the sudden desertion of fhe noble Lord : they would now treat him— nay, they had already begun to denounce him — as one of the hostile party. It was always to be remarked, that when gentlemen of a certain caUing and descM{itiPil got much together, and embarked on such enterprises as Were generaUy undertaken by persons in their profession^ sorae quarrel arose between them, which ended ia very unfortunate discoveries. These were attended with unpleasant Consequences; and fhe seceders, and those before whora the parties had to appear, were equally objects of resentraent and disgust to those who stiU reraained the faithful com panions of former adventures ; and this recaUed to his raind a Very sensible Obser vation made by the biographer of Jonathan Wild, of honourable meraory. He said that, in fhe time of Charles I., there were Certain cavaliers and good feUpWS, who kept the field a little longer than their brethren, and who, from their extreme gaUantry and fondness of action, not feeling themselves bound by the truces and compacts which sent fheir companions quietly to their homes, were af lasf secured, and infamously left for death by the arbitrary sentence of twelve men of the opposite faction. Now, in the case before the House, they had not only an im peachment of Prince Metternich and Baron Hardenberg frora the noble Lord, but a counter-impeachraent ofthe noble Lord by those two very prirae ministers. This, fhen, was his (Sir J. Mackintosh's) first ground; and, as it was necessary, in fhe case of absentees, fo manifest a more than usual impartiality, it was requisite that he should now say something on behalf of Baron Hardenberg and trince Metter nich. Not only could he produce those two witnesses at fhe bar of the House, but he could produce against the noble Lord a third person — a Russian minister. Count Capo d'lstria said that the noble Lord had induced them all to expect the assent of the British government to fheir proposition. This expectation they entertained, either frora the consenting silence of the noble Lord, or frora that sort of language which diploraatists so weU understood. They maintained fhat, up to the 19th of January last, the noble Lord had disserabled with them — had kept them in ignorance of this unlooked-for issue — and had not only taught them fhat he would put into fheir hands the rights of Europe and the liberties of mankind, but, further, that he would receive info the county of Middlesex whole afmies 8f Russians arid Croats. ¦ Npw, the noble Lord, whose pecuUar character if Was to remain calm and undisturbed through every discussion, however it might personally or poUtically relate to him, would not induce him (Sir J. M.) to suppose that he felt uninterested at that moraent ; for he rather thought fhat that silence was the result of agitation on the part of the noble Lord ; which agitation had, perhaps, led hira to suppose thaf this Was his (Sir J. M.'s) language. But it was not : if waS the language of his colleagues (for he would not call fhem his accompUces)— the lan guage of Prince Metternich and Baron Hardenberg. Here was a document (thfe ¦ foreign circular), in wl^ch the world was told thaf the noble Lord's language tP them had led them to expect a different kind of support from him ; and reaUy, if that was fhe fact, they had, aS regarded themselves, reason to complain. But how stood the noble Lord upon his owri Showing ? ' Habemus Confitentem reUM ; ' and, more than aU this, they bad seen that another noble Lord, being himself So AND SPEECHES OF SIR J, MACKINTOSH. 109 attempt anexplanatipn of the conduct of government, had stated most candidly and eloquently aU the facta— aU the heinousness of this detestable proceeding on the part of the allied ppwers. It was not, however, the infroductipn pf Cossacks and Croats into England which was commented on by the noble Lord opposite in his circular, but (he indictment of Prince Metternich. The noble Lord declared the Prince's proposals to be contrary tp the fundamental laws of this reahn. What laws ? What, hut the BiU of Rights, which our ancestors had providentiy enacted into a law, and which, thaiik Gpd,'Hown to our day, had been effectual in restraining the iUegal exertion of ministerial ppwer." • The mitigation of the criminal law, since the death of Sir Samuel Bomilly, seemed to be regarded by others and himself* as his peeuliar and exclusive subject in tbe House of Commons. It was an honourable mission, and be proved himself worthy of it. The Committee appointed on bis motion in the preceding session made a valuable report ; in pursuance of which, he brought in, on the 9th of May, several bills whicb respectively took away the capital punishment for steaUng privately above the value of 40s. in any dwelling-bouse ; 5s, in any shop or warehouse ; and stealing, without specification of value, on any navigable river ; repealed certain capital enactments become obsolete ; converted several ca pital into simple felonies, and took away the capital punishment in certain forgeries. These bills passed intact through the House of Commons ; but the greater part of the old leaven of barbarism and bloodshed was restored in the House of Lords. He attempted again, in the session of 1 82 1 , to mitigate the punishment of forgery ; but was defeated, on the third reading of his biU in the House of Commons, by a manoeuvre of Lord Londonderry. Opposed and harassed, but not discouraged, and yielding forthe moment to passions and prejudices which no force of reason could immediately overcome, he merely proposed, in the session of 1822, a resolution, pledging the House to consider tbe means of increasii^ tbe efficiency, hy abating tbe undue rigour, of the criminal laws, early in the following session. His speech was distinguished by sound views, and the truest eloquence. He spoke as follows of those pedantic and indiscriminate praises which are lavished by mere lawyers upon tbe law : — "As tP the panegyrics which lawyers by prpfessien were eternally prenouncing upon the laws of the country, while they were iridiscriminating, he (Sir J. M.) thought they were wrong. Uppn pprtipns pf their cpmmendation he agreed with them altogether ; but indiscriminate praise carried back his mind to the words pf that ppet through whese prpse writings even the spirit of 'Paradise Lost' often 110 NOTICE OF THE LIFE, WRITINGS, beamed in ah its vigour ; such coraraendation made him think of the words of that poet, — fbe first defender, let it be remembered, in Europe, of a free press and an unfettered conscience : that bard, in his address to the Lords and Commons of the land, spoke in these terras : — ' Those who freely magnify what has been weU done, and fear not to deelare as freely what might be done better, give fhe truest covenant for their fidelity. Their highest praise is not flattery, and their plainest advice is a kind of praise.' And such was the kind of praise which he (Sir J. M.) would apply to the great principles combineiPin the law of England. To distinguishing praise he offered his full tribute ; and of undistinguishing praise, what, he asked, was the value? Such praise was bestowed upon -the law as it now stood. Why, yes ; and it had been also bestowed before the time of WUUam III., when no man indicted for treason Had a right to a notice of trial, to a copy of his Indictment, or fo a list of the witnesses against him. Such praise had been lavished before the act of the Ist of Queen Anne, when no witnesses could be sworn in favour of a pri soner, and when it was a vain formality, therefore, to give him the right of caUing witnesses at aU. During all fhe time that fhose excellent regulations had existed, the cry against innovators had been no less loud than it was now. He contended, therefore, fhat the praises of lawyers were to be guardedly received. Mr. Serjeant Hawkins said, in his ' Pleas of the Crown,' that 'those only who have taken a su perficial view of fhe Crown Law charge if with rigour.' Would the House beUeve fhat those words were written whUe the statutes against witchcraft were stiU in full force — while witches were burned as regidarly as felons were hanged at every assize ? But to come further, down :— 'What was fhe state of fhe law even within the last thirty or forty years? Hadnot women been burned aUve for petty treason within thaf time, and prisoners put to fhe torture for refusing f o plead ? And yet all this while lawyers had not been less loud in fheir praise of law, courtiy writers less warm in its commendations, or enemies to innovation less numerous and de termined !" His motion was opposed by the ministers and law officers, but was carried, amidst loud cheers, by ^ majority of sixteen. On the 21st of May, in the following session (1823), he accordingly sub mitted a series of resolutions for the mitigation of the criminal law, and caUed upon the House of Commons to fulfil its pledge. His speech was a detaUed and temperate exposition of the nine resolu tions which he submitted ; that is, of the existing statutes which he proposed to alter or repeal, the extent of his mitigations, and the reasons by which be was guided. The length of the following extract requires no excuse : — " The first public discussion," he said, " at which he had been present afler his return from India, was in another place, upon a measure of his late lamented friend. Sir Samuel Romilly, tending to araeliorate fhe existing state of our crirainal laws. In the course of that discussion, he had heard it stated, in an excellent speech made in favour of the principle for which he was now prepared fo contend, that if a fo reigner were to form his estimate of the people of England frora a consideration of their penal code, he would undoubtedly conclude that fhey were a nation of barba rians. This expression, though strong, was unquestionably true ; for what other AND SPEECHES OF SIR J. MACKINTOSH. Ill opinion could a humane foreigner form of us, when he found that in our crimma law there were two hundred offences against which the punishment of death was denounced, upon twenty of which nnly that punishment was, ever inflicted ; that we were savage in our threats, and yet were feeble iri our execution of punishments ; that we cherished a system, which in theory was odious, but which was impotent in practice, from its excessive. severity ; that in cases of high treason, we involved in nocent chUdren in aU the consequences of tbeir fathers' guilt ; that in cases pf cpr- ruption pf blood we were even stiU more cruel, punishing the offspring when we cpuld npt reach the parent ; and that, on some occasions; we even proceeded to wreak our vengeance upon .the bodies of fhe dead ? If the same persons were told that we were the same nation which had been the first to give fuU publicity to every part of our judicial system ; that we were the same nation which had estabUshed the trial by jijry, which, blameable as it might be in theory, was so invaluable in prac tice ; that we were the same nation which had found out the greatest security whicb had ever been devised for individual liberty, fhe writ of habeas corpus as settled by the act of Charles ft. ; thaf we were the same nation which had discovered the fuU blessings of a representative governraent, and which had endeavoured to 'diffuse them throughout every part of our free empire ; he would wonder at the strange anomalies of huraan nature, which could unite things thaf were in theraselves so totally incorapatible. If fhe same foreigner were, in addition to this, fold that the abuses which struck so forcibly on his attention were abuses of the olden time, which were rather overlooked than tolerated, he raight, perhaps, relent in his judg ment, and confer iipon us a railder denoraination than fhat of barbarians ; but if, on the contrary, he were fold fhat influence and authority, learning and ingenuity, had corabined to resist all reforraation of these abuses as dangerous innovations ; if he were inforraed fhat individuals who, frora their rank and talents, enjoyed, not an artificial, but a real superiority, rose to vindicate the worst of these abuses, — even the outrages on the dead, — and fo contend for thera as bulwarks of the constitution and landmarks of legislation ; — he would revert to his first sentiraents regarding us ; though he raight, perhaps, conderan the barbarism of the present, instead of the barbarisra of the past, generation. *** ***•* " In 1822, he had been told that the abstract proposition which he then brought forward was calculated fo paralyse the laws, and to suspend their operation. Now, nothing of that kind had occurred. Indeed, year after year had sucb a prediction been raade, and year after year had if been falsified. Whenever the question was brought forward, this selfsame objection was made to it ; arid tbe interval that elapsed between the fime of discussing it always showed that there was not the sUghtest weight in it. Standing, therefore, upon the decisions to which the House had so repeatedly come of late years, he would contend, that if ever there was a case in which it was bound to preserve its ov™ consistency, it was that on which he was af present speaking. They had before adraitted that there was undue ri gour in th'e preserit state of the law, and tbat tbe best mode of relief was by abating it. What was it that he now felf called upon to propose to thera ? He would answer the question as shortly as possible. Adhering to the principles he had forraerly laid down, he felt himself called upon fo submit to the House, first of aU, a proposi- ' tion which would embrace a recognition of fhe propriety of aU fhe particular mea sures which the House had formerly thought it right to adopt; and, secondly, a proposition which would carry it somewhat further, and in which he should embody such smaU'additions of detaU as would lead those who blamed hira, to blame him for lukewarraness rather than for rashness — for an error in deficiency rather tban for an error in excess. Theugh the propriety of abating the undue rigpur of the 112 NOTICE OF THE LIFE, WRITINGS, law had in its favour fhe authority of aU the -wisest men who had. either written pr spoken on the subject, there was something startUng in the proposition f o those who only thought slightiy upon it, which would, perhaps, render his illustration of it not unacceptable. There could not be a greater error in criminal legislation, than fo suppose that the mischief of fhe action was to be the sole regulator of fhe amount of punishment to be attached to it. For a punishment to be wise, nay, even to be just, it ranst be exemplary. Now, what was necessary to make it exemplary? That it should beof such a nature as to excite fear in the breast of the pubUo. But if it "excited any feeling fhat was capable of conquering fear, — for instance, if if excited abhorrence,— then if was not exemplary, hut fhe reverse. The maximura of pu nishraent depended onthe sympathy of mankind ; since everything that went beyond it reflectedSiscpedit on the whole system of law, and fended fo paralyse its proper operation. What was the cause of the inefiicacy pf reUgious persecution ? That it inflicted a punishment which was felt fo be too severe for fhe offence which it was intended to check ; that it had no support in the sympathies of fhe public ; but, on the contrary, injured and outraged them aU. That was thb cause fhat ' the blood of fhe martyr always proved fhe seed, of fhe church.' People felf that opinions, if • correct, ought not to be met by force ; and, if incorrect, they would sink into obU vion if force were not eraployed to put thera down. ' Opinionum commenta-deletdies natural judicia confirmat.' He thought that the total inefficacy of persecution to check the growth of opinions — a persecution which always raade fhe raartyr be epnsidered as a hero, aud the law as a code of oppression and tyranny — served also to prove that laws of undue severity could in no instance effectually serve the pur'- poses for which they were enacted. To ensure them full efficacy, they ought fo be in accordance, not only wifh the general feelings of mankind, but with fhe particular feelings of the age ; for, if fhey were not so supported, they were certajn f o meet with its conterapt and indignation. " Nothing was, he said,' raore false than fhe Miguraents usually urged in behalf of punishraents ; naraely, fhat the Criraes which rendered thera necessary were the- result of great deliberation. He thought that fhe contrary was fhe fact, and that, in general, offenders were hurried away by fhe strong passions thafwere iraplanted in their nature, and that ' grew with their growth, and strengthened wifh their strength.' The law was then raost efficacious, when it served as a school for mo rals, when it attracted to if the feelings of all good men, and wben it called si lently bat powerfully upon all suph to assist in its admiration. Now, he would ask, what was the lesson to be derived from a consideration of the criminal law of Eng land ? Why, that the raan who cut down a twig, or injured a cherry free, or stole a sheep, or he would even say forged a note, was as black a crirainal as he who murdered his father, or betrayed the interests of his country to a foreign eneray. He acknowledged 'that this conspiracy of fhelaw of England against the principles of nature was not successful. The feeUngs of nature in the people of England prevailed over fhe iramoral lessons taught by its penaf law. Thaf law would be de testable in its success, and was now confemptibfe iu its failure. He had always thought that there was an under-stafement of the argument on fhe part of those who contended fhat an alteration in fhe law was necessary. They had stated that a mi^ tigation of if was principally req;uired by the reluctance of prosecutors and witnesses to come forward fo prosecute under the present severe statutes. They had for-' gotten, however, to state the effect produced on the feelings bf the spectators. They had forgotten to state fhat they rose in arras, npt raerely against the charge, but against the verdict ofthe jury and the sentence of fhe judge. They had forgotten to state fhat the law was thus raade an object of that abhorrence which ought only to be attached to crime ; and that, instead of resting for its support on fhe aid of good AND SPEECHES OP SIR J. MACKINTOSH. 113 men, it rested on the fear of the gibbet alone. Tbe honourable and learned gen tleman then complained that, under the present system of law, proportionate pu nishments were not assigned to different offences; and contended thaf heavy purtishment, iriflicfed oh criraes of a sraaUer degree of deUnquency, lessened the effect of it when inflicted on criraes of great atrocity. It was enrious to reflect that Lord Hale spoke of England — with reference, of course, fo the tirae in which he wrote — as fhe country of all others in which tbe laws were raost UteraUy executed, -• and least coraraitted as to their effect arbitrio judiciis. Now, how matters were changed ! Frpra four capital felonies upon our Statute-bopk, we had come to 200 ; and, instead of being the country of the world where the laws were raost HteraUy carried iuto effect, and least dependent upon the will of judges, we hadjiecorae the country of all fhe world in which they were least UteraUy executed, and in which the life and death of raan was the raost frequently intrusted fo the feeling of an in dividual. These arrangeraents had no foundation in the principles^ of British jurisprudence : fhey were contradicted by the spirit of Magna Charta; they were hostile to the principles of the first writers on tbe subject of criminal law ; they were but the mushroom growth of modern wantonness of legislation. As a test of the antiquity of fhe existing crirainal code, he would take the result of his intended proceedings. He wished to abolish fhe punishraent of death as applied fo a great variety of offences; and yet there weife only two statutes with which ho should meddle, which were older than the Revolution. Then, if these laws had no founda tion in antiquity, what foundation had they in wisdora ? Why, they had neither any foundation in poUcy nor in common sense. There had been in the present age an immense multiplication of capital punishments, jUst at the very time when society was growing raore civilised and huraane, and wanted old severities of the law re pealed rather than new ones enacted. He did not accuse Parliament of cruelty or bad feeling ; but he accused thera of negligence-^culpable negligence. He accused (hem of having overlooked that deep regard for the life and liberty of raan, which, while it gave fhe strongest effect to occasional inflictions of the law, forraed at the sarae tirae the best safeguard for fhe raorai feeling of fhe coraraunity. " To look in another view, for a moraent, at the progress of the present systera . — The oldest reports of crirainal law were the Tables of the Horae circuit, begun in the year of the Revolution, which were to be found in the Appendix to the Re port of the Criminal Laws Comraittee. Those Tables began in the year of the Re volution. It appeared thaf, during the first forty years from thaf date, more than half fhe persons capitally convicted upon the horae circuit had been cxefiuted; during the lasf forty years, the proportion of executions fo convictions, upon the horae circuit, had not been more than one in four ; and, taken throughout the king- dPra, not so much as one in ten. Indeed, as the nuraber of capital convictions went on increasing, the nuraber of executions kept diminishing; for the laws were so obviously barbarous, that if becarae absolutely necessary, by some expedient or other, to render thera nugatory. It was absolutely a fact — deny it -who could — thaf, as the severity of the penal laws increased, the irapunity of crirae increased along with thera. He would not press this general portion of fhe subject much fur- flier, or advert to ancient laws, or to the codes of foreign countries, any more than was necessary to explain something which had fallen frora him last session. He should not be suspected of selecting the Hebrew law for fhe reverence which it paid fo liberty and to huraan Ufe. The felony of the Hebrew code was the shed ding of blood : the only theft which that code punished wifh death was the stealing of men ; all other thefts were to be corarauted for twofold or for fourfold restitu tion. He looked upon fhe Hebrew law, in its aversion fo the shedding of blood, as entitled to the highest veneration. He would not pause upon the ancient Roman I. 8 I 114 NOTICE OF THE LIFE, WRITINGS, law, so remarkably merciful on fhe same point ; but upon that modem law — the law of France — which now prevailed half over fhe Continent, it was impossible for him not fo dweU for a raoraent. Six criraes, by the French law, were punishable with death — only one of them a theft; and that a burglary of such complicated cir- curasfance as could seldora, if ever, take place. He had tables, frora fhe year 1811, of the number of capital convictions which had taken place in France, and simUar docuraents wifh respect to this country. In the year 1811, there had been 404 sentences of death in England, and 264 in France ; the population of Great Britain twelve roiUions, and that of France twenty-seven raiUions. In the year 1820, fhe sentences of death in England had been 1236, and in France 361 only; so fhat, m fhe course of nine years, the amount pf capital conviction had trebled itself in Eng land ; while, in France, fhe increase had been something less than one third. He did not attribute this variance entirely, but he certainly did trace it, in a very great degree, to the difference between the French and English criminal codes. He denied tbat the fact warranted any inference of fhe superior raorality of the French over the English character. With regard to fhe police, as far as related to the prevention of crime, it had been not at aU improved in France during fhe last nine years ; while in England if had been improved considerably. He traced fhe difference mainly fo fhe ill ^ect of the English crirainal code : he beUeved, that if France had lived under fhe sarae code as England, she would have had as many convictions ; and he thought that the exaraple of France authorised him af least to use this argument. If the House would not believe that great good could be done by lessening the catalogue of capital offences, it must, at any rate, admit that no evU was fo be apprehended frora such a course. * * * -It it * " Upon the resolution relating fo suicide and high treason, he wished fo make a few brief remarks. The punishment inflicted in a case of suicide was rather an act of maUgnant and brutal foUy. It was useless as regarded the dead, and only tor tured fhe living. The honourable meraber for Ipswich had given notice of a biU regarding the disgusting course pursued in cases of suicide. Three years ago, he (Sir J. M.) had pledged himself upon the point, and had not brought forward the measure only on account of events at that tirae occurring, and which inight raix the question with raatters of a poUtical nature. In his resolution, or in any biU fo be founded upon it by himself or others, he did not intend to touch the subject of con fiscation for high treason. Had he done so, he knew that he should have ex cited a clamour : he should have been told thaf he was proposmg an innovation upon the constitution — that he was suggesting what was never heard of before ; though it was an undeniable fact, of which honourable gentiemen ought to be aware, that, excepting in England, thaf part of fhe punishment for high treason had been abo lished throughout the civilized world. A century ago it had been repealed in Hol land'; in Russia, not less than fifty years ago ; in France, Spain, the German con federacy, and in the United States of America, it was now, likewise, unknown. Nevertheless, he should not venture to touch it. He, however, should propose to abolish the forfeiture of goods and chattels in cases of suicide. If seemed to him, thaf if there was a punishment peculiM'ly unjust, if was this, where in fact the in nocent suffered for the guilty. The principal human offence of suicide certainly was the desertion of those for whom We were hound to provide—whom nature and society recommended f o our care. What did the law of England do in this case ? It stepped in to aggravate the misery, and perhaps fo reduce the fatherless fo beggary : it wrested from thera the bread they were to eat : in short, it deprived thera of their last and sole consolation under fheir affiiction. It was to be observed thaf the for feiture only ap#iwSto personal property — ^it affected smaU savings chiefly, for large AND SPEECHES OF SIR J. MACKINTOSH. 115 fortunes were generally laid out in land ; so that it left untouched the ppssessions of fhe great. Before he proceeded further, he wished to draw fhe attention of the House to the indignities offered to the dead in cases of high treason. In the only case since fhe reforraation of the law, the raan who inflicted the indignities was obliged fo disguise hiraself, fhat he raight not be exposed to the abhorrence of the spectators. On fhe occasion to which he alluded, the crowd evinced no symptom of dissatisfaction, untU the bloody head was held up to pubUc gaze by a man in a mask. It was tbe first fime the law of England had been carried into effect by an executioner in disguise. This person had been called in as a skilful dissector ; but, so great was fhe disgust at the barbarous operation, thaf concealraent was felt to be necessary. With regard to the outrages committed on the dead in cases of sui cide, he had sorae doubt whether fhey were warranted by fhe law of this country. He had looked info aU the text books on this point, and he found no raention of it in Hawkins, a very full writer, not only on the law, but on the practice of his tirae. There was no mention of it in Sir M. Hale, Sir E, Coke, in Staraford, Fitzherbert, or Bracton. They aU spoke of fhe forfeiture, but said not one word as fo fhe mode of interment. There was no authority for fbe legality of inflicting these outrages, except the unsupported assertion of Blackstone. That learned coraraentator raade, indeed, a confused reference to Hawkins ; but Hawkins supported hira only in fhe forfeiture, and was perfectly silent on fhe subject of interraent. But he surren dered the legal question to any gentleman who thought he could gain a petty triumph upon it; for it might, by long custora, have grown into a law, though only the rera nant of barbarous institutions. The question was, whether it ought f o be con tinued ? First, he would ask in what Ught he was to consider it ? If as a punish ment, it was only such fo the survivors ; — if it were meant as a punishment fo the dead, what sort of punishment was fhat, where there had been no trial ? and what sort of trial, where there had been no defence ? In the second place the law operated with the greatest inequality. Verdicts of insanity were alraost always found in fhe casesof persons in the higher stations of life : where self-slayers were humble and defenceless, there felo de se was usually retumed. This might, perhaps, be ac counted for without any iraputation upon the irapartiality of juries. First, because persons in high Ufe had usuaUy better means of establishing fhe excuse for the cri rainal act. Secondly, because, suicide was rarely the crime of fhe poorer classes oc cupied with their daily labours. It was the effect of wounded shame ; tbe result of false pride; and the fear of sorae imaginary degradation. Thirdly, fhe very bar barity of the law rendered it impotent ; for juries would not consent that fhe re mains of the dead should be thus outraged, if they could fmd any colour for a ver dict of insanity. He would ask any gentleman, whatever were his opinions as to the raorai turpitude of suicide, whether it was a crirae thaf ought fo he subject to human cognisance. It was an offence, the very essence of which was to reraove tbe party from aU human cognisance ; and the law of England was, he believed, fhe only law which attempted to stretch its authority beyond the bounds of huraanity, fo include an offence of this kind. The Roraan law, with regard to this subject; was very remarkable. It inflicted the punishment of confiscation in all cases of suicide, coraraitted fo evade confiscation, which would have been the consequence of conviction for other criraes. This was perfectly just : and it was observable fhat fhe Roman law, not content with silence on this subject, expressly excepted all other cases of suicide frora any punishment. In fhe best age of Roman jurispru dence there was a rescript of the Eraperor Antoninus in these words, — " Si quis tffidio vitae, vel irapatientia doloris, vitam Cniverit, successorera habere rescripsit Divus Antoninus." The Roman law on this subject, of which this rescript was confirmatory, might serve to Ulustrate a beautiful passage of VirgU, which had a 8" no NOTICE OF THE LIFE, WRITINGS, good deal embarrassed the commentators, in which he described that unfortunate dass of persons who have terrainated their own existence : — ' Proxima deinde tenent moesti loca, qni sibi lethum Insontes peper^re manu, lucemque perosi Projecere animas. Quam vellent SBthere in alto None ef panperietn et duros perferre labores ! Fata obstant, ti'istique palus inamabilis unda AUigat, et novies Styx interfusa coercet,' " The word insontes had so rauch embarrassed some of the coraraentators, that they had endeavoured to get rid of the diificulty by proposing fhe very opposite sense to the ordinary meaning of tbat word ; but there could be little doubt thaf that great master of poetic diction, whose deUcacy and propriety "in tbe choice and corabinafion of words were unrivalled, had used this expression with reference to the distinction recognised by the Roman law, between criminals who were guilty of suicide, and those who were untainted by any other offence. There was scarcely any thing which tended raore fo display the finer feelings of the huraan raind, than he anxiety of heaping honours upon the dead — of attempting to bestow life upon that in which fhe natural life was gone ; and he knew of nothing which tended so much to keep alive fhose affectionate and kindly feelings as fo pay this respect to fhe remains of fhe dead. It was, iri fact, one of the safeguards of morality ; and, as such, could not be interfered with, without fhe most dangerous consequences. He who could treat fhe reraains of humanity with indignity, or could approve of its being so treated, he could regard in no other light than as being guilty of a very close approach to cannibaUsm. The opposite Of this kindly feeUng was the crirae of cannibalism, which, just in proportion as affection sought fo prolong the duration of man, hastened his decay. AUve to this barbarity, which was perpetrated only by raan in the lowest and basest form of fhe savage state, and when his worst pas sions were roused, were those cannibal inflictions upon that which could not suffer. It was because they were not only at variance with all the kindly feelings of our nature, but because they neither did produce, nor could produce, any beneficial effect, thaf he said the remains of this practice in the case of treason were remains of barbarism, and, as sucb, called for iraraediate reforraation. If fo conduce fo humanity was fhe use of all criminal law and aU punishment — and if this were not its use, he knew not what it could be— then a tenderness for the remains ofthe dead would have a far raore happy effect, than all the unmeaning cruelties which could be inflicted upon thera. He should say nothing of the influence which public opinion ought to have in the regulations of the criminal law, and the adjusting and balancing of crimes and punishments. There were some who thought thaf Parliament should not be in any way swayed by pubUc opinion ; but if seeraed to hira fhat on such a question if was of peculiar value. If public opinion condemned the severity of the law, either it would not be executed at all, or not with effect. On such a subject we ought fo appeal to the feelings of raen, and it Would be unjust in us not fo do so. For what, he would ask, was the use of crirainal laws, what their intention, and what fhe end and object of punishment, if it were not to pre serve alike aU the good and kindly feeUngs of men ? How, again, he Would ask, were we to ascertain when fhe greatest effect was produced, but by an appeal to those feelings ? No law which did not.raake such an appeal could be Wise. And would even the fondest advocate of fhe present state of our crirainal law say fhat it did contain any such appeal ? When we awarded the punishment of death for crimes of the blackest description, then the feelings of men went along with us. AND SPEECHES OF SIR J. MACKINTOSH. lit The parricide, the murderer, the betrayer of his country, raight aH suffer the highest punishment, and the feelings of raen went along wifh it ; but would any raan say that these feeUngs were not insulted and outraged, when the same punishraent was awarded for the cutting down of a cherry-tree, the stealing of a sheep, or even fhe forging of a bank-note ? The continuance of the crirae showed that the penalty of the law had not the effect which vras intended, and the disparity of the cases showed that the law ought to be altered. He had devoted his attention long and carefully to our present code ; and the more he had done so, the more was he convinced that it required fo be brought more into accordance with the feeUngs of men. He would fain make the penal law of his country the representative of the public con science, and would array it with all the lawful authority to be derived frora such a consideration. He would raake if the fVuit of moral sentiraent, in order to render if tbe school of public discipline. He would array fhe feelings of aU good raen against the dangerous criminal, and would place him in thaf raorai solitude where all fhe members of society should be opposed fo him, and where he sbould have nothing to plead for him but that pity which added weight to his punishment, by showing that it was pure from every taint of passion or partiaUty." Mr. Peel, then Home Secretary, objected to his reforms as too sweeping ; whUst he agreed in their spirit, pledged himself to take up the subject of law reform, and moved the previous question. It was carried. Sir James now abandoned to the minister a field of eloquence, humanity, and public service, in which he made a repu tation which will long survive him. Mr. Peel, too, it should be added, took up the subject in a reforraing spirit. His mitigations fell short ofthe views of Mackintosh and RomUly; but he removed barbarities and corrected anomalies with a degree of courage and capacity whicb it would have been vain to expect from any other minister of his party. This incident, whilst it raises the individual minister, discredits the administration. It would appear that the government made systematic battle against every change, and therefore every improvement ; and that its eyes could be opened only by its being overcome. Tbe periodical renewal of the AUen Act found in Sir James Mackintosh its most constant, and, perhaps, on the whole, its most powerful opponent. His peculiar acquaintance with the history and practice of the public law of Europe armed him at all points for debate on the subject; and the European reputation to which he aspired, called forth the utmost exercise of his faculties and re sources. His first decisive opposition to it was in the session of 1816. " In the discussion of last session, he had called for proo/s ofthe existence of the prert^ative said to be in the Crown, pf sending out of the realm aUen friends in 118 NOTICE OF THE LIFE, WRITINGS, tirae of peace. In calling for proofs of a prerogative, he raust be ur-derstood to require evidence of a long, avowed, and uncontested exercise of it, sanctioned by Parliament, or at least recognised by the Courts of Westminster HaU. TiU an answer was made fo such a deraand, he had suspended his opinion. He only ventured then to doubt the existence of such a right. But from the proofs which had not been produced, and fhe arguments which had been offered after a twelvemonth's leisure for research, he now thought himself justified in declaring that such a prerogative was not war ranted by law." His speech was that of a jurist rather than of an orator ; and, though admired and effective, contains none of those movements of rhetoric or dialectics which could be extracted. He again was among those who opposed the renewal of the law in 1818. His reply to the law officers, on the same subject, in 1820, would have crushed the dispute, if divisions in the House of Commons were not matters rather of individual discretion and state policy than of reasoning. "It is irapossible (said he) to conceive a suprerae power, without the power ef sending foreigners out of the country ; nay further, without the right of banishing its own subjects. Yet my learned friend has made all his parade of jurists to prove fhat a supreme power must be supreme over foreigners in its dominions. He has selected two passages frora Sir William Blackstone, the only'passages in which absurdity and falsehood are to be found. He has also referred fo Puffendorff — to a German jurist, for English law — fo a despotic writer, for the constitutional law of England. ' This ridiculous authority is all he can add to the passages brought forward, for fhe twentieth time, from Blackstone, and as often detected and exposed. But if has been said that the Crown has the power of sending a foreigner to his own country. Does my honourable and learned friend say so ? Has any power in this country a right to protract its authority, to land the foreigner in a particular place, to throw fhe unfortunate victim into fhe jaws of destruction ? He has spoken of the great authorities on this subject. His authorities, in part af least, are so rotten a founds ation, fhat the superstructure can be entitled to uo great veneration. The proclam ations of Elizabeth are now brought forward. These proclaraations were dug out of the State Paper Office for fhe first tirae in fhe year 1816, and for this bUl. The biU had passed this House, before this authority was thought of. In fhe other House, the question had been argued with as rauch learning and eloquence as had ever been displayed on any question ; and in fhe lasf debate in thaf House, were the two proclaraations brought forward, which ordered out ofthe country aU Scotch men, The next tirae that the raeasure came under fhe consideration of this House, my learned friend produced this authority, and 1 'gave hira af fhe same tirae such an answer as occurred to me. Since that fime I have found a particular authority on this point— an authority that must be fatal to the argument. The 7th Henry VII, is a statute authorising the Crown to send Scotchmen out of England, and exposing them to the forfeiture of all fheir goods. This statute aUows 40 days after proclam ation for leaving the kingdom. The statute of Henry VII., with aU other statutes hostile to Scotchmen, was repealed on fhe accession of James I. to the throne of England; but it was in frill fbrce in tbe reign of EUzabeth. If proves the very contrary of the object for which it was produced by my learned friend. Such a AND SPEECHES OF SIR J. MACKINTOSH. 119 power as he claims for the Crown was not dreamed of in the mosl despotic period of our history, or under the most despotic prince of the Tudors." In 1822 he took the lead in opposition to it. The question of public right was no longer mooted. The subject was one of liberty against despotism throughout Europe. " The Holy AUiance," said Sir James, " thought it quite legitimate to propose a new code of laws to fhe nations of Europe — to reraodel at pleasure all the long- established international usages, all the rules of right and wrong, proscriptively acknowledged and acquiesced in by independent states. The noble Marquis, in his raeraorable letter, also said fhat the principles propounded by fhe Holy Alliance, in their specific application to England at the tirae, would destroy the independence of aU nations, and tbe rights of aU subjects ; and yet, after such a declaration of their views, he called for this biU to enable thera the better to execute fheir detestable purpose. Against which pf their own subjects do these despots want protection ? — against the unhappy and oppressed people of Italy, the raost afliicted speciraen now in Europe of relentless cruelty and suffering ? These unhappy men were seized by fheir oppressors, and, as ifno prisons in Italy were severe enough for their cnforab- raent, they were sent to Hungarian fortresses, sunk in the midst of surrounding marshes, fo linger out, amid incidental disease, wretched existence — 'to die so slowly, that none can call it murder.' He knew fhe fact of a Roman nobleraan, residing within the Ecclesiastical States, who was seized and dragged frora that neutral territory by Austrian troops : be was hurried to Venice, there tried by a secret tribunal, and conderaned to death by their award. This sentence, by a pretended mercy, was commuted — corarauted did be say? — to twenty years' impri sonment in a Venetian dungeon covered with water : the iraprisonraent was to be solitary : only half an bour a day was fo be aUowed for exercise, until death, in pity, should corae fo fhe rescue of the sufferer ! Ask any English gentleraan who had lately traveUed in Italy, whether he had not seen raen of education and talents working in chains on the highways and public works of Lorabardy and Piedraont, for alleged political offences. He could name the cases and particularise his sources of information, were it npt dangerous f o expose the yet unimraolated parties fp that system of espionage which reigned throughout Europe. He used a foreign word with repugnance in an English speech ; but on this occasion he rejoiced that the ancient language of freeraen contained no word to express that odious system : its plain and manly structure required not the use of a phrase which the habits of its people scorned to eraploy. He had proraised fo show how far the faith of neutrality was recognised by these high contracting powers : he would show it by a reference to their most solemn acts. Let the House refer fo the allied treaties signed on fhe 20th of November, 1815. At that date several acts were executed in Paris, in pursuance of other great treaties which had been fraraed and adopted in the course of that year ; and araong thera was a reraarkable declaration respecting fhe integrity and neutrality of Switzerland, which was fraraed and/executed by fbe powers engaged in the previous congress af Vienna. He would quote this declara tion, to show fhe good faith which raarked tbe conduct of these great league-breakers — these sharaeless violators of their most formal and deliberate pledges. The powers who signed fhe declaraticn recpgnised in the most full and solemn raanner the perpetual neutrality of Switzerland, and guaranteed the integrity and inviolabi- Uty of its territory. This was signed by the ministers of Russia, France, Prussia, England, and subsequently ratified and confirmed by Prince Metteniich, on the par" uo NOTICE OF THE LIFE, WRITINGS, of Austria, in a sentence of barbarous Latin, written in the true style of Gerraan chicanery. How had that soleranly acknowledged neutrality been perraitted to rest ? The cantons of Switzerland had been, by prescriptive usage, the admitted asylura of the persecuted. Those who fled on the revocation of the edict of Nantes were not disturbed on their retreat by the tyrant from whom they fled, and who was af that moment upon the most intoxicating elevation of his power. Not so was fhe fate of those who sought refuge from the fangs of the Holy, AUiance ; not so was ;» the forbearance of those who had signed fhe treaty of the Holy AUiance. Austria ¦ — the same Austria for which Prince Metternich had signed the integrity and invio lability of Switzerland — called for the ex-tradition (that was the phrase) from Switzerland of some Italians who had sought au asylura there from fhe persecution of the Austrian authorities. Upon that requisition some ofthe states of Switzerland behaved with pusiUanimity towards these unfortunate refugees. But let justice be done these smaUer states. Which more deserved indignation for the act, — the feeble government acted on by fear, and dooraed from necessity to consent, or the powerful state who compelled obedience by fhe threat of overawing force ? 'Amid this compulsory yielding to power, the canton of Geneva set an honourable excep tion : fhey rejected this deraand fo sacrifice fheir honour. What was' the conse quence? Three Austrian commissaries returned to Geneva, and inforraed the magistracy that, if they did not expel these Italian refugees at a moment's notice, fhey raust prepare fo incur fhe responsibility of refusing the deraand of Austria, and risk the consequences. This was the threat of war from fhe great power bound to respect the smaUer. Was not this a daring infraction of fhe sacred faith of treaties ? Where, then, was the remonstrance of Great Britain, a party to this treaty? What did her rainister, who now caUed for this Alien BiU, say fo the Austrian maker and breaker of guarantees? Where was the indication of dissent from so faithless an infraction ofa treaty binding upon aU ? Was it to be found in the passing of this Alien BiU, which, in effect, went fo parss one undistinguishing censure upon the struggles of the oppressed to shake off the grinding chain of their oppressors, and to record one approving and assenting voice to the acts of fhe Holy Alliance?" He again opposed it in 1 824. Mr. Canning, having meanwhile become Foreign Secretary on the death of Lord Londonderry, announced it as probable that the bill would not be again renewed ; and this proved the last debate upon it. The merchants of London, in the same year, charged Sir James Mackintosh with their petition to the House of Commons, for the recognition of the independence of >the South American States. His speech, which was worthy of the subject and of the trust, was published in a separate form, no doubt by himself, as tbe case of the petitionei'Si The following extract will give but an imperfect idea of so comprehensive and elaborate a statement : — " We require from the new born states of America a condition incompatible with human nature, and which if they are able to fulfil, they would be unlike every ofher community fhat ever shook off the yoke of foreign or domestic tyrants. We refuse them thfe honour of forraal admission iuto thc society of independent. nations. AND SPEECHES OF SIR J. MACKINTOSH. I'il unless they shaU immediately solve the awful problem of reconciling Uberty with order ; unless infant government shall, in a moraent, shoot up into raanhood ; unless aU the efforts incident to a fearful struggle shaU at once subside info the raost perfect and undisturbed tranquiUity. We expect that every interest which great changes have wounded shaU yield without resistance, and fhat every visionary or arabitious hope which they bave kindled shall subrait without a raurmur to fhe councU of wisdora and the authority of the laws. Who are we who exact the per forraance of such hard conditions? Are we, the EngUsh nation, to look thus coldly on rising liberty? We have indulgence enough for tyrants; we make araple allowance for fhe difBculties of their situation ; we are ready enough to deprecate the censure of their worst acts. And are we, who spent ages of blood in struggling for freedora, to treat with such severity the nations who now foUow our example ? Are we to refuse that indulgence to the errors and faults of other nations, which was so long needed by our own ancestors ? The English people waded through despotism and anarchy, through civil war and revolution, pn their road to freedora. They passed thrpugh every fprm of civil and reUgious tyranny, they persecuted Protestants under Mary ; I blush f o add, fhey persecuted Catholica under EUzabeth. It was said by the great satirist, in fhose nervous invectives whicb he poured out against them for their love of Uberty, that they were a pepple whom — * No king could govern, and no god could please.'^ '' Within a few years after these invectives, this abused people established the first system of civil and religious liberty which had ever been atterapted in a great empire. We justiy revere our forefathers for having accounted all the evils through which they passed as nothing in comparison with the high object which they pursued. We never fhink of these evils further than as they endeared to us the Uberty of which they were the price. And shaU we now, inconsistently, unreasonably, basely, hold, thaf distractions so much fewer, and milder, and shorter, endured in the sarae glorious cause, will unfit other nations for its attainraent, and preclude them frora the enjoyraent of that rank and tho,ie privUeges which we at fhe same moment recognise as belonging to slaves and barbarians? I call upon my right honourable friend distinctly to fell usj on what principle he considers the perfect enjoyment of internal quiet as a condition necessary for the acl?nowledgmenf by fpreign states of an independence which cannot be denied to exist ? I can discover none, unless fhe confusions of a country were sucb as fo endanger the personal safety of a foreign minister. In such a case, indeed, there woidd be a sufficient reason for interrupting diploraatic intercourse till it could be safely carried on. Yet the European powers have always had rainisters at Constan tinople, though it was weU known that the barbarians who ruled there would, on the approach of a quarrel, send these unforfftnafe gentleraen to a prison in which they inight remain during a long war. Short of this extrerae case, I see no con nexion between diploraatic intercourse and the infernal state of a country. As long as foreign ministers are secure, no confusion can be such as to require the inter ruption or to prevent the establishment of intercourse through them. But, if there . were any such insecurity in the new states, how do the ministers of the United States of North Araerica reside ia fheir capitals ? or why do we trust our own consuls and commissioners among them? Is there any physical peculiarity in a consul, which renders him invulnerable where an ambassador or an envoy would be in danger ? Is a consul bullet-proof or bayonet-proof, or do consuls wear coats of mail which secure them frora violence ? The appointment of consuls implies our belief that there are governments existing in Spanish America who are actually 122 NOTICE OF THE LIFE, WRITINGS, independent, and to whom onr consuls may apply, in cases of raercantile grievance, with fhe sarae reasonable prospect of success as in other countries. It rests on the foundation that these governments are obeyed by their subjects, and have the power and the wiU fo compel fhem to do justice fo foreigners. What more do we require for ministers of a higher character ? The sarae govemment which redresses an individual grievance on fhe application of a consul, may remove a cause of na tional difference after listening to fhe remonstrance of an envoy. Whatever raay be the succession of factions, however these states may be agitated by divisions, what ever form their governments raay assurae, they raust be as corapetent, and as much disposed to negociate on high national interests, as to dp justice to an aggrieved trader or mariner : fhey must, in the one case as in the other, all be CquaUy inclined to continue on terms of amity and friendly intercourse with the greatest maritime power of the world. " I wiU venture even to contend, that internal distractions, instead of being an impedinient to diplomatic intercourse, are rather an additional reason for it. An ambassador is more necessary in a disturbed tban in a tranquil country, inasrauch as the evils against which his presence is intended to guard are more likely to occur in the forraer than in the latter. It is in fhe midst of civil commotions that the foreign trader is the most likely to be wronged; and it is then that he (therefore requires, not only fhe good offices of a consul, but the weightier interposition of a higher minister. In a perfectly weU-ordered country, the laws and the tribunals might be sufficient. If is in a state where fheir operation is disturbed, that he cannof be safe withput aid frora the representative of his native country. In fhe sarae manner, it is obvious that, if an ambassador be an iraportant security for the preservation and good understanding between the best regulated governments, his presence raust be far raore requisite to prevent the angry passions of exasperated factions frora breaking out into war. Whether, therefore, we consider fhe individual or the public interests which are secured by embassies, it seems no paradox to maintain fhat, if they could be dispensed with at aU, it would rather be in quiet than in disturbed districts. " The interests here at stake raay be said to be rather individual than national. But a wrong done fo fhe hurablest British subject, an insult offered fo fhe British flag flying on the sUghtest skiff, is, if unrepaired, a dishonour fo fhe British nation. It is a great national interest, as well as duty, fo watch over fhe international rights of every Briton, and f o claira thera frora every governraent. It is only when states treat the wrongs of fheir subjects as public injuries, thaf every individual learns to feel the violation of his country's rights as a private wrong. " But fhe mass of private interest engaged in our trade with Spanish America is so great as to render it a large part of the national interest. There are already at least a hundred English houses of trade estabUshed in various parts of that im mense country. A great body of sWlful miners have lately left this country to restore and increase fhe working of fhe raines of Mexico. Botanists, and geologists, and zoologists, are preparing fo explore regions too vast to be exhausted by fhe Condamines aad Huraboldfs. These missionaries of civilization, who are about to spread European, aud especially English, opinions and habits, and to teach in dustry and fhe arts, with their natural consequences of love of order and desire of quiet, are at the same time opening new markets for fhe produce of British labour, and new sources of improveraent, as weU as enjoyment, to fhe people of America." There are several other speeches fully reported, and of con spicuous abUity. His name and talents wUl be found associated I AND SPEECHES OF SIR J. MACKINTOSH. 123 witb almost every great question and generous cause. Supporting the motion for a committee on the Catholic claims in 1822, he described as foUows the origin ofthe act ofthe 30th of Charles II., upon whicb great stress bad been laid by Mr. Peel : — " The right honourable gentleman had laid great stress upon the danger which, in his opinion, must arise from the repeal of the statute of the 30th of Charles II., and had loudly declared, that fo repeal thaf law would be to alter tbe whole frame of the British constitution. When the right honourable gentleman attached so much constitutional importance to the act of Charles II., if was right to refer back to its origin, and to the circurastances which caUed it forth. Now, with reference to fhe history of that act, he would say, that no law which had ever been promul gated sprung from a more infamous origin; that no law ever flowed frora so foul and irapure a source ; that never had a law been passed under circurastances of so detestable and infamous a nature, as those which attended the enactment of fhat statute, which tbe right hon. gentleman seeraed fo revere as if it were the great char ter of the constitution. He had taken pains to refer to the Journals for the history of this statute. It had been passed on the 28(h of October, 1678 ; and if was curious to see how the House had been occupied just before it adopted fhat acf^- to see in what raanner it had prepared itself for grave deliberation — with what equaniraity and teraper it coraraenced the work of legislating for fhe exclusion of a great portion of fhe subjects of this kingdom. Would the House believe that, during the whole of the day preceding the enactment of this bill, the House had been busily occupied in the examination of Titus Oates ? It was after this pre paration thaf fhe biU so praised had passed ; when the minds of raembers were intoxicated with the flagitious perjury of that detestable and atrocious miscreant, whose shocking crimes bad not only brought disgrace upon the country which he had duped, but had sacrificed the Uves of so many innocent and deserving charac- , ters. In that manner had the bill been passed ; and it furnished a raelancholy instance of fhe facUity with which the legislature was brought fo enact severe laws, and fhe ditficulty always manifested to have them revoked, even when their injustice was apparent. Here was an instance in which one abandoned and re raorseless miscreant — an outcast from the huraan race — was able fo inflarae that House — to delude it at a moment when it contained the greatest patriots and the wisest raen, sorae of whom shed their blood, and others had lived, for fhe de liverance of their country at fhe Revolution. Yet this single, foul, and wretched perjurer was able to hurry through a measure of exclusion against miUions of his feUow-subjects, which it took twenty years of all the genius and patriotism of England fo struggle against in the hope of undoing. Thus twenty years of tbe labours of such men were unable to undo the falsehoods which it took this ¦wretch a single morning to utter. Who, fhen, could say that such an act was entitled to the weight which ought only to belong to measures deep and well-digested for fhe puhUc welfare ? " On the Bill for tbe suppression of the Irish Catholic Association, in 1825, be said : — " He did not chiefly rise, on the present occasion, to observe on what had faUen from them, — not from any want of respect, but because much of what they had 124 NOTICE OF THE LIFE, WRITINGS, said was necessarily, ou account of their situation, somewhat more tainted by thc acrimony of Irish party, and somewhat more influenced by the anger of Irish factions, than a member for Great Britain could bring his mind to consider as worthy of much importance, when he carae to discuss a question of such great interest to the whole empire as fhat at present under consideration; — but he would not entirely pass over the observations of the last speaker ; one of which he considered to be the raost iraportant fhat bad faUen frora any meraber of that House during fhe three nights' discussion which had taken place. He had seized the first opportunity of returning strength, and of hardly re-established health, to perform a great duty, which he felt to be incumbent on hira, on a question which had created fhe deepest interest in his breast. He rose to protest against the new stigma thrown on the Catholic cause, on account of the alleged ralsconduct of the Catholic body. He rose fo protest against the atterapt to silence fhe complaints of the people of Ireland, without rsdressing their wrongs. He rose to protest against this new discouragement, added to the discouragement of centuries, which had been given to fbe people of Ireland. He rose to protest against a bill which he thought had been justly characterised as a biU to relieve fhe government frora fhe necessity of doing justice to Ireland, and to protect the present administration in the continuance of their systera of tampering with the miseries of fhat unfortunate country. It was against a bill possessing, in his eye, all these alarming features, that he rose to enter his feeble, but earnest, conscientious, and solemn protest. The zeal with which he was actuated in behalf of the Catholics was not (as his right honourable friend (Mr. Tierney) had said of himself in fhat meraorable speech exhibiting such an union of sense and wit, which closed the debate on a forraer night) connected with a love of their principles : he venerated the Reforraation, and gloried in the name of Protestant. But his glory in fhe Reforraation was his glory in the principles upon which fhat great work had proceeded — the right of freedora as fo opinion, and security frora persecution. These principles if was thaf formed fhe basis — fhe only real basis — of civU and religious liberty ; and those who did not uphold thera — no raatter what fheir professed tenets — were no true reformers. Protestants fhey might caU theraselves ; but they raistook tbeir charac ter : they were only Papists in Protestants' clothing ; setting up a sraall popery, a little exclusive one, within fhe Protestant church, in lieu of that greater systera of popery which had once covered aU Europe with its shadow. So long as the Catholics had reraained, by nature, fhe natural allies of civH and religious f yi'anny, so long, if he had then lived, he (Sir J. M.) would have remained their raortal enemy. The same principles, precisely, which were to influence his vote that evening in favour of the CathoUcs, would have impelled him to draw his sword against them af fhe battle of the Boyne. The principles of civU and religious Kherty estabUshed by the glorious Revolution, — revealed first to the world, at the Re forraation, by men who neither understood nor sought to practise them ; but since appreciated, acted upon, and fought for, by raen whose hearts were purer, or their intellects more enlightened ; — fhose principles formed his creed : in them he had lived, and in thera he hoped he should die ; and in support of those principles it was — never on any occasion pressing upon his raind raore strongly— thaf he now rose before the House in defence of the Catholic cause." Supporting again the Catholic claims, and the principle of re ligious toleration, in 1828, he said: — " He should not speak further of that wisdom, but would caU the attention of the liouse to the change which had taken place in the sentiments of raankind on AND SPEECHES OF SIR J. MACKINTOSH. 125 this subject of exclusion on account of religion. Only two hundred and fifty years had elapsed since the reign of fhat queen who was considered to be the head of the Protestant reUgion. At thaf day, every state in Europe punished the professors of that Protestant reUgion with death whenever they were discovered. Scarcely had two hundred years elapsed since two Arians were, on account of their religious tenets, put to a cruel death in this country ; and in the tirae of Edward VI. fhe cradle of the Protestant church was covered with blood. These scenes had taken place under the eyes of a man who, in sorae respects, was very amiable, and for whom, cpnsidering the age in which he lived, be Was ready tC make an ample allowance. A lapse of two hundred and fifly years had since taken place, and they had arrived at a time when every state professed toleiration, and alraost all of them practised what they professed. They had arrived af a tirae in which religious liberty, in tbe sense in which he had described it, when no man was the worse — when no man suffered any exclusion frora civil privileges, on account of his re ligious opinions — generally prevailed. If they looked from the Pyrenees to the Alps, frora Archangel fo the confines of Karatschatka, fhey wOuld find that this feeling was predoralnant, and was every hour becoraing stronger. They would find it prevalent in Russia ; they would find it triumphant in all the states which cora posed the Germanic body. The ruling power in Saxony acted on the principle : the Roman Catholic King of Bavaria governed with an equal hand his Protestant subjects ; while fhe Protestant monarch of Prussia extended fhe sarae paternal and protecting band to his subjects of the Roraan Catholic faith. England and Prussia had long been at the head of those powers which considered the protection of religious liberty as the proud -badge of civilisation; and they looked on other nations as coarse and uncultivated, when they countenanced a .systera of exclusion on account of religious opinion. HoUand still retained ber high situation, under a prince of the house of Nassau, as fbe protectress of Uberal principles. That was, perhaps, the best governed and raost prosperous state on fhe Continent. He rejoiced in the iUustrious name of Nassau, which was dear to every friend of freedom ; and he only regretted thaf England, under a prince of fhe house of Hanover, should have retrograded frora her proper place in the van of tolerant and liberal nations, and faUen into the rear. By the late change in Sweden, a Catholic king had been placed on the throne. Wliether she still persisted in excluding Roraan Catholics frora power, he could not teU ; but he believed that there were few or none of that persuasion in the Swedish territories. He knew, however, that fhe systera of exclusion did not hold with respect to Denmark ; because he had been acquainted with a Roman Catholic gentleraan, of Irish descent, though born in one of the Danish West India islands, — he meant tbe late Mr. Morton, — who had fiUed the situation of representative of Denmark in this country. He knew another Roman CathoUc gentieraan, a native of Northuraberland, who was a re sident at the court of the King of fhe Netherlands, Where, then, he asked,. did the system of exclusion prevail? In tha states of the South of Europe, where there were many infidels, but no Protestants? Yes: the systera existed in Eugland, and it existed in Spain. It existed in the country of Locke, and also in the country of Loyola ; In the dorainions of the house of Brunswick, and under fhe govern ment (if I may dignify if with the title) of Ferdinand VII. If was in this base society that the wisdora of their ancestors was cherished and kept up. There they raight see every attempt made to perpetuate a few fragraents of fhat ancient tyranny and intolerance which had created so rauch misery : which was even now endangering the tranquillity and integrity of the empire ; which was breaking the link that joined us to the most precious member of fhe British state ; which was keeping shut that door which effectually precluded the commenceraent of 1-26 NOTICE OF THE LIFE, WRITINGS, iraproveraent, and would continue to do so until it was thrown open ; whieh continued to inflict on the great body of the people of Ireland that unworthy treatraent under which fhey had so long suffered. "He now carae to a subject of a very grave and important nature, and one which be should not have ventured to touch upon in thaf House, if it had not been argued with so much force and energy by his honourable and learned friend, as one of fhe obstacles to fhe concession of fhe objects of fhe honourable Baronet's motion. Under fhe circurastances in which it had been raentioned, he could not, notwithstanding fhe delicate nature of the question, avoid making upon it a very few observations. The constitution of this country had wisely exempted the King frora the exposure of being present at any of the storray debates which take place in Parliament, and rendered his person inviolable, and his conduct unimpeachable so long as his advisers continued responsible for his actions done by fheir advice. This was one of fhe great expedients by which our ancestors contflved f o reconcile the doctrines of a monarchy vrith fhe principles of liberty. The advantages of such ^ provision were numerous to the monarch as well as to the subject ; but the misfortune was, that the least invasion or infraction of the law exposed the king of such a country to greater reverses of affairs than the rulers of other countries, apparentiy less happily situated. The King was the fountain of mercy, fhe re- dresser ofthe wrongs and grievances of his subjects, until a perverse and iniquitous systein of law deprived him of his most valuable privUege, and robbed him of the brightest jewel of his crown. The privilege of advising his Majesty rested with his rainisters, under the control of the houses of ParUament ; but such was the jealousy that ParUament 'enfertaiued'upon this subject, fhat aU attempts to influence its decisions by any statement of the inclination of fhe King was looked upon as a high ralsderaeanour. There could, indeed, be no doubt that any attempt to state the opinion of fhe Crown to that house was against the principles of the consti tution ; nor was it less doubtful fhat any indiridual was guilty of the highest pre suraption who ventured f o influence fhe decision of the House by any reference fo the opinions, or fhe situation, or the duty of the Crown. He did not mean fo say that his Majesty was fettered as sorae had dared to say fhat he was fettered. He would not enter into fhe discussions of the delicate subject of the principle of an oath ; but would merely refer on that occasion to what Lord Kenyon had said in his correspondence with his late Majesty in 1791. Lord Kenyon said, ' If is a general maxim, that the supreme power of a state cannof limit itself.' Perhaps it would have been more correct to have said, thaf the supreme power of a state was always fhe sarae. For if this were not so, then fhe suprerae power of one and the sarae state would at one tirae be less than it was af another. If was a principle-'of law and justice, that what could not be done directly could not be done indirecfiy ; and, therefore, it was clear, thaf by no raeans whatever could fhe King bind his successor ; for, if such a proceeding was tolerated, the course of legislation would be irapeded by raeasures producing endless confusion, and every party who wished fo bind fhe legislature to a perpetual adherence to sorae private plan would endeavour to have an oath tacked to the bill, in order to secure it against violation, and per petuate its enactraents. Circurastances of state, which never could be foreseen, raight suddenly arise ; eraergencies, beyond the power of calculation, raight occur. If the suprerae power could bind fhe successor, fhe raonsfrous doctrine raust be raaiufained, fhat a king might be bound by an oath notto perform a duty which raight eventuaUy serve his country. The distinction, in his opinion, was perfectly clear. The King in ParUaraent exercised fhe suprerae power; and wifh thc authority of that Parliaraent he might bind himself by oath to abide by snch acts as to his conscience and judgraent might occur right. The power, however, which AND SPEECHES OF SIR J. MACKINTOSH. 127 gave might take away; and the same Parliament and Legislature which, in its supreme power, bound tbe King f o one course, , might deterraine upon another. The coronation oath was relied upon ; but, besides ofher satisfactory arguments, which had been adduced to show fhat this could be no impediment fo Catholic concession, he would say, that this was a matter of poUtical reasoning ; thaf it was a question of degree; and that the King, If advised by his counsellors, and sup ported by the two houses of Parliament, would not resist a raeasure of concession to the Roraan Catholics. " He would trouble fhe House only with one word more. If it was to be fhe for tune of Parliaraent that night to see the reUef which had been recently granted fo the Protestant dissenters followed by an equal raeasure of justice towards the Ca- fbolics ; if fhat one -wise decision should be followed by another, which should reUeve the long-protracted sufferings of Ireland, and open to that unhappy country something like fhe prospect of a better scene, — soraething like the coraraenceraent of reforra, — then he should look upon auy discussion of the question of oaths as a work of mere supererogation. In such a case he should ever be disposed to say, with fhe noble Roman, who held all forms or tests as raean and trivial corapared wifh the common advantage, ' Maximura iUiid pulcherrirauraque jusjurandura, se conservasse rempublicara.' " His appearances in debate and in the House were, however, now more rare. From the 13th of April, 1825, to the Sth of June, 1827, his name does not appear in the Parliamentary debates; and but once in the list of divisions, — among the minority who voted for the Catholic claims. He, however, supported the chief measures of Mr. Canning, whilst Foreign Secretary, and his government, when he became Premier, — in common witb the great majority of tbe Whigs. Mr. Bankes was one of the few members who opposed Mr. Canning's memorable expedition to Portugal. He denied the alleged casus faderis, and appealed to Sir James Mac kintosh, who was present, for his opinion as a publicist. Sir James pledged his opinion and authority on the side of Mr. Canning. He supported that minister both in and out of Parliament, from public raotives and private friendship. Some articles, whicb attracted notice at diff'erent times in two of the public journals, were written by him. He spoke in favour of tbe grant to the family of Mr. Canning in a tone of mournful regard. The following character of that lamented statesman by Sir James Mackintosh, under the title of " Sketch of a Fragment of the History of tbe Nineteenth Century," appeared in the Keepsake, with the initials of his name. In a notice prefixed to it, he pro fesses an attempt to adopt the temper with which he believes that some events and persons of our time may be considered by a future historian. 128 NOTICE OF THE LIFE, WRITINGS, " Without invidious comparison, it may be safely said that, frpm the circum stances in which he died, his death was more generally interesting among civilised nations than fhat of any other English statesraan had eVer been. It was an eveJit in the internal history of every country. From Lima to Athens, every nation struggling for independence or existence, was filled by it wifh sorrow and disraay. The Miguelif es of Portugal, fhe apostolicals of Spain, the Jesuitical faction in France, and fhe divan of Constantinople, raised a shout of joy af the fall of fheir dreaded enemy. He was regretted by all who, heated by no personal or party resentraent, felt for genius struck down in the act of atterapting to heal the revolutionary dis teraper, and fo render future improvements pacific : — on fhe principle since success fully adopted by more fortunate, though not more deserving, ministers ; that of a deep and thorough compromise between the interests and the opinions, the pre judices and fhe deraands, of the supporters of establishraent, and the foUowers of reforraation * * I * * * ^ -- " The family of Mr. Canning, which for raore thari a century had fiUed honour able stations in Ireland, was a younger branch of an ancient family among fhe Eng lish gentry. His father, a man of letters, was disinherited for an imprudent marriage, and the inheritance went to a younger brother, whose son was afterwards created Lord Garvagh. Mr. Canning was educated at Eton and Oxford, according to that exclusively classical system, which, whatever may have been its defects, raust be owned, when taken with its constant appendages, fo be erainentiy favourable to the cultivation of sense and taste, as weU as fo the developraent of wit and spirit. From his boyhood he was the foreraost among very distinguished contemporaries, and continued fo be regarded as fhe best specimen, and the most brilUant repre sentative, of that eminently national education. His youthful eye sparkled with quickness and arch pleasantry, and his countenance early betrayed that jealousy of his own dignity, and sensibUity to suspected disregard, which were afterwards softened, but never quite subdued. Neither the habits of a great school, nor fhose of a popular asserably, were calculated fo weaken his love of praise and passion for distinction. But, as he advanced in years, his fine Countenance was ennobled by the expression of thought and feeling ; he more pursued thaf lasting praise, which is not fo be earned without praiseworthiness ; and, if he cpntinued fo be a lover of fame, he also passionately loved fhe glory of his country. Even he who almost alone was entitled to look down on farae as ' that last Infirmity of noble rainds,' had not forgotten that it was — * The spur that the clear spirit doth raise. To scorn delights, and live laborious days.'"' The natural bent of character Is, perhaps,- better ascertained from the undisturbed and unconscious play of the mind irt the. coramon intercourse of society, than from its movements under the power of strong interest or warm passions in public fife in social interfcourse Mr. Canning was delightful. Happily for fhe true charm of his conversation, he was too busy otherwise not to treat society as more fitted for relaxation than display. If is but little to say, that he was neither disputatious, declamatory, nor sententious; neither a dictator nor a- jester. His manrier w'as simple arid iinobtrusive ; his language always quite familiar. If a higher thought stole from his raind, it carae in its conversational undress. Frora this plain ground his pleasantry sprung witb the happiest effect ; and it was nearly exerapt from that * Lycidas, AND SPEECHES OF SIR J, MACKINTOSH, 129 Wloy of taunt and banter, which he soraetimes'mixed with more precious materials in pubUc contest. He may be added to fhe Ust of those erainent persons who pleased most in their friendly circle. He had the agreeable quality of being more easily pleased in society than might have been expected from the keenness ofhis discernment, and the sensibility Pf his temper. He was liable to be discoraposed, or even silenced, by the presende of any one whom he did not like. His raanner iu society betrayed the poUtical vexations or anxieties which preyed on his mind ; nor could he conceal that sensitiveness to public attacks which fheir frequent recurrence wears out' in most EngUsh politicians. These last foibles raay be thoiight interest ing as fhe reraains of natural character, not destroyed by refined society and poli tical affairs. He was assailed by sorae adversaries so ignoble as to wound him through his filial affection, which preserved its respectful character through the whole course of his advancement. The ardent zeal for his raeraory , v.'hich appear ed iraraediately after his death, attests fhe warrath of those domestic affections which seldom prevail where they are not mutu.'il. To his touching epitaph on his son, parental love has given a charra which is wanting in his other verses. It was said bf bira, at one time, that no man had so little popularity and such affec tionate friends; and fhe truth was certainly more sacrificed to point in the former than in the latter member of the contrast. Spme of his friendships continued in spite of political differences, which, by rendering intercourse less unconstrained, often underraine friendship ; and others were reraarkable fpr a warmth, constancy, and disinterestedness, which, though chiefl'y honourable to those who were capable of so pUre a kindness, yet redound to the credit of bira who was the object of it. No man is so beloved Who is not himself forraed for friendship, " Notwithstanding his disregard for raoney, he was not terapted in youth by (be example or fhe kindness of affluent friends rauch to overstep his little patrimony. He never afterwards sacrificed to parade or personal indulgence ; though his occu pations scarcely allowed hira to think enpugh of his priyate affairs. Even from his raoderate forturie, his' bounty was often'libel'al to siiitors to whora oificial relief could not be granted. By a sort of generosity stiU harder for him to practise, he endeavoured, in cases where the suffering was great,' though the suit could not be granted, to satisfy the feelings ofthe suitor by full explanation in writing of fhe causes Which rendered corapliance impracticable. Wherever he took an interest, he showed it as much by deUcacy to the feelirigs of those whom he served or re lieved, as by substantial consideration for thei* clairas — a rare and most praiseworthy merit among men in power, " In proportion as fhe opinion of a people acquires influence over public affairs, the faculty of persuading raen to supporter oppose political raeasures acquires im portance. The peculiar nature of parliamentary debate contributes to render emi nence in fhat province not so imperfect a test of political abUity as it might appear to be. Recited speeches can seldom Show more than powers of reasoning and ima gination, which have little connexion with a capacity for affairs. But the unfore seen events of debate, arid the necessity of immediate answer in unpremeditated language, afford scope for quickness, firransss, boldness, wariness, presence of raind, and address infhenianagement of raen, which are araong the qualities most essential fo a statesman. The most flourishing period of our pariiamentary eloquenceextemls for about half a century — from fhe maturity of Lord Chatham's genius to the death of Mr. Fox. During fhe twenty years which succeeded, Mr- Canning was sorae tiraes the leader, and always the greatest orator, of the party who supported the administration : among whora he was supported, but not rivalled, by able men, against opponents who were not thought by him inconsiderable, of whom one, at I. 9 130 NOTICE OF THE LIFE, WRITINGS, least, was felt by every hearer, and acknowledged in private by himself, to have always forced his faculties into their very uttermost stretch. " Had he been a dry and meagre speaker, he would have been universaUy allowed fo be one of the greatest raasters of argument ; but his hearers were so dazzled by the splendour of his diction, that they did not perceive fhe acuteness and fhe sometimes excessive refinement of his reasoning ; a consequence which, as it shows the inju rious influence of a seductive fault, can with fhe less justice be overlooked in the estimate of his understanding. Ornament, if must be owned, when if only pleases or amuses, without disposing fhe audience to adopt {he sentiments of the speaker, is an offence against the first law of public speaking, of which it obstructs instead of proraoting the only reasonable purpose. But eloquence is a widely extended art, comprehending many sorts of excellence; in some of which ornamented diction is raore UberaUy employed than in others ; and in none of which the highest rank can be at tained, without an extraordinary combination of mental powers. Ampng our own ora tors, Mr. Canning seems to be fhe test raodel of the adorned style. The splendid.and sublirae descriptions of Mr. Burke, his comprehensive and profound views of general principle, though fhey must ever deUght and instruct the readers, must be owned to have been digressions which diverted fhe rainds of fhe hearers from fhe object on which fhe speaker ought fo have kept fhem steadily fixed. Sheridan, a raan of , adrairable sense, and matchless wit, laboured fo follow Burke into the foreignregions of feeling and grandeur, where the specimens preserved of his most celebrated speeches show too much of the exaggeration and excess fo which those are pecu liarly liable who seek by art and effort what nature has denied. By the constant part which Mr. Canning took in debate, he was caUed upon to show a knowledge which Sheridan did not possess, and a readiness which thaf accomplished man had no such means of strengthening and displaying. In some qualifies of style, Mr. Can ning surpassed Mr. Pitt. His diction was more various, sometimes more simple, more idiomatical, even in its raore elevated parts. If sparkled vrith iraagery, and was brightened by iUustration ; in both of which Mr. Pitt, for so great an orator, was de fective. " Mr. Canning possessed, in a high degree, the outward advantages of an orator. His expressive countenance varied with the changes of his eloquence ; his voice, flexible and articulate, had as much compass as his mode of speaking required. In the calra part of his speeches, his attitude and gesture might have been selected by a painter fo represent grace rising towards dignify. " No English speaker used the keen and brUliant weapon of wit so long, so often, or so effectively, as Mr. Canning. He gained more triuraphs, and incurred more enmity, by it than any other. Those whose importance depends much on birth and fortune are irapafient of seeing their own artificial dignify, or thaf of fheir order, broken down by' derision; and perhaps few raen heartily forgive a successful jest against themselves, but fhose whp are conscious of being unhurt by it. Mr. Can ning often used this talent imprudently. In sudden flashes of wit, and in the play ful description of men or things, he was often distinguished by that natural feUcity which is the charm of pleasantry; fo which fhe air of art and labour is raore fatal than to any other talent. Sheridan was soraetimes betrayed by an iraitation of the dialogue of his master, Congreve, into a sort of laboured and finished jesting, so balanced and expanded, as soraetimes fo vie in tautology and raonotony with the once applauded triads of Johnson ; and which, even in its raost happy passages, is more sure of comraanding serious adrairation than hearty laughter. It cannof be denied that Mr. Canning's taste was, in this respect, somewhat influenced by the f xample'Pf his early friend. AND SPEECHES OF SIR J. MACKINTOSH. 131 " Nothing could better prove the imperfect education of English statesmen at that time, and the capacity of Mr. Canning to master subjects the least agreeable to his pursuits and inclinations. " The exuberance of fancy and wit lessened the gravity of his general manner, and perhaps also indisposed the audience to feel his earnestness where it clearly shpwed itself. In that impertant quality he was inferior to Mr. Pitt, — ' Deep on whose front engraven. Deliberation sat, and pablic care ; ' and not less inferior to Mr. Fox, whose fervid eloquence flowed frora fhe love of his country, fhe scorn of baseness, and fhe hatred of cruelty, which were the ruling passions of his nature. On the whole, it may be observed, that fhe range of Mr, Canning's powers as an orator was wider than that in which he usually exerted them. When mere stateraent only was allowable, no man of his age was raore sira ple. When infirm health compeUed him to be brief, no speaker could compress his matter with so litfle sacrifice of clearness, ease, and elegance. In his speech on colonial reformation, in 1823, he seemed to have brought down the philosophical principles and the moral sentiments of Mr. Burke to that precise level where they could be happily blended wifh a grave and dignified speech, intended as an intro duction to a new system of legislation. As bis oratorical fauUs were those of youth ful genius, the progress of age seemed to purify his eloquence, and every year appeared to remove sorae speck which hid, or at least, diraraed, a beauty. He daily rose fo larger views, and raade, perhaps, as near approaches fophilosophical prin ciples as the great difference between the objects of the philosopher and those of the orator wiU commonly allow. " When the memorials of his time, the composition of which he is said never to have interrupted in his busiest moments, are made known to the public, his abili ties as a writer may be better estiraated. His only known writings in prose are State Papers, which, when considered as the composition of a minister for foreign affairs, in one of fhe most extraordinary periods of European history, are undoubtedly of no smaU importance. Such of these papers as were intended to be a direct appeal to fhe judgment of mankind combine sp much precision, with such uniform circumspection and dignity, that they must ever be studied as models of that very difficult species of composition. His Instructions fo Ministers Abroad, on occasions bofh perplexing and raoraentous, will be found fo exhibit a rare union of comprehensive and elevated views, with singular ingenuity in devising raeans of ex ecution ; on which lasf faculty he soraetimes relied perhaps more jconfidently than the short and dim fpresight of man wUl warrant. ' Great affairs,' says Lord Bacon, ' are comraonly foo coarse and stubborn to be worked upon by fhe fine edges and points of wit.' "* His papers in negociation were occasionally soraewhat foo contro versial in their tone. They are not near enough to the manner of an amicable con versation about a disputed point of business, in which a negociator does not so much draw out his argument, as hint his own object, and sound the intention of his op ponent. He sometimes seems fo pursue triumph raore than advantage, and not enough to reraeraber that to leave the opposite party satisfied with what he has got, and in good humour with himself, is not one of the least proofs of a negociator's skill. Where the papers were intended ultimately to reach the pubUc through Par liament, it might be prudent to guard, chiefly the final object ; and when this excuse * " If may be proper to remind the reader, that here the word ' wit' Is used in its ancient sense." 132 NOTICE OF THE LIFE, WRITINGS, was wanting, rauch must be pardoned to fhe controversial habits of a parliamentary life. It is hard for a debater to be a negociator. The faculty of guiding public as serablies is very remote from the art of deafing with individuals. " Mr. Canning's power of -writing verse may rather be classed with his accom plishments, than numbered araong his high and noble faculties. It would have been a distinction for an inferior raan. His verses were far above those of Cicero, of Burke, and of Bacon. The taste prevalent in his youth led hira to more relish for sententious declaimers in verse than is shared by lovers of more true poetry of imagination and sensibility. In some respects his poetical compositions were also influenced by his early intercourse wifh Mr. Sheridan, though he was restrained by his more familiar contemplation of classical models frora the "glifferihg conceits of thaf extraordinary raan, Soraething of an artificial and composite diction is dis cernible in the EngUsh poems of fhose who have acquired reputation by Latin verse, raore especiaUy since the pursuit of rigid purity has required so timid an imitation as not only to confine itself to the words, but to adopt none but fhe phrases of an cient poets ; an effect of which Gray raust be allowed to furnish an exaraple. " Absolute silence about Mr. Canning's writings as a political satirist, which were for their hour so popular, might be imputed- to undue tlraidity. In fhat character he yielded to General Fitzpafrick in arch stateliness and poignant raiUery; to Mr. Moore in the gay prodigality with which he squanders his countless stores of wit; and fo his own friend Mr. Freere in the richness of a native vein of original and fantastic drollery. In that ungenial province, where the brightest of fhe hasty laurels are apt very soon to fade, and where Dryden only boasts iramortal lays, it is perhaps his best praise, fhat there is no writing of his, v/hich a man of honour might not avow as soon as fhe first heat of contest, was past, " In some of the arauseraents or tasks of his boyhood there are passages which, without rauch help frora fancy, might appear fo contain allusions fo his greatest raeasures of poUcy, as well as to the tenor of his life, and to the raelancholy splen dour which surrounded his death. In the concluding line ofthe first EngUsh verses written by him at Eton, he expressed a wish, which has been singularly realised, that he might — ' Live in a blaze, aud in a blaze expire,' It is at least a striking coincidence, thaf the statesman, whose dying measure wa,* to mature an alliance for the deliverance of Greece, should, when a boy, have writ ten EngUsh verses on the slavery of that country ; and that in his prize poem at Oxford, on the PUgrimage to Mecca, a composition as rauch applauded as a modern Latin poera can aspire to be, he should have as bitterly deplored the lof bf other renowned countries, now groaning under the same barbarous yoke, ' Nunc Satraps imperio et ssevo subdita Turcse,' * "To conclude: — he was a man of fine and briUiant genius, of warra affections,' of high and generous spirit ; a statesman, who, at horae, converfed raost ofhis oppo nents into warm supporters ; who, abroad, was the sole hope and trust of aU who sought ah orderly and le'gal liberty ; and who was cut off in fhe midst of vigorous and splendid measures, which, if executed by himself, or with his own spirit^ pro mised to place his name in thefirst class of rulers, among tbe founders of lasting peace, and the guardians of human improveraent," Ui * Iter ad Meccam, Oxford, 1789, AND SPEECHES OF SIR J. MACKINTOSH. 133 The Whigs continued to the ministry of Lord Goderich the support whicb they had given to that of Mr. Canning, the Go derich ministry soon died of its own staminal weakness and a Tory intrigue. It was succeeded by the short but. memorable Wellington ministry. The Whigs, powerless to oppose an administration, which made up in political vigour what it wanted in political capacity, affected a disinterested forbearance. The affairs of Portugal were among tbe few subjects directiy mooted between the opposition and the government; and, even in this instance, the motion made by Sir James Mackintosh was withdrawn. The Nero of Portugal, it should be remembered, had just begun to wanton in that instinctive cruelty and thirst of blood, which it is less humUiating to find in human nature, tban that the human species should be base enough to tolerate them. The following are a few passages from the speech of Sir James Mackintosh: — "Portugal was a country closely connected with Great Britain by alliances which had originated four hundred and fifty years ago — r a connexion, he ventured to say, unparalleled in the whole history of raankind — a connexion which had not been interrupted by a cloud of disagreement for a single day. A treaty of alliance had subsisted between this country aud Portugal for fhe space of one hundred and twenty years, which had never drawn England into a war, or exposed her to injury ; but which, on the contrary, had exposed Portugal fo invasion thrice . — in 1761, in 1801, and again in 1807; and it would seem that, in addition to these sufferings, she was now to be abandoned to fhe yoke of an usurper, who had made his way to the throne by a series of falsehoods, perjuries, and frauds, which, in the case of any man amenable to law, would have subjected their perpetrator fo the raost disgraceful, if not fhe most extreme, punishraent ; — a man who laboured under the imputation of private crirags, irapufations uncontradicted and unconfuted, which rather rerainded us ofthe acts of Coraraodus and CaracaUa than of tbe farae and coramon-place character of modern vice ; — a raan who bore upon his brow the brand of a pardon which he received fi'om his king and his father for an act of parricidal rebellion. It was disgraceful thaf the ancient and faithful aUy of England should have fallen under fhe yoke of such a map. In this case, the vices of the individual constituted a great part of the raisfortunes of the nation which he ruled; and this circurastance justified the allusion to and the reprobation of them. His Majesty had twice told Parliaraent, though in milder language than this, that he and all the other powers of Europe had been obligejl to cut off all diploraatic intercourse with this ancient and renowned meraber of the European Christian states, for nearly twelve raonths — a mark of displeasure almost, if not altogether, unexampled ^a mark of displeasure, short of an actiial declaration of war, the strongest thaf it was possible to affix upon any ruler. Europe had sat in judgraent on the conduct of this man, who had brought dishonour on a once iUustrious and •still respectable country ; and Europe, as a mark of its disapprobation of his pro ceedings, bad pronounced the state which Don Miguel governed unworthy of being aUowed to maintain relations of araity with other powers while she groaned under the yoke of the usurper. While Don Miguel received iokens of obedience frora at 134 NOTICE OF THE LIFE, WRITINGS, least a part of his subjects, his Majesty and his Majesty's ministers had recognised the royal rights and privileges of Donna Maria, with a high feeling of courtesy and justice, which did credit fo the monarch and his advisers. He heartUy approved of this part of our conduct towards the young queen ; he spoke not now of consis tency, and did not allude to the conduct of this country in other particulars. We had received Donna Maria with a degree of courtesy and respect, which her youth, innocence, royal rank, and grievous wrongs, were 50 well. calculated to inspire. But, meanwhile, Don Miguel enjoyed the fruits of his crime at Lisbon, whUe his injured relative remained here an exile, deprived of her just rights and privileges. This was a case which, considering fhe House as the guardian of fhe national honour, and entitled to watch over our deportment to our allies, ought fo receive the closest exaraination at our hands, with reference to every circurastance con nected with fhe present state of the relations subsisting between us and our raost ancient aUy. " Perhaps if would here be prudent to afrest the arguraent, in order to examine into fhe nature of fhat principle of the law of nations, which should form so pro minent a feature in fhe discussion of this question, — he meant fhe principle of neufraUty. If was a word which required very exact definition. Neutrality was not a point, but rather a line. It was not indifference alike fo the interests of bofh parties ; neither was it equaUty of good opinion or good wishes. It was not that detestable insensibility to right or wrong, which argued the extinction of the better and more generous feeUngs of our nature. As a consequence of these admissions, it would be found, that although this country had considered itself bound by the pririclifte of neutrality not actively to interfere in the case ofthe infamous partition of Poland, if had not considered itself restrained frora reprobating that partition and spoUation, although at peace with those who effected that partition. Neither in the case of the sale of the island of Corsica had this country felt itself restrained frora reprobating the conduct of France in concluding that sharaefril bargain. The principle of neutrality had not prevented this country from marking, with its animated reprobation, the conduct of its ally, France, when it designed and com pleted that most iniquitous invasion of another of our aUies, Spain, In 1823. Hav ing compared this principle fo a Une, he would follow up that observation by saying, that it was a line of such a length, thaf being induced by feelings or circumstances to fake up a fresh position on if, or by straying frora one point fo another of it, we might change from a state or condition of a friendly nature' towards a party fo whom we had pledged our neutraUfy, to a state or condition which might alraost be considered inimical to that state. ' " The last, though not the least deplorable fact, in his tragic story, which he would quote, was fhe atrocious conduct of Miguel in May lasf towards certain constitutional residents in Oporto. On the 7fh of May, only three weeks ago, this perfidious usurper murdered — he said murdered — fen gentlemen in Oporto; for what ? why, simply and solely for having, on the 18th of the preceding May, followed the example of EngKnd and Austria — not to talk of Russia, Prussia, and France — in recognising the constitution granted by Don Pedro, adopted by fhe Portuguese, and sworn to by the usurper himself. Two of these unfortunate gentlemen were reserved for a more protracted suffering under the pretence of being pardoned— one being sent for life to fhe lingering and agonising torture of the galUes af Angola ; the other, the brother of the 'Portuguese arabassador af Brussels, being conderaned for life to hard labour. By an edict of the most fiendish tyranny, fhose gentlemen were condemned first to witness the murder of their brave and high.-- AND SPEECHES OF SIR J. MACKINTOSH. 135 minded companions in loyalty to the constitution, which aU Europe )iad acknow ledged, England encourajed, and Miguel hiraself sworn to observe — a species of torture which the generous mind most acutely felt, and which was aggravated by tbe heroic fortitude of their companions' sufferings. On the day of fhe raurder, the city of Oporto was a spectacle of horror ; the rich had abandoned the town, and shut themselves up in their viUas ; the poor shut their doors, and fhe streets were abandoned to the executioner, the guards, and tbe ill-fated victims. The 16th o May was fhe day chosen by Miguel for this atrocious execution. It was a most ^ deliberate act. It was not a mere punishraent for offences which were legal, and for which an aranesty had been passed ten months before, and which had :acfually been planned before his arrival. No ; it was a bold and deliberate defiance of civi Used Europe — of Christendom; the princes and ministers of which he burnt in effigy, for having a few weeks before withdrawn their representatives from his poUuted kingdom as from a city of the plague. He thought, by this slaughter of aU who opposed his despotism, fo force Europe into a recognition of his throne, fo prevent the effusion of more blood. By dint of murder be hoped to force us to hail, as a Christian king, the man who despised justice, and had violated every law that regulated civilised raan ; and he held up his bloody hands in open defiance of aU Europe, telUng its rulers thathe scorned fheir judgment while he defied their power." Sir James Mackintosh ceased contributing to the Edinburgh Review with the number dated September, 1826. Two only of his contributions remain to be noticed : the first is on the Partitions, of Poland, in the number dated November, 1822. The following passages from this article will be read witb interest for the sake both of the writer and of the interesting, gallant, and most unfor tunate nation to which they relate : — " Little raore than fifty years have passed since Poland continued to occupy a high place among the powers of Europe. Her natural means of wealth and force were inferior to those of few states of the second order. The surface of the country exceeded that of France ; aod the number of inhabitants was estimated at fourteen millions, a population probably exceeding fhat of the British islands, or of the Spanish peninsula, at the era of the first partition. The cUmate was nowhere unfriendly to health, or unfavourable f o labour ; the soU was fertUe, fhe produce redundant ; a large portion of the country, still uncleared, afforded ample scope for agricultural enterprise. Great rivers afforded easy raeans of opening an internal navigation frora the Baltic to fhe Mediterranean. In addition fo these natural ad vantages, there were many of those circumstances in fhe history and situation of Poland which render a people fond and proud of their country, and foster fhat national spirit [which is the most effectual instrument either of defence or aggrand isement. TiU the middle of the seventeenth century she was the predorainating power of the North. With Hungary, and fhe maritime strength of Venice, she formed the eastern defence of Christendom against the Turkish tyrants of Greece, and on the north-east she was long the sole barrier against the more obscure bar barians of Muscovy, after they had thrown off the Tartarian yoke.* A nation which ¦ * « poloniam velut propugnaculum nrbis Christiani." — " Polonia Germaniara ab irruptionibus Barbakprcm tutam praestitit." — Puffendorff, Rerum Brandenburgi.. earum, 1. v. c. 31. 130 NOTICE OF THE LIFE, WRITING^, thus constituted a part of fhe vanguard of civUisation necessarUy becarae martial, and gained all the renown in arms which could be acquired before war had become a science. The wars ofthe Poles, irregular; romantic, fuU of perspnal adventure, dependent on individual courage and pecuUar character, proceeding little from the policy of cabinets, but deeply imbued by those sentiraents of chivalry which raay pervade a nation, chequered by extraordinary vicissitudes, carried on against bar barous enemies in remote and vrild provinces, were calculated fo leave a deep ira-, pression on the feelings of the people, and fo give every raan the liveliest interest in the glories and dangers of his country. Whatever renders fhe raembers of a com munity more like each other, and unlike their neighbours, usuaUy strengthens the bonds of attachment between fhem. The Poles were the only representatives of the Sarmatian race in the asserably of civiUsed nations ; their language and their national literature, those great sources of sympathy and objects of national pride, were cultivated with no small success. They contributed, in one instance, signally to the progress of science, and they took no ignoble part in those classical studies which composed the common Uterature of Europe. They were bound to their country by thejpecuUarities of its institutions and usages-irperhaps, also, bythe very defects in their government, which af last contributed to its faU, by, those dangerous privUeges, and by thaf tumultuary independence which rendered their- condifion as much above that of fhe slaves of, absolute raonarchy, as it was below the lof of those who inherit the blessings of legal and raorai freedora. They had pnce another singularity, of which they raight justiy have been proud, if fhey had not abandoned it in times which ought fo have befen raore enlightened. Soon after the Reformation, they set the first example of thaf true reUgious liberty which oquaUy admits the members of all sects to the privileges, fhe oifices, and dignities of tbe commonwealth. For nearly a century they afforded a secure asylum to those obnoxious sects of Anabaptists and Unitarians, whora aU other states excluded frora toleration ; and the Hebrew nation, proscribed everywhere [else for several ages, found a second country, with protection for their learned and religious establishn ments, in this hospitable and tolerant land. * •* * ^. *. >- * . -k » " Kosciusko, harassed by the advance of an Austrian, Prussian, and Russian army, Concentrated the greater part of his army around Warsaw. Frederic WiUiara ad vanced against the capital at the head of 40,000 disciplined troops. Kosciusko, with 12,000 irregulars, raade an obstinate resistance for several hours, on the Sth of June, and retired to his entrenched camp before Warsaw. The Prussians took possession of Cracow; and summoned the capital to surrender, under pain of all th« horrors suffered by towns which are taken by assault. After two months em ployed in vain attempts to reduce the city, the King of Prussia was corapeUed, by an insurrection In his lately acquired Polish province, to retire wifh precipitation and disgrace. But in the raeantime, the Russians advanced, in spite of the gallant re sistance of General Count Joseph SierakowskI, one of the raost faithful friends of his country. On the 4th of October, Kosciusko, with only 18,000 men, thought it necessary to hazard a battle at Macciowice, to prevent the junction of the two Rus sian divisions of Suwarrow aud Fersen. Success was long and vaUantly contested. According to some narrations, the enthusiasm ofthe Poles would have prevaUed, if the treachery or incapacity of Count Poninski had not favoured fhe Russians. That officer neither defended a river, where he had been ordered fo make a stand, nor brought up his division to support his General. Kosciusko, after fhe most ad mirable exertions of judgment and courage, feU, covered with wounds. The Polish ,-irray fled. The Russians and Cossacks were melted af the sight of their gallant <,'ncmy, who lay insensible on the field. When he opened his eyes, and learnf'the AND SPEECHES OF SIR J. MACKINTOSH. 137 frill extent of the disaster, he vainly implored the enemy fp put an erid to his suf ferings. The Russian officers, moved wifh admiration and compassion, treated his wounds with tenderness, and sent him, with due respect, a prisoner of war fo Pe tersburg. Catherine threw him into a dungeon, frora which he was released by Paul, on his succession, perhaps, partly from hatred to his mother, and partly from one of those paroxysms of transient generosity, of which that brutal lunatic was not incapable. " From that moment the farther defence of Poland became hopeless. Suwarrow advanced to the capital, and stimulated his army to fhe assault of the great suburb of Praga, by the barbarous promise of a licence to piUage for forty-eight hours. A dreadful contest ensued on the 4th of November, 1794, in which the inhabitants perforraed prodigies of useless valour, raaking a stand in every street, and at almost every house. All tbe horrors of war, which the most civUised arraies practise on. such occasions, were here seen with tenfold violence. No age, or sex, or condi tion was spared. The raurder of chUdren forraed a sort of barbarous sport for the assailants. The most unspeakable outrages were offered to the living and tbe dead. The mere infliction of death was an act of mercy. The streets strearaed wifh blood. Eighteen thousand huraan carcasses were carried away from thera after fhe raassacre had ceased. Many were burnt to death In the flaraes which con suraed fbe town. Midtitudes were driven by fbe bayonet into the Vistula. A great body of fugitives perished by fhe fall of the great bridge, over which they fled. These tremendous scenes closed the resistance of Poland, and completed fhe triumph of her oppressors. The Russian army entered Warsaw on the 9th of Noveraber, 1794. Stanislaus was suffered to amuse hiraself with the forraalities of royalty for sorae months longer. In obedience to fhe order of Catherine, he abdicated on tbe 25th of November, 1795 — a day which, being fhe anniversary of his coronation, seeraed to be chosen to coraplete his humiliation. Quarrels about the division of the booty retarded tbe complete execution of fbe forraal and final partition till the beginning of fbe year 1796. " Thus fell tjie Polish people, after a wise and virtuous attempt to estabUsh li berty, .ind a heroic struggle to defend it — by the flagitious wickedness of Russia — by tbe foul treachery of Prussia — by the unprincipled accession of Austria — and hy the short-sighted, as well as mean-spirited, acquiescence of aU the nations of Europe." His last article appeared in the number dated September, 1826 : — on the subject ofthe Danish Revolution which led to the impri sonment of Caroline MatUda, sister of George III., and to the death of Struensee. The forced marriage, and consequent misfortunes, of that princess are well known. They drew from Sir James Mackintosh the following just and pregnant observation : — " It is difflcult to contain the indignation which naturaUy arises from the, reflec tion, that at this very time, and with a full knowledge of the fate of the Queen of Denmark, the Royal Marriage Act was passed in England for fhe avowed purpose of preventing the only marriages of preference, which a princess, at least, has com monly fhe opportunity df forming. Of a monarch, who fbonght so much more of the. pretended degradation of his brother than of the cruel misfortunes of bis sister, less cannof be said than that he must have had mere pride than tenderness. Evere the capital punishraent of Struensee for such an offence wiU be justiy condemned by 138 NOTICE OF THE LIFE, WRITINGS, aU but English lawyers, who ought to be silenced by the consciousness that the same barbarous disproportion of a penalty to an offence is sanctioned, in the like case, by their own law.'' Those who may be led away by the notion that absolute power can be any thing but the worst of evUs, even in Denmark, where it was formally surrendered by the nation to the sovereign, and where absolute government has been represented as so full of comfort to the people, should peruse this article : — " It became a fashion," says Sir James, " araong slavish sophists to quote the exaraple of Denraark as a proof of fhe harralessness of despotisra, and of fhe indif ference of forras of govemraent : — ' Even in Denmark,' it was said, ' where the king is legally absolute, civil liberty is respected, justice is weU administered, the persons and property of raen are secure, the whole adrainistration is raore mode rate and mild than that of raost governraents which are called free. The progress of civUization, and the power of public opimon, more than supply the place of po pular institutions.' These representations were aided by fhat natural disposition of the human mind, when a good consequence unexpectedly appears to spring , frora a bad institution, to be hurried into the extreme of doubting whether the in stitution be not itself good, vrithout waiting fo balance the evU against the good, or even duly to ascertain the reality of fhe good. No species of discovery produces so agreeable a surprise, and, consequently, so rauch readiness to assent fo its truth, as that of the benefits of an evil. There are no paradoxes more captivating than the apologies of old abuses and corruptions. " The honest narrative of FaUsenskiold, however, feUs us a different tale. The first of the despotic kings, jealous of the nobility, bestowed fhe highest offices on adventurers, who were either foreigners, or natives of fhe lowest sort. Such is the universal practice of Eastern tyrants. Such was, for a century, the condition of Spain, the most Oriental of European countries. The same characteristic feature of despotisra is observable in the history of Russia. AU talent being extinguished araong fhe superior classes, by withdrawing every object which excites and exer cises the faculties, fhe prince finds a coramon capacity for business only abroad, or amongst fhe lowest classes of his subjects. Bernstorff, a Hanoverian, Lyuar, a Saxon, and Sf. Germain, a Frenchman, were among the ablest of fhe Danish minis ters. The country was governed for a hundred years by foreigners. Unacquainted with Denmark, and disdaining even to acquire its language, they employed Danish . servants as their confidential agents, and placed thera in aU the secondary ofiftces. The natives foUowed their example. Footraen occupied important offices. So prevalent was this practice, that a law was at length passed by the iU-fated Struensee, to forbid this new rule of freemen. Some of the foreign ministers, with good intentions, introduced ostentatious establishments, utterly unsuitable fo one of the poorest countries of Europe. With a population of two miUions and a half, and a revenue of a million and a half sterUng, Denmark, in 1769, had on foot an army of sixty-six thousand raen ; so thaf about a ninth of fhe males of fhe age of labour were constantly idle and under arras. There was a debt of nearly ten millions sterling, after fifty years' peace. An inconvertible paper money, alwaiys discredited, and daily fluctuating, rendered contracts nugatory, and made if irapossible fo •deter mine the value of property, or to estiraate the wages of labour. The barren and mountainous country of Norway, out of a population of seven hundred thousand souls, contributed twenty thousand raen fo fhe array, nine thousand to tbe local AND SPEECHES OF SIR J. MACKINTOSH. 139 mUitia, and fourteen thpusand enrolled fpr naval service, forming a total of forty- three thousand cpnscripts, the fpurth part of the labpuring males being thus set apart by conscription for military service. The majority of the officers of the army were foreign, and the words of command were given in fhe Gerraan language. The navy was disproportioned to fhe part of the population habitually employed in maritirae pccupatipn ; but it was the natural force of the country. The seamen were skUful and brave, and their gaUant resistance fo Nelson, in 1801, is the greatest honour of tbe Danish name in modern times. Their colonies .were useful and costly. " The administration of law was neither just nor humane. The torture was in constant use. The treatraent of the galley slaves af Copenhagen caused traveUers who had seen the Mediterranean ports to shudder. One of the mUd modes of re moving an unpopular minister was to send hira a prisoner for life to a dungeon under fhe Arctic circle. " The effect pf absplute gpvernmenf in debasing the rulers was remarkable in Denmark. One of fhe principal amusements of Frederic V., who sat on the throne from 1746 to 1766, consisted in mock matches at boxing and wrestling with his favourites, in which it was not always safe to gain an advantage over the royal gladiator. His son and successor. Christian VIL, was either originaUy deficient in understanding, or had, by vicious practice in boyhood, so much impaired his raen tal faculties, that considerable wonder was felt at Copenhagen at his being allowed in 1768 fo display his irabecility in a tour through a great part of Europe. The elder Bernstorff, then at the head of the council, was unable to restrain the king and his favourite StoUc from this indiscreet exposure. Such, however, is fhe power of ' fhe solemn plausibUities of the world,' thaf in France this unhappy person was corapliraented by academies, arid in England works of literature were inscribed to him." The remaining, and the most important, literary works of Sir James Mackintosh, are tbe unfinished History of the Revolution of 1688, contained in the present volume; "A general View of Ethical Philosophy," begun in the first, and completed in the second, volume of tbe Edinburgh edition of the Encyclopaedia Britannica ; " The History of England, from the Roraan Conquest of Britain to the Sixteenth Year of the Reign of Elizabeth ;" and the " Life of Sir Thomas More," both pubhshed in the Cabinet Cyclopaedia. Of the merits and character of the first-mentioned work bere presented to the reader nothing need be said. The dissertation on the progress of ethical phUosophy not only sustained but advanced his reputation, already eminent in speculative science. Less studious or ostentatious of the graces and ornaments of com position than Dugald Stewart, less negligent of them than other Avriters, his style has in general* a sustained and simple elegance * This qualification may appear invidious or unjust; ifis however caUed for by such exceptions as the foUowing illustration of the system of Hobbes:— " The moral and poUtical system of Hebbes was a palace of ice, transparent, exactiy proportioned'. 140 NOTICE OF THE LIFE, WRITINGS, ¦which becomes the subject, and charras the reader. The first and last impressions left upon the mind by the perusal of this essay is that of his vast reading and deep meditation on the principles of morals. He neither starts a new theory, nor throws his weight, at least decisively, into either scale, wbere he considers the raore modern controversies of adverse schools. It is true tbat he maintains the existence of perfectly disinterested benevolence, and — with some qualification — of the moral sense. But it raay be said, on the whole, that he rather views and wanders over the surface of the science in its progress frora the earliest time, and from its earliest cultivators, to the most recent, — characterising the principles, or examining the writings, of the chiefs of sects and schools, from Epicurus to Bentham. It should be observed, that his view chiefly and professedly respects the progress of ethics in tbe seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, giving naturally, and perhaps reasonably, his main attention to its cultivation in the United Kingdom. He begins by distinguishing and defining, as foUows, the physical and moral sciences : — "But however multipUed the connexions of fhe moral and physical sciences are, it is not difficult to draw a general distinction between them. The purpose of the physical sciences throughout all fheir provinces is to answer the question, SV^hat is ? They consist oidy of facts arranged according fo their likeness, and expressed by general names given to every class of simUar facts. The purpose of fhe moral sciences is fo answer the question. What ought to be ? They aira at ascertaining fhe rules which ought fo govern voluntary action, and f o which fhose habitual dis positions of mind which are the source of voluntary actions ought to be adapted." After sorae preliminary observations, he glances over ancient ethics. The following coup d'ceil is adrairable. No one endued with the least sense of the beautiful in morals, or in style, could bring himself to curtaU it : — "It was not tiU near a century after the death of Plato, that ethics became the scene of phUosophical contest between fhe adverse schools of Epicurus and Zeno, whose errors afford an instructive exaraple, that, in fhe forraation of theory, partial truth is equivalent fo absolute falsehood. As fhe astronoraer who left either 'the centripetal or the centrifugal force of fhe planets out of his view would err as completely as he who excluded hoth, so fhe Epicureans and Stoics, who each confined themselves fo real but not exclusive principles in morals, departed as widely frora the truth as if they had adopted no part of it. Every partial theory raajestic, admired by the unwary as a deUghtful dwelUng ; but' graduaUy undermined by the central warrath of human feehng, before it was thawed into rauddy water by the sunshine of true philosophy." AND SPEECHES OF SIR J. MACKINTOSH, 141 isi indeed, directly false, inasmuch as it ascribes to oue or few causes what is produced by more. As the extrerae opinions of one, if not both, of these schools have been often revived, with variations and refineraents, in modern tiraes, and are StiU not without influence on ethical systems, it may be aUowable to make sorae pbs^vations on this earliest of raorai controversies. " ' AU other virtues,' said Epicurus, ' grow frora prudence, which teaches-that we cannof live pleasurably without living justly and virtuously, nor live justly and virtuously without living pleasurably.' The iUustration of this sentence formed the whole moral discipline of Epicurus. To him we owe the general concurrence of refiecting men in succeeding times, in fhe important truth, fhat men cannot be happy without a virtuous frame of mind and course of life ; a truth of inestimable value, not peculiar to the Epicureans, but placed by tbeir exaggerations in a strong er Ught ; a truth, it raust be added, of less iraportance as a motive to right conduct than to the corapleteness of moral theory, which, however, if is very far from sblely constituting. With fhat ti'utb fhe Epicureans blended another position, which, indeed, is contained in the first words of the above stateraent ; naraely, tbat because virtue proraotes happiness, every act of virtue must be done in order to promote the happiness of fhe agent. They and their modern followers tacitly assurae, that the latter position is the consequence of the former ; as if it were an inference from the necessity of food fo life, fhat the fear of death should be sub stituted for the appetite of hunger as a motive for eating ' Friendship,' ijays ¦ Epicurus, ' is to be pursued by the wise man only for its usefulness, but be will begin as he sows fhe field in order to reap.' It is obvious that, if tbese Words be confined to outward benefits, they raay be sometimes true, but never can be per tinent ; for outward acts sometimes show kindness, but never compose if. If they be applied to kind feeling they would, indeed, be pertinent, but fhey would be evidently and fotaUy false ; for it is most certain that no man acquires an affection merely from his belief thaf it would be agreeable or advantageous to feel it, Kind ness cannot, indeed, be pursued on account of the pleasure which belongs to it : for man can no more know the pleasure tiU he has felt the affection, than he can form an idea of colour without the sense bf sight. The moral character of Epicurus was excellent ; no raan more enjoyed the pleasure or better performed the duties of friendship. The letter of his system was no more indulgent fo vice than that of any other raoraUst." Although, therefore, he has the merit of having raore strongly inculcate(l the connexion of virtue with happiness, perhaps, by the faulty excess of treating it as an exclusive principle, yet his doctrine was justiy charged with In disposing the mind to those exalted and generous sentiraents, without which no pure, elevated, bold, generous, or tender virtues can exist. " As Epicurus represented tbe tendency of virtue, which is a raost important truth in ethical theory, as the sole indricement fo virtuous practice ; so Zeno, in his disposition towards fhe opposite cixtreme, was'incliried to consider the rapral sentiments which are motives of right conduct, as being the sole principles of moral science. , Tbe confusion was equally great in a phUosophical view ; but that of Epicurus was more fatal to interests of higher importance than those of phi losophy. Had the Stoics been content with affirming fhat virtue is the source of all thaf part of our happiness which depends on ourselves, they would have taken * It is due to hira to observe that he treated humanity towards slaves as one of the characteristics of a wise raan. Oute xcXcts'siv oixsTaj, sXsnaeiv /*s» raxai ffu-yy- vm/inv Tivi i^iii TMv uvovSium. (DioG. Laert. lib. x. edit. Meibora. I. 653.) It is not unworthy of reraark, that neither Plato nor Epicurus thought it necessary tp abstain from these ktopics in a city fuU of slaves, many of whom were raen not (destitute of knowledge. 1.1-2 NOTICE OF THE LIFE, WRITINGS, a position frora which it would have been irapossible to drive them ; they would have laid down a principle of as great comprehension in practice as their wider pretensions ; a siraple and incontrovertible truth, beyond which every thing is an object of raere curiosity fo raan. Our inforraation, however, about tlie opinions of the raore celebrated Stoics is very scanty. None of their own writings are preseryed'. We knpw little of them but from Cicero, the translatpr of Grecian phUosophy, and from the Greek corapilers of a later age ; authorities which would he iraperfect in the history of facts, but which are of far less value in fhe history of opinions, where a right conception often depends upon the minutest distinctions between words. We know thaf Zeno was more simple, and that Cteysippris, who was accounted the prop of the Stoic Porch, abounded raore in subtile distinction and systeraatic spirit. His power was attested as much by the antagonists whom he called forth, as by the scholars whom he forraed. ' Had there been no Chrysappus, there would have been no Carneades,' was the saying of the latter philosopher himself; as it raight have been said in the eighteenth century, 'Had there been no Hurae, there would have been no Kant and no Reid. Cleanthes, when one of his followers would pay court to him by laying vices to the charge of his most for raidable opponent, Arcesilaus, the Acaderaie, answered, with a justice and candour unhappily too rare, ' SUence, do not malign hira ; though he attacks virtue with his arguraents, he confirms its authority by his life.' ArcesUaus, whether modesfly or churlishly, replied, ' I do not choose fo he flattered.' Cleanthes, wifh a su periority of repartee as well as charity, replied, ' Is it flattery to say that you speak one thing and do another ?,' ,It would be vain fo expect that the fragraents of the professors who lectured in the Stoic school for five hundred years should be capable of being moulded info one consistent system; and we see fhat, in Epictetus af least, the exaggeration ,of the sect was lowered fo fhe level of reason, by confin ing the sufficiency of virtue to those cases only where happiness is attainable by our voluntary acts. It ought to be added, in extenuation of a noble error, that the power of habit and character to struggle against outward evils has been proved by experience fo be in sorae instances so prodigious, thaf no raan can presurae fo fix the utmost limit of its possible increase. " The attempt, however, of fhe Stoics fo stretch fhe bounds of their system beyond the Umits of nature, produced the inevitable inconvenience of dooming them to fluctuate between a wUd fanaticism on the one hand, and, on the other, con cessions which left fheir differences from other philosophers purely verba]. Many of their doctrines appear to be modifications of their original opinions, introduced as opposition became more formidable. In this raanner fhey were driven fo the necessity of admitting fhat the objects of our desires and appetites are worthy of preference, though fhey are denied fo be constituents of happiness. It was thus thaf fhey were obliged to invent a double morality ; one for mankind af large, from whom was expected no more tban fhe xa6>ixov, which seems principaUy fo have denoted acts of duty done frora inferior or raixed raotives ; and the other, which fhey appear fo have hoped frora their ideal wise man, is x«To/i9a//«, or perfect observance of rectitude, which consisted only in moral acts done frora mere rever ence for morality, unaided by any feeUngs ; all which (without the exception of pity) they classed among the enemies of reason and the disturbers of the human soul. Thus did they shrink frora their proudest paradoxes into verbal evasions. It is remarkable that raen so acute did not perceive and acknowledge, that, if pain were not an evil, cruelty would not be a vice ; and that, if patience were of power f 0 render torture indifferent, virtue raust expire in the moraent of victory. There can be no more triumph when there is no enemy left to conquer. " The influence of men's opinions on the conduct of fheir lives is checked and AND SPEECHES OF SIR J. MACKINTOSIL 143 modified by so many causes; it sp much depends pn the strength of conviction, on its habitual combination wifh feelings, on the concurrence or resistance of interest, passion, example, and sympathy — ^that a wise man is not fhe most forward ui at tempting to determine fhe pPwer of its single operation over human actions. In thg case pf an individual it beccmes altogether uncertain. But, when the experiment is made on a large scale ; when it is long-continued and varied in its circurastances ; and especiaUy when great bodies of men are for ages fhe subject of it, we cannot reasonably reject the consideration of the inferences to which it appears to lead. The Roman patriciate, trained in the conquest and government of the civilised world, in spite of the tyrannical vices wfiich sprung from fhat training, were raised by fhe greatness of their objects to an elevation of genius and character unmatched by any other aristocracy ; at the moment when, after preserving fheir power by a long course of vrise comprpmise wifh the people, they were betrayed by the army and the populace into the hands of a single tyrant of their own order — the most ac complished of usurpers, and, if humanity and justice conld for a moment he silent, one of the most iUustrious of raen. There is no scene in history so memorable as that in which Csesar mastered a nobility of which LucuUus and Hortensius, Sul- picius and CatuUus, Porapey and Cicero, Brutus and Cato, were raembers. This renowned body had from the time of Scipio sought the Greek philosophy as an amusement or an ornament. Some few, ' in thought more elevate,' caught the love of truth, and were ambitious of discovering a solid foundation for the rule of life. The influence of the Grecian systems was fried by their effect on a body of men of the utraost originality, energy, and variety of character, during fhe five centuries between Carneades and Constantine, in their successive positions of rulers of the world, and of slaves under fhe best and under the worst of uncontrolled masters. If we had found this influence perfectly uniform, we should have justly suspected our own love of system of having in part bestowed that appearance on it. Had there been no trace of such an influence discoverable in so great an experiment, we must have acquiesced in fhe paradox, thaf opinion does not at all affect con duct. The result is the more satisfactory, because it appears to illustrate general tendency without excluding very remarkable exceptions. Though Cassius was an Epicurean, the true representative of that school was the accoraplished, prudent, friendly, good-natured time-server Atticus, the pliant slave of every tyrant, who could kiss the hand of Antony, imbrued as if was in the blood of Cicero. The pure school of Plato sent forth Marcus Brutus, the signal humanity of whose Ufe was both necessary^ and sufficient to prove that his daring breach of venerable rules flowed only from thaf dire necessity which left no other raeans of upholding the most sacred principles. The Roraan orator, though in speculative questions he embraced that raitigafed doubt which aflowed raost ease and freedom fo his genius, yet, in those moral writings where his heart was raost deeply interested, foUowed the severest sect of philosophy, and became almost a Stoic. If any conclusion may be hazarded from this trial of systeras, the greatest which history has recorded, we must not refuse our decided, though not undistinguishing, preference to that noble school which preserved great souls untainted at the court of dissolute and ferocious tyrants ; which exalted the slave of one of Nero's courtiers to be a raorai teacher of after-times ; which for the first, and hitherto for the only, time breathed philosophy and justice into those rules of law which govern the ordinary concerns of every man ; and which, above all, has contributed, by the examples of Marcus Fortius Cato and of Marcus Aurelius Antoninus, to raise fhe dignify of our species, to keep alive a more ardent love of virtue, and a more awful sense of duty, throughout all generations. " The result of this short review of the practical philosophy of Greeee seems to ]44 NOTICE OF THE LIFE, WRITINGS, be, that though it was rich in rules for the conduct of life, and in exhibitions of the beauty of virtue, and though it contains gUrapses of just theory and fragraents of, perhaps, every raorai truth, yet it did riot leave behind any precise and coherent system ; unless we except fhat of Epicurus, who purchased consistency, method, and perspicuity too dearly by fhe sacrifice of truth, and by narrowing and lowei#ig his views of human nature, so as fo enfeeble, if not extinguish, aU fhe vigorous mo tives to arduous virtue."' A notice of the ethics of the schoolmen coraes next, and opens as follows : — " An interval of a thousand years elapsed between the close of ancient and the rise of modern-philosophy ; the raost unexplored, yet not the least instructive^ por tion ofthe history of European opimon. In that period fhe sources of the institu tions, the manners, the characteristic distinctions of modern njfions, have been traced by a series of philosophical enquiries, from Montesquieu toflallara ; and there also', it may be added, raore than among the ancients, are the WeU-springs of our specu lative doctrines and controversies. Far from being inactive, fhe huraan raind, during that period of exaggerated darkness, produced discoveries in science, inventions in art, and contrivances in governraent, some of which, perhaps, were rather favoured than hindered by the disorders of society, and by the twilight in which raen and things were seen. Had Boethius, the last ofthe ancierits, foreseen that, within two centuries of his death, iu the province of Britain, then a prey to all fhe horrors of barbaric invasion, a chief of one of the fiercest tribes of barbarians should translate into the jargon ofhis freebooters fhe work on The Consolations of Philosophy, of which theeoraposifiori had soothed the cruel imprisonment of tbe philosophic Roraan hiraself, he" must; even amidst his sufferings, have derived sorae gratification from such ari assurance of the recovery of raankind from ferocity and ignorance. But, had he been allowed to revisit the earth in fhe middle of fhe sixteenth century, with what wondei? and deUght must he have contemplated fhe new and fairer order which was beginning to disclose its beauty, and to proraise raore than if revealed ! He would have sCen personal slavery nearly extinguished, and women, first re leased from Orieriital iraprisonraent by the Greeks, and raised fo a higher dignify among fbe Roraans, af length fast approaching to due equality — ^two revolutions the most signaf and beneficial since the dawn of civilisation. He would have seeri the discovery of gunpowder, which for ever guarded civilised society against bar barians, while it transferred miUtary strength from the few to the many ; of paper and printing, which rendered a second destruction ofthe repositories of knowledge impossible, as well as opened a way by which it was to be finally accessible to aU mankind; of the coriipass, by means of which navigation had ascertained the form of the planet, and laid open a new continent raore extensive than his world. If he had turned to civil institutions, he raight have leamed fhat sorae nations had pre served an ancient ahd seemingly rade mode of legal proceeding, which threw into the hands of the majority of men a far larger share of judicial power than was en joyed by them in any ancient deraocracy. He would have seen everywhere the reraajris of that principle of represenfafiPn, fhe glory ofthe Teutonic race, by which popular government, anciently imprisoned in cities, becarae capable of being strengthened by its exterision over vast countries, to which experience cannot even now assign any Umits ; and which, In times stiU distant, was fo exhibit, in the newly discovered continent, a republican confederacy, likely fo surpass the Macedonian and Roraan empires in extent, greatness, and duration, but gloriously founded on AND SPEECHES OF SIR J. MACKINTOSH. 145 the equal rights, not, Uke them, on the universal subjectien, pf mankind. In one respect, indeed, he niight have lamented that the race ef raan had made a really retrpgrade mpvement ; that they had Ipsf the liberty of phUosophising; that the open exercise of theup highest faculties was interdicted. But he might also have perceived thaf this giant evU had received a mortal wound from Luther, who, in his warfare against Rorae, had struck a blow against all human authority, and uncon sciously disclosed f o raankind that they were entitied, or rather bound, to form and utter their own opinions, and, most of all, on fhe most deeply interesting subjects ; for, ahhough this raost fruitful of moral truths was not yet so released from its combination wifh the wars and passions of the age as to assume a distinct and visible form, its action was already discoverable in the divisions among the reform ers, and in the fears and struggles of civU and ecclesiastical oppressors. The Coun. cil of Trent, and the courts of Paris, Madrid, and Rome, had before that time fpre- boded the emancipation of reason." Having reached modern ethics, he begins witb Hobbes. His character of the philosopher of Malmesbury opens thus : — " Thomas Hobbes of Malmesbury raay be numbered among fhose eminent persons born in the latter half of the sixteenth century, who gave a new character to Eu ropean phUosophy in the succeeding age. He was one of the late writers and late learners. It was not till he was nearly thirty fhat he supplied the defects of his early education, by classical studies so successfuUy prosecuted, that he wrote well in the Latin, fhen used by his scientific conteraporaries ; and raade such proficiency in Greek as, in his earliest work, fhe translation of Thucydides, pubUshed when he was forty, to afford a specimen of a version still valued for its remarkable fide lity ; though written with a stiffness and constraint very opposite to tbe masterly faciUty of bis original compositions. It W£is after forty that he learned the first rudiraents of geometry (so miserably defective was his education) ; but yielding to the paradoxical disposition apt to infect fhose who begin to learn after the natural age of coraraenceraent, he exposed hiraself by absurd controversies with the masters pf a science which looks down with scorn on the sophist. A considerable portion of his mature age was passed on the Continent, where he travelled as tutor fo two successive Earls of Devonshire; a family with wdiom he seeras to have passed nearly half a century of his long life. In France his reputation, founded at that tirae solely on personal intercourse, becarae so great, that his observations on the Meditations of Descartes were pubUshed iri the works of thaf philosopher, together with those of Gassendi and Arnauld. If was about his sixtieth year that he began to publish those philosophical writings which contain his peculiar opinions ; which set the understanding of Europe intp general motion, and stirred up controversies among metaphysicians and moraUsts, not even yet determined. Af fhe age of eighty-seven he had the boldness to publish metrical versions of the Iliad and Odyssey, which the greatness of his narae, and the singularity of the undertaking, still render objects of curiosity, if not of criticisra. He owed his influence to va rious causes ; at the head of which raay be placed that genius for systera, which, though it cramps the growth of knowledge, perhaps finally atones for that mischief by the zeal and activity which it rouses araong followers and opponents, who dis-" cover truth by accident, when in pursuit of weapons for their warfare." No extract within the compass of these pages would give a just idea of the expositions wbicb be gives, and tbe remarks wbicb I. 10 146 NOTICE OF THE LIFE, WRITINGS', he subjoins in refutation of the principles, political and moral, taught by that most ingenious of dogmatists. The following are a few passages from the characters which he has drawn of other ethical writers, down to his own contemporaries and friends : — Shaftesedry. — "Lord Shaftesbury, thc author ofthe Characteristics, was the grandson of Sir Anthony Ashley Cooper, created Earl of Shaftesbury, one of the master spirits of the EngUsh nation, whose vices, the bitter fruits of fhe insecuritj' of a troublous time, succeeded by the corrupting habits of an inconstant, venal, and profligate court, have led an ungrateful posterity to overlook his wisdom, and disin terested perseverance, in obtaining for the English nation the unspeakable benefits of the Habeas Corpus act. The fortune of the Characteristics has been singular. For a time the work was admired raore undistinguishingly than its Uterary charjicter warrants. In the succeeding period if was justly criticlsedlHibuf too severely con deraned. Of late,- raore unjustly than in either of the former cases, it has been generaUy neglected. It seeraed to have fhe power of changing fhe teraper of its critics. If provoked fhe amiable Berkeley fo a harshness equaUy unwonted and unwarranted ; while if softened the rugged Warburton so far as to dispose the fierce' yet not altogether ungenerous polemic to praise an enemy in the very heat of confiict. " Leibnitz, fhe most celebrated of continental philosophers, warraly applauded the Characteristics, and (what was a more certain (iroof of admiration), though at aiif advanced age, criticised thaf work rainutely. Le Clerc, who had assisted the studies of the author, contributed to spread its reputation by his Journal, then the most popular in Europe. Locke is said to have aided in Ms education, probably rather by counsel than by tuition. The author had indeed beeri driven from the regular studies of his country by the insults with whicb he was loaded at Winchester school, When he was only twelve years old, iraraediately after the death of his grandfather ; a choice of time which seemed not so rauch f o indicate anger against the faults of a great man, as triumph over the principles of liberty, which seemed af that tirae to have faUen for ever. He gave a genuine proof of respect for freedora of thought, by preventing fhe expulsion from HoUand of Bayle (wifh whom he differs in every moral, political, and, it maybe truly added, rehgious opinion). When, it mustbe owned, the right of asylum was, in strict justice, forfeited by the secret services which the philosopher had rendered to the enemy of HoUand and of Europe. In the small part of his short Ufe, which premature infirmities aUowed him to apply to public affairs, he co-operated zealously with the friends of freedora ; but, as became a moral philosopher, he, supported, even against fhem, a law fo allow fhose who were accused of treason to raake fheir defence by counsel, although the parties first to benefit from this act of iraperfect justice were conspirators fo assassinate King WilUara, and to re-enslave their country. On thaf occasion it is well known with what admirable quickness he took advantage ofthe embarrassraent which seized him when he rose fo address the House of Commons. ' If I,' said he, ' who rise only to give my opinion on this biU, am so confounded thaf I cannot say what I Intended, what must the condition of fhat man be, who,-wifhouf assistance, is pleading for his own life ! ' He was the friend of Lord Somers ; and the tribute paid to his personal character by Warburton, who knew mariy of his contemporaries and sorae of his friends, may be considered as evidence of its exceUence. "His fitie genius and generous spirit shine through his writings ; but their lustre is often dimmed; by pecuUarities, and, if must be said, by affectations, which, ori ginating in localjiteraporary,' or even personal, circurastances, are particularly fatal AND SPEECHES OF SIR J. MACKINTOSH. 147 % the permanence of fame. There is often a charm in the egotism of an artless Writer or of an actor in great scenes; but other laws are imposed on the Uterary artist Lprd Shaftesbury, instead of hiding hiraself behind his work, stands for ward, with' too frequent marks of Belf-coraplacency, as a nobleman bf polished manners, with a mind adorned bythe fine arts, and instructed hy ancient philosophy; shrinking with a soraewhat efferainate fastidiousness from fhe clamour and breju- dices of the multitude, whom he neither deigns to conciUate nor puts forth his strength to subdue. The enraity of the majority of churchmen to fhe governraent established at the Revolution was calculated to fdl his mind with angry feelings • which overflow too often, if not upon Christianity itself, yet upon representations of it, Closely intertwined with those religious feelings to which, in other forms his own^philosophy ascribes surpassing worth. His smaU and occasional writings, of which fhe main fault is the want of an object or a plan, have many passages remark able for the utmost beauty and harraony of language Had he irabibed fhe sira plicity as weU as copied the expression and cadence of the greater ancients, he would have done raore justice to his genius ; and his works, like theirs, would have been preserved by thaf quality, without which but a very few writings, of whatever ¦ mental power, have long survived their writers. Grace belongs only to natural moveraents ; and Lord Shaftesbury, notwithstanding fhe frequent beauty of his thoughts and language, has rarely attained if-. He is unfortunately prone lo Jilea- santry, which is obstinately averse flrora constraint, and 'which he had no interest in raising to be the test of truth. His affectation of liveliness as a man of the world tempts hira sometiraes to overstep the indistinct boundaries which separate faraili arity frora vulgarity. Of his two more considerable writings, the Moralists, on which he evidently most valued hiraself, and which is spoken of by Leibnitz Wilh enthu siasm, is by no means the happiest; yet perhaps there is scarcely any composition in our language more loffy in its moral and reUgious sentiraents, and raore exqui sitely elegant and rausical in its diction, than the Platonic representation of the scale of beauty and love in the speech lo Paleraon near fhe close of the first part. Many passages might be quoted, which, in some raeasure, justify the enthusiasm of the septuagenarian geometer. Yet it is not to be, concealed that, as a whole. It is heavy and languid. It is a modern antique. The Dialogues of Plato are often very lively representations of conversations which might take place daily at a great uni versity, full, like Athens, of rival professors and eager disciples, — between men of various character, and great farae as weU as abUify. Socrates runs through them aU. His great abilities, his sfiU more venerable virtues, his cruel fate, especially when joined to his very characteristic peculiarities,-^ to his grave humour, to his homely sense, to his assumed huraility, to fhe honest slyness with which he en snared the Sophists, and to the intrepidity with which he dragged them fo justice, gave unity and dramatic interest to these dialogues as a whole. But Lord Shaftes bury's dialogue is between fictitious personages, and in a tone af utter variance witIr English conversation. He had great power of thought and coramand over words. But he had no talent for inventing character and bestowing life on it. Th.e Enquiry concerning Virtue is nearly exerapt frora the faulty pecuUarities of the author ; the method is perfect, the reasoning just, the style precise and clear. The writer has no purpose but that of honestly proving his principles ; he himself altogether disap pears ; and he is intent only on earnestly enforcing what he truly, conscientiously, and reasonably believes. Hence the charm of simplicity is revived in this produc tion, which is unquestionably entitled to a place in tbe first rank of English tracts on moral philosophy. Leibnitz. — " There is a singular contrast between the forra of Leibnitz's writing: 10 ? 148 NOTICE OF THE LIFE, WRITINGS, and the character of his mind. The latter was systematical, even to excess. It was the vice ofhis prodigious intellect, on every subject of science where it was not bound by georaetrical chains, to confine his view to those raost general principles, so weU caUed by Bacon ' merely notional ;; which render it, indecd| easy to build a system, but only because they may be alike adapted to every *tate of appearances, and become there^i really inapplicable to any. Though his geniua. Was thus natu raUy turned to system, his writings were, generally, occasional and miseellaneoua. The fragments of his doctrines are scattered in Reviews ; or over a voluminous li/iterary Correspondence; or in the Prefaces and Introductions to those com- pila^ons to which this great philosopher was obliged by his situation to descends Tiiiis defective and disorderly mode of publication arose partly from the jars between business and study, inevitable in his course of life ; but probably yet more fifom the, nature pf his system which, while it widely deviates frpm the most general principles of former' philosophers, is* ready fo embrace their particular doctrines under, itSi own generaUties, and thus to reconcile them to each other, as weU as fo acconunodat e itself to popular or estabUshed opinions, and compromise with thera, according to his .favourite and oft-repeated maxim, ' that most received doctrines are capable^of a good sense ;' by which last words our phUosopher meant, a sense reconcUabie with his own principles. Partial and occasional exhibitions of these principles suitsd better that constant negotiation with opinions, establishments, and prejudices, to. which extreme generalities are well adapted, than a fnll and metho dical statement of the whole at once. It is the lot of every philosopher who atteinpts to make his principles extremely flexible, that they become like thoae tools which, bend so easily as to penetrate nothing. Vet his manner of publication per haps led hira to those wide intuitions, as comprehensive as those of Bacon, of which he, expressed the result as briefly and pifbily as Hobbes. Tbe fragment which contains his ethical principles is fhe preface to a collection of documents illustrative of international law, pubUshed at Hanover in 1693 ; to which be often referred as his standard afterwards, especiaUy when he speaks of Lord Shaftesbury, or of the controversy between the two great theologians of France. ' Right,' says he, ' is moral power : obligation moral necessity. By moral, I understood what with a good raan prevails as much as if it were physical. A good raan is he who loves all men as far as reason allows.' ** ****** BERKEuex. — " This great metaphysician was so little a moralist, that it requires the attraction of his name to excuse its introduction here. His Theory qff Visim contains a great discovery in mental philosophy. His imraaterialism is chiefly valuable as a touchstone of raetaphysical sagacity ; showing those to be altogether without it, who, like Johnson and Beattie, beUeved that his speculations were sceptical ; that fhey implied any distrust in the senses, or that they had ths smallest tendency tp disturb reasoning or alter conduct. Ancient learning, exact science, polished society, modern literature, and fhe fine arts, contributed to adom and enrich the mind pf this accomplished man. AU his cpntemppraries^ agreed witb tlie satirist in ascribing ' To Berkeley every virtae under heaven.' Adverse fhctions and hostile wits concurred only in loving, admiring, and con tributing to advance bim. Thc severe sense of Swift endured his yisioas; the modest Addison endeavoured to reconcile Clarke fo his ambitioug syecniatiaiw. His character converted the satire of Pope into fervid praise. Even the discerning, fastidious, and turbulent Atterbury said, after an interview with him, ' So much AND SPEECHES OF SIR J. MACKINTOSH. 140 uuderstanding, so much knovyledge, so much innocence, and such humility, I did not thiidc had been the portion of any but angels, tiU I saw this gentieman.' Lord Bathurst told me, that the members of the Scriblerus Club being met at his house at dinner, they agree4 !to rally Berkeley, who was also his guest, on his scheme at Bermudas ; Berkeley, having listened to the many Uvely things fhey had to say, begged fo be heard in his turn, and displayed his plan with such an astonishing and animating force of eloquence and enthusiasra, that fhey were struck dumb, and, after some pause, rose all up together, with earnestness exclaiming, ' Let us sef out with him immediately.' * It was when thus beloved and celebrated, that he con ceived, at the age of forty-five, the design of devoting his life to reclaim and convert the natives of North Araerica ; and he employed as much influence and sobcitation as common men do for their most prized objects, in obtaining leave to resign his dignities and revenues, fo quit his accomplished and affectionate friends, and to bury himself in what must have seemed an inteUectual desert. After four years' residence at Newport in Rhode Island, he was compeUed, by the refusal of govern* ment to furnish him with funds for his college, to forego his work ef heroie, or rather godlike, benevolence ; though not without sorae consoling forelhought of fhe fortune of the country where he had sojourned. ' Westward the course of empire takes its way, The first four acts already past, A fifth shall close the drama with the day, ,, Time's noblest offspring is its l,\st.' " Thus disappointed in his ambition of keeping a school for savage children, at a salary of a hundred pounds by the year, he was received, on his return, with open arms by the philosophical queen, at whose metaphysical parties he raade one with Sherlock, who, as weU as SmaUridge, was his supporter, and with Hoadley who, following Clarke, was his antagonist. By her influence he was raade Bishop of Cloyne. It is one of his highest boasts, that though of English extraction, he was a true Irishman, and the first eminent protestant, after the unhappy contest at the Revolution, who avowed his love for aU his countryraen. He asked, ' Whether their habitations and furniture were not raore sordid than those of fhe savage Americans ? -Whether a scheme for the welfare of this nation should not take in the whole inhabitants ? and whether it was a vain attempt to project the flourishing of our protestant gentry, exclusive of the bulk of the natives f ' He proceeds to promote the reformation suggested in this pregnant question by a series of queries, intimating, vrith the utmost skUl and address, every reason that proves the necessity, and the safety, and fhe wisest mode of adoptmg his suggestion. He contributed, by a truly Christian address to fhe Roraan Catholics of his diocese, to their perfect quiet, during the rebeUion of 1745 ; and soon after published a letter to the clergy of that persuasion, beseeching them fo inculcate industry among their flocks, for which he received their thanks. He teUs them thaf it was a saying among the negro slaves, ' If negro were not negro. Irishman would be negro.' It is difficult fo read these proofs of benevolence and foresight without emotion, af the moment when, after a lapse of near a century, his suggestions have been at length, at fhe close of a struggle of tvrenty-five years, adopted, by fhe admission of the whole Irish nation fo the pri vUeges of the British constitution. The patriotism of Berkeley was not, like that of Swift, tainted by disappointed ambition; nor was it, like Swift's, confined to a colony of EngUsh protestants. Perhaps the querist contains raore liints, then ori- * Warton on Pope, 150 NOTICE OF THE LtFE, WRITINGS, ginal, StiU unapplied in legislation and political economy, than are to be found in any equal space. From the writings of his advanced years, when be chose a medical tract to be the vehicle of his phUosophical reflections, though it cannot be said that he reUnquished his early opinions, it is at least apparent that his raind had received a new bent, and was habituaUy tjirned from reasoning towards contera plation. His iraraaterialisra, indeed, modesfly appears, but only Jo purify and elevate our tl},oughfs, and to fix them on mind, the pararaount and priraeval principle of aU things, ' Perhaps,' says lie, ' the truth about innate ideas may be, thaf there are properly no ideas or passive objects in the mind but what are derived from sense, but that there are also, besides these, her own acts and operations : such are notions ; ' a statement which seems once more fo admit general conceptions, and which might have served, as weU as the paraUel passage of Leibnitz, as fhe basis of fhe modern philosophy of Germany. From these corapositions of his ©Id age, he appears then fo have recurred with fondness to Plato and the later Platonists; writers, from whose raere reasonings an InteUect so acute could hardly hope for an arguraentative satisfaction of aU its , difficulties, and whom he probably rather studied as a raeans of inuring his raind to objects beyond the visible diurnal sphere, and of attaching it, through frequent raeditation, to fhat perfect and transcendent 'goodness, to which his raorai feelings always pointed, and which they incessantiy strove to grasp. His raind, enlarging as it rose, af length receives every theist, however imperfect his belief, to a comraunion in its phUosophical piety. ' Truth,* he beautifully concludes, ' is fhe cry of aU, but the game of a few. Certainly, where it is the chief passion. It does not give way to vulgar cares, nor is it contented with a little ardour in the early time of life ; active, perhaps, to 'pursue, but not so lit to weigh and revise. He fhat would make a real progress in knowledge, must dedicate his age as well as youth, the later grovrth as well as first fruits, af the altar pf truth.' So did Berkeley, and such were almost his latest words." , ¦* * * * * ** * Hume.—" The life of Mr. Hume, written by himself, is remarkable above most, if not all, writings, of fhat sort, for hitting the degree of interest between coldness and egotism which becomes a modest man In speaking of his private history. Few writers, whose opinion's were so obnoxious, have more perfectly escaped every personal imputation. Very few men of so calra a character have been so warmly beloved, That he approached to the character of a perfectly good and wise man is an fiffectionate exaggeration, for which his friend. Dr. Sraith, in fhe first rao- ments af his sorrow, may weU be excused. But such a praise can never be earned without passing through either of fhe extremes of fortune ; without standing the test of temptations, dangers, and sacrifices. It raay be said with truth, fhat the private character of Mr. Hurae exhibited aU tbe virtues which a man of reputable station, under a mild governraent, in the quiet times of a civiUsed country, has often fhe opportuoity to practise. He showed no want of the qualities which fif raen for more severe trials. Though others had warmer affections, no man was a kinder relation, a more unwearied friend, or more free from meanness and raalice. His character was so simple, thaf he did nol even affect modesty ; but neither his friendships nor his deportment were changed by a fame which filled aU Europe. His good nature, his plain mariners, and his active kindness, procured him at Paris fhe enviable name of the good David, from a society not so alive to goodness as without reason to place it at the head of the qualities of a celebrated man. His whole character is faithfully and touchingly represented in the story of La Roche, where Mr. Mackenzie, without concealing Mk, Hume's opinions, brings him info contact with scenes of fender piety, and yet preserves the interest inspired by genuine and unalloyed, though moderated, feelings and affections. The amiable AND SPEECHES OF SIR J, MACKINTOSH. 15 J and venerable patriarch of Scottish literature was averse frora the opinions of the philosopher on whom he has composed this best panegyric. He tcHs us that he read the manuscript to Dr. Smith, who declared he did not find a syUable fo object to ; but added, wifh his characteristic absence of mind, that he was surprised he had never heard of the anecdote before. So lively was the delineation, thus sanctioned by the raost natural of aU testiraonies. Mr. Mackenzie indulges his own reUgious feeUngs by modesfly intimating fhat Dr. Smith's answer seemed fo justify the last words of the tale, ' that there were moments when fhe philosopher re called fo his raind the venerable figure of the good La Roche, and wished that he bad never doubted.' To fhose who are strangers to the seductions of paradox, to fhe intoxication of farae, and to the bewitchment of prohibited opinions, it must be unaccountable, that he who revered benevolence should, without apparent regret, cease fo see If on the throne of the universe. . If is a raatter of wonder that his habitual esteera for every fragment and shadow of moral excellence should not lead him to envy fhose who contemplated its perfection in that living and paternal character which gives it a power over the human heart. " On fhe other hand, if we had no experience of the power of opposite opinions in producing irreconcilable animosities, we might have hoped that those who re tained such high privileges would have looked with raore compassion than dislike on a virtuous raan who had lost thera. In such cases it is too litfle remerabered that repugnance to hypocrisy, and impatience of long concealraent, are the qualifies of fhe best forraed minds ; and that, if fhe p-jblication of some doctrines proves often painful and mischievous, the habitual suppression of opinion is Injurious to reason, and very dangerous to sincerity. Practical questions thus arise, so difficult and perplexing, that fheir determination generally depends on the boldness or timidity of the individual, — on bis tenderness for fhe feeling of the good, or his greater reverence for the free exercise of reason. The tirae is not yet come when lhe noble maxira of Plato, ' that every soul is unwillingly deprived of truth,' wiU he practically and heartily appUed by raan to the honest opponents vVho differ from them most widely. " In his twenty-seventh year he pubUshed at London the Treatise of Human Nature, the first systematic attack on all tbe principles of knowledge and belief,- and the raost formidable, if universal scepticism could ever be more than a mere exercise of ingenuity. This raemorable work was reviewed in a journal of that time, in a criticism not distinguished by ability, which affects to represent the style ofa very clear writer as unintelligible — soraetimes frora a purpose to insult, but oftener from sheer dulness — which is unaccountably silent respecting the conse quences of a sceptical system, and which concludes with a prophecy so ranch af variance with the general tone of the article, that if would seera fo be added by a different hand. 'It bears incontestable raarks of a great capacity, ofj a soaring genius, but young, and not yet thoroughly. practised. Time and use raay ripen these qualities in the author, and we shall probably have reason to consider this, compared with his later productions, in the sarae. light as we view the juvenUe works of Milton, or the first manner of Raphael.' " The great speculator did not, in this work, amuse himself, like Bayle, with dialectical exercises, which only inspire a disposition towards doubt, by showing in detail the uncertainty of most opinions. He aimed at proving, not that nothing was known, but that nothing could be known, from fhe structure of the under standing to demonstrate that we are dppmed for ever tP dwell, in absolute and universal ignorance. It is true that such a system, of universal scepticisra can never be more than an InteUectual amusement, an, exercise of subtUity ; of which the only use is to cbeclt dogmatism, but which perhaps oftener nrovokes and pro-. 152 NOTICE OF THE LIFE, WRITINGS, duces that much more coraraon evU. As those dictates of experience .which riegqlaie conduct must be the objects of belief, aU objections which attack thera in common with the principles of reasoning raust be utterly ineffectual. Whatever attacks every principle of belief can destroy none. As long as fhe foimdations of knowledge are allowed to remain on the sarae level (be it called certainty or uncertainty) with the raaxiras of Ufe, the whole system of huraan conviction raust continue undisturbed. When the sceptic boasts of having involved the results of experience and the elements of georaetry in the sarae ruin with tbe doctrines of reUgion and the principles of phUosophy, he raay be answered fhat no dogmjatist ever clairaed more than the sarae degree of certainty for these various convictions and opinions ; and that his scepticism, therefore, leaves thera in the relative con dition in which it found thera. No raan knew better, or owned raore frankly, than Mr. Hume, that to this answer there is no serious reply. Universal scepticism involves a contradiction in terras. It is a belief that there can be no belief. It is an atterapt of the raind to act without its structure, and by ofher laws than those to which its nature has subjected its operations. To reason without assenting fo the principles on which i,ts reasoning is founded, is not unlike an effort to feel without nerves, or fo move without muscles. No man can be allowed to be an opponent -in reasoning who does not set out with admitting all the principles, without the admission of .which it is impossible to reason. If is, indeed, a puerUe, nay, in fhe eye of wisdora, a childish, play, to atterapt either to estabUsh or fo con fute principles by arguraent, which every step of that arguraent must pre-suppose. The only difference between the two cases is, that he Who tries to prove thera can do so only by first faking them for granted ; and thaf he who attempts to impugn them falls at the very first step into a contradiction from which he never can rise." DuGAin Stewart. — " Manifold are the discouragements rising up at every step In that part of this Dissertation which extends to very recent times. No sooner does the writer escape from the angry disputes of fhe living, than he raay feel his mind clouded by the name of a departed friend. But there are, .happily, men whose fame is brightened by free discussion, and to whose meraory an appearance of belief that they needed fender treatment would be a grosser injury than it would suffer frora a respectable antagonist. " Dugald Stewart was the son of Dr. Matthew Stewart, Professor of Mathe matics in fhe, University of Edinburgh ; a station iramediately before fiUed by Maclaurin, on the recoraraendation of Newton. Hence the poet spoke of ' the phUosophie sire and son.' He was educated at Edinburgh, and he heard the lec tures of Reid, at Glasgow. He was early associated with his father in the duties of the Matheraatical Professorship ; and during fhe absence of Dr. Adam Ferguson, as secretary to the Commissioners sent fo conclude a peace wifh North America, he occupied the chair of Natural PhUosophy. He was appointed fo tbe Professor ship on the resignation of Ferguson, not fhe least distinguished araong the raodern moraUsts inclined to the Stoical School. " This office, fiUed In iraraediate succession by Ferguson, Stewart, and Brown; received a lustre frora fheir naraes, whicb it owed in no degree to its modest exterior or its Uraited advantages ; and was rendered by fhem fhe highest dignity in the humble but not obscure establishments of Scottish literature. The lectures of Mr. Stewart, for a quarter of a century, rendered it faraous through every country where the Ught of reason was allowed to penetrate. Perhaps few men ever Uved who poured into the breasts of youth a raore fervid and yet reasonable love of liberty, of truth, and of virtiie. How raany are stiU aUve in different conntries, and in every rank to which education reaches, who, if fhey accurately AND SPEECHES OF SIR J. MACKINTOSH. 153 examined their own minds and lives, would not ascribe much of whatever good ness and happiness they possess, to fhe early impressions of his gentie and persuasive eloquence! He Uved to see his disciples distinguished among fhe lights and ornaments of fhe councU and the senate. He had the consolation to be sure that no words of his promoted the growth of an impure taste, of an exclusive prejudice, of a malevolent passion. Without derogation from his writings, if may be said fhat his disciples were among his best works. He, indeed, who may justly be said fo have cultivated an extent of raind which would otherwise have lain barren, and to have contributed to raise virtuous dispositions where the natural growth might have been useless or noxious, is not less a benefactor of mankind, and may indirectly be a larger contributor to knowledge, than the author^of great works, or even the discoverer of important truths. The system of conveying scientific instruction to a large audience by lectures, from which the English universities have in a great measure departed, renders his quaUties as a lecturer a most important part of his merit in a Scottish university which stiU adheres to the general method of European education. Probably no modern ever exceeded him in that species of eloquence which springs from sensibUity to literary beauty and moral exceUence ; which neither obscures science by prodigal orna ment, nor disturbs the serenity of patient attention ; but though it rather calms and soothes the feeUngs, yet exalts the genius, and insensibly inspires a reasonable enthusiasm for whatever is good and fair." ****** "Few writers rise with more grace from a plain ground-work to the passages which require greater animation or embellishment. He gives to narrative, accord ing to the precept of Bacon, tbe colour of the time, by a selection of happy ex pressions from original writers. Among the secret arts by which he diffuses elegance over his diction, may be remarljed the skill which, by deepening or brightening a shade in a secondary terra, by opening partial or preparatory glirapses of a thought to be afterwards unfolded, unobservedly heightens fhe import of a word, and gives it a new meaning, withoul any offence against old use. If is in this manner that philosophical originality may be reconciled to purify and stability of speech, fhat we may avoid new terms, which are the easy resource of the unskilful or the indolent, and often a characteristic mark of writers who love their language too liftle to feel its pecuUar exceUencies, or to study the art of caUing forth its powers. " He reminds us not unfrequeritiy of the character given by Cicero to one of his contemporaries, ' who expressed refined and abstruse thought in soft and trans parent diction.' His writings are a proof that the mUd sentiments have their eloquence as well as the veheraent passions. If would be difficult to name works in which so much refined philosophy is joined with so fine a fancy, — so much elegant Uterature with such a delicate perception of the distinguishing exceUencies of great writers, and with an estimate in general so just of the services rendered to knowledge by a succession of philosophers. They are pervaded by a philo sophical benevolence, which keeps up the ardour of his genius, without disturbing the serenity of his raind, which is felf in his reverence for knowledge, in the gene rosity of his praise, and in the tenderness of his censure. It is slill more sensible in the general tone vrith which he relates the successful progress of the huraan understanding araong many formidable enemies. Those readers are not to be envied who limit their admiration to particular parts, or to excellences merely Uterary, without being warraed by the glow of that honest triumph in the advancement of knowledge, and of that assured faith in the final prevalence of truth and justice. IS>1 ¦ NOTICE OF TUE LIFE, WRITINGS, which breathe through every page of fhem, and give fhe unify- arid dignity of a moral purpose to fhe whole of these classical works." ^ * * ^ * "He has often quoted poetical passages, of which some throw much light on our mental operations. If he sometimes prized the raorai comraon-places of Thorason, and the speculative fancy of Akenside, raore highly than the higher poetry of their betters, if was not lo be wondered at that the raetaphysician and fhe raoraUst shonld sometimes prevail over -the lover of poetry. This natural senslbiUty was perhaps occasionally cramped by the cold criticism of an unpoetical age ; and some of his remarks may be thought fo indicate a more constant and exclrisive regard to diction than is agreeable to the men ofa generation who have been trained by tremendous events to a passion for daring inventions, and to an irregular enthusiasm, impatient of minute elegancies and refinement. Many of those beauties which his generous criticisra deUghted to magnify in the works of his contemporaries have already faded under fhe scorching rays of a fiercer sun." * « K * » Jeremy Bentham. — " The general scherae of this dissertation would bea sufficient reason for oraitting the name of a living vpriter. The devoted attachment and in-. vifioible repugnance which an impartial estiraate of Mr. Benthara has fo encounter on either side, are a sfrong induceraent not fo deviate frora that scherae in his case. But the raost brief sketch of ethical controversy in England would be imperfect without it; and perhaps the utter hopelessness of any expedient for satisfying his followers, or softening his opponents, may enable a writer fo look steadily and solely at what he beUeves fo be the dictates of truth and justice. He who has spoken of forraer philosophers with unreserved freedom, ought, perhaps, to subject his courage and honesty to fhe severest test, by an attempt to characterise such a contemporary. Should the very few who are at once enlightened and unbiassed be of opinion that his firropess and equity have stood this trial, they wiU be the more disposed fo trust his fairness where fhe exercise of fhat quality is raore easy. " The disciples of Mr. Bentham are more like the hearers of an Athenian philo sopher than fhe pupils of a raodern professor, or fhe cool proselytes of a raodern writer. They are in general men of corapetent age, of superior understanding, who voluntarily embrace the laborious study of useful and noble sciences ; who derive their opinions not So rauch frora the cold perusal of his writings, as from familiar converse wifh a master from whose lips these opinipns are recommended by sim plicity, disinterestedness, originality, and vivacity ; aided rather than impeded by foibles not unamiable, enforced of late by the growing authority of years and of farae, and at aU tiraes strengthened by that undoubting reliance on his own judgment, which raightily Increases the ascendant of such a raan over fhose who approach him. As he and fhey deserve the credit of leaving vidgar prejudices, so they raust be content to incur the imputation of faUIng into fhe neighbouring vices of seeking distinction by singularity ; of clinging to opinions because they are obnoxious ; of wantonly wounding fhe most respectable feeUngs of mankind ; of regarding an imraense display of method and nomenclature as a sure token of a corresponding increase of knowledge ; and of considering theraselves as a chosen few, whora an initiation into the raost secret mysteries of philosophy entitles to look down with pity, if not contempt, on fhe profane raultitude. Viewed with aversion or dread by - the public, they becorae raore bound fo each ofher and to fheir master; whUe fhey are provoked info the use of language which raore and raore exasperates opposition to them. A hermit In the greatest of cities, seeing only his disciples, and indignant that systems of governraent and law which he believes to be perfect are disregarded AND SPEECHES OF SIR J. MACKINTOSH. 153 at once by the many and the powerful, Mr. Bentham has at length been betrayed info the mpsf unphUpsophical hypothesis, that all the ruUng bodies who guide the community have conspired fo stifle and defeat his discoveries. He is too Uttle acquainted with doubts fo believe the honest doubts of others, and he is foo angry to make aUowance for their prejudices and habits. He has embraced the raost extrerae party in practical poUtics ; raanifesting more dislike and contempt towards those who are raore moderate supporters of popular principles, than towards their most inflexible opponents. To the unpopularity of his philosophical and political doctrines he has added the more general and lasting obloquy which arises frora an unseeraly treatraent of doctrines and principles which, if there were no ofher raotives for reverential deference, even a regard to the feeUngs of the best men require^ to be approached with decorum and respect. " * » * * * •' The style of Mr. Bentham underwent a more remarkable revolution than perhaps befell that of any other celebrated writer. In his early works, il was clear, free, spirited, often and seasonably eloquent. Many passages of his later writings retain the iniraltable starap of genius; but he seeras fo have been oppressed by the vasfncES pf his projected works, — to have thought that lie had no longer raore thau leisure to preserve the heads of thera, — to bave been irapeUed by a fruitful mind to new plans before he had corapleted the old. In this state of things, he graduaUy ceased to use words for conveying his thoughts to others, but merely eraployed thera as a short-hand lo preserve his raeaning for his own purpoae. Il was no wonder that his language should thus become obscure and repulsive. Though many of his technical terms are in themselves exact and pithy, yet the overflow of his vast nomenclature was enough tp darken his whole diction," This work has been praised by persons the most conversant with mental and moral philosophy. It may be said that theie is some want of dominant purpose and pervading order, — that the opinions of writers in the process of time and controversy arc passed in review wilhout a pervading methodical record of their respective approaches, deviations, or advances in their pursuit of truth and science. A person of more dogmatism or decision in his opinions would doubtiess escape this censure. He would refer to his own sect or system as the standard at every step. Sir James Mackintosh, impartial, indifferent, and judicial in his temper and views, had the advantage of not being biassed — the disadvan tage, perhaps of not being guided — by any such standard. A note by Sir James, nearly at its close (due regard being had to the raoderation witb which he speaks of himself), will give the best idea of him as an enquirer after speculative truth : — " To Mr. Coleridge, who distrusts his own power of building a bridge by which his ideas may pass into a mind so differentiy trained as mine, I venture to suggest, with that sense of his genius which no circumstance has hindered me from seizing every fit occasion to manifest, that more of my early years were eraployed in ecu- 156 NOTICE OF THE LIFE, WRITINGS, teraptations of an abstract nature than of those of the raajority of hia readers ; that there are not even now many of fhem less likely to be repelled from doctrines by singularity or uncouthness ; more .willing to allow thaf every system has caught an advantageous glimpse of some side or corner of the truth ; more desirous of exhi biting this dispersion ofthe fragments of wisdom, by attempts to translate the doc trine of one school into the language of another,^ — who, when he cannot discover a reason for an opinion, considers if as important fo discover the causes of its adop tion by fhe phUosopher ; beUeving, in the raost unfavourable cases, fhat one of the most arduous and useful researches of raental philosophy is fo explore the subtle illusions which enable great minds fo satisfy themselves by raere words, before they deceive others by payment in the same counterfeit coin. These habits, together with fhe natural influence of ray age and avocations, lead me to suspect thaf in spe- cnlative philosophy I ara nearer fo indifference than fo an exclusive spirit. I hope thaf it can neither be thought presumptuous nor offensive in rae fo doubt, whether the circurastances of its being found difficult to convey a raetaphysical doctrine to a person who, at one part of his life, made such studies his chief pursuit, raay not im ply either error in the opinion, or defect in the raode of comraunication.'' His raeraoir of Sir Thoraas More is an episode from tbe reign of Henry VHL, expanded into one ofthe raost pleasing pieces of biography in the English language. Those who have not read it cannot truly appreciate that amiable philosopher-^the Socrates of Christianity in a barbarous age. A raistaken notion seeras to prevaU respecting his History of England in the Cabinet Cyclopajdia : it is regarded as a compendium. The close type, and compact form of publication, disguise the copious and elaborate variety of research and observation which those volumes contain. Sir James himself encouraged the opinion. In the advertisement to the first volume, he says, — " The object at which I have airaed is to lay before the reader a summary of the most raeraorable events in EngUsh history, in regular succession, together with an exposition of the nature and progress of our political institutions clear enough for educated and thinking men, with as little reasomng or reflection as the latter part of the object to which I have just adverted wiU aUow, and witb no more than that occasional particularity which may be needed to characterise an age or nation ; fo layopenthe workings of fhe minds who have guided fhose of fheir feUow-men, and, most of aU, to strengthen the moral sentiraents by the exercise of thera on fhe per sonages conspicuous in history." If this was his aim, he executed much more than he designed. The simple truth is, that he could not, however disposed, produce an abridgment. It was a distinctive trait of his mind, that he could not control the effusion of his reading and reflections. It is unne cessary to notice particularly a work so well known. Thc rpign and character of the Conqueror; the time, the troubles, andthe AND SPEECHES OF SIR J. MACKINTOSH. 157 characterof Becket; tbe epoch, the achievements, and the atrocities of Henry VIIL, are pieces of historic composhion very seldom equaUed in the English language. A few brief extracts may be advisable, in illustration of this opinion. - The following passages are taken from bis characters of William the Conqueror, Henry VII., and Henry VIII. : — Whjjam the Conqueror. — "It cannot be doubted fhat WiUiam surpassed aU his cpntempprary rulers in a capacity fer comraand, in war certainly, and probably also in peace. Sagacity, circumspection, foresight, courage, both in forming plans and facing dangers, insight into character, ascendant over' men's minds; all these qua lities he doubtless possessed in a very high degree. All that can be said in exte nuation of his perfidy and cruelty is, that he did not so far exceed chiefs of that age in these detestable qualities as he unquestionably surpassed thera in ability and vi gour. It maybe added, that if he bad lived in a better age, wben his competitors, as weU as himself, would have been subject to equal restraints, he would have re tained his superiority over them by the force of hia mental powers and endow ments. If is also true, that contests with lawless and barbarous enemies, fo which a man is stimulated by fierce and burning ambition, are the most severe tests of human conduct. The root of the evU is tbe liabUrty of the mind to thaf intractable and irresistible frenzy." — " Two legal revolutions, of very unequal importance and magnitude, occurred or were completed in the reign of the Conqueror : the separation of the ecclesiastical fi'om the civU judicature, and the introducfipn, or consummation, of fhe feudal sys tem. Justice was chiefly administered araong fhe Anglo-Saxons in the county, or rather hundred courts, of which the bishop and alderman, or earl, were joint judges ; and where the thanes were bound to do suit and service, probably to coun tenance the judgment and strengthen the authority of fhe court. The most cora mendable part of WiUiara's policy was his cpnduct to the Pope ; towards whom he acted with gratitude, but with independence. He enforced the ecclesiastical laws against simony and the concubinage of the clergy. He restored, as we have seen, the donation of Peter's, pence ; but he rejected, with some indignation, the demand oC homage raade by Hildebrand (Gregory VII.), then elated wifh the irapunity and acquiescence whicb seemed to attend bis pretensions to doraineer over sovereigns. He seeras to have introduced the frequent practice of appeals to Rorae in ecclesias tical causes ; without which, indeed, the patriarchal jurisdiction of the Roman see was useless. But he separated the ecclesiastical jurisdiction from the civU, by for bidding bishops to hpld pleas in county pr hundred courts ; and liraited their power to causes of a spiritual nature in their own tribunals. The Unguage of this writing, aad probably its unmediate effect, were favourable to clerical independence. Its ultiraate tendency, however, was to set free fhe civil judge frora the ascendency of the more learned ecclesiastic, and to place the inferiority of a spiritual court in a more eonspiouous light, by rendering it dependent for coercive authority in every instanee pot an appeal to the secular arm. It seems to be probable, tbat without sucb a change the bishop must have al lasl whoUy govemed fhe earl, and the spiritaal power woidd have been deemed as much entitled to a coercive authority as the civil power must needs be. " It is certam that the system of government and landed property, commoirty known throughout Europe as the feudal syatem, subsisted in England from the reign of the Coni]uercr. It is now as elexrly established, that this i^stem did not arise )58 NOTICE OP THfe LIFE, WRITINfJS, on the first conquest of the western erapire. If is improbable that So peculiar 9 system should have been suddenly and completely introduced info a country. Yet there were many circumstances attendant on fbe Norraan invasion which soften the unlikelihbod even of such an introddcifion. The raost reasonable supposition, there fore, seems to be, that it was gradually prepared In the Anglo-Saxon tiraes, and finished by the Norraan invaders." * * ? • fr * Henry VII. — " Henry, who had enjoyed sound health during his 111%, was, af the age of fifty-two, attacked by a consumption, which, early In his distemper, he deemed likely to prove fatal. He died on the 22d day of April, 1509, in the twerity- fourth year of a troublesome but prosperous reign, in his palacC at Richraond, which he had himself built. He was interred in that beautiful chapel at Westmin ster which bears his name, and which is a noble raonuraent of the architectural ge nius of his age. He was paci^c, though valiant ; and raagnificent in public works, though penurious to an unkingly excess in ordinary expenditure. The coramenda- tion bestowed on him, that ' he was not cruel when secure, ' cannot he justified otherwise than as the general colour ofhis character, nor without exceptions, which would allow a dangerous latitude fo the care of personal safety. His sagacity and fortitude were conspicuous, but his penetrating mind was narrow ; and in his Wary temper firmness did not approach the borders of magnanimity. Though skiUed in arms, he had no spirit of enterprise. " No generosity lent lustre to his purposes ; no tenderness softened his rigid na ture. We hear nothing of any appearance of affection, but that towards his mother which it would be unnatural to treat as deserving praise, and which in hira savour ed more of austere duty than of an easy, delightful, and almost universal senti ment. His good qualities were useful, but low : his vices were mean ; and no per sonage In history of so much uuderstanding and courage is so near being despised. He was a man of shrewd discernment, but of a mean spirit, and a contracted mind. His love of peace, if it had flowed from a purer source, would jUstiy raerit the highest praise, as one of the raost important virtues of a ruler ; but in Henry it is deeply tinged by the mere preference of craft to force, whicb characterises his whole policy. In a word, he had no dispositions for which he could be admired or loved as a man. But he was not without some of fhe most essential of fhose quali ties which preserve a ruler from contempt, and, in general, best secure him against peril : activity, perseverance, foresight, vigilance, boldness both raartial and civil, conjoined with a wariness seldom blended wifh fhe raore active qualities, eminently distinguished his unamiable but comraanding character. " His religion, as far as we are inforraed, never calraed an angry passion, nor withheld hira frora a profitable wTong. He seems lo have shown il chiefly in the superstitious fears which haunted his death-bed, when he made a feeble attempt to make amends for irreparable rapine by restoring what he could no longer enjoy, and struggled to hurry through the forraalities of a compromise with the justice of Heaven for his misdeeds. ' — ****** Henry VIII, — " Henry alone, it raay be hoped, was capable of coraraanding his slaves to raurder, on fhe scaffold, her whom he had lately cherished and adored, for whom he had braved the opinion of Europe, and in maintenance of whose honour he had spilt the purest blood of England, after she had produced one child who could fisp his name with tenderness, and when she was recovering from the lan guor and paleness ofthe unrequited pangs of a more sorrowful and fruitiess chUd birth. The last circumstance, which would have raelted most beings in human form, is said to have peculiarly heightened his aversion. Such a deed is hardly AND SPEECHES OF SIR J. MACKINTOSH.- 1.59 tsapable pf being aggravated by the considerations tbat, if she was seduced before marriage, he had corrupted her ; and if she was unfaithful at last, fhe edge of the sword tbat smote her was sharpened by his impatience to make her bed erapty for another woraan. In a word, if may be truly said that Henry, as if he had intended to levy war against every various sort of natural vir tue, proclairaed, by the executions of More and of Anne, thaf he henceforward bade (fefiance to compassion, affection, and veneration. A raan without a good qua lity would, perhaps, be in the condition of a raonster in the physical world, where distortJion and deforraity in every organ seem to be incorapatible wilh life. But, in these two direful deeds, Henry, perhaps, approached as nearly lo the ideal standard of perfect wickedness as the infirmities of huraan nature will aUow." The death of David Rizzio may be added : — " The Earl of Lennox was indignant fhat the influence of his son^hould be eclipsed by the favour of Rizzio. Darnley himself betrayed syraptoras of being goaded by passions raore claraorous and rancorous than political jealousy. Lennox advised hira to sacrifice his antipathies, and lo seek the raeans of revenge in a co alition with tbe Protestant lords. Darnley, accordingly, on the 10th of February, sent Douglas, his uncle, lo Lord Ruthven, to coraplain lhal Rizzio had abused the King In raany sorts, and done hira wrongs which could no longer be borne. Ruth ven, fearful that the blandishraents of the Queen might extort secrets from her sim pleton husband, refused to answer. ' It is a sore case,' said Darnley, ' that I can get no help against this villain David.'.^' II is your own fault,' replied Douglas ; ' you cannot keep a secret.' Then the King swore on the Gospel that he would not betray Ruthven." ****?? 41 " Darnley conducted Ruthven and other assassins through bis private staircase, by the use of his own key, into a small roora where fhe Queen was at supper with Rizzio, her natural sister, fhe Countess of Argyle, and sorae other favourites. Ruthven rose frora a sick bed, to which he had been for three months confined by a painful, and, as it proved, a mortal iUness. He was now in armour ; though he could only come into the apartraent by fhe support of two raen. The paleness of his haggard corihtenance, sometiraes flushed by guilty passions, formed a gloomy contrast with the glare of his helmet. Rizzio had his cap on bis head as Ruthven entered ; and Darnley hung on the Queen's chair with bis hand round her waist. Thaf unhappy lady was in the sixth month of her pregnancy by her contemptible husband. Ruthven called to her, — ' Let Rizzio 'leave this privy charaber, where he has been loo long.' — ' It is ray will he should be here,' said the Queen. — ' It is against your honour,' answered Darnley. — ' What hath he done ?' said the Queen. ' He hath offended your honour,' repUed Ruthven, ' in such a manner as 1 dare not speak of The Queen rose up ; and David ran behind her, laying hold ofthe plaits of her gown. Ruthven lifted up the Queen, and placed her in the arms of Darnley, who disengaged Rizzio's hands from the hold which he had taken of her garments. Several persons here rushed in, and overset the lable wilh the supper and lights. Rizzio was pushed out to the anlecharaber, at tbe front of which he feU under fifty-five wounds, in one of which Darnley's dagger was found, whether era ployed by himself or one ofhis accoraplices is neither certain nor iraportant. Ruth ven is said to have airaed a stab af the victim over the Queen's head. He sealed himself, and caUed for a cup of wine, which drew a spirited reproof of his famiUarity from Mary. He appealed to his iUness as an excuse. Though worked up by the 160 NOTICE OF THE LIFE, WRITING^, contemplation of a crime into a ruffianly paroxysra of dislerapered vigour, he speedily relapsed into the feebleness incident to his raalady. He expired abput two months afterwards. He left behind him a narrative of his crime, written in a tone of un disturbed irapartiality; and if does not appear that his last raoraents betrayed a gUmpse of natural compunction. ' " During the tumult, the Queen remained fpr a long time in'the closet, interceding for her favourite, who was, probably, then dead. She asked her husband how he j could be fhe author of so foul an act. The recriraination was too coarse for histo rical relation. ' It was,' he said, ' as much for your honour as for my own satisfec- tion.' •**••* After this offensive conversation she sent one of her ladies to learn the fate of Rizzio. The lady quickly returned with tidings fhat she had seen hira dead. The Queen, wilh a spirit that never forsook her, said, ' No raore tears ; I must think of revenge.' She wiped her eyes, and was never seen to lament the raurdered raan." This" narrative has a merit which Sir James rarely attained or studied. It is dramatic and picturesque. The subject had already been treated by Sir Walter Scott, in his History of Scotland, pub lished in the Cabinet Cyclopaedia. Sir' Jaraes, doubtless, was ani mated by rivalry. A comparison of the respective passages will hardly leave a doubt that he proved himself, for once, superiorin his own doraaia to that great raaster of the scenic and graphic in character and situation. ? The literary career of Sir James Mackintosh raay be closed here. Among the distinctions conferred upon him as a man of letters, was the honorary degree of LL.D. by the University of Oxford. It is, perhaps, an anti-climax to add, that he was twice elected Lord Rector of the University of Glasgow. Lord Grey and the Whigs came into office in November, 1830, and Sir James Mackintosh, already a Privy Counsellor, was ap pointed a Commissioner for the Affairs of India. He still took but littie part in the proceedings of Parliament. His first speech since bis appointment to office was in supp€>rt of the second reading of the Reform BiU, on the 4th of July, 1831. Sir James Mackintosh now returned, or was bortie back, to the principles of tbe Vindiciae GaUicae, and of his youth, after forty years' renunciation of thera. It was understood, that he relapsed into his early creed, not from experience, conviction, the force of popular opinion, or the spirit of the time, but from being bound in the wake of the administration. This is not improbable. It is not in tbe decline of life that men enlarge the views of popular privi lege, and catch the fearless spirit of democracy; and opinions onee entertained and renounced are regarded ever after with AND SPEECHES OF SIR J. MACKINTOSH. 161 something like disgust. The Prime Minister, it may be said, re turned unforced, in his advanced age, to the principles of his youth. But it is doubted whether even he, with the force, decision, and fearlessness of his character, would bave hazarded the Reform Bill without tbe influence and impulse of a younger member of his cabi net and his family. The speech of Sir James Mackintosh was one of the ablest spoken on eilher side of the question in the House of Commons ; it yet faded to excite or impress the House — and from, among other caus^bs, its superior abUity. No question was ever discussed in Parliament with so littie frankness. There was an under-current of motives, whicb could not be avowed on either side. Clever turns, aUusions ad captandum, party hits, and personalities were, on this occasion, the great staple of oratory. The speech of Sir James Mackintosh was not of that kind ; it was distinguished by the eloquence of knowledge, reason, and philosophy : it was not a speech to make tbe boroughraongers wince, or flatter the reform ministry. Moreover, he was not tbe charapion of a principle, embarked with all his force and ardour of his faculties and feelings in a cause ; he spoke rather like a sage counsellor, urging conces sion to a claimant become at last too importunate and powerful to be denied. The following extracts wUl give an idea of a speech, interesting not only from the capacity with which it treats a subject 0/ the highest importance, but as that which closed the career of one of the few who have reached the eloquence of Parliament, pro perly so called, in his time. It has the futher advantage of having been revised, if not written, by him for the press ; — " The lest which distinguishes properly from trust is simple and easily applied. Property exists for the benefit of the proprietor ; political power exists only for the service of the state. Property is, indeed, the most useful of aU human institutions. It is so, because the power of every man lo do what he will with his own is benefi cial and essential to human society. A trustee is legally answerable for the abuse of his power; a proprietor is not amenable fo law for any misuse of his property, unless it should involve a direct violation of the rights of other men. It is for this violation only, not at aU the misuse of his proprietory right, considered merely as such, that he can be justly answerable fo human laws. It is true fhat every raan is answerable to God and his own conscience for a bad use of property. It may be immoral in the highest degree. But the existence of property would be destroyed ' if any human authority could control the master in his disposal of that which the law has subjected to his exclusive power. It is said, that property is trust; and so il may, in figurative language, be caUed. It is a moral trust, but not a legal trust. In the present argument we have to deal only with legal trusts. The confusion of trust with property misled fhe Stuarts so far that they thought the kingdom their property. They were undeceived by the Revolution, which taught us, tbat no man I. " 11 lea NOTICE OF THE Litt, WRITINGS, can have a property in other men. It has, therefore, deeided the question before us. Every voter haa. by flie force of the term, a share in the nomination of law givers. He has, thus far, a part in the governraent ; and aU governraent is a trust. Otherwise, if the voter, as such, were a proprietor, he raust have a property in his fellow-citizens, who are governed by laws of which he has a share in naming the raakers. I have only to add, on this subject, that if the doctrine of property be admitted, aU reforra is for ever precluded. Even fhe enfranchiseraent of new boroughs or districts raust be renounced, for every addition dirainishes the value Of the previous suffrage ; and It is no more lawful to lessen the value of property than to takP property frora the proprietor. Unless I ara grossly deceived, there never was a more groundless cry than that of corporation robbery. Of all doctrines which threaten the principle of property, none more dangerous was ever promulgated than that which confounds it with political privilege. None pfthe disciples pf St. Simon, or of the followers of the ingenious and benevolent Owen, have struck so deadly a blow at property as those who Would reduce il to the level of the elective rights of Gatton and Old Sarum. Property, the nourisher of mankind, the incentive of Industry, the cement of huraan society, wiU be in a perilous condition if the people be taught to identify it with political abuses, and to deal with it as being involved in tbeir impending fate. Let us not teach the spoilers of future times to represent the resumption of a right of suffrage as a precedent for fhe seizure of lands and possessions. The two acts have nothing In common. It is as fuU of danger as it is of absurdity, to confound such distinct, and, in raany respects, contrary notions. They cannot be likened to each other with any show of reason, and without fhe utraost derogation from the sanctity of property. Much is said in praise of nomi nation, which is now called ' fhe raost unexceptionable part of our representation.' To nomination, it seems, vve owe the talents of our young members ; the prudence and experience of the iriore aged. It suppUes the colonies and dependencies of this great empire with virtual representation in this House. By it, coraraercial and funded property finds skilful advocates and intrepid defenders. The whole of these happy consequences is ascribed lo that gross and flagrant system of breaches of law, which are now called the practice of the English constitution. I never had, and have not now, any objection to the admission of representatives for the colonies^ into this House on fair and just conditions. I cannot conceive that a biU which is objectionable , as raising the coraraercfal interest at the expense of fhe landed, win also lessen the safeguards of their property. Considering the well-known and most remarkable subdivision of funded income (the most minutely divided of any raass of property), I do not believe thaf any representatives, or even any constituents, could be ultiraately disposed fo do themselves so great an injury as to invade it. The chain which connects together aU classes of the community is sufficient to lead men af once respectable and opulent info this House. Men pf genius, and men pf experience, have found fheir way into this House through nomination, or through worse means, through any channel that was open. The same classes of candidates wiU direct their arabition and their efforts f o fhe channels opened by the present bUl ; they wiU soon attain their end by varying their means. A list has been read to us of illustrious raen who found an introduction to Parliament, or a refrige from an un merited loss of popularity, in decayed boroughs. What docs such a catalogue prove, but thaf England, for the last sixty years, has been a country fuU of ability, of knowledge, of inteUectual activity, of honourable arabition, and that a large portion of these qualities has floWed Into the House of Commons ? Might not the same dazzling common-places have been opposed to the abolition of the court of Star Chamber? ' What ! ' itinight have said, ' wiU you, in your frantic rage of innovation, demolish the tribunal fri which Sir Thomas More, the best of men, and Lord Bacon, AND SPEECHES OF SIR J. MACKINTOSH. Ili3 the greatest of philosophers, presided ; where Sir Edward Coke, the oracle of law ; where Burleigh and Walsingham , the most revered of EngUsh statesmen, sat as judges ; which Bacon, enlightened by philosophy and experience, called the peculiar glory of our legislation, which, alone, had established "a Court of Criminal Equity?" Will you, in your paroxysras of audacious frenzy, abolish this prstorlan tribunal, this sole instrument for bridUng popular incendiaries ? WiU you dare to persevere In your wild purpose, at a moment wheil Scotland is agitated by a rebeUious league and covenant; when Ireland is threatened with insurrection and massacre? WiU you surrender the shield of the crown, the only formidable arm of prerogative, »t a time when bis Majesty's authority is openly defied in the capital where we are asserabled?' I cannot, indeed, recollect a single instance in that long course pf re formation, which constitutes the history of the English constitution, where the samp plausible arguraents, and the same exciting topics, might not have been employed against the reform, which are now pointed against the present measure." * * * * * * " But it appears to be taken for granted that concession to a pepple is always more dangerous fo pubhc quiet than resistance. Is there any pretence for such a doctrine ? Does it receive any support frora fhe testimony of history ? I appeal to history as a vast magazine of facts, leading to the very opposite conclusion ; of facts, which teach that this fatal principle has overthrown thrones and disraerabered erapires ; proving that late reformation, dilatory reforraation, reforraation refused at the critical moment, which may pass for ever in fhe tvrinkling of an eye, has been the most frequent cause of the convulsions which have shaken states, and for a time burst asunder the bonds of society ; soraetimes laying open a ground on which liberty may be built, but sometimes also preparing a comraunity for faking refuge in a sterner despotism than that frora which fhey escaped. Allow rae very briefly to advert to fhe earliest revolution of modern tiraes. Was it by concession that Philip II. lost the Netherlands ? Had he granted timely and equitable concessipns, had he not plotted the destruction of the ancient privUeges of these flourishing provinces, under pretence that all popular privilege was repugnant to just authority, would he not have continued the master of that fair and affluent portion of Europe ? Did Charles I. lose his throne and his Ufe by concession ? Is it not notorious, that if, before losing tbe confidence of the Parliament and people (after that loss aU his expedients of policy were vain, as in such a case all policy is unavailing), he had adhered to the petition of right, to which he gave his royal assent ; if he had forborne from the prosecution of the Puritans; if he htd refrained from levying money without a grant from Parliamant ; he would, in aH human pro- liability, have reigned prosperously to the last day of his life ? If there be any man who doubts it, his doubts will be easily removed without pursuing his studies farther than the first volume of Lord Clarendon's history. Did the British par liament lose Norlh America by concession ? Is not the loss of that great empire fiolely to be ascribed lo the obstinate resistance of this House to every conciUatory proposition, then supported by their own greatest men, and hurably tendered in the loyal petitions of the colonies, until America was driven info the arms of ' France, and the door was for ever closed against all hopes of re-union ? Had we yielded fo the latest prayer of the Americans, it is hard to say how long the two British nations might have held together ; fhe (separation, if absolutely necessary, might have been effected on quiet and friendly terms. Whatever may be fjiought of recent events, of which it is yet foo early to form a final judgment, the history of tbeir origin and progress would of itself be enough lo .show the wisdom of those eariy r.eformatlons, which, as Mr. Burke sa.ys, ' are accommols, — hei'e wete yotir robust aocpmpUshments." 172 NOTICE OF THE LIFE, WRITINGS, in the Greek dramatists. But if the classic quotations of Sir James Mackintosh were too profuse and far sought to be always pointed, — if they sometimes descended to hackneyed erudition, as in his repealed use of nee meus hie sermo, — they were oflen happy, ef fective, and applauded. Wilh the many disadvantages of his action and enunciation, and the fewer vices of his cast of raind and style of eloquence, his faults and deficiencies were redeeraed by an ac cent so sincere, information so extensive, so utter an oblivion of self, in his zeal for truth and his cause, humanity so redundant al lied with passionless wisdom, such an union of superior talent with knowledge and meditation, lhal though some speakers were more popular performers, and others were heard with more of electric sympathy, not one coramanded more attention and respect. Conversation was a talent in the, last century. It has be come an art. No one would now be tolerated who made private society an arena for displaying the vigour and expertness of his faculties, and the extent of his acquirements.. Conversation has ceased to be an exhibition of intellectual gladiatorsbip or declama tory power. It is regarded as a proper occasion for displaying only the lighter graces and accoraplishraents, — wit, fancy, know ledge ofthe world, a sense ofthe humorous and ridiculous, in so cial raanners or individual character. It is become essentially an art in which, more than in any other, perfection and success depend upon its concealing itself. Few arts are, therefore, more difficult i and Sir James Mackintosh had the reputation of a master in it. He was rich and various, without being ambitious or prolix. He had known many eminent or reraarkable persons in public life, literary and political, of whom he related anecdotes and traits of character with facility and k-propos. He avoided long speeches in the form of dissertation or narrative, which, however clever, are sure either to fatigue attention of lo provoke self-love, by encroaching upon that tone of conventional equality, social and intellectual, in cora pany, which is one ofthe iraproveraents of Iheage. His conversation was nol laboured or ostentatious, whilst it displayed, or rather implied, the powers ofa superior mind ; and, though undistinguished by briUiant wit or vivacity, was enlivened and relieved by a certain quiet pleasantry, sly humour, and innoxious malice, which became a manly and vigorous exercise of sarQjistic power in his speeches,. Some pretended memoranda of his conversation have been printed inan American periodical work. He is made to say, " Homer is AND SPEECHES OF SIR J. MACKINTOSH. 173 the finest baUad writer in any language."* Sir James Mackintosh, like most Scotchmen, bad an imperfect education in Greek. He must, however, bave known enougb of Greek and of Homer, as well as of epic poetry and of ballads, lo avoid an absurdity so out rageous. The reported conversations, on the whole, would griev ously let down Sir James Mackintosh. They are not those of a man whose success was unquestionable in the most fastidious and intellectual society ofthe British capital. But what are these fugitive successes of society and conversation to the sacrifices of time and thought which he must have made lo them ? It was a melancholy weakness lo have frittered away those precious hours which might be devoted in solitude to the proper labours of a man of letters, who was capable of leaving imperishable monuments of his capacity behind him. If any thing could com pensate this abuse of his faculties, it is the impression, far beyond the circles in which be moved, of bis engaging social character, joined with his eminent talents, and many virtues. Sir James Mackintosh died al his bouse in London, on the 30th of May, and was buried in the parish church of Hampstead, on the 4th of June, 1832. * The person who thus chose fo make Homer a ballad writer had, doubtless, heard something of fhe foolish paradox that tbe several books of the Homeric poeras were unconnected rhapsodies, recited through the cities of Greece, HISTORY OP THE REVOLUTION m 4688. CHAPTER I. General State of Affairs at Home. — Abroad.^-Characters of the Ministry.— Sun derland. — Rochester. •—Halifax. — Godolphin. ¦^Jeffrey. — Feversham. His Conduct after the Victory of Sedgemoor. — Kirke. — Judicial' Proceedings in the West.— Trials of Mrs. Lisle. — Behaviour of the King.— Trial of Mrs. Gaunt and others, — Case of Hampden. — Prideanx. — Lord Brandon. — Delamere. Though a struggle with calamity strengthens and elevates the mind, the necessity of passive submission to long adversity is raiher likely to weaken and subdue il ; great misfortunes disturb the understanding perhaps as much as great success ; and extraordi nary vicissitudes often produce tbe opposite vices of rashness and fearfulness by inspiring a disposition lo trust too much to fortune, and lo yield to it too soon. Few men experienced more sudden changes of fortune than James II. ; but it was unfortunate for his character that he never owed his prosperity, and not always his adversity, to himself. The aff'airs of his family seemed lo foe at tbe lowest ebb a few months before triumphant restoration. Four years before the death of his brolher, it appeared probable that he would be excluded from the succession to the crown; and his friends seemed to have no other means of averting that doom, than by proposing such' limitations of the royal prerogative as would have reduced the governinent lo a merely nominal monarchy. 176 STATE OF AFIAIRS AJf 4 V ,' f " , ¦ ' But the dissolutions by which Charles had safely and successfuUy- punjshed the independence of his last parliament, the destruction of some of his raost formidable opponents, and thd general discou ragement of their adherents, paved the way for his peaceable, and even popiilar, succession ; thjeajdefeat of the o-evolts -of Monmouth and Argyle appeared to have fixed his throne on immoveable foundations ; and he was Ihen placed in circumstances more favourable than those of any ofhis predecessors to the extension of his power, or, if such had beeri his purpose, lo the undisturbed exercise of his constitutional authority. ' The friends of liberty, dispirited by events which aU, in a greater or less degree," brought discredit upon lheir« cftuse, were confounded with unsuccessful conspirators and defeatejj rebels i,^ey seemed lo hejstt the raercy* of a prince, who, wilh reason, considered, them as the irreconcUable enemies of his designs. The zealous partisans of monarchy believed themselves on the eve of reaping^he fruits of a contest of iifly years' duration, under a monarch of mature experience, of tried personal courage, who possessed a knowledge of men, and a capa city aswell as an inclination for business ;4,whose constancy, intre pidity, and sternness were likely to establish Iheir political prin ciples; and from whose prudence, as well as gratitude and good faith, they were wiUing lo hope that he would not disturb , the security of their rehgion. The lurbulfence ofthe preceding times had more than usually disposed men of pacific temper lo support an established governraent. The' multitude, pleased with, a new reign, generally disposed lo admire vigour and lo lock with cora placency on success,, showed raany symptoms of that propensity ^ whicb is matural lo them, or rather to raankind, — lo carry their applauses to the side of fortune, and to irabibe the warmest pas sions of a victorious party. The strength of the Tories in a par liament assembled in such a temper of the nation, was aided by a numerous reinforcement of members of low condition' and subser vient character,, , whom the forfeiture of the charters of towns enabled the court to pour into the House of Commons.* In Scotland the prevalent party had ruled with such barbarity, that the absolute power of the king seemed lo be their only shield against ' " "Clerks and gentlemen's servants." Evelyn, i. 558. The Earl of Bath car ried fifteen of the new charters with him into Cormyall, from ¦Bfhich he was called the Prince " Elector. " " There are not 135 in this House who sat in the last," 56'2. By the lists in the Parliamentary History (hey appear to be only 128. THE ACCESSION OF JAMES II, ] 177 the resentment of their countrymen. The Irish nation, devot,edly attached to a sovereign of their own oppressed religion, offered inexhaustible means of forming a brave and enthusiastic army, ready lo quell revolts in every part ofhis dominions. His revenue was ampler than that of any former king of England; a disciplined army of about twenty Iboosand men was, for the first time, established during peace in this island, and a formidable fleet was a more than' ordinarily powerful weapon in tbe hands of a prince whose skUl and valour in'jnaritime war had endeared him lo the seamen, and recommended him lo the people. The condition of foreign affairs was equally favourable to the king. Louis XIV. had, at that moment^ reached the zenith of bis greatness ; his army was larger and belter than any which had been known in Europe since the vigorous age of the Roman empire ; his marine enabled him soon after to cope wilh the combined forces of the two maritime powers ; he had enlarged bis dominions, strengthened his frontiers, ; and daily medUated new conquests : men of genius applauded his munificence, and even some men of virtue contribfated to the glory of his reign. This potent monarch . was bound to James by closer lies than those of treaty, by kindred, by religion, by similar principles of government, by the import ance of each to the success" of the designs ofthe other; 'and be was ready to supply the pecuniary aid required by the English monarch, on condition that James should not subject himself to the control ofhis parliament; but should acquiesce in the schemes of France against her neighbours. On the otber hand, the feeble government of Spain was no longer able to defend her unwieldy empire ; whUe tbe German branch of the Austrian family had, by their intolerance, driven Hungary into revolt, and thus opened the way for the Ottoman armies twice lo besiege Vienna. Venice, the last of the Italian stales which retained a national character, took no longer any part in the contests of Europe, content wilh the feeble lustre which conquests from Turkey shed over the evening of her greatness. The kingdoms of the nortb were confined within their own subordinate system ; Russia was not numbered among civilised nations; the Giermanic stales were still divided between their fears from the ambition of France, and their attachment to bei- for having preserved them from the yoke of Austria. Though a powerful party in HoUand were still attached to France, there remained, on the Continent, no security against the ambition of ' I. 12 17ij STATE OF AFFAIRS AT Louis, no hope for the liberties of mankind but the power of that great republic, anirriated by the unconquerable soul of the prince of Orange. All those nations, of both religions, who trembled at the progress of France, turned their eyes towards James, and courted his alliance, in hopes that he might stiH be detached from his connexion with Louis, and that England might resume her ancient and noble station, as the guardian of the independence of nations. Could he have varied his policy, that "bright career was still open to him. He, or raiher, a man of genius and magna nimity in his situation, might have rivalled the renown of Elizabeth, and anticipated the glories of Marlborough. He was courted or dreaded by all Europe. Who could, then, (have presumed lo foretell that this great monarch, in the short space of four years, would be ' compelled to relinquish his throne, and to fly from his country, without struggle and almost without disturbance, by the raere result ofhis own systera of measures, which, unwise and unrighteous as it was, seeraed in every instance to be crowned with success till the very moraent before its overthrow. The ability of the ministers, who were consulted on the most important measures of government, might be considered as among • the happy parts of his fortune. It was a little before this time that the raeetings of such ministers began to be generally known by the modern name of the cabinet councU.* The privy council had been originally a selection of a sirailar nature ; but when seats in that tody began to be given or left to those who did not enjoy the king's confidence, and it becarae too numerous for secrecy or des patch, a committee of its number, which is now called the cabinet councU, were intrusted with the direction of confidential affairs ; leaving to the body at large business of a judicial or forraal nature, lo the greater part of its members an honourable distinction instead of an office of trust. The raembers of the cabinet council were then, as they still are, chosen from the privy council by the king, without any legal nomination, and generally consisted of the mi nisters at the head of the principal departments of pilblic affairs. A short account of the character of the members of the cabinet will illustrate the events of the reign of Jaraes II. Robert Spencer, Earl of Sunderland, who soon acquired the chief ascendancy in this adrainistration, entered on public life with . ' North's Life of Lord Keeper Guildford, 218, THE ACCESSION OF JAMES II. 179 all tbe external advantages of birth and fortune. His father fell in the royal army at tbe battle of Newbury, witb those melan choly forebodings of danger from the victory of his own parly whicb filled tbe breasts of the more generous royalists, and which, on the same occasion, saddened the dying moments of Lord Falk land. His mother was Lady Dorothy Sidney, celebrated by Waller under the name of Sacharissa. He was early employed in diplo matic missions, wbere be acquired the poUtical knowledge, insi nuating address, and polished manners, whicb are learnt in that school, togeiher with the subtlety, dissimulation, flexibility of principle, indifference on questions of constitutional policy, and impatience of tbe restraints of popular government, which have ^ been sometimes contracted by Enghsh ambassadors in the course of a long intercourse witb the ministers of absolute princes. A faint and superficial preference of the general principles of civil liberty was blended in a manner not altogether unusual witb bis diplomatic vices. He seems to bave gained the support of the Duchess of Portsmouth to the administration formed by the advice of Sir William Temple, and to have then gained the confidence of that incomparable person, who possessed all the honest arts of a negotiator.* He gave an early earnest ofthe inconstancy of an overrefined character by fluctuating between the exclusion of the Duke of York and the limitations of tbe royal prerogative. He was removed from tbe administration for his vole on the Bill of Exclu sion. The love of office sooir prevaUed over his feeble spirii of in dependence, and be made his peace wilh the court by the medium of the Duke of York, who had long been well disposed to him," and ofthe Duchess of Porlsmoutb, who found no difficulty in recon ciling the king to a polished as well as phant courtier, an accom plished negotiator, and a minister more versed in foreign affairs than any ofhis colleagues." Negligence and profusioh bound him to office by stronger though coarser ties than those of arabition : he hved in an age when a delicate purity in pecuniary matters had not begun to bave a general influence on statesmen, and when a sense of personal honour, growing out of long habits of co-operation ' Sir W. Temple's Memoirs, Part HI. ' Legge's Letters, MS. " Lord Sunderland knows I have always been very kind to him. " Duke of York to Mr. Legge, 23d July, 1679, Brussels. ' Some of Lord Sunderland's competitors in this province were not formidable. His successor. Lord Conway, when a foreign minister spoke to hira of the Circles of the Empire, said, " he wondered wh'at circles should have to do with politics," n' 180 STATE OF AFFAIRS AT and friendship, had not yet contributed to secure them against poli tical inconstancy. He was ofte of the raost distinguished of a species of men who perforra a part raore important than noble in great events ; who, by powerful talents, captivating manners, and accommodating opinions; by a quick discernment of critical mo ments in the rise and fall of parties ; by not deserting a cause till the instant before it is universally discovered to be desperatei^ and by a command of expedients and connexions which render them valuable lo every new possessor of power, find means lo cling to office or lo recover il, and who, though they are the natural off spring of quiet and refinement, often creep through stormy revo lutions without being crushed. Like the best and most prudent of his class, he appears not to have betrayed the secrets ofthe friends whora he abandoned ; and never lo have coraplied wilh more evil than was necessary lo keep his power. His temper was withoul rancour; he must be acquitted of prompting, or even preferring the cruel acts which were perpetrated under his administration : deep» designs and premeditated treachery were irreconcilable both with his indolence and his impetuosity; and there is some reason to believe, that in the midst of lotal indifference about religious opi nions, he retained to the end some degree of that preference for civil liberty which he might have derived from the exaraple of his ancestors, andthe sentiments of some ofhis early connexions. Lawrence Hyde, Earl of Rochester, the younger son of the Earl of Clarendon, was Lord Sunderland's most formidable cora- petUor for the chief direction of public affairs. He owed this ira portance rather to his position and connexions than to his abilities, which, however, were by no means contemptible. He was the undisputed leader ofthe Tory party, to whose highest priiiciples in church and slate he showed a constant, and probably a conscien tious, attachraent. He had adhered lo Jaraes in every variety of fortune, and was the uncle of the Princesses Mary and Ann, who seemed likely in succession to inherit the crown. He was a fluent speaker, and appears lo have possessed some part of his father's talents as a writer. He was deemed sincere and upright, and his private life was nol stained by any vice,, except violent paroxysms of anger, and an excessive indulgence in wine, then scarcely deemed a fault. " His infirmities," says one ofthe raost zealous adherents of his party, " were passion, in which he would, swear like a cutter, and the indulging himself in wine. But bis party was that THE ACCESSION OF JAMES II. 181 of the Church of England, of whom he bad tbe honour, for many years, to be accounted the bead. " " The impetuosity of his temper concurred wilh his opinions on government in prompting bim to rigorous measures. He disdained the forms and details of business, and il was his maxim to prefer only Tories, without regard lo their qualifications for office. " Do you nol think," said be to Lord Keeper Guildford, " that I could uriderstand any business in Eng land in a month ? " " Yes, my lord, " answered tbe Lord Keeper, " but I believe you would understand it better in two months." Even his personal defects and unreasonable maxims were calcu lated to attach adherents to him as a chief, and he was well quali fied to be the leader of a parly ready lo support all the pretensions of any king who spared the protestant establishment. Sir George SavUle, created Marquis of Halifax by Charles II., claims tbe attention of the historian rather by his brilliant genius, by the singularity of his character, and by the great part which be acted in the events which preceded and followed, than by his po litical importance during the short period in which he held office under James. In his youth he appears to have combined the opi nions of a republican'' with the mosl refined talents of a polished courtier. The fragments of his writing which remain show sucb poignant and easy wit, such lively sense, so much insight into cha racter, and so delicate an observation of manners, as could hardly have been surpassed by any of his contemporaries at VersaiUes. His political .speculations being soon found incapable of being reduced to practice, melted away in tbe sunshine of royal favour ; the disappointment of visionary hopes led him to despair of great improvements, to despise the moderate services which an indi vidual may render to the community, and lo turn witb disgust from public principles lo the indulgenee of his own vanity and ambition. The dread of his powers of ridicule contributed to force him into office," and the attractions of his lively and somewhat libertine conversation were among the means by which he maintained his ground with Charles II., of whom it was said by Dryden, that " whatever bis favourites of stale might be, yet those of his afl'ec- * North,-^0. '• " rfiave long looked upon Lord Halifax and Lord Essex as men who did not iove monarchy, such as it is in,^England. " Duke of York to Legge, Letter before cited. "- Sir William Temple. Memoirs, Part III. 182 ~ STATE OF AFFAIRS AT lion were men of wit.!' ° Though we have no remains of his speeches, we cannot doubt tbe eloquence of him who, on the Bill of Exclusion, fought the battle of the court against so great an orator as Shaftesbury.'' • Of these various raeans of advancement, he avaUed himself for a tirae with little scruple and with some success. But be never obtained an imporiance whicb bore any proportion to bis great abUities ; a . failure>which, in the time of Charles II., maybe in part ascribed to the remains of bis opinions, but which, from its subsequent recurrence, must be still more ifti- puled lo the defects of his character. He bad a stronger passion for praise than for power, and loved the display of talent more than the possession of aiitbority. The unbridled exercise of wit exposed him lo lasting animosities, and threw a shade of levity over his character. He was too acute in discovering difficulties, too ingenious in devising objections. He bad too keen a percep tion of human weal^ess and folly nol to find raany pretexts and temptations for changing lis measures and deserting his connex ions. The subtlety of his genius tempted him to projects too refined to be understood or supported by numerous bodies of men. His appetite for praise, when sated by the admiration of his friends, was too apt lo seek a new and raore stimulating grati fication in the applauses of his opponents. , His weaknesses and even bis talents contributed lo betray him into inconstancy; which, if not the worst quality of a statesman, is the mosl fatal lo his permanent imporiance. For one short period, indeed, the circumstances of bis situation suited the peculiarities of bis genius- In the last years of Charles his refined policy found full scope in the arts of balancing factions, of occasionally leaning lo the van- .quished, and always tempering the triumph of the victorious parly by which that monarch then consulted tbe repose of his dechuing years. Perhaps he satisfied hiraself wilh the reflection, that his corapliance wilh aU the evil which was then done was necessary to " Dedication to King Arthur. " " Jotham, of piercing wit atid pregnant thought. Endued by nature and by learning taught To move assemblies ; wbo but only tried The worse awhile, then chose the better side ; Nor chose alone, but tumed the balance too." Absalom and Aohitophel I Lord Halifax says, " Mr. Dryden told me that Jie was offered money to write against me." Fox's MSS. written, I believe, by Lord Halifax. THE ACCESSION OF JAMES II. ItlS enable him to save his eountry from the arbitrary and bigotted faction which was eager to rule it. We know from the evidence of tbe excellent Tillotson," tbat Lord Halifax " showed a com passionate concern for Lord Russell, and all the readiness to save him that could be wished ;" and that Lord Russell desired TiUot- son "to give Ihanks to Lord Hahfax for his humanity and kind ness :" and there is sorae reason lo think that his intercession might have been successful, if tbe delicate honour of Lord Russell had nol refused lo second their exertions, by softening his lan guage on the lawfulness of resistance, — a shade raore than scrupu lous sincerity would warrant." He seems unintentionally to have contributed to the dealh of Sidney," by procuring a sort of con fession from Monmouth, in order lo reconcile him lo his father, and to balance the influence of the Duke of York, by Charles's partiaUty for liis son. The corapliances and refineraents of that period pursued bim with, perbaps, too just a retribution during the remainder of his life. James was impatient to' be rid of him who bad checked his influence during the last years of his brother, and the friends of liberty could never place any lasting trust in the man who remained a meraber of the government which put to death Russell and Sidney. ' The part performed by Lord Godolphin at this lime was not so considerable as lo require a full account of his character. He was a gentleman of ancient [family in Cornwall, distinguished by the accomplishments of some of its members, and by their suff'erings in the royal cause during the civil war. He held offices at court before he was employed in the service of the state, and he always retained the wary and concihaling manners, as well as the profuse dissipation, of bis original school. Though a royaUst and courtier, be voted for the Bill of Exclusion. At the accession of James, he was not considered as favourable to absolute dependence on France, nor to the system of governing withoul parliameuls. But though a member of the cabinet, he was, during the whole of this reign, rather a public officer, who confined himself to his own * Lords' Journals, 20th Dec. 1689. The Duchess of Portsraouth said to Lord Montague, " thaf if others had been as earnest as my Lord Halifax with the King, Lord Russell raight have been sayed." Fox's MSS. Other allusions in the MSS, , which I ascribe to Lord Halifax, show that his whole fault was continuance in- ot- tice after the failure of his efforts to save Lord Russell. " Lord J. Russell's Life of Lord Russell, 215. " Evidence of M. Hampden and Sir James Forbes. Lords' Journals, 20;ji Dec. 1689. 184 STATE OF AFFAIRS AT department, than a minister who took a part in the direction of the state. ° The habit of continuing some officers in place under successive administrations,' for the convenience of business, then extended to higher persons than il has usuaUy coraprehended in more recent tiraes. Jaraes had, soon after his accession, introduced inlo the cabinet Sir George Jeffreys, Lord Chief Justice of England," a person whose office did nol usuaUy lead lo that station, and whose eleva tion to unusual honour and trust is characteristic ofthe government which he served. His origin was obscure, his education scanty, his acquirements no more than what his vigorous understanding gathered in the course of business, his professional practice low, and chiefly obtained from the corapanions of his vulgar excesses, whora he captivated by lhal gross buffoonery which accompanied hira lo the most exalted stations. But his powers of mind were extraordinary ; his elocution was flowing and spirited ; and, afler his highest prefernifent, in the few instances where he preserved temper and decency, the native vigour of his intellect shone forth in his. judgments, and threw a transient dignity over the coarseness of his deportraent. He first attracted notice by turbulence in the petty contests of the Corporation of London ; and having found a way to court through some of those who ministered to the plea sures of the King, as well as to the raore ignominious of his poli tical intrigues, he made his value known by contributing to destroy the .charter of the capital of which he had been the chief law officer. His services as a counsel in thc trial of Russell, and as a judge in that of Sidney, proved slill more acceptable to his masters. On the former occasion, he caused a person who had collected evidence for the defence to be turned out of court, for making private suggestions, probably important to the ends of justice, to Lady Russell, whUe she was engaged in her affecting duly."^ The same brutal insolence shown in the trial of Sidney, was, perhaps, thought the more worthy of reward, because it was foiled by the calra heroisra of that great raan. The union of a powerful under standing with boisterous violence and fhe basest subserviency, sin- "* " Milord Godolphin quoiqu'il est du secret n'a pa.s grand credit, ef songe seu- Wment a se conserver par une conduite sage et moderee. Je ne pense pas que s'il en etait cm, on prit des liaisons avec V. M. qui pussent aller a se passer entiere* ment du parliament eta rompre Dettement avec le Prince d'Orange. '' Barillon aa Roi, 15 Avril, 1685, Fox, App. Iviii. ^ Roger North, 234, (After the Northern Circuit, 1684 ; in our computation, 1685,)^ ' Exsminations of John Tis'rtrd. Lords' Journals, 20th Dec, 1690. THE ACCESSION OF JAMES II. 185 gularly fitted him to be the lool of a tyrant. He wanted, indeed, the aid of hypocrisy, but he was free from its restraints. He had that reputation for boldness whicb many men preserve, as long as they are personally safe, by violence in their counsels and in their language. If be at lasl feared danger, be never feared shame, wbicb itiuch more frequently restrains the powerful. Perbaps the unbridled fury of bis temper enabled him to threaten and intimidate with more effect than a man of equal wickedness, with a cooler character. His religion, which seems lo have con sisted in hatred to Nonconformists, did not hinder him from pro faneness : his native fierceness was daily inflamed by debauchery ; his excesses were too gross and outrageous for the decency of historical relation," and his court was a continual scene of scur rilous invective, from which none were exempted but his supe riors. A contemporary, of amiable disposition and Tory principles, who knew him weU, sums up his character in few words — " he was by nature cruel, and a slave of the court." ^ It was after the defeat of Monmouth that James gave free scope to his policy, and began that system of measures which charac terises his reign. Though Feversham was, in the common intercourse of life, a good-natured man, his victory at Sedgemoor was immediaiely fol lowed by some of those acts of military licence which usually dis grace tbe suppression of a revolt, when there is no longer any dread of retaliation ; when the conqueror sees a rebel in every inhabitant, and considers destruction by tbe sword as only antici pating legal execution, and when he is generally well assured, if nol positively instructed, that he can do nothing more acceptable lo bis superiors tban to spread a deep irapression of terror through a disaffected province. A thousand were slain in a pursuit of a small body of insurgents for a few mUes. Feversham marched inlo Bridgewater on the morning after the battle, with a considerable number tied togeiher like slaves, of whom twenty-two were banged by his orders on a sign-post by the road side, and on gibbets which ' See the account of his behaviour at a ball in the city, soon after Sidney's con demnation. Evelyn, i. 531. j and the diuner al Duncombe's, a rich citizen, where the Lord Chancellor ( Jeffreys ) ahd the Lord Treasurer ( Rochester ) were with dif ficulty prevented from appearing naked in a balcony, to drink loyal toasts (Re- lesby, 331. ), and ofhis "flaming" drunkenness at the privy council, wheu the King was present, Roger North, 250. '' Evelyn, i. 579, ISO STATE OF AFFAIRS AT he caused to be erected for the occasion. One of them was a wounded officer, naraed Adlam, who was already in the agonies of death. Four were hanged in chains with a deliberate imitation of the barbarities of regular law; and one miserable wretch, lo whom life had been promised on condition of his keeping pace for half a mile with a horse at full speed (to whom he was fastened by a rope which went round his neck and that of the horse), was executed in spite of his performance of the feat. Feversham was pro ceeding thus towards disarmed eneraies, lo whom he had granted- quarter, when Ken, the Bishop of the diocese, a zealous royalist,, had the courage to rush into the midst of this mUitary execution, calling out, " My Lord, this is murder in law. These poor wretches, now the battle is over, must be tried before they can be put to death." " The interposition of this excellent prelate, however, only sus pended the cruelties of the conquerors. Feversham was caDed lo court to receive the thanks and honours due lo his services. Kirke, whora he was directed ^ lo leave with detachraents at Bridgewater and Taunton, iraitated, if he did nol surpass, the lawless violence of his coraraander. When he entered the latter town, on the third day after the battle, he put to death al least nine of his prisoners, with so little sense of impropriety or dread of disapprobation, that they were entered by name as executed for high treason in the parish register of their interment.'^ Of the olher excesses of Kirke we have no satisfactory account. The experience of like cases, however, renders the tradition not impro bable, that these acts of lawless violence were accompanied by the insults and mockeries of railitary debauchery. The nature of the service in which the detachraent was principaUy engaged, required raore than common virtue in a commander to contain the passions of the soldiery. It was his principal duly lo search for rebels. He * For the principal part rf the enormities of Feversham, we have the singular advantage of the testimony of two eye-witnesses, — an officer in the royal army, Kennett, iii. 432, and Oldmixon, i. 704. Locke's Western Rebellion. '' Lord Sunderland's letter to Lord Feversham, Sth Jtdy, 1685. State Paper Office. ' Savage's edition of Toulmin's Taunton, p. 522., where, after a period of near 140 years, the authentic evidence of this fact is for the first time published, together with other important particnlars of Monraouth's revoU, and of the military aud ju dicial cruelties which followed it. These nine are by some writers swelled to nine teen, probably from ^nfounding them with fhat number executed al Taunton hy virtue of Jeffreys's judgments. The number of ninety mentioned on this occasion by others seems to be altogether an exaggeration. THE ACCESSION OF JAMES II. 187 was ui'ged to the performance of this odious task by malicious or mercenary informers. The friendship, or compassion, or political zeal of the inhabitants, was active in favouring escapes, so that a constant and cruel struggle subsisted between tbe soldiers and the people abetting tbe fugitives. " Kirke's regiment, wben in garri son at Tangier, bad had tbe figure of a lamb painted on tbeir colours as a badge of their warfare against tbe enemies of tbe Christian name. The people of Somersetshire, when they saw those wbo thus bore the symbols of meekness and benevolence engaged -in tbe performance of such a task, vented the bitterness of their heart against the soldiers, by giving tbem the ironical name of Kirke's Lambs." The unspeakable atrocity imputed to him, of putting lo dealh a person whose hfe he had promised to a young woman, as the price of compliance wilh his desires, it is due to the honour of human nature to disbelieve, until more satisfactory evidence be produced than that on which it bas bilberlo rested." He followed tbe example of ministers and magistrates in seUing pardons to tbe prisoners in his district, which, thoi>gh as Ulegal as his executions, enabled many lo escape from the barbarUies which were to come.^ Base as this traffic was, it would naturally lead him to threaten more evil than be inflicted. Il deserves to be remarked, tbat, five years after his command at Taunton, the in habitants of that place gave an entertainment, at the public expense, to celebrate bis success. ^ This fact seems lo countenance a sus picion that we ought to attribute more lo tbe nature of the service in which be was engaged than to any pre-eminence in criminality, the peculiar odium which has fallen on his name, to the exclusion of ¦other officers, whose excesses appear to bave been greater, and are certainly more satisfactorily attested. But whatever opi nion may be formed of tbe degree of Kirke's guilt, it is certain that - Col. Kirke to Lord Sunderland. Taunton, Vith Aug. 1685. State Paper Office. _ * Savage. " This story is told neither by Oldmixon nor Burnel, nor by the humble writers of the "Bloody Assizes," nor the " Qnadriennium Jacobi," 1*689. Echard and Ken net, who wrote long after, mention il only as a report. If first appeared in print in 1699, in Pomfret's poem of "Cruelty and Lust." The next is in the anonymous Life of William III., 1702. A story very similar is told by St. Augustine, of a Roman of ficer; and in the " Spectator," No. 491, of a governor of Zealand, probably from a Dutch chronicle or legend. The scene is laid by some at Taunton, by others at Exeter. The person executed is said by some to be the father, by others to be the husband, and by a third sort to be the brother of the uidiappy young woman, whose name it has been found impossible to ascertain, or even plausibly to conjecture. The tradition, which is still said to prevail at Taunton, maywell have origintHed in, a publication of 120 years old. . '' Oldmixon. • Savage. 188 STATE OF AFFAIRS AT he was rather countenanced than discouraged by, the government. His iUegal executions were early notorious in London." The good Bishop Ken, who then corresponded with the King himself, on the sufferings of his diocese,* could not fail lo remonstrate against those excesses, which he had so generously interposed lo prevent ; and if the accounts of the remonstrances of Lord Keeper GuUford, against the excesses of the west, have any foundation, " they must have related exclusively lo the enormities of the soldiery, for the Lord Keeper died at the very opening of Jeffreys's circuit, n Yet, with this knowledge, Lord Sunderland instructed Kirke "to secure such of his prisoners as had not been executed, in order to trial," * • al a tirae when there had been no legal proceedings, arid when all the executions lo which he adverts, without disapprobation, must have been contrary lo law. Seven days after, Sunderland informed Kirke that his letter hadbeen coraraunicated to the King, "who- was very well satisfied wilh the proceedings." ° In subsequent despatches,' he censures Kirke for setting some rebels at liberty (alluding, doubtiess, lo those who had jmrchased their lives) ; but he does not censure that officer for having put others lo death-. Were il not for these proofs that the King knew the acts of Kirke, and that his government officially sanctioned thera, no credit would be due to the declarations afterwards raade by such a man, that bis severities fell short of the orders which he had received.* Nor is this the only circumstance whicb connects the governraent with these enorraities. Onthe 10th of August, Kirke was ordered to corae lo court to give information on the state of the west. His regiment was soon afterwards reraoved, and he does nol appear lo have been employed in the west during the remainder of that season.'' Colonel Trelawney succeeded ; but so little was Kirke's conduct thought to be blamable, that on the 1st of September three persons were executed iUegaUy al Taunton for rebeUion, the nature and reason of their death being openly avowed in the register Of their • Narcissus Luttrell, Diary, 15tK July ; aix days after their occurrence. ' Ken's examination before the Privy Council, 1696. Biographia Britannica. " Roger North, 260. This inaccurate writer refers the complaint to Jeffries's proceedings, which is impossible, since Lord Guilford died in Oxfordshire, on the . 5th September, after a long illness. Lady Lisle was executed on the 3d; and her execution, the only one which preceded the death ofthe Lord Keeper, could scarce ly have reached him in his dying moments. ' Lord Simderiand to Kirke, 14th July, 1685. State Paper Office. • 21st July. Jbid. ' 25th and 28th July, and 3d August. Ibid. ' Oldmixon, 1.705. ' Papers in tho War Office. MS. THE ACCESSION OP JAMES II. 189 interment." In military executions, however atrocious, some al lowance must be made for the passions of an exasperated soldiery, and for the habits of officers accustomed lo summary and irregu lar acts, wbo have not been taught by experience that tbe ends of justice cannot be attained otherwise than by the observance of the rules of law. * The lawless violence of an army forms no pre cedent for the ordinary administration of public affairs, and the historian is bound lo relate with diffidence events which are gene rally attended witb confusion and obscurity, which are exaggerated by the just resentment of an oppressed party, and where we can seldom be guided by tbe autbentic evidence of records. Neither the conduct of a government which approves these excesses, however, nor thatof judges wbo imitate or surpass them, allows sucb extenuations or requires sucb caution in relating and cha racterising facts. The judicial proceedings which immediately followed these mUitary atrocities may be related with more con fidence, and must be treated witb the utmost rigour of historical justice. The commencement of proceedings on the western circuit, which comprehends the whole scene of Monmouth's operations, was postponed till the olher assizes were concluded, in order that four judges, who were joined witb Jeffreys in the commission, might be at Hberty lo attend him. " An order was also issued lo all officers in the west, " lo furnish such parties of borse and fool, as might be required by the Lord Chief Justice on his circuit, for securing prisoners, and lo perform that service in such manner as he should direct." * After these unusual and alarming preparations, Jeffreys began his circuit at Winchester, on the 27lh of August, by the trial of Mrs. AUcia Lisle, who was charged witb having shetlered in her house, for one night, two fugitives from Mon- '¦ Savage, 5'i5. Register of Parish of St. Mary Magdalen: — "! Sept., three re bels executed." • ' Two years after the suppression of the western revolt, we find Kirke treated with favour by the King. Colonel Kirke is made housekeeper of Whitehall, in the room of his Icinsman, deceased. Narc. Lutt., Sept. 1687. He was nearly related to, or perhaps the son of, George Kirke, groora of the bedcharaber lo Charles I, one of whose beautiful daughters, Mary, a raaid of honour , was the Warmestre of Count Harailton (Notes to Mem. ide Gramra. London, 1793), and the other, Diana, was the wife ofthe last Earl of Oxford, of the house of De Vere, Dugd. Baron, tit. Oxford. " Lord Chief Baron Montague, Levison, Watkins, and Wright, of whom the three former sat on the subsequent trials of Mr. Cornish and Mrs. Gaunt. •' This order was dated on fhe 24th -August, 1685. Papers in \yar Office. Frora this circumstance originated the story, that Jeffreys had a commission as Comman der-in-Chief iu the west. 190 STATE OF AFFAIRS AT mouth's routed army, an office of humanity which then was and stiU is treated as high treason by the law of England. This lady, though unaided by counsel, so deaf that she could very imperfectly hear the evidence, and occasionally overpowered by those lethargic slumbers which are incident to advanced age, defended herself with a coolness which formed a striking contrast to the deportment of her judge." The principal witness, a man who bad been sent to her to iraplore shelter for one Hickes, and who guided bim and Nelthorpe to her house, betrayed a natural repugnance to disclose facts likely lo affect a life which he had innocently contributed lo endanger. Jeffreys, at the suggestion of the counsel for the crown, took upon himself the examination of this unwilling -witness, and conducted it wilh an union of artifice, raenace, and Invective, which no well-regulated tribunal would suffer in the advocate of a prisoner, when exaraining the witness produced by the accuser. Wilh solemn appeals lo Heaven for his own pure interrlions, be began in the language of candour and gentieness to adjure the witness to discover all that he knew. His nature, however, oflen threw off this disguise, and broke out into the ribaldry and scurri lity of his accustoraed style. The Judge and three counsel poured in questions upon the poor rustic in rapid succession. Jeffreys said that he treasured up vengeance for such men, and added, "It is infiirite mercy that for those. falsehoods of thine, God does nol immediately strike thee into HeU." Wearied, overawed, and overwhelmed by such an examination, the witness at length ad mitted sorae facts whicb afforded reason to suspect, rather than lo believe, that the unfortunate lady knew the men whom she succoured lo be fugitives frora Monraouth's array. She said in her defence, that she knew Mr. Hickes lo be a Presbyterian rainister, and thoughl he absconded because there were warrants *oul against him on that account. All the precautions for concealment which were urged as proofs of her intentional breach of law were reconcilable with this defence. Orders had been issued at the beginning of the revolt lo seize all "disaffected and suspicious persons, especially aU nonconformist ministers ;"'' and Jeffreys liimself unwittingly strengthened her case by declaring his convic tion, that all Presbyterians had a hand in the rebellion. He did ' Howell's State Trials, xi. 208. " Despatches from Lord Sunderland to all Lord-lieutenants .of Counties. 20th June, 1685. THE ACCESSION OF JAMES II. 191, not go through the formality of repeating so probable a defence lo the jury. They however hesitated. They asked the Chief Justice, whether it were as much treason to receive Hickes before as after conviction ? He told them that it was, whicb was literally true ; but he wilfully concealed from them that hy the law, such as it was, tbe receiver of a traitor could not be brought to trial till the principaL traitor had been convicted or outlawed: a provision, indeed, so manifestly necessary lo justice, that wilhout the obser vance of it Hickes might he acquitted of treason after Mrs. Lisle had been executed for harbouring bim as a traitor." Four judges looked silentiy on this sirppression of truth, which produced the same effect with positive falsehood, and allowed the limits of a barbarous law to be overpassed, in order to destroy an aged woman for an act of charity. The jury retired, and remained so long in •deliberation, as to provoke the wrath of the Chief Justice. When tbey relurned inlo court, they expressed their doubt, whether the prisoner knew lhal Hickes had been in Monmouth's army. The Chief Justice assured them that the proof was complete. Tbree times they repeated their doubt. The Chief Justice as often rei terated his declaration wilh growing impatience and rage. At this critical moment of the lasl appeal of the jury to the court, the defenceless female at the bar made an effort to speak. Jeffreys, taking advantage of formahties, instantiy silenced her, and the jury were at length overawed into a verdict of guilty. He then broke out into a needless insult lo the strongest affections of nature, saying to the jury, " Gentlemen, had I been among you, and if she bad been my own mother, I should have found her guilty." On the next morning, when he had lo pronounce sentence of death, he could not even then abstain from invectives against Presbyterians, of whom he supposed Mrs. Lisle lo be one ; yel mixing artifice with his fury, he tried to lure ber into discoveries, by ambiguous phrases, which might excite her hopes of Ufe with out pledging him to obtain pardon. He directed that she should be burnt alive in the afternoon of the same day ; but theclergy of the cathedral of Winchester successfully interceded for an interval of three days. This interval gave time for an application lo the King, and that apphcation was made by persons, and with circumstances, which must have strongly called his attention to " Hale's Pleas of the Crown, part i. c. 2'Hly ^)eciot(s at^umeitt of tbe advocates of prerogativo ftrose from certain oases in wbicb the dispenMSrg power bad been exer cised by tihe orowa, aod appa:rently sanctioned by courts of jusisee. The case chiefly relied on was a ¦dispeusation from the atrcieflt laws i-especiing tbe a«%uat uoffiii^tatioii of sheriffs; the last of wbich, passed in tbo reign of Henry VI.," subjected sberifife, who oomtinued in office longer than a year, to certaiu p0na;lti6s, and declared all patents of a «onta'affy tenor, even though tbey should contaia an express 4ispi^S8fttOft, lo be void. Henry VIL, in d-e- ilaaoe oi this statute, bad granted a patent to tbe Eai'l of Nortirum- berlaad to be sheriff ofthe bounty for life; and the judges in the second year ofhis reigu declared that the Earl's appointment was valid. It has been doubted wbelber there was any ihties for reserve and equivoeatiAn. But these considerations, though they may, in some small degree, extenuate the disinge- nuousness of politicians, must, in the sarae proportion, lessen die credit whicb is due to their affirmations." ¦ The arguments on this question are cont^jined in the Tracts of Sir Edward Hp;!^t, % p. iVftyne, and Mr. Aitwood, prihBdied after the Revoldtion. ^t*** Trials, xi. Thatiof AttWood is the most distinguished for acuteness and research. ' Sir Edward Herhert's is feehly re^oped, thoflgJl «l?gantly written. ECGliBStAiSTICAl COMfflSSION. 229 After this deteifmiBaitionv the ju^es of their circuit were not re ceived with the aceustoined honour. " Agreeably toi the meitioraHle obsffrvatioos of Lord Glatrendon in tbe case of ship-money, they brought disgrace upon themselves', amJ weakness upon the whole gOvernmoBt, by tbat basei compliance which was intended to arm tbe- monareb witb undue and irresistible strength. Tbe people oC England, peculiarly distinguished by tbat reverence fbr tbe law, and itS! upright luinistevs, wbieb is inspired^ by the love of liberty, bave always felt tbe mosl cruel drsappointmeat!,. and manifested tbe warmest ktdignalion,, at seeing the judges converted- into instruments of oppression^ or nsurpatioffi. These proceedings were view«d in* a very different hght by the ministers- of absolute- princes. B'Adda informed tbe papal' coupl that the- King bad removed &om officls some contumacious judges, who bad refused to conform to justice and reason om the subject of the King's dispensing power."^ So completely was the spirit of France-tben' subdued, tbat BariUon, the son- of the president: of the parliament of Paris-,, the native ofi a country where tbe inde pendence of the great tribunals had survived ever^y otber remnant of ancient libertyi^. describes' the removal^ of judges; for their legal opinions as> eoolly as i£ be were spesdiing' of' tbe dismissal of an exciseman.'^ The King, having, by the decision of tb« judges, obtained' the power of placing the; militB«ry and civil £Biithority in the hands of his devoted! adherents, now resolved;: to exsercise: tbat power, by nominating Cathohcs to stations' of high trust', and to reduce the Church o£ England to impUcit obedience by virtue of his ecclesiastical supremacy. Botb^ these, measures were agreed lo at Hampton Court on the 4lb of July; at- which result he shovs^ed Ibe utmost complacency.* It is necessary to give some explanation of tbe nature of tbe second, which' formed one o£ the mOst ef fectual and formidablb measures of bit reign; Wbeir Henry VIM. was declared at the Reformation to be the supreme bead of the Chureh of Englan^d, no attempt was miadb to define, witb any Ixilerable precision^ the authority to be exefcised- by him in that chanactep. Tbe oi)ject of'^tbeilawgi^S^er' Was fo= shake off. the a(utborityo£tbe SecfofiRome, and to- make effteetiial pro- • Nar. Lntt: iff AhigftSt, I6g6'. " Lett, de Mons. D'Adda, 23 Aprile (3 Maggio), 1686. ' Barillon, 19 BariiloBj 19(29) Jtrly, 1686. Fox^MSS. i. 140. >¦ BaiiUDn,,2I Jnljt, (I itou,t)„1686. ffox MSS. i. 140. " This petition is without a date in the Appendix to Clarendon's Diary; But it' is a ftkrmal petitidnj.-vtUicli; aeenaa to impljna negRbu) summons. Nn such, summons could have issued before tbe 14th July, on vehich day Evelyn, as one ofthe com missioners of the privy seal, affixed it to the Ecclesiastical Commission. Sancroff's arafaigaons p, Barillon, 6 (16) Sept. and 13 (23) Se^t. 1686. Fox MSS. i. 149. 151 ; a fall and apparently accurate account of these divisions among the commissioners. '¦ D'Adda, in his letter, 31 Oct. (1 Nov.) 1686, represents Mulgrave as favourable to the Catholics. ¦' D'Oyley's Life of Sancroft, i. 235, where the Archbishop's letter to the Kuig (dated 29th July, 1685) is printed. DIPLOMATIC RELATIONS WITH ROME. 235 said James to BariUon, " almost impossible to find an English Protestant wbo bad not loo great a consideration for tbe Prince of Orange."" White, an Irish Catholic of considerable ability, who bad received the foreign title of Marquis D'AlbyvUle, was sent to the Hague, partly, perhaps, with a view to mortify the Prince of Orange. It was foreseen that tbe known character of this adventurer would induce the Prince lo make alteinpts lo gain him ; but Barillon advised his master to make liberal presents to tbe minister, who would prefer the bribes of Louis, because the views of that monarch agreed with those of his own sovereign and the interests of the Catholic religion.'' James even proposed to the Prince of Orange to appoint a Catholic nobleman of Ireland, Lord Carlingford, lo tbe command of the British regiments, a proposition wbicb, if accepted, would embroil that Prince witb all his friends in England, and if rejected, as it must have been known that it would be, gave the King a new pretext for displeasure to be avowed at a convenient season. But no part ofthe foreign policy of the King is so much connected with our present subject as^the renewal of that open intercourse with the See of Bome whicb was prohibited by the irnrepealed laws passed in tbe reigns of Henry VIII. and Eliza beth. Monsignor D'Adda had arrived in England before the meeting of parliament, as the minister ofthe Pope, but appeared al court in the beginning only as a private gentleman. In a short lime, James inforrned bim tbat he might assume the public character of bis Holiness's minister, witb tbe privilege of a chapel in his house, and the otber honours and immunities of that character, wilhout going through the formaUties of a public audience. The assumption of this character James represented as the more proper, because he was about to send a solemn embassy lo Bome as his Holiness's most obedient son. " D'Adda professed great admiration for the pious zeal and filial obedience of the King, and for his deterraination, as far as possible, lo restore religion lo her ancient splendour ; "" but he dreaded tbe precipitate measures to which James was prompted • Barillon, 12 (22) Juill. 1686. ' " M. le Prince d'Orange fera ce qu'il pourra pour le gagner ; inaia je suis per^ suad6 qu'il aimera mieux efre dans les interets de votre Majeste, sachant'bien c(u'ils sont conformes a ceux du Roi son maitre, et que c'est I'avantage de la religion catholique." Four thousand livres, which Barillon calculates as then equivalent to three hundred pounds sterling, were given to D'Albyville in London. Two thou sand more were to be advanced to him at the Hagae. Bar. 22 August (2 Sept.), 1686. Fox MSS. i. 147. , • D'Adda, 4 (14) Dec. 1685. ^ Id. 21 (31) Dec 1685. 236 DIPLOMATIC RELATIONS by his own disposition and by the pa^ty of zealots^ wbo surrounded hira. He did not assume the public ebaracter till tWO'niDDthsafter'- wards,, when he received instructions ta that effect frora Borne-; Hitherto the King had eoloured his interebange of ministers with tbe Boman court undJer the plausible pretext of mmntaiining diplo^ matic intercourse witb the govemment of tbe Eecksiastical State as mueh as witb the other princes of Europe. But bis zeal- soon became impatient of this slight disguisa,, Ik a few daiy» aflier D'Adda had announced his intention to: assume the public chavaieteF of a minister, Sunderland came to bim to' convey his Majesty's desire lhal be might take the title of nuncio^ which woidd, in a more formal and solemn manner, distinguish bim from- otiier ministers as tbe representative ofthe Apostolic See; Di'Adda. was surprised at this rash proposaL" The court of Rome long hesitated,, from aversion to the foreign policy of James, from a wish to moderate rather than encourage the precipita/tion of Ms domestic counsels, and from apprehension of the insults, which: might be offered to the Holy See,, in the sacred person of its nuncio, bythe turbulent and heretieali populace of London. The King bad sent tire Earl of Castiemain, the husband of the Duchess of Clevelamd,, as hisi ambassador to Rome. "I* seemed singular," said BHrillbn^ "that he should ha?v«' choseB for sucb ai mission: a: man so littie known on his own account, and too well known on that of his wife.'"" The ambassadbr; who hadbeen a polemical writer in defence of tfie Cajtholicsi,'^ andiwho was almoat the/- onlyirmocent man aoqoitted on the: proseeutions for tbe Popish: pfot, seeras> to have hstenedi more to' zeal and jieseirtment than to discretion in- the conduct: of his delicate negociatioBi. ffle: probably expected to fradnothingc but religious zeal prevalent at tbe papal councils. But banocent XL wasi ini- flueneedby his character as a terrrporal sovereigns He considered James not solelyrasan obedient sea* of thei chHrob,. But; rather asi the devoted or SKhsfinaeatally of Louis XIV. As Princeof thes Boman stale, be resented the outrages offered to bira by that monarch,; and, partookr with all otber states thfr dread- justly in spired by his arabition and his power. Even as head of the" " rd. 12 (22);F6b. 16S6;, " li-restar alquauto sornreso da, questo ambasciato.' ¦¦ Barillon, 19 (-29) Oct. 1685. Fox, Appendix, cxxii. < Oed»,Ch. Histi 450. -WITH ROME 237 cburofa, tiae merits of I^suis as itbe persecutor of tbe Protestants" did ooit, tn the eye whidi bad made desertion a capital felony, tboiiigh these sta tutes were, in the opinion of the best lawyers, either rapealed, or confined lo soldiers serviirg in the case of actual or immediately impending hostihties. Even this device did not provide the means of punishing the other military offences, which are so dangerous to the order of armies, that there can be littie doubt of their having been actually puirishedby other meaJis, however confessedly illegal. Several soldiers were tried, convicted, and executed for the ieUtny of desertion ; and the scruples of Judges on the legality of these proceedings induced the King more than once to recur to his ordi nary measure for the purification of tribunals, by the removal of the Judges, and by the dismissal from the recordership of London of Sir John Holt, who was destined, in better times, to be one of the most inflexible guardians of the laws. The only person who ventured to express the general feeling respecting the army was Mr. Sarauel Johnson, who had been chaplain to Lord RusseU, and who was then in prison for a work which he published some years before against tbe succession of James, under tbe tide of Juliim the i " Statute 3 Charles I. c. I. ^ 7 H. VII. -. I. 3 ft VIIL c. 5. i & 2 & 3 Edw. VI. „. 2. Hale, Pleas ofthe Crown, Book i. c. 63 MR. SAMUEL JOHNSON. 241 Apostate. " He now wrote, arid sent to an agent to be dispersed (for there was no proof of actual dispersion or sale),'' an address to the army, expostulating with them on the danger of serving under illegally commissioned officers, and for objects inconsistent witb the safely of their country. He also wrote another paper, in whicb be asserted that " resistance may be used in case our religion or our rights sbould be invaded." For these acts be was tried, convicted, and sentenced lo pay a small fine, to be thrice pilloried, and lo be whipped by the common hangman from Newgate to Ty burn. For both these publications, bis spirit was, doubtless, deserv ing of the highest applause. The prosecution in thefirst case can hardly be condemned, andthe conviction stiU less. But the cruelty ofthe punishment reflects the highest dishonour on the Judges, more especially on Sir Edward Herbert, whose high pretensions to morality and humanity deeply aggravate the guUt of bis concur rence in this atrocious judgment. Previous lo the infliction of the punishment, he was degraded from his sacred character by Crew, Sprat, and White, three bishops authorised to exercise ecclesiastical jurisdiction in the diocese of London during tbe suspension of Compton. When, as part of the formaUty, tbe Bible was taken out of his hands, be struggled t^, preserve it, and, bursting into tears, cried out, " You cannot lake from me the consolation contained in the sacred volurae." The barbarousjudgraent was " executed withgreat rigour and cruelly."" In the course of a painful and ignorainious progress of two mUes through crowded streets, he received 3 1 7 stripes, inflicted with a whip of nine cords knotted. It will be a consolation folhe reader, as soon as be bas perused the narrative of these enormities, to learn, though with some disturbance to the order of time, that amends were in sorae raeasure made to Mr. Johnson, and that his persecutors were reduced to the bitter mortification of humbling themselves before their victim. After the Revolution, the judg ment pronounced on him was voted by the House of Commons to be Ulegal and cruel.* Crew, Bishop of Durham, one of the commissioners wbo deprived bim, made bim a considerable com- • State Trials, xi. 1339. ' In fact, however, many were dispersed. Kennett, iii. 450. " Comm. Journ. 24 June, 1690. These are fhe words of the Report of a Com mittee who examined evidence on the case, and whose resolutions were adopted by the house. They sufficiently show that Echard's extenuating statements are false. '' Comm. Journ. ubi supra. I. " 16 242 RELIGIOUS CONVERSIONS pensation in moneys " and WilhinS, the Judge who delivered the sentence, counterfeited a dangerous iUness, and pretended lhal bis dying hours were disturbed by the remerabrance of what he had done, in order lo betray Johnson, through his huraane and Chris tian feelings, into sucb a declaration of forgiveness as might con tribute to shelter the cruel Judge from further animadversion. ^ The desire of the King to propagate bis religion was a natural consequence of zealous attachment to it. But it was a very dan gerous quality in a monarch, especially when the principles of rehgious liberty were nol adopted by any -European governmenli The royal apostle is seldora convinced of the good faith of the opponent whom he has faUed to convert. He soon persuades himself that the pertinacity of the heretic arises more from the depravity of his nature than from the errors of bis judgment. He first shows displeasure to his perverse antagonists ; he thrai withdraws advantages frora thera; he, in raany cases, may think it reasonable to briUg them to reflection by sorae degree of hard ship; and the disappointed disputant raay at last d^enei*ate into a furious persecirtor. The attempt lo convert tbe army was peculiarly dangerous lothe King's own object. He boasted of the number of converts in one of bis regiments of Guards, without considering the consequences of teaching controversy to an army. The political canvas carried on among the officers, and the con troversial sermons preached to She soldiers, probably contributed to awaken that spirit of enquiry a'nd discussion in his «amp which he ought to bave dreaded as his most formidable eneray. He early destined the revenue ofthe Archbishop of Yor4{ to be a proviison for converts." He probably was sincere in his profeS^ohs, "that be raeant only to make it a provision for those who bad sacrificed interest to religion. But experience shows how 'easUy such a pro vision swells into a reward, and how naturally it at len^ becomes a premium for hypocrisy. Il was natural that bis passion for pro selytes should show itself towards bis own children. Tbe Pope, in his conversations with Lord Casllemain, said, that without the conversion of the Princess Anne, no advantage obtained for the Catholic religion could be permanently secured.'' The King assented to this opinion, and bad, indeed, before attempted to dispose 'his daughter favourably to his religion, influenced probably by pa- • Narctsii'L'ifei'ell, Pebnlrary, 1690. ' 'State Trials, xi, 1354. ¦ D'Adda," "30 April (10 Maggio) 1686. " Barillon, 17 June (27 Jane) 1686. Fox MSS. i. 134. RELIGIOUS CONVERSIONS. 243 rental kindnesi?, "Which was one of his best qualities." He must have considered as hopeless the case of bis eldest daughter, early removed from ber father, and the submissive as well as affectionate wife of a husband of decisive character, and who was tbe leader of the Protestant cause. To Anne, therefore, his attention was turned. But witb ber he found insurmountable difficulties. Both these princesses, after their father bad become a Catholic, were consi dered as tbe hope of the Protestant religion, and accordingly trained in tbe utmost horror of popery. Their partialities and resentments were regulated by difference of religion ; their political imporiance and their splendid prospects were dependent on the Protestant church. Anne was surrounded by zealous churchmen; she was animated by ber preceptor Compton ; her favourites Lord and Lady ChurchUl bad become determined partisans of Protestantism ; and the King found, in the obstinacy of his daughter's character, a resistance hardly to be apprehended from a young princess of slight understanding.'' Some of the reasons of this zeal for converting her clearly show that, whether the succession was actually held out to ber as a lure or not, at least there was an intention, that if she became a Catholic she should be preferred to the Princess of Orange. Bonrepaux, a French minister of ability, who has been al ready mentioned, had indeed, al a somewhat earlier period, tried tbe effect of tbat temptation on ber husband. Prince George." He ventured to ask his friend the Danish envoy, " wbelber the Prince bad any ambition to raise bis consort to the throne at the expense ofthe Princess, whicb seemed to be practicable if he became a 'Catholic." The envoy hinted this bold suggestion lo tbe Prince, who appeared lo receive it well, and even showed a wiUing ness to be instructed on the controverted questions. Bonrepaux found means to supply tbe Princess wilh Catholic books, which, for a moment, she showed some wUlingness lo consider. He re presented ber to his court as timid and silent, but ambitious and of some talent, wilh a violent hatred for tbe Queen. He reported bis attempts to tbe King, who listened to him withthe utmost pleasure; and the subtle diplomatist observes, that, though he might fail in the conversion,, he sbould certainly gain the good graces of James by the, effort, which his knowledge of that monarch's hatred of the Prince of Orange had heen his chief inducement lo hazard. ¦ D'Adda, 30 April (10 Maggio) 1686, ' Barillon, ubi supra. ' Bonrepaux a Seignelai, 18 March (28 Mars), 1589. Fox MSS. i. 95. 16 ? •244 RELIGIOUS CONVERSIONS, The success of the King himself, in his attempts lo make prose lytes, was less than might have been expected frora his zeal and in fluence. Parker, originaUy a zealous Nonconforrrrist, afterwards a slanderous buffoon, and an Episcopahan of persecuting principles, earned the bishopric of Oxford by showing a strong disposition to favour, if not to be reconciled to, the Church of Borae. Two bi shops publicly visited Mr. Leyburn the Catholic prelate, al his apart ments in St. Jaraes's Palace, on bis being raade almoner lo the King, when it was, unhappily, impossible lo irapute their conduct to liberality or charity." Walker, the raaster of University College in Oxford, and three ofthe fellows of that society, were the ear liest and mosl noted of the few open converts among the clergy. L'Eslrange, though he had for five-and-twenty years written all the scurrilous libels ofthe court, refused to abandon the Protestant Church. Dryden, indeed, conforraed to the doctrines ofhis raas ter ;"" and neither the critical tirae, nor his general character, have been sufficient to deter some of the admirers of that great poet from seriously raaintaining that his conversion was real. The sarae persons who raake this stand for the conscientious character of the poet ofa profligate court, have laboured with all their raight to discover and exaggerate those human fraUties frora which fervid piety and intrepid integrity did not altogether preserve Millon;»'in the evil days ofhis age, and poverty, and blindness." Tbe King failed in a personal atterapt lo convert Lord Dartmouth, wbom he considered as his most faithful servant for having advised him lo bring Irish troops inlo England, as Ihey were more worthy of trust than others ; ^ a remarkable instance of a man of honour who ad- • D'Adda, 11 January (-22 Jenn), 1686. The King and Queen took the sacrament at St. James's Chapel. " Portando la Spado avanti S. M. il Dnca di Gordon, Scozzese Cattolico, Monsig" Vescovo Leyburn, b passato da alcuni glorni nell' apartemento de St Jambs destlnato al gran Elimosinlere de S. M. in hablto lungo nero portando la croce nera, sl fa vedere in publico vlsitandolo mlnlstri'de Principi e altri : furono un giorno per fargli una visita due vescovi Protestanti." As this occurred before fhe promotion of the two profligate prelates, Parker 'and Cart wright, one of these visitors must have been Crew, and the other was, too probably, Spratt. The former had heen appointed Clerk of the Closet and Dean of the Chapel Royal a few days before.- ' ' " Dryden, the famous play-writer, and his two sons, and Mrs. Nelly, were said lo go to mass. Such proselytes were no great loss to the church." Evelyn, 1. 594. 19 Jan. 16S6. The rumour, as far as It related to Mrs. Gwynne, was calumnious. * Compare Dr. Johnson's biography of Milton with his generally excellent life ufDrtden. " D'Adda, 30 April (10 Maggio), 1686. "Diceva il Re che 11 detto Milord veramente gli aveva dato consigll molto fedeli, uno di quelle era stato dl far venire truppi Irlandesl in Inghilterra, nelle quali poteva S, M. meglio lidar,si che negle altri." RELIGIOUS CONVERSIONS, 245 bered inflexibly to the Church of England, though his counsels relating to civil affairs were tbe most fatal to public liberty. Mid dleton, one of the secretaries of stale, a man of abUity, supposed to have no strong principles of religion, was equally inflexible. The Catholic divine wbo was sent lo him began by atlempling to recon cile bis understanding lo the myslerioirs doctrine of transubstan tiation. "Your Lordship," said he, "believes the Trinity." — "Who told you so?" answered Middleton. " You are come here to prove your own opinions, not to ask about mine." Tbe asto nished priest is said to bave iraraediately retired. Sheffield, Earl of Mulgrave, is also said to bave sent away a monk wbo came lo con vert bim by a jest upon the same doctrine : — " I have convinced myself," said be, " by rauch reflection that God made man ; but 1 cannot believe that man can make God." But though there is no reason to doubt bis pleasantry or profaneness, his integrity is more questionable. He was made lord charaberlain iraraediately after Jeffrey's circuit." He was appointed a nrember of the Ecclesias tical Commission when Sancroft refused to act;'' He continued in that office to the lasl. He held hopes that be might be converted to a very late period ofthe reign." He was employed by James to persuade Sir George Mackenzie to consent lo the removal of the test.'' He brought a patent for a marquisate lo the King when on the eve of quitting the kingdom;, and in tbe month of October, 1 688, be thought il necessary to provide against tbe approaching storm by obtaining a general pardon..' Colonel Kirke, from whom strong scruples were hardly lo be expected, is said to bave an swered tbe King's desire, that he would listen to Catholic divines, by declaring, that wben he was al Tangier he had engaged him self to the Emperor of Morocco, if ever he changed his religion, to become a Mahometan. Lord ChurchUl, though neither insen sible to the kindness of James, nor distinguished by a strict con- * Lond. Oaz. 21st Oct 1685, the day of Mrs. Gaunt's execution. '' Com. Journ. 4th June, 1689. The first commission passed the Great Seal on the 15th July, 1685; the second, in which Mulgrave is substituted for Sancroft, on the 22d of November, in the same year. Mulgrave's name continues in the last commission, I4th Oct 1687. " Barillon, 20 August (30 Aout), 1687. Fox MSS. 1. 199,.. "11 est assez apparent qu'il a donne les assurances au Roi d'Angleterre de se declarer Ca tholique; mais 11 ditiere, de le faire, et ceux qui le connoissent davantage croient qu'il ne le fera plus." ''¦ Halifax M.S. " Id. ibid, "Halfanhourbefore'Elng James went away." ' State Paper Office. Had not Lord Mulgrave written some memoirs of hi.'i own time, his importance as a statesman would not have deserved so full an ex posure ofhis political character. 246 REVOCATION OF formity lo the precepts of reUgion, withstood the attempts of his ge nerous benefactor to bring him over to the church of Rome. He said of himself, lhal though he bad nol led the life of a saint, he trusted lhal he had the courage to die the dealh of a martyr." So mucb constancy in religious opinion may seem singular among courtiers and soldiers : but it must be considered, lhal the inconsistency of men's actions with their opinions is more often due to infirmity than lo insincerity; lhal the merabers of the Protestant party were restrained from deserting it by principles of honour ; and that tbe disgrace of desertion was much aggravated by the general unpopularity of the adverse cause, and by the vio lent animosity then raging between the two parlies who divided England and Europe. Nothing so rauch excited the abhorrence of all Protestant nations against Louis XIV. as the raeasures which be adopted against his subjects of the Protestant religion. As his policy oA that subject contributed to the dowafal of Jaraes, it seeras proper to slate it more fiilly than the intemal occurrences of a foreign country ought generally to he treated in English history. The opinions of the Reformers, which triumphed in sorae countries of Europe, and were wholly banished frora others, had very early divided France and Gerraany into two powerful but unequal par ties. The wars between the princes of the empire which sprung from this source, after a period of 1 50 years, were finally cora posed by the treaty of Westphalia. In France, where religious enthusiasra was exasperated by the lawless character and raortal animosities of civil war, tbese hostilities raged for near forty years with a violence unparalleled in any civilised age or country. As soon as Henry IV. had established his authority by conformity to the worship of the majority of his people, the first object of his paternal policy, was lo secure the liberty of the Protestants, and to restore the quiet of the kingdora by a general law on this equally arduous and iraportant subject. The contending opinions in their nature admitted no negociation or concession. Tbe simple and effectual expedient of permitting them aU lo be professed with equal freedora was then untried in practice, and almost unknown in speculation. The toleration of error, according to the received principles of that age, differed littie from the per- • Lord Churchill to Prince of Orange. Cox's Mera, THE EDICT OP NANTES. 847 mission of crimes. Amidst sucb opinions il was extremely diffi cult to, frame a specific law for the government of hostUe sects; and the edict of Nantes, passed by Henry for that purpose in the year 1598, must be considered as honourable to the wisdom and virtue of his Catholic ooimsellors. This edict," said to be coui- posed by tbe great historian De Thou, was founded on tbe principle of a treaty of peace between beUigerent parties sanc tioned and enforced by tbe royal authority. Though tbe trains- action was founded merely in humanity and prudence, without auy reference to religious liberty, some of its provisions were conformable to the legitimate results of that great principle. All Frenebiuen of the reformed religion were declared tobeadmi^ible to every office, civU and mUitary, in the kingdoni; and tbey were received into all schools and colleges without distinction. Dissent from the Established Church was exempted from all penalty or civil inconvenience. The public exercise of the Pro testant reUgion was confined to those cities and towns where it bad been formerly granted, and lo tbe raansions of the gentry who bad seignorial jurisdiction over capital crimes. It ruight, however, be practised in other places by the permission of the Catholics, who were lords of the respective manors. Wherever the worship ofthe Protestants was lawful, their religious books might freely be bought and sold. They might inhabit any part of the king- doQi without molestation for tbeir opinion ; and private worship was every where protected by the exemption of their? houses from all legal search on account of reUgion. These restrictions, though they show the edict lo be a pacification between parties, wifh Utile regard to tbe conscience of individuals, y«t do not seem in practice to have mucb limited the religious liberty of French Protestants. To secure an impartial administration of justice, chambers, in which Protestants and Catholics were in equal numbers, were established in tbe principal parliaments.'' The edict was declared to be a perpetual and irrevocable law. By a separate grant exe cuted at Nantes, the King authorised the Protestants, for eight years, to garrison the towns and places of which they were at that • The original edict is to be found in Benoit, Hist, de I'Edit de Nantes, Ap pendix, p. 62 — 85. ' Paris, Thoulouse, Grenoble, and Bourdeaux. The Chambers of the Edict ^t Paris took cognizance of all causes where Protestants were parties in Normandy and Britany. 248 REVOCATION OF time in military possession, and lo hold Ihem under his authority and obedience. The possession of these places of security was afterwards continued from time to time, and the expense of their garrisons defrayed by the crown. Sorae cities also, where the majority of the inhabitants were Protestants, and where the ma gistrates, bythe ancient constitution, regulated the armed force, with little dependence on the crown, such as Nismes, Rochelle, and Montauban," though not forraaUy garrisoned by the reformed, stUl constituted a part of their raiUtary security for the observance of the edict. An arraed sect of dissenters must have afforded raany, plausible pretexts for attacking them ; and Cardinal Richelieu bad justifiable reasons of pohcy for depriving the Protestants of those important fortresses, the possession of which gave them the character of an independent republic, and naturally led them into dangerous connexion with Protestant and rival states. His success in accoraplishing that iraportant enterprise is one ofthe most splendid parts of his adrainistration; though he owed the reduction of Rochelle to the feebleness and lukewarmness, if not to tbe treachery, ofthe court of England, Richelieu discontinued the practice of granting the royal hcence to the Protestant body to bold political assembUes ; and he adopted it as a maxira of perraanent policy, that the highest dignities of the array and the state should be granted lo Protestants only in cases of extra ordinary raerit. In other respects lhal haughty rainister treated the Protestants as a raild conqueror. When they were reduced lo entire subraission, in 1629, an edict, of pardon was issued at Nisraes, confrrraing all the civil and religious principles which had been granted by the edict of Nantes.'' At the raoment that they were reduced to the situation of private subjects, they dis appear frora the history of France. They are not mentioned in the dissensions which disturbed the minority of Louis XIV. They are not named by that Prince in the enumeration which he gives of objects of public anxiety at the period which preceded his assumption of the reins of governraent, in 1660. " The gre^it faraihes attached lo thera by birth and honour during civU^ war ' Cantionary towns. — " La Rochelle surtout avail des tralles avec les Rois de France qui la rendolent presqoe Independante." Benoit, 251. ^ Benoit. Hist de I'Edit de Nantes, ii. App. 92. (Madame de Ducas, the sister of Turenne, was so zealous a Protestant that she wished to educate as a minister her son, who afterwards went to England, and became Lord Feversham. Benoit, Hist, de I'Edit, iv. 129.) THE EDICT OF NANTES. 249 were gradually aUured lo the rehgion of the court; whUe those of inferior condition, like the members of other sects excluded frora power, appUed tbemselves to the pursuit of wealth, and were patronised by Colbert as the most ingenious manufacturers in France. A declaration, prohibiting tbe relapse of converted Pro- testants under pain of confiscation, indicated a disposition to persecute, wbicb that prudent minister bad the good fortune lo check. An edict punishing emigration with death, though long after turned into the sharpest instrument of intolerance, seems originally J to bave flowed solely from the general prejudices on that subject, whicb have infected the la.ws and policy of most stales. TiU the peace of Nimeguen, when Louis bad reached the zenith of his power, tbe French Protestants experienced only those minute vexations from wbicb sectaries, discouraged by a government, are seldom secure. The imraediate cause of a general and open departure frora the raoderate system, under which France bad enjoyed undisturbed quiet for half a century, is to be discerned only in the character of the King, and the inconsistency of his conduct with his opinions. Those conflicts between his disorderly passions and his rmeiUigbtened devotion, whicb had long agitated his mind, were at lasl composed under the ascendant of Madame de Mainlenon; and in this situation be was seized witb a desire of signalising bis penitence, and atoning for his sins, by the con version of his heretical subjects. " The prudence as well as mode ration of Madame de Mainlenon prevented her from counselling the employment of violence against the members of her former religion, nor do sucb means appear to have been distinctiy con templated by the King; slill she dared nol moderate the zeal on which ber greatness was founded. But the passion for conversion, armed with absolute power, fortified by the sanction of mistaken conscience, intoxicated by success, exasperated by resistance, anti cipated and carried beyond its purpose by the zeal of subaltern agents, deceived by their false representations, and often irre vocably engaged by their rash acts, too warm to he considerate in choosing means or weighing consequences, led the governraent of France, under a prince of no cruel nature, by an almost uncon scious progress, in the short space of six years, from a successful / • " Le Roi pense serieusement a la conversion des heretiques, et dans peu on y IravalUera tout de bon." Lettre de Mad. de Mainlenon, Oct. 28. 1679. The work of M. de Rulhiere on the Causes of the Revocation of the Edict of Nantes (Paris, 1788), first made known the fatal history of this fatal transaction. 250 REVOCATION OF system of toleration to the raost unprovoked and furious per secution ever carried on against so great, so innocent, and so meritorious a body of men. The Chambers of the Edict were suppressed on general grounds of judicial reformation, and be cause the concord between the two religions rendered thera no longer necessary. By a series of edicts the Protestants were ex cluded frora all public offices, and from all professions which were said to give thera a dangerous influence over opinion. Tbey were successively rendered incapable of being judges, advocates, attorneys, notaries, clerks, officers, or even attendants of courts of law. They were banished in multitudes frora places in the revenue, to whicb their habit of method and calculation had directed thgir pursuits. They were forbidden to exercise the occupations of printers and booksellers." Even the pacific and neutral profession of raedicine, down to its hurablest branches, was closed to tbeir industry. They were prohibited from inter marriage with Catholics, and from hiring Catholic domestics, without exception of convenience or necessity. Multitudes of raen were thus driven from their employraents, withoul any regard to their habits, expectations, aud plans, which they had forraed on tbe faUh of the laws. Besides the misery whicb iraraediately flowed frora these acts of injustice, they roused aud stiraulated the bigotry of ^ose, who need only the slightest raark of the temper of governraent lo inflict on their dissenting countryraen those minute but ceaseless vexations which erabitter the daily course of human life. As the edict of Nanles bad only perraitted the public worship of Protestants in certain places, it had often been a question whether particular churches were erected conformably lo that law. The renewal and multiplication of suits on this subject furnished the means of striking a dangerous blow against the reformed rehgion. Prejudice and servUe tribunals adjudged multitudes of churches to be demolished by decrees which were oflen iUegal, and always unjust. By these judgments a hundred thousand Protestants were, in fact, prohibited from the exercise of their religion. They were deprived of the means of educating their clergy by the suppression pf their flourishing colleges at Sedan, Sauraur, and Montauban, which had long been numbered among the chief ornaments of ' It is singular that tbey were not excluded frora the military service by sea or land, THE EDICT OF NANTES. 251 Protestant Europe. Otber expedients were devised to pursue tbem into their families, and hars^ss them in those sUuations wbere the disturbance of quiet inflicts tbe deepest wounds on human nature. Tbe local judges were authorised and directed lo visit the death-beds of Protestants, and lo interrogate tbem whether tbey determined lo die in obstinate heresy. Tbeir chUdren were declarfed competent to abjure tbeir errors at tbe age of seven ; and by sucb mockery of conversion tbey might escape, at that age, from the affectionate care of tbeir parents. Every childish sport was received as evidence of abjuration. Every parent dreaded tbe presence of a Cathohc neighbour, as the means of ensnaring a child into irrevocable alienation. Each of tbese disabilities or severities was inflicted by a separate edict ; and eacb was founded on tbe allegation of some special grounds, wbicb seemed to guard against any general conclusion at variance with the privUeges of Protestants. On the other band, a third of the King's savings on his privy purse was set apart to recompense converts to the established re ligion. The new converts were allowed a delay of tbree years for the payment of their debts ; and Ihey were exempted for the same period from the obhgation of affording quarters to soldiers. This last privUege seems fo have suggested fo Louvois, a minister of great talent but of tyrannical character, a new and more terrible instrument of conversion. He despatched regiments of dragoons info tbe Protestant provinces, witb instructions tbat they sbould be almost entirely quartered on the richer Protestants. This practice, which afterwards, under the name of DragonHades, be came so infamous throughout Europe, was attended by all tbe outrages and barbarities to be expected from a licentious soldiery let loose on those wbom tbey considered as fhe enemies of their King, and the blasphemers of their religion. Its effects became soon conspicuous in fbe feigned conversion of great cities and ex tensive provinces ; which, instead of opening the eye^ ofthe govern ment to the atrocity of tbe policy adopted under its sanction, served only to create a deplorable expectation of easy, immediate, and complete success. At Nismes, 60,000 Protestants abjured their rehgion in three days." The King was informed by one despatch fhat all Poitou was converted, and that in some parts of Dauphine ' M^m. du Chan, D'Aguesseau, 25'i REVOCATION 0¥ the same change had been produced by the terror of the dragoons without their actual presence." All these expedients of disfranchisement, chicane, vexation, se duction, and miUtary licence, alraost araounting to military execu tion, were combined with declarations of respect for the edict of Nantes, and of resolutions lo maintain the religious rights of the new churches. Every successive edict spoke the language of toleration and liberality. Every separate exclusion was justified ona distinct grouhd of specious policy. The most severe hard ships were plausibly represented as necessarily arising from a just interpretation and administration of the law. Many of the, re strictions were in themselves sraall ; raany tried in one province; and slowly extended to all ; some apparently excused by tbe im patience of the sufferers under preceding restraints. In the end; however, the unhappy Protestants saw themselves surrounded by a persecution which, in its full extent, had probably never been contemplated by the author; and, after all the privUeges were destroyed, nothing remained but the formality of repealing the law by which these privileges had been conferred. Atlength, on the ISth of October, 1685, the government of France, nol un wiUingly deceived by feigned conversions, and, as it now appears, actuated more by sudden irapulse than long-preraeditaled design, revoked the edict of Nantes. In the preamble of the edict of re vocation it was alleged, that, as the better and greater part of those wbo professed the pretended reforraed religion had erabraced the Catholic faith, the edict of Nantes had become unnecessary. The ministers of the reforraed faith were banished from France, in fifteen days, under pain of the galleys. All Protestant schools were shul up ; and the unconverted were to remain in France, without annoyance on account of their rehgion. Soon after, the children of Protestants, from five to sixteen, were ordered to be taken from their parents, and committed to the care of their nearest Catholic relations, or, in default of such relations, to the magistrates. The return of the exiled ministers, and the attendance on a Protestant church for religious worship, were made punishable with death. Carrying vengeance beyond the grave, another edict enjoined, that if anv new converts should refuse the Catholic sacraments on their death-bed, when required lo receive thera by a raaglstrate, their t" Mem. de Dangeau in Lemontey, Mem, de Louis XIV. The fate of the pro vince of Beam was peculiarly dreadful. It may be seen in Rulhiere and Benoit. THE EDICT OF NANTES. 253 "bodies should be drawn on a hurdle along the public way, and then cast into tbe common sewers. The conversion sought witb most apparent eagerness was that of Lord Rochester. Though he had lost all favour, and even confidence, James long hesitated lo remove him from offfice. He was wUling, but afraid to take a measure wbicb would involve a final rupture with the Church of England. His connexion witb the family of Hyde, and some remains perhaps of gratitude for past services, and a dread of increasing the numbers of bis eneibies, together with the powerful influence of old habits of intimacy, kept his mind for some time in a slate of irresolution and fluctuation. His dissatisfaction witb the Lord Treasurer became generally known in the summer, and appears to have been considerably increased by the supposed connexion of that nobleman witb the episcopalian administration in Scotland ; of whose removal il will become our duty presently to speak." The sudden return of Lady Dorchester revived the spirits of his adherents." But the Queen, a person of great imporiance in these affairs, was, on this occasion, persuaded lo retain her anger, and to profess a reliance on the promise made by the King not to see his mistress. " Forraerly, indeed, the violence of her temper is said to have been one source of ber influence over the King; and her ascendancy was observed to be always greatest after those paroxysms of rage to which she was excited by the detection of bis infidelities. But, in circumstances so critical, her experienced advisers dissuaded ber from repeating hazardous ex periments;'' and the amours of her husband are said, al this time, to bave become so vulgar and obscure as lo elude her vigilance. She was mild and submissive lo him ; but she showed her suspicion of the motive of Lady Dorchester's journey by violent resentment against Clarendon, the Lord Lieutenant of Ireland, whom she be lieved lo be privy lo it, and who in vain attempted to appease her anger by tbe most humble, not lo say abject, submissions. ' She at ¦ BariUon, 8 July (18 Juillet), 1686. Fox MSS. 1. 1S8, ' » Barillon, 23 August (2 Sept), 1686. Ibid. ' " Report of an agent of Louis XIV. in London, in 1686, of which a copy Is in my possession. ¦' In a MS. among the Stuart papers in possession of his Majesty, which wa,9 written by Sheridan, Secretary for Ireland under Tyrconnel, we are told fhat Petre and Sunderland agreed to dismiss Mrs. Sedley, nnder pretence of morality, but really because she was thought the support of Rochester ; and that it wa.s effected by Lady Powis and Bishop, Giffard, to the Queen's great joy. See farther Barillon, 26 August (5 Sept.), 1689. Fox MSS. i. 148. " Letters of Henry, Earl of Clarendon, 254 DISMISSAL OF ROCHESTER, this moment seemed to have had more than ordinary influence, and she was adraitted into the secret of all affairs." Supported, if not instigated by her, Sunderland and Petre, with the raore ambitious and turbulent part of the Catholics, represented to the King that nothing favourable to the Catholics was lo be hoped from parlia raent so long as his court and council were divided, and as he was surrounded by a Protestant cabal, 'at the head of which .was the Lord Treasurer, who professed the raost extravagant zeal for the , English church ; that, notwithstanding the pious zeal of bis Majesty, nothing important had yet been done for religion; tbat not one considerable person had declared hiraself a Cathohc; that no secret believer would avow himself, and no well-disposed Protestant would be reconciled to the church, till the King's administration was uniform, and the principles of government more decisive; that the tirae was now corae when it was necessary for his Majesty to execute the intention which he had long entertained, either to bring the Treasurer to raore just sentiraents, or to reraove hira from tbe important office which he filled, and thus prove to the public that there was no means of preserving power or credit but by supporting the King's measures for the Catholic religion.'' They reminded lum of the necessity of taking means lo perpetuate the benefits which be designed for the Catholics, and of the alarraing facility with which the Tudor princes had made and subverted religious revolutions. Even the delicate question of the succession was agitated, and sorae had the boldness of throwing out suggestions to James on the most effectual means of ensuring a Catholic suc cessor. These extraordinary suggestions appear to have been in some measure known lo Citters, the Dutch minister, who expressed his fears that projects were forming against the rights of the Princess of Orange. The raore affluent and considerable CathoUcs were alarmed at these daring projects. They saw, as clearly as their brethren, the dangers lo whicb they raight be exposed under a Protestant successor. But they thought it wiser to entitie theraselves lo his favour by a moderate exercise of their influence, than to provoke his hostility by precautions so unlikely to be effectual against his succession or his religion. Moderation had its usual fate. The faction of zealots , animated by the superstition, • BariUon, 13 September (23 Septembre), 1686. Fox MSS. i. 150. '' The words of Barillon, "pour I'etahUssemenl de la religion Catholique,'' being capable of two senses, have been translated in the text in a manner wnich admits of a double interpretation. The context removes all ambiguity in this case. DISMISSAL OF-^ROCHESTEU. 255 the jealousy, and the violence of the Queen, became the most powerful. Even at this lime, however, tbe Treasurer was thought likely to have maintained his ground for some lime longer, if he had entirely conformed to tbe King's wishes. His friends Ormond, Middleton, Feversham, Dartmouth, and Preston were not without hope tbat he might retain office. Al last, in the end of October, James declared tbat Rochester must either go lo mass, or go out of office." His advisers represented to him that il was dangerous to leave this alternative to tbe Treasurer, which gave him the means of saving his place by a pretended conformity. The King rephed that he hazarded nothing by tbe proposal, for he^knew tbat Ro chester would never conform. If this observation was sincere, it seeras to have been rash ; for some of Rochester's friends still believed be would do whatever was necessary, and advised him lo keep bis office at any price. * The Spanish and Dutch arabas sadors expressed tbeir fear of the fall of their lasl friend in the cabinet ; " and Louis XIV. considered the measure as certainly fa vourable to religion and to his policy, whether it ended in the con version of Rochester or in his dismissal ; in acquiring a friend, or in disabling an enemy.'' It was agreed that a conference on the questions in dispute between tbe Roman and En^ish churches sbould be held in the presence of Rochester, hy Dr. Jane and Dr. Patrick on behalf of the Church of England, and by Dr. Giffard and Dr. Tilden " on tbe part of the Church of Rome. Il is not easy to believe that the King or bis minister should bave considered a real change of opinion as a possible result of such a dispute. Even if tbe influence of atlacbmenl, of antipathy, of honour, and of habit on the human mind were suspended, the con viction of a raan of understanding on questions of great importance, then the general object of study and discussion, could hardly be conceived to depend on the accidental superiority in skill and knowledge exhibited by the disputants of either party in the course of a single debate. But the proposal, if made by one party, was loo specious and ptqrular lo be prudently rejected by the otber. They 'BariUon, 25 Oct (4 Nov.), 1686. Fox MSS. i. 157. It is curious that the ifeporl of Rochester's dismissal is mentioned by N. Luttrell on the same day on which Barillon's despatch is dated. ' Barillon, 29 Nov. (9 Dec), 1686. Fox MSS. 1. 161. ¦ Barillon, 8 Nov. (18 Nov.), 1686. Fox MSS. ¦• Le Roi a Barillon. Versailles, 9 (19) Oct 1686. Fox MSS. 1. 162. " This peculiai'ly respectable divine assumed the name of Godden ; a practice to which Catholic clergymen were then sometimes reduced to elude persecution. 25G RELIGIOUS CONFERENCE. were alike interested in avoiding the imputation of shrinking from an argumentative examination of their faith. The King was de sirous of being relieved from bis own indecision by a signal proof of Bochester's obstinacy, and in the midst of his fluctuations he raay soraetimes have indulged a lingering hope that the disputation might supply a decent excuse for the apparent conformity of his old friend and servant. In aU prolonged agitations of the raind, it is in succession affected by motives not very consistent with each olher. Bochester foresaw lhal his popularity among Protestants would be enhanced by his triumphant resistance lo the sophistry of their adversaries. He gave the King, by consenting to the confe rence, a pledge of his wish lo carry compliance lo the utmost boundaries of integrity. He hoped to gain time. He retained the means of profiting by fortunate accidents. Al least he postponed the fatal hour of removal, and there were probably moments in which his fainting virtue looked for some honourable pretence for deserting a vanquished parly. The conference took place on the 30th of November." Each of the contending parties, as usual, claimed the victory. The Protestant writers, though Ihey agree that the Catholics were defeated, vary from each other. Some ascribe the victory lo the two divines, others lo the arguraents of Rochester himself; and one of the disputants of the English church said that it was unnecessary for them to do much : one writer teUs us that the King said he never saw a good cause so ill defended, and all agree that Rochester closed the conference with the most determined declaration that he was confirmed in his religion. '' Gif fard, afterwards a Catholic prelate of exemplary character, published an account of the particulars of the controversy, which gives i a directly opposite account of it. In the only part of it which can in any degree be tried by historical evidence, the Catholic account of the dispute is more probable. Rochester, if we may believe Dr. Giffard, at the end of the conference, said, — " The disputants have discoursed learnedly, and I desire time to consider." " Agreeably to this statement, BariUon, after mentioning the dispute, told his court that Bochester still showed a disposition lo be instructed with * Dod Ch. Hist. lii. 419. Barillon's short account of the conference is dated on tbe 12th December, which, after making allowance for the difference of calendai's, makes the despatch to be written two days after the conference, which deserves to be mentioned as a proof of Dod's singular exactness. ' Burnet, Echard, and Kennet, There are other contradictions in fhe testimony of these historians, and it Is evident that Burnet did not implicitly believe Ro chester's own story. ' Dod, Ch. Hist iii. 420, DISMISSAL OF ROCHESTER, 257 respect lo the difficulties which prevented him from declaring himself a Catholic, and be adds that some even then expected that he would determine for conformity. * This despatch was written two days after tbe disputation by a minister wbo could neither be misinformed, nor could b£^ve any motive to deceive. Some time aflerwards, indeed, Rochester made great efforts to preserve his place, and laboured to persuade the moderate party araong tbe Catholics tbat il was their»interest to support him. '' He did nol, indeed, offer to sacrifice bis opinions ; but a raan who, afler the loss of all confidence and real power, clung with such tenacity to mere office, under a system of which he disapproved every prin ciple, could hardly be supposed to be unassaUable. The violent or decisive politicians of the Catholic party dreaded that Rochester might still take tbe King at bis word, and defeat all their plans by a feigned compliance ; James distrusted his sincerity, suspected that his object was to amuse and temporise, and al length, weary of bis own irresolution, took the decisive measure of removing the only minister by whom tbe Protestant party had a hold on his councUs. The place of Lord Rochester was accordingly supplied on the Sth of January, 1 687, by commissioners, of whora two were Ca tholics, Lord Rellasis of the cautious, and Lord Dover ofthe zealous party; and the remaining tbree. Lord Godolphin, Sir John Ernley, and Sir Stephen Fox, were probably chosen for their capacity and experience in the affairs of finance." Two days afterwards the parliaraent was prorogued, in which the Protestant Tories, the foUowers of Rochester, predominated.'' James endeavoured to soften the removal of bis minister by a pension of 4000/. a year on tbe Post Office for a term of years, together wUh the polluted grant of a perpetual annuity of 1700/. a year out of the forfeited estate of Lord Grey, " for the sake of which the King, under a false show of mercy, had spared the life of lhal nobleman. The King was no longer, however, al pains lo conceal his displeasure. He told Barillon that Rochester favoured the French Protestants wbom, as a term of reproach, be called Calvinists, and added that this was one of many instances in which the sentiraents of the mi nister were opposiie to those of his master." He informed D'Adda " Barillon, 2 (12) Dec. 1686. F6x MSS. i. 161. ' BariUon, 20 (30) Dec. « Lond, Gaz. ^ Lond. Gaz. ' ' Evelyn, i. 5llco, percio tlrarsi al estermiolo de Protestanti. " Hume, c. ii.~A' 4th edit 1757. AFFAIRS OF SCOTLAND. 259 monial connexion between their families, was disposed lo an union of councUs wilh Rochester." Adopting the principles of his English friends, he seemed ready to sacrifice the remaining liberties of bis country, but resolved to adhere lo the Established Church. The acts of the first session in the reign of James are such as lo have extorted from a great historian of calm temper, and friendly to tbe house of Stuart, the reflection that "nothing could exceed the abject serviUty of the Scotch nation during this period but the arbi trary severity of the administration." "" Not content with servility and cruelty for the moraent, tbey laid down principles which would render slavery universal and pejpetual, by assuring the King "that" they abhor and detest all principles and positions which are con trary or derogatory lo the King's sacred, supreme, absolute power and authority, which none, whether persons or coUective bodies, can participate of, in any manner or on any pretext, but in de pendence on bim and by comraission frora him.''" But the jealousies between the King's parly and that ofthe Church among the Scotch ministers were sooner visible than those between the corresponding factions in the English councU, and they seem, in sorae degree, to have limited the severities which followed the revolt of Argyle. The privy council, atthe intercession of some ladies of distinction, prevented the Marquis of Athol from hanging Mr. Charles Campbell, then confined by a fever, at the gates of his father's castie of Inverary ;'' and il was probably by their represen tations that James was induced to recall instructions which he had issued to the Duke of Queensberry for the suppression of the name of Campbell," which would have amounted lo a proscription of several noblemen, a considerable body of gentry, and the most numerous and powerful tribe in the kingdom. They did nol, however, hesitate in the execution of the King's orders lo dispense with the test in the case of four peers and twenty-two gentlemen, who were required by law lo take it before they exercised the office of comraissioners lo assess the supply in their respective counties. "^ The Earl of Perth, the Chancellor of Scotland, began now to attack Queensberry by means somewhat similar to those employed * Lord Prumlanerig, the son of Queensberry, had married Lady— —Boyle, the niece of Lady Rocnesler. ' Hume, James II. c, 1, " Acta Pari, vHi. 459.— ISth April, 1688. " Fountainhall's Chron. Notes, 1. 366.— 16th July, 1685. • 'Warrant, 1st June, 1685. State Paper Office. ' Warrant, 7th Dec. 1685. State Paper Office. 17* •260 AFFAIRS OF SCOTLAND, by Sunderland against Rochester. Queensberry had two years before procured the appointraent of Perth, as it was believed, by a sum of 27,000/. of public money, to the Duchess of Portsraouth. Under a new reign, when that lady was by no raeans a favourite, both Queensberry and Perth apprehended a severe inquisition into this misapplication of public raoney." Perth, whether actuated by fear or ambition, made haste to consult his security and advancement by conforming to the religion of the court, on which Lord Halifax observed, that " his faith had made him whole." Queensberry adhered to the Established Church. The Chancellor soon began to exercise that ascendency which he acquired by his conversion, in such a manner as lo provoke immediate demonstrations of the zeal against the Church of Rorae, which the Scotch Presbyterians carried farther than any other reformed coramunity. He issued an order against the sale of any books without license, which was universally understood as intended to prevent the circulation of con troversial writings against the King's religion. Glen, a bookseller in Edinburgh, when he received this warning, said, that he had one book which strongly condemned popery, and desired to know whether he might corrtinue to sell U. Being asked what tbe book was, he answered, " The Bible." '' Shortly afterwards the populace raanifested their indignation al the public celebration of raass by riots, in the suppression of whicb several persons were killed. A law lo inflict adequate penalties on such offences against the secu rity of religious worship would have been perfectly just. But as the laws of Scotiand had, however irnjustly, made it a crirae to be present al the celebration of mass, il was said, with some plau- sibUity, that the rioters had only dispersed an unlawful assembly. The lawyers evaded this difficulty by the ingenious expedient of keeping out of view the origin and object ofthe tumults, and prose cuted the offenders, merely for rioting in violation of Ceriain ancierit statutes, some of which rendered that offence capital. This riot was pursued with such singular barbarity, that one Keith, who was not present at the tumult, was executed for having said, that he would help the rioters, and for having drank confusion to all Papists, though he at thes arae time dr-arik the health of the King, and though in both cases he only followed the example of the wit nesses on whose evidence he was convicted. Attempts were vainly ¦ Fountainhall's Chron. Notes, 1. 189, " FountainhaU, i. 390.— 28tb Jan. 1686. AFFAIRS OF SCOTLAND, 261 made lo persuade this poor man to charge Queensberry witb being accessory to tbe riots, wbicb be bad freely ridiculed in private. That nobleman was immediaiely after removed from tbe office of treasurer, but be was al tbe same lime appointed Lord President of the CouncU with a pension, that tbe court might retain some bold on bim during the important discussions at the approach ing session of parhament. The King communicated lo the secret committee of the Scotch privy council bis intended instructions to fhe commissioner relative to fhe measures fo be proposed to parlia ment. They comprehended fhe repeal of fhe test, the abrogation of the sanguinary laws as far as they related to papists, the admis sion of these last lo all civil and military eraployments, and the confirmation of all tbe King's dispensations, even in the reigns of his successors, unless they were recaUed by parliament. On these terms be declared bis wiUingness lo assent lo any law (not repug nant lo these things) for securing the Protestant religion, the per sonal dignities, offices, and possessions ofthe clergy, and for continu ing all laws against fanaticism." The privy council manifested some unwonted scruples about these propositions. James answered them angrily."* Perplexed by this unexpected resistance, as well as by the divisions in the Scottish councils, and the repugnance shown by tbe Episcopalian party to any measure which might bring the privUeges of Cathohcs more near to a level with their own, be commanded the Duke of Hamilton and Sir George Lockhart, Pre sident of the Court of Session, to come to London, witb a view to ascertain their inclinations, and dispose them favourably to bis objects, but under colour of consulting them on the nature of the rehef which it might be prudent lo propose for the members of his own communion." The Scotch negociators (for as such they seem to have acted) conducted tbe discussion with no small discretion and dexterity. They professed fheir readiness to concur in the repeal ofthe penal and sanguinary laws against Catholics; observ ing, however, the difficulty of proposing to confine such an indul gence to one class of dissidents, and the policy of moving for a general toleration, whicb it would he as much the interests of Pres byterians as of Catholics to promote. They added, that it might be more politic nol lo propose the repeal of the test as a measure of government, hut to leave il to the spontaneous disposition of " State Paper Office, 4th March, 1686, ' Ibid, 18th March, 1686, ¦ Fountainhall, i, 410,— 26th March, 1686, 262 AFFAIRS OF SCOTLAND. parliament, who would very probably repeal a law which in Scot land was airaed against Presbyterians as exfclusively as it had in England been intended to exclude Catholics, or to trust to the King's dispensing power, which was there undisputed, as indeed every part of the prerogative was in that counti-y held lo be above ques tion, and wUhout limits. " These propositions embarrassed Jaraes and his raore zealous counsellors. The King struggled obstinately against the extension of the liberty to the Presbyterians. The iScotch counsellors re quired, that if the test were repealed, the King should bind hiraself by the most solemn promise lo attempt no farther alteration or abridgment of the privileges of the Protestant clergy. Jaraes did not conceal from them his repugnance thus to confirra and to secure the establishraent of a heretical church. He iraputed the pertinacity of Hamilton lothe insinuations of Rochester, and that of Lockhart lo the stiU more obnoxious influence of his father-in-- law. Lord Wharton.* The Earl of Murray, a recent convert to the Catholic religion, opened the pariiaraent on the 29th of April, and laid before par liaraent a royal letter, which exhibited traces of the indecision and ambiguity which were the natural consequence of the unsuccessful issue of the conferences in London. He begins with holding out the temptation of a free trade with England, and after tendering an ample amnesty, proceeds to state , that while the King shows these acts of mercy to the enemies of his crown and royal dignity, he cannot be unraindful of his Roman Catholic subjects, who had adhered to the crown in rebellions and usurpations, though they lay under discouragements hardly to be named. He recomraends thera to the care of parliament, and desires that they may bave the protection of the law and the sarae security with other subjects, withoul being laid under obligations which their religion will not admit of. " This love," he says, " we expect ye will show to your brethren, as you see we are an indulgent father to you aU."" At the next sitting an answer to the letter was voted, thanking the King for his endeavours"to procure a free trade with England, expressing the utmost admiration of the offer of aranesty to such desperate rebels against so merciful a prince, and declaring, " as » BariUon, 10 (2-2) Avril. Fox MSS. i. 119. " Barillon, 19 (-29) Avril, 1686. Fox MSS. i, 121. ' Act. Pari. Scot, viii. 580. AFFAIRS OF SCOTLAND. 203 to that part of your Majesty's letter wbicb relates to your subjects of the Roman Catholic persuasion, we shaU, in obedience to your Majesty's commands, and in tenderness to their persons, lake the same into our serious and dutiful consideration, and go as great lengths therein as our consciences will allow;" concluding witb these words, wbicb were the more significant because they were nol called for by any correspondent paragraph in tbe King's letter : — "Not doubting lhal your Majesty will be careful to secure the Protestant religion established by law. " Even Ibis answer, cold and guarded as it was, did not pass without some debate, important only as indicating the temper of the assembly. The words, " sub jects of the Roman Catholic religion," were objected to, " as not to be given by parliament to individuals, wbom the law treated as criminals, and lo a cburcb which Protestants could not, without inconsistency, regard as entitied lo the appellation of Catholic." Lord Fountainhall proposed as an amendraent, the substitution of " those coramonly called Roman Catholics." The Earl of Perth called this nicknaming the King, and proposed, " those subjects^ your Majesty has recommended." The Archbishop of Glasgow supported the original answer, upon condition of an entry in the Journals, declaring that the words were used only out of courtesy to tbe King, as a repetition of the language of his letter. A minority of 56 in a house of 182 voted against the original words, even though they were to be thus explained." Some members doubted whether they could sincerely profess a dis position to go any farther lengths in favour of the Romanists, tbey being conscientiously convinced tbat all the laws against the members of lhal communion ought lo continue in force. The pariiamenf having been elected under tbe administration of Queens berry, tbe episcopal party was very powerful both in that assembly and in the committee called tbe Lords of the Articles, wilh whom alone a biU could originate. Tbe Scottish Catholics were an in considerable body ; and the Presbyterians, though comprehending the most intelligent, moral, and reUgious part of the people, so far from having any influence in the legislature, were proscribed as criminals, and subject to a more cruel and sanguinary persecution from their Protestant brethren tban either of these communiong * FountainhaU, i. 413.— 13th May, 1686. 264 AFFAIRS OF SCOTLAND. had ever experienced frora Catholic rulers." Those ofthe prelates whose virtues extended so far as to prefer the interest of their order to their own were dissalifefied even wifh the very limited measure of toleration laid before the Lords of the Articles, which only proposed to exempt Cathohcs from punishment on account of the private exei-cise of their religious worship." The primate was alarmed by a hint thrown out by the Duke of Hamilton, that a toleration so liinited might be granted to dissenting Protestants ;" nory on the other hand. Was the resistance of the prelates softened by the lure held out by the King in his first instructions, tbat U tbey Would reraove the lest against Catholics they should be in dulged in the persecution bf their fellow Protestants. Tbe lords of the artieles were forced lo introduce into the bill two clauses ; One declaring their determination to adhere lo the established religion, the other expressly providing, that the immunity and forbearance shall not derogate frora the laws which required the oath of aUegiance and the test to be taken by all persons in offices of pubhc trust.* The arguraents on both sides are lo be found in pamphlets then printed at Edinburgh ; those for tbe Government publicly and actively circulated, those of the opposite party disse- rainated clandestinely." The principal part, as in all such con troversies, consists in personalities, recriminations, charges of in consistency, ahd addresses to prejudice, which scarcely any ability can render interesting after tbe passions from which they spring have subsided and are forgotten. Il happened, also, that tempo- r'ary circumstahces required or occasioned the best arguraents not ¦ lo be urgfed by the disputants. Considered on general principles , the bUl, like every other measure of toleration, was justly liable to no perraanent objection but ils ihcorapleleness and partiaUty. But no Protestant sect was then so tolerant as to object to the ¦ Woodrow, 11. 498. : — an avowed partisan, but a most sincere and honest writer, to whom great thanks are due for having preserved that callectiott of facts atid documents which will for ever render it impossible to extenuate the tyranny exercised over Scotland from the Restoration to the Revolution. ' ' Woodrow, 11. 594. " FontalnhaU, 1. 415. '¦ Woodrow, 11. App. No. cxvi. • Woodrow, ii. App. 163 — 177, who ascribes the court pamphlet to Sir R. L'Es lrange, In which he is followed by Mr. Laing, though in the answer that pamphlet is said to he written by a clergyman who had preached before the parliaraent L'Eslrange was then in Edinburgh, probably engaged in some more popular contro versy. 'The tract In question seems more likely to have heen written by Paterson, Bishop of Edinburgh. AFFAIRS OF SCOTLAND. '-^65 imperfection of tbe relief lo be granted to Catholics; and lhe ruling parly in the parliament were neither entitled nor disposed to complain, tbat the Protestant NonConforinists, wbom they had so long persecuted, were not to be comprehended in the toleration. Tbe only objection wbicb could reasonably be made lo the tolerant principles, now for tbe first lime inculcated by the advocates of tbe Court, was, that they were not proposed witb good faith, and were not proposed for the relief of the Catholics but for the sub version of the Protestant church, and the ultimate estabUshment of popery, with all the horrors wbicb were to foUow in its train. The present effects of tbe biU were a subject of more urgent con sideration than its general character. It was more necessary to ascertain tbe purpose wbicb it was intended and calculated to pro mote at tbe instant, than to examine the principles on which sucb a measure, in other circumstances and in aU common times, might be perfectiy wise and just. Even then, had any man been liberal and bold enougb to propose universal and perfect liberty of wor ship, the adoption of sucb a measure would probably havO afforded tbe most effectual security against tbe designs of tbe crown. But very few entertained so generous a principle : of these, some might doubt the wisdom of its application in that hour of peril, and no man could bave proposed it witb any hope that it could be adopted by the majority of sucb a parliament. It can hardly be a subject of wonder, that the established clergy, without any root in tbe opinions and affections of the people, on whom they were imposed by law, and against whom they were maintained by persecution, sbould not in the midst of conscious weakness have had calmness and fortitude enougb lo consider the policy of con cession but trembling for their unpopular dignities and invidious revenues, should recoU frora the surrender of tbe most distant outpost wbicb seemed to guard tbem, and struggle wilh all their might lo keep those who threatened to become tbeir mosl formi dable rivals under the brand, al least, if not the scourge of penal laws. It must be owned, that the language of the court writers was nol calculated either to calm the apprehensions ofthe Cburcb or lo satisfy the solicitude of the friends of liberty. Tbese writers told tbe parliament, " that if the King were exasperated by the rejection of the bill, he, might, without fbe violation of any law, alone remove all Protestant officers and judges from the govern ment of the State, and all protestant bishops and ministers from the 266 AFFAIRS OF SCOTLAND. governraent ofthe Church ; "" — a threat the raore alarming, because the dispensing power seemed sufficient to carry il into effect in civil offices, and the Scotch act of supreraacy, ** passed in one of the paroxysms of servihty which were frequent in the first years of the Restoration, appeared lo afford the means of fully accomplishing it against the Church. The unexpected obstinacy ofthe Scottish parliament alarmed and offended the Court. Their answer did not receive the usual cora pliraent of publication in the Gazette. Orders were sent lo Edin burgh to removie two privy counseUors ;" lo displace Selon, a judge, and lo deprive the Bishop of Dunkeld ofa pension, for their conduct in parliament. Sir George Mackenzie, himself, the most eloquent and accomplished Scotchraan of his age, was for the same reason disraissed from the office of Lord Advocate. It was in vain that he had dishonoured his genius by being for ten years the advocate of tyranny and the minister of persecution. AU his ignorainious claims were cancelled by the independence of one day. Il was hoped that such examples might strike terror.'' Several noble men, who held coramissions in the army, were, ordered to repair lo their posts. Sorae raembers were threatened wilh the avoid ance of their elections.^ A prosecution was commenced against the Bishop of Boss, and the proceedings were studiously protracted, lo weary out the poorer part of those who refused to comply with the court. The ministers scrupled al no expedient for seducing, or intimidating, or harassing. But these expedients proved in effectual. The raajority of the pariiament adhered to their prin ciples. The session lingered for about a month in the raidst of ordinary or unimportant affairs.' The BiU for Toleration was nol brought up by the Lords of the Articles. The commissioners, doubting whether it would be carried, and probably instructed by the court lhal U would neither satisfy the expectations nor pro- • Woodrow, li. App. 166. '' 1669. ¦ The Eari of Glencairn and Sir W. Bruce. ¦i FountainhaU,!. 414. 1 7th May, 1686. " Ibid. 419. ' Among tbe frivolous but characteristic transactions of this session was tbe Bore Brief, or authenticated pedigree granted to the Marquis de Seignelai, as a sup posed descendant of tbe ancient family of Cuthbert of Castlehill, In Inverness-shire. His father, the great Colbert, who -appears to have been the son of a reputable woollen-draper of Troyes, had attempted to obtain the same certificate of genealogy, but such was the pride of birth at that time In Scotland, that his attempts were vain. It now required all the influence of the court, set In motion by the soli citations of Barillon, to obtain it for Seignelai. By an elaborate display of all tbe coUateral relations of the Cuthberts, the Bore Brief connects Seignelai with the royal family, and with all tbe nobility and gentry of the kingdom. Act. Pari, Scot viii. 611, AFFAIRS OF SCOTLAND. 267 mote the purposes of the King, in tbe middle of June adjourned the parliament, wbicb was never again to assemble. It was no wonder tbat the King should have been painfully disappointed by the failure of his attempt ; for after the conclusion of the session, it was said by zealous and pious Protestants, that nothing less tban a special interposition of Providence could have infused into such an assembly a steadfast resolution to withstand the court." The royal displeasure was manifested by raeasures of a very violent sort. The despotic supreraacy of the King over the Church was exercised by depriving Bruce of bis bishopric of Dunkeld, for bis parliamentary conduct;'' a severity which, not long after, was repeated in fbe deprivation of Cairncross, Archbishop of Glasgow, for some supposed countenance to an obnoxious preacher, though tbat prelate laboured lo avert it by promises of support lo all measures favourable lo the King's religion." A few days after \the prorogation, Queensberry was dismissed from all bis offices, and required not lo leave Edinburgh until he had rendered an account of his administr'ation of the treasur-y.* Sorae part of tbe royal displeasure fell upon Sir George Mackenzie, the Lord Register, lately created Lord Croraarty, the most subraissive servant of every governraent, for having flattered the King, by loo confident assurances of a raajority as obsequious as himself. The connexion of Rochester with Queensberry now aggravated the offence of the latter, and prepared the way for the downfall of the forraer. Murray, the coraraissioner, promised positive proofs, hul produced at lasl only such circurastances as were sufficient to confirm the previous jealousies of James, that the Scotch opposition were in secret correspondence with pensionary Fagel, and even with the Prince of Orange." Sir George Mackenzie, whose unwonted independence seems lo bave speedily faltered, was refused an audience of the King, wben he visited London witb the too pro bable purpose of making his peace. The most zealous Protestants being soon afterwards removed frora the privy council, and the principal noblemen of the Catholic communion being introduced " Fountain. 1. 419. I forbear to transcribe the somewhat profane comparison to tbe remark of an Irish soldier on tbe Garter being bestowed on Feversham after the battle of Sedgemoor, to the success of wbicb he had so little contributed. ' Fountain, i. 416. " Fountain, i. 441. Skinner, Eccles. Hist. ii. 503. '" Fountain, i. 420. ° BariUon, 20 June (1 Juillet), 1686. 12 July (-22 JulUet), 1686. Fox MSS. i, 137 — 139. It will appear in the sequel, that these suspicions are at variance with probability^ and unsupported by evidence. 238 AFFAIRS OF SCOTLAND. in their stead, James addressed a letter lo the council, informing thera that his application to parliament had not arisen from any doubt of his own power lo slop the severities against Catholics, declaring his intention to allow the exercise of the CathoUc wor ship, and to estabhsh a chapel for that purpose in his own palace of Holyrood House; and intimating to the judges, lhal they were lo receive the allegation of this allowance as a valid defence, any law lo the contrary notwithstanding." The warm royalists, in their proposed answer, expressly acknowledged the King's prerogative lo be a legal security. But the councU, in consequence of an objection of the Duke of Hamilton, faintiy asserted their inde pendence, by substituting "sufficient" instead of "legal."" The deterraination was thus avowed of pursuing the objects of the King's policy in Scotiand by the exercise of prerogative, at least until a raore compliant parliaraent could be obtained, who would not only reraove aU doubt for the present, but protect the Catholics against the recall of the dispensations by James's suc cessors. The means principally, relied on for the accompUshment of that object was the power now assumed by tbe King to stop the annual elections in burghs, to nominate the chief magistrates, and through thera lo command the election by raore summary proceedings than those of the Enghsh courts." Tbe choice of rainisters correspottded with the principles of administration. The disgrace of the Duke of Hamilton, a few months later,'' completed the transfer of power to that party who professed an unbounded devotion to the principles of their raaster in the governraent both of Church and State. The raeasures of the Governraent did not belie tbeir professions. Suras of money, considerable when compared with the scanty revenue of Scotland, were employed in support of establishments for the maintenance and propa gation of the Boraan Catholic religion. 1400/. a year were granted, in equal portions, to the Catholic raissionaries, to the Jesuit raissionaries, to the raission in the Highlands, to the Chapel Boyal, aud to each of the Scotch colleges al Paris, Douay, and Bome.' A separate grant of 1200/. was soon afterwards • Woodrow, ii. 598. Letter, 21st Aug. 1686. " Fount. 1. 424. 16tb Sept. 1686. ' Fount, ibid. '' Fount, i. 449-451. Letter In State Paper Office, 1st March, 1687, expressing the King's displeasure at the conduct of Hamilton, and directing the names of bis sons-in-law, Panmure and Dunmore, to be struck out of tbe list of the council. • Warrants in the State Paper Office, 19th May, 1687. AFFAIRS OF IRELAND. 269 made to Mr. Innes, Rector of the Scotch CoUege, on account of that institution." Tbe Duke of Hamilton, Keeper of the Palace, was commanded to surrender tbe Chancellor's apartments in Holyrood House to a ooUege of Jesuits.'' By a manifest partiality, two thirds of fbe allowance made by Charles the Second to indigent royalists were directed to be paid to Catholics ; and all pensions and allowances to persons of that religion were required to be paid in the first place, in preference lo aU other pensions." Some of tbese grants, it is true, if they had been made by a liberal sovereign in a tolerant age, were in theraselves justi fiable ; but neither tbe character of the King, nor the situation of the country, nor the opinions of the limes, lefl any reasonable man at liberty then lo doubt their purpose, and some of them were attended by circumstances which would be remarkable as proofs of the infatuated imprudence of tbe King and his counsellors, if they were not more worthy of observation as symptoms of lhal insolent contempt witb wbicb tbey trampled on the provisions of law, and on the strongest feelings ofthe people. The government of Ireland, as well as that of England and Scotland, was, al the accession of James, aUowed lo remain in the hands of Protestant tories. The Lord-lieutenancy was, indeed, taken from the Duke of Orrnond, then far advanced in years, but it was bestowed on a nobleman of the same party. Lord Clarendon, whose moderate understanding added little to those claims on high office, which be derived from bis birth, connexions, and opinions. Bui the feeble and timid Lord Lieutenant was soon held in check by Bicbard Talbot,* then created Earl of Tyrconnel, a Catholic gentleman of ancient English extraction, who joined * Ibid. 28tb June, 1687, '' Ibid. 15tb August. 1687, ' Ibid, 7th January, 1688. '' Tbe means by which Talbot obtained tbe favour of James, if we may believe the accounts of bis enemies, were somewhat singular. " Cbarendon's daughter had been got with child in Flanders, on a pretended promise of marriage, by the Duke of York, wbo was forced by the King, at her father's importunity, to marry ber, after he had resolved tbe contrary, and got her reputation blasted by Lord Fitzharding and Colonel Talbot, who impudently affirmed that they had received the last favours from her." Sheridan's Reflections, &c., MSS. in Stuart Papers,, p. 53. "5th July, 1694. Sir E. Harley told us, that when the Duke of York, resolved on putting away his first wife, particnlarly on discovery of her commerce with , she, by her father's adrice, turned Roman Catholic, and thereby secured herself frora reproach, and that the pretence of her father's opposition to it was only to act a part, and secure himself from blame." MSS. In tbe handwriting of Lord Treasurer Oxford, in the possession of the Duke of Portland. The latter of these passages mnst refer to the time ofthe marriage, from the concluding part of it. But it must not be forgotten tbat both the reporters were tbe enemies of Clarendon, and Sheridan the bitter enemy of Tyrconnel. ,-?i,.,j 270 AFFAIRS OF IRELAND. talents and spirit to violent passions, boisterous manners, un bounded indulgence in every excess, and a furious zeal for his religious party. His character was tainted by that disposition lo falsehood and artifice, which, however seemingly inconsistent with violent passions, is often combined with them, and he possessed raore of the beauty and bravery than of the wit or eloquence, of his unha'ppy nation. He was first introduced lo Charles II. and his brother before the Bestoration, as one who was willing lo assas sinate Crorawell, and raade a journey into England wilh that resolution. He soon after received an appointraent in the house hold of the Duke of York, and retained the favour of that prince during the reraainder of his life. In the year 1666, he was ira prisoned for a few days by Charles II., for having resolved to assassinate the Duke of Ormond, with whose Irish adrainistration be was dissatisfied. ° He did not, however, even by the last of these crirainal projects, forfeit the patronage of either of the royal brothers, and at the accession of James held a high place among that prince's personal favourites. He was induced, both by zeal for the Catholic party, and by animosity against the family of Hyde, to give effectual aid to Sunderland in the overthrow of Rochester, and required in return thai the conduct of Irish affairs shouM be left lo him.'' Sunderland dreaded the temper of Tyr connel, and was desirous of performing his part of the bargain with as little risk as possible lo the quiet of Ireland. Tyrconnel at first contented himself with the rank of senior General Officer on the Irish staff, and he returned to Dublin in June, 1686, as the avowed favourite of the King, with powers lo new-model the army ; and his arrival was preceded by reports of extensive changes in the governraent of the kingdora." The stale, the church, the administration, and the property of that unhappy island, were bound togeiher by such unnatural ties, and placed on such weak foundations, that every rumour of alteration in one of thera spread the deepest alarm for 'the safety of the whole. Fi-ora the colo nisation of a sraall part of the eastern coast under Henry II., till the last years of the reign of Elizabeth, an unceasing and cruel warfare was waged by the English governors against the princes and chiefs of the Irish tribes, with little other effect than that of , * clarendon's Life, continuation, 36-2. '¦ Sheridan's Historical Account, MSS., 79 P. Stuart Papers. ' clarendon's Letters, i. passim. AFFAIRS OF IRELAND. 271 preventing the progress of civUisation of the Irish, of replunging many of tbe English info barbarism, and of generating fhat deadly animosity between the natives and tbe invaders, under the names of Irishry and Englisbry, which, assuming various forms, and ex asperated by a fated succession of causes, has continued even to our days tbe source of innumerable woes. During fhat dreadful period of four hundred years, the laws ofthe Enghsh colony did not punish the murder of a man of Irish blood as a crime." Even so late as the year 1547, the Colonial Assembly, called a parliament, confirmed the insolent laws which prohibited the English of the pale from marrying persons of Irish blood.'' Reli gious hostility inflamed tbe hatred of these mortal foes. The Irish, attached lo their ancient opinions as well as usages, and little ad dicted to doubt or enquiry, rejected the Reformation of religion offered lo them by their enemies. Tbe Protestant worship became soon to be considered by tbem as the odious badge of conquest and oppression. " The ancient religion was endeared by persecution,' and by its association with the name, the language, and the raan ners of their country. The island had long been represented as a fief of the see of Rome ; the Catholic clergy, and even laity, had no unchangeable friend but the sovereign pontiff, and their chief hope of deliverance from a hostile yoke was long confined lo Spain, the leader of the Catholic parly in the European commonwealth. The old enmity of Irishry and Englisbry thus appeared with redoubled force under the new names of Catholic and Protestant. The ne cessity of self-defence compeUed Elizabeth lo attempt the complete reduction of Ireland, which, since she had assumed her station at the head of Protestants, became the only vulnerable part of her dominions, and a weapon in the hands of her most formidable ¦ Sir J. Davies's Discoverie, '&c., 10-2— 112. Edit 1747. "Theywere so far out of the protection of the laws that it was often adjudged no felony to kill a mere Irishman in time of peace," — except he were ofthe five privileged tribes of the O'Neils of Ulster, the O'Malaghllns of Meath, the O'Connors of Connaught, tbe O'Briens of Thomond, and the MacMurroughs of Leinster; to whom are to be added the Ostmen of the city of Waterford. See also Leland, Hist, of Ireland, book 1. c. 3. " Ir. Stat 28 Hen. VIII. c. 13. "The English," says Sir W. Petty, "before Henry VII.'s time, lived in Ireland as tbe Europeans do in America.'' PoU Anat 112. ° Tbat tbe hostility of religion was, however, a secondary prejudice superin duced on hostility between nations, appears very clearly from the laws of Catholic sovereigns against the Irish, even after the Reformation, particularly the Irish statute of 3 & 4 Phil. & Mar. c. 2., against the O'Mores and O'Dempsies, and O'Connors, "and others of the Irishry." 272 AFFAIRS OF IRELAND. enemies. But few of the benefits which soraetiraes atone for con quest were fell by Ireland. Neither the success with which Eliza beth broke the barbaric power of the Irish chieftains, nor the real benevolence and seeming policy of introducing industrious colonies under ber successor, counterbalanced the dreadful evU which was then for the first time added to her hereditary sufferings. The extensive forfeiture of the lands ofthe Cathohc Irish, and the grant of these lands to Protestant natives of Great Britain, became a new source of haired between these irreconcUeable factions. Forty years of quiet, however, foUowed, in which a parlianient of aU dis tricts, and of both religions, was assembled. The adrainistration of the Earl of Strafford bore the stamp of the political vices which tarnished his genius, and which often prevailed over those generous affections of which he was not incapable towards those who neither rivaUed nor resisted him. The- state of Ireland abounded with temptations to a raan of daring and haughty spirit, intent lo tarae a turbulent people, and impatient of the slow discipline of law and justice, lo adopt those violent and summary raeasures of which his nature prompted hira too easily to believe the necessity. " When his vigorous arm was withdrawn, the Irish were once more excited to revolt by the raeraory of the provocations which they and re ceived frora him and from his predecessors, by the feebleness of the government of Ireland, and by the confusion and distraction which announced the approach of civil war in Great Britain. This insurrection, which broke out in 1641, and of which the atroci ties appear to have been extravagantly exaggerated '' by the writ ers of the victorious party, was only finally subdued by the genius of CromweU, wbo, urged by the general antipathy against the Irish, " and the peculiar animosity of his own foUowers towards Catholics, exercised more than once in his Irish campaigns the raost odious rights or practices of war, and departed in his treatment of that constantly unhappy country from that clemency which usually • Carte's Ormond, and tbe Confessions of Clarendon, together with the Evidence on the trial of Strafford. *> Evidence of the exaggeration is to he found in Carte and Leland, in tbe " Political Anatomy of Ireland," by Sir W. Petty, to say nothing of Curry's " CivU Wars," whicb, though the work of an Irish Catholic, deserves the serious conside ration of every historical enquirer. Sir W. Petty limits the number of Protestants killed throughout the Island, in the first year of the war, lo 37,000. 'I'he massacres were confined to Ulster, and in tbat province were imputed only to tbe detachment of insurgents under Sir Phelim O'Neale. v ' Even Milton calls the Irish Catholics, or, in otber wards, the Irish nvtion, " Conscelerata et barbara coUuvles." AFFAIRS OF IRELAND, 273 distinguished him above most men who have obtained the supreme power by violence. The corrfiscalions which followed bis victo ries, added lo the forfeitures under Elizabeth and James, transferred more than two thirds oif the land of the kingdom to British adveri- turers. " " Ndt only all the Irish nation (wilh very 'few ekcep- lions) were found guiUy of the rebelUon, and forfeited all their estates, but all the Enelish Catholics of Ireland were declared to be under the same guilt" •> The ancient proprietors conceived .sanguirie hopes, that confiscations by usurpers would nol be rati fied by the restored goverrimenl. But their agents' were inexpe rienced, indiscreet, and sornetimes mercenary. Their opponents, who were in possession of power and property, chose the Irish House of Comraons, and secured the needy and rapacious courtiers of Charles II.' by large bribes. " The court becarae a mart at whicb mucb of the properly of Ireland was sold lo the highest bidder: the inevitable result of measures not governed by rules of law, loaded with exceptidns and conditions, where tbe artful use of a single word might affied the possession df considerable fortunes, and where so many minute particulars relating to unknown and uninteresting subjects were necessarily introduced, that none but parties deeply coricerned had the patience to exaraine theim. Charles was desirous of an arrangement which should give him the largest means of quieting, by profuse grants j^ the importunity of his favourites. He began to speak df the necessity of strength ening the English interest in Ireland, and he represented the settlement rather as a matter of policy than of justice. The usual and legitimate policy of statesmen and lawgivers is, doubt less, to favour every measure which quiets pr-^sent possession, and id discourage all retrospective inquisition into the tenure of pro perty. Blit the Irish government professed ,lo adopt a principle of compromrse, and the general ' object of the statute called the Act of Settlernerit, was to secure the land in the hands of its possessors, on condition of their making a certain compensation lo those classes of expeUed proprietors who were considered as innocent of the rebellion. Those, however, were declared nol ¦ Pettys Pol. Anat, 1—3. London. 1691. '' Life of Clarendon, ii. 115. 8tb edit/^Oxford. 1759. ' ' Carte's Ormond, ii. 295., &c. Talbot, afterwards Earl of Tyrconnel, returned to°Ireland witb 18,000/'. 'r, '" IS 274 .AFFAIRS OF IRELAND. to be innocent who had accepted the terms of peace granted by the King in 1648, who had paid contributions to support the insurgent adrainistration, or who enjoyed any real or personal property in the districts occupied by the rebel army. The first of these conditions was singulariy unjust ; the two latter must have comprehended many who were entirely innocent, and aU of thera were inconsistent with those principles of coraproraise and pro vision for the interest of all on which the act was professedly founded. Orraond, however, restored to his own great estates, and gratified by a grant of 30,000/. from the Irish Coraraons, acquiesced in this measure, and it was not opposed by his friend Clarendon; circumstances which naturally, though perhaps not justiy, have rendered the, memory of these celebrated men odious lothe Irish Catholics. During the whole reign of Charles II. they struggled lo obtain a repeal ofthe Act of Settiement. But time opposed his mighty power to their labours. Every new year strengthened the rights of the possessors, and furnished addi tional objections against the clairas of the old owners. It is far easier to do mischief than to repair it ; and it is one of the most raahgnant properties of extensive confiscation that it is commonly irreparable. The land is shortly sold to honest purchasers ; it is inherited by innocent children; it becomes the security of cre ditors; its safety becomes interwoven, by the coraplicated trans actions of life, with aU the interests of the coraraunity. One act of injustice is not atoned for by the coraraission of another against parlies who may be equally unoffending. In such cases the most specious plans for the investigation of conflicting clairhs either lead lo endless delay, attended by the entire suspension of the enjoyment of the disputed property, if nol by a final extinction of its value, or to precipitate injustice, arising from caprice, from favour, from enmity, or from venality. The resumption of for feited property, and the restoration of it to the heirs of the ancient owners, may be attended with all the mischievous consequences of the original confiscation ; by the disturbance of habits, and by the disappointment of expectations, and by an abatement of that reliance.on the inviolability of legal possession, which is the main- spring,of industry, and the chief source of comfort. The aSgfval of Tyrconnel revived the hopes of the Catholics. They w^'atthat time estimated to amount to 800,000 souls; the • AFFAIRS OF IRELAND. 275 English EpiscopaUans, tbe Englisb Noaoonformists, and the Scotch Presbyterians, eacbto 100,000. " Therewas an army of 3000 raen, wbicb in the sequel of this reign was raised lo 8000, and the net revenue afforded a yearly average of 300,000/. '' Before the civil war of 1641, the disproportion of numbers of Catholics to Pro testants was much greater, and by the consequences of that event, tbe balance of property was entirely reversed. " " In playing of this game or match" (the war of 1641 ) " upon so great odds, the English," says Sir William Petty, " won, and have a gamester's right at least to their estates." * On tbe arrival of Tyrconnel, loo, were redoubled the fears of the Protestants for possessions always invidious, and now, as it seemed, about td be precarious. The attempt to ^ve both parties a sort of representation in the govern ment, and lo balance the Protestant Lord Lieutenant by a Catholic commander of the army, unsettied the minds of the two commu nions. The Protestants, though they saw that the rising ascen dant of Tyrconnel would speedily become irresistible, were be trayed into occasional indiscretion by the declarations of the Lord Lieutenant ; and the Catholics , aware of their growing force, were only exasperated by Clarendon's faint and fearful show of zeal for the established laws. The contemptuous disregard, or rather in decent insolence, manifested by Tyrconnel in his conversations with Lord Clarendon, betrayed a consciousness of the superiority of a royal favourite over a Lord Lieutenant, who was to execute a system to whicb be was disinclined, and lo remain in office a Utile longer only as a pageant of state. He indulged aU his habitual in decencies and excesses; be gave the loose fo every passion, and threw off every restraint of good manners in these conversations. It is difficult to represent tbem in a manner compatible with the decorum of history. Yet they are loo characteristic to be passed over. " " You must know, my Lord," said Tyrconnel, " that the King is a Roman Catholic, and resolved to employ his subjects of " Petfy's Political Anatomy, 8. As Sir William Petty exaggerates the po pulation of England, which he rates at six millions, considerably more than Its amount in 1700 (Population Ret. 1821, Introduct.), it is probable he may have overrated that of Ireland; but there is no reason to suspect mistake In the pro portions. ' Supposing the taxes then paid by England and Wales to have been about three millions, each inhabitant contributed ten shillings, while each Irishman paid some what more than five. • Petty's Pol. Anat. 24. " Idem. Diary of Henry, Earl of Clarendon, Sth to 14th June, 1686. Letters, 1. 277, &c. 18* 276 AFFAIRS OF IRELAND. that rehgion, and tbat be wiUnol keep one raan in bis service who ever served under the usurpers. The sheriffs you have rrrade are generisdly rogues and old Cromwellians. There has not been an hftu^t man sheriff injreland these twenty years." Sueh language, urternAingled ,with oaths, and uttered m the boisterous lone of a brsggart youth, somewhat intoxicated, in a mUitary guard-house, are specimens of the mariner in which Tyrconnel delivered his opinions to bis superior on the gravest affairs of state. It was no wonder thj^l Clarendon told his brother Rochester, " If this Lord continue in the temper he is in, he will gain here the reputation of a madman ; for his treatment of people is scarce to be described."" The more raoderate of hisown communion, comprehending almost all laymen of education or fortune, he reviled as trimmers. He divided the Calboljcs, andernbroiled the King's affairs stiU farther by a violepl prejudice against the native Irish, whom be conterapt uously called the O's and IMacs. "• To _tbe letter of the King's public d^larations, or even ,pQsiti¥e instructions to the Lord Lieute nant, he ,paid very little regard!. He was serjtt by James " to do the rough work" of reraodellirig the army and the eorporations. With respect to tbe army, the King pi^ofessed only to admit all his subjects on an equal footing, without regard to rehgion. But Tyrcor^nel's language, aud, when he had the power, bis measures, led to the formation ol a Cathohc army. " The Lord Liieutenant res^sonably understood the royal inteutioris to he no more than thai the Catholic religion ^JOjuld be tu) bar to the admission of persons otherwise qualified into corporations. Tyrconnel disregarded such distinctions, and declared, with one of his usu^ oaths, " I do nol know what to say to thai; I would have all fee Catholics in." '' Three unexceptionable judges of the Protestant persuasion were, by the King's command, removed from the bench to make way for three Catholics, Daly, Rice, andNugent; also, it ought to be added, of unobjectionable character and co»ipetenl learning in their pro fession. " Officious sycophants hastened to prosecute those incau tious Protestants who, in the late tirnes of zeal agaiirst popery, had spokeg witb freedorn against tbe succession of the Duke of York, " Diary of Henry Eari of Clarendon. 308. '• Sheridan MSS. ' Sheridan MSS. It should be observed, that the passages relating to Ireland iu tbe Life ofjames It, vol. ij. p. 68—83, were not written by the King, and io not even profess to be founded on tbe authority of his MSS. They are merefy a staement made by Mr. Dicconson, the compiler of that work. " Clar, 20lh July, 1086, and 3l9t July, 1686. ' Clar. I9di Jane, 1686, AFFAIRS OF IRELAND. 277 though it is due to justice to remark, that the Catholic council, judges, and juries, discouraged these vexatious; prosecutionsi, a«d prevented them from producing any very grievous effects. Tbe King had in the beginning solemnly declared his deterrnination to adhere 10 tbe Act of Settlement; but Tyrconnel, with bis usual im precations, said to the Lord Lieutenant, "These Acts of SetllenHent, and this new interest, are — ' ^-^ tbingS;" " Tbe coarseness and insolence of Tyrconnel could nol fail lo offend the Lord^bi^u- lenant. But it is apparent, from hisi own description; thathe was still' more frightened' than provoked, and perhaps more decor^ous language would not have so suddenly and completely subdiied the littie spirit of tbe demure Lord. Certain it is that these scenes of violence were immediately foUowed by themost profuse professions of his readiness to do wbalever the King required, without any reservation' even of tbe interest of the Established Church. These professions were not merely formularies of that ignoble obsequious ness which' degrades the inferior too much to- exalt the superior; They were expHcif and precise declarations' relating to the parti culars of the most momentous measures then in agitatioiy. In speaking ofthe reformation of thearmy be repelatedbis assurance lo Sundferland; " tbat the KiUg^ may have everyi thing done her-e which he has a raind to, and it iS more easy to do things quietly tban in a stormi" '' He descended- todeclare even to • Tyrconnel himself, that "' 'rli was not' material bow many Roman' Catholics were in the army, if the King would- have it so;, for whateversbis Mkjesty. would have should be made easy as far as lay in- me." " lu' the mean time Clarendon>had incurred the displeasure ofthe Queen by his supposed'oivilitiesto LadyDorcbesterduring her re sidence in Ireland. '' The King was also displeased al the dispo sition which he imputed to-'lhe Lord Lieutenant -raiher to trav-erse than to forward the designs- of Tyrconnel in favour- of tbeCatho- liosv* Itwas'in vaintbatthe submissive viceroy attensiptedfo disarm these resentments* by abject, declarations of deep regret. and un bounded devotedness. ' The daily decline of the credit of Ro- obester deprived! his brolberof'his best suppjort; ami Tyrconnel, who returned' fo court in August, 1 686, found it easy to effect a • Clar, 8tb June, 1 686. " Clar, 20th July, 1686. ' Id, 30th July, 1686, « Id. ' Id. 6th October, 16«e. ' Clar, to the King, 6tb October ; to Lord Rochester, 23d October, 1686. 27& AFFAIRS OF IRELAND. change in the governraent of Ireland. But he found more diffi culty in obtaining that important government for himself. Sunder land tried every raeans but the resignation of his own office to avert so impolitic an appointment. He urged the declaration of the King, on the reraoval of Ormond, that he would not bestow the lieutenancy on a native Irishman. He represented the danger of alarming aU Protestants, by appointing to that office an acknow ledged eneray of the Act of Settiement, and exciting the apprehen sions of aU Englishmen, by intrusturg Ireland lo a man so devoted to the service of Louis XIY. He offered to make Tyrconnel a Major General on the Englisb staff, with a pension of 5000/. a year, and with as absolute though secret authority in the affairs of Ireland as Lauderdale had possessed in those of Scotland. He pro mised that after the abrogation ofthe penal laws in England, Tyr connel, if he pleased, raight be appointed Lord Lieutenant in the roora of Lord Powis, who was destined for the present to succeed Clarendon. Tyrconnel turned a deaf ear to these proposals, and threatened lo make disclosures lo the King and Queen which might overthrow the poUcy and . power of Sunderland. That noblernan, when he was led by his contest with Rochester to throw himself into tbe arms of the Roman Catholics, had forraed a more particular connexion with Jermyn and Talbot,' as the King's favourites, and as the enemies of the family of Hyde. Tyrconnel now threatened lo disclose the terms and objects- of that league, the res^l purpose of removing Lady Dorchester, and the declaration of Sunderland, when this alhance was forraed, that the King could only be governed by a woman or a priest, and that they raust therefore combine the influence of tbe Queen 'with that of Father Petre. ' Sunderland appears to have made some resistance afler this forraidable threat; and Tyrconnel proposed lhal the young Duke of Berwick should raarry his daughter, and be created Lord Lieu tenant, while Tyrconnel hiraself should enjoy the power under the raore modest titie of Lord Deputy." A councU, consisting of Sunderland, Tyrconnel, and the Cathohc ministers, was held on the affairs of Ireland in the month of October. The members who gave their opinions before Tyrconnel maintained the neces- ' London Gazette, 2225. AU these particulars are to be found in Sheridan's MSS, Sheridan accompanied Tyrconnel, as secretary, to Ireland. It is but justicr to add that, in a few months, they became violent enemies. AFFAIRS OF IRELAND. 279 sity of conforming to the Act of Settiement ; but Tyrconnel exclairaed against tbem for advising the King lo an act of in justice ruinous to the interests of religion. Tbe conscience of James was alarmed, and be appointed the next day to hear the reasons of state whicb Sunderland bad to urge on fhe opposite side. Tyrconnel renewed bis vehement invectives against tbe iniquity and impiety of tbe counsels wbicb be opposed ; and Sun derland, who began as be oflen did with useful advice, ended, as usual, wilh a hesitating and ambiguous submission to his master's pleasure," trusting to accident and his own address fo prevent or mitigate the execution of violent measures. These proceedings decided the contest for office ; and Tyrconriel received the sword of slate as Lord Deputy on the 12th February, 1687. The King's professions of equality and impartiality in the distribution of office between the two adverse communions were speedily and totally disregarded. The Lord Deputy and the greater part of the privy council, the Lord Chancellor with three fourths of tbe judges, all the King's counsel but one, almost all the sheriffs, and a majority of corporators , and justices, were, in less than a year. Catholics; numbers so disproportioned to the relative property, education, and abUityfor business, to be found in the two rehgions, that even if the appointments had nol been tainted wilh the inexpiable blame of defiance to the laws, they raust stUl bave been regarded by the Protestants with the ut most apprehension, as indications of sinister designs. Fitten, the Cbancellor, was promoted from the. King's Bench prison, where he had been long a prisoner for debt; and he was charged, though probably withoul reason, by his opponents, with forgery, said to have been committed in a long suit with Lord Macclesfield. His real faults were ignorance and subserviency. Neither of these vices could be imputed to Sir Richard Nagle, the Catholic At torney General, who seems chargeable only with the inevitable fault of being actuated by a dangerous zeal for his own suffering party. It does not appear that the Cathohc judges actually abused their power. We have already seen that,, instead of, seeking to retaliate for the murders of the Popish plot, they discountenanced prosecutions against their advei'saries with a moderation and for bearance very rarely to be discovered in the policy of parlies in ' Mons. D'Adda BISS. Gori'es.„15th November, 1687; 280 AFFAIRS OF IRELAND. the first raornentg of victory oyer long oppression. It is true that these, Cathohc iudgesgave judgraent against the charters of towns. But in these judgments they orrly fdlldwed the example ofthe most erninenl of their Protestant brethren in Erigland." The evils of insecurity and alarm were those which were chiefly exiperienced by the Irish Protestants, These mischiefsj very gr;eat iri themselves, depended so rauch on the, character, temper, and raanner of the Lord, Deputy, on tbe triumphant or soraetiraes Ihreatenirrg con versation of their Catbolic neighbours, ori the recollection of bldod'y civil wars, and on the painful conscioiisness which haunts the pos- sessors of recently confiscated property, that il may be thdught unreasonable lo require any other or raore positive proof of their prevalence. Sonie v^siljle friiits of the alarjn are pointed out. The Protestants, 'wbo were the ¦wealthiest traders as well as the inost irr^eiiious artisans of the kingdom, began to eraigrate. The rey^^ue is said to baye declined. 'The greater jiart of the Prb- testarrt ofiicers of the army, alarrhed by the removal df Ihieir brethren, sold their comraissions for inadequate jirices, and ob tained rnilitary appointments in Holland, then the home of the exile and the refuge of the oppressed.' But that which Tyrcorihel most pursued, and the Protestants most dreaded, was the repeal of the Act of Settlement. JThe new proprietors were not, irideed, aware how mucb cause there was for their alarm. Tyrconnel boasted that he had secured the support of the Queen by the present of a pearl necklace worth 1Q,000/., which iPrince Rupert had bequeathed to hi§ mistress. In all extensive transfers of property not goyerned by rules of law, where both parties to a corrupt transaction have a great interest in concealment, and where there can seldom be any effective responsibUity either judicial or moral, the suspicion of bribery must be incurred, and the temptation itself must often prevaU. Tyrconnel asked She- ". Our accounts of Tyrconnel's Irish admlnlstratipn. before the Revolution are peculiarly imperfect and suspicious. King, afterwards Archbishop of Dublin, whose " State of tbe Protestants'' bas been usually quoted as autliority, was the >jnost zealous, of Irish Protestants, and bis ingenious antagonist, Lesly, was the most Inflexible of Jacobites. Though both were men of great abilities, their at tention was so much occupied in .personalities and in tbe discussion of controverted opinions, tbat tbey have done little to elucidate mafters of fact. Clarendon and Sheridan's MSS. agree so exactly in their picture of Tyrconnel, and bave such au ait of troth in their accounts of him tbat it is not easy to refuse tbem credit, thougb tbey were both his enemies. '' "The Earl of Donegal," says Sheridan, "sold for 600 guinea.s a troop of horse wbicb, two ye-iirs before, cost him 1800 guineas," Sheridan MSS, AFFAIRS OF IRELAND. 281 ridari, his secretary, whether he did not fhink fhe Irish would give 50,000/. for-' thfe Repeal of tbe Atef of Settiijment. " Certainly;" said Slreridaii, "sirice tbe new intei'est paid three times tbat sum to thfe tJuke of Ot'mdnd' fdr- passing it." Tyrconnel 'then autbo- rised^heridan to dffei* to' Eof-d Suuderiaiid 50,000/. in money, or 5000/. a year in land fot" the repeal; Sunderland preferred the 50,000f/. ; but with -w^hat s'eridtisileSS of purpose cannot be ascer- laiiied, for the ri^jieal' was ndt adopted, and the money was never - paid;" arid Stfiiderlarrd seems to have continued lo thwart and traverse a rUeasure ili'biibb he did nol daf e opeiily to resist. The absoTut^ jftroigkliori of faWs uttdeif which so mUch property was held, seamed lo be beset With such difficulty, that in the autrrmn of the followihg year Tyrconnel, on bis visit lo England, proposed a more ibodified measure, which aimed dnly at affording a partial relief to the andient proprietors. In the temper wbicb then pre vailed, a partial measure produce(i almost as touch alarm as one more comjirfehensive, aiid was thought to be intended to pave the way for tdtal resurhption. Tbe danger consisted in enquiry ; the object of apprehension was £tny proceeding whicb brought this species of legal possession into question. The proprietors dreaded the approach of discussion lo their invidious and originally ini quitous titles. It would be bard to expect that James should abstain from relieving his friends lest he might disturb the secure enjoyment of his enemies. Motives of policy, however, and some apprehensions of too sudden a shock lo the feelings of Protestants in Great Britain, retarded the filial adoption of this measure. It could orily be carried inlo effect by tbe parliament of Ireland ; and it was nol thought wise to call k Parliament tiU every part of the internal policy of the kingdorn which could influence the elections of that asseiribly should be completed. Probably, however, the delay principally arose from daring projects of separation apd independence, which Were entertained by Tyrconnel , and of which a short statement (in its most important parts hitherto unknown to thft- public) wUl conclude tbe account of bis administration. Ih the year 1 666, towards the close of tbe first Dutch war, Louis XIV. made preparations for invading Ireland with an arnty of S0,000 men, under the Due de Beaufort, assured by tbe Irish ecclesiastics, that he would befjoined by the Catholics, then more " Sheridan MSS. 282 AFFAIRS OF IRELAND. than usually incensed bythe confirmation ofthe Act of Settiement, and by the Enghsh statutes against the importation of the produce of Ireland. To this plot, which was discovered by the Queen- mother at Paris, and by her disclosed to Charles II., it is not probable that so active a leader as Tyrconnel could have been a stranger. " We are informed by bis secretary, '' that, during his visits to England in 1 686, he made no scruple to avow projects of the like nature, when, after some remarks on the King's de- , dining age, and on the unprobabiUty that the Queen's cbildren, if ever she had any, should live beyond infancy, be declared, " tbat the Irish would be fools or madmen if they submitted to be governed by the Prince of Orange, or by Hyde's grand-daugh ters ; that they ought rather lo lake that opportunity of resolving no longer to be the slaves of England, but lo sel up a king of their own under the protection of France, wbicb he was sure would be readily granted, and he added that nothing could be more advantageous lo Ireland or ruinous to England." His reliance on French support was probably founded on the general policy of Louis XIV. ; on his conduct towards Ireland in 1 666, and, perhaps, on inforraation from Catholic ecclesiastics in France : but he was nol long conteni with these grounds of assurance. During his residence in England in the autumn of 1 687, he had recourse to decisive and audacious measures for ascertaining how far he might rely on foreign aid in the execution of his ambitious schemes, t A friend of bis al court (whose name is concealed, but who probably was either Henry Jermyn or Father Petre) applied on his behalf to M. Bonrepaux, a confidential agent then employed by the court of Versailles in London, on a special mission," expressing his desire, in case of the dealh of James II., lo lake measures lo prevent Ireland frora falling under the doraination of the Prince of Orange, and to place that country under the protection of the raost Christian King. Tyrconnel expressed his " There are obscure intimations of this Intended invasion in Carte's Ormond, 11. 328. Tbe resolutions of tbe parliament of Ireland conceming if are to be found In the Gazette, 25th — 28fb December, 1665. Louis XIV. himself tells us, that he bad a correspondence with those wbom be calls fbe remains of Cromwell in Eng land, and " with tbe Irish Catholics, who, always discontented with their condition^ seem ever ready to join any enterprise which may render it more supportable." Qjluvres de Louis XIV., 11. 203. Sheridan's MS, contains more particulars. It is supported by the printed authorities as far as they go ; and being written at St Ger mains, probably differed little in matters of fact from the received stateraents of the Jacobite exiles. ' ^ Sheridan MSS. ' Bonrepaux a Seignelai, 4th September, 16S6. Fox MSS. 11. Supplement. AFFAIRS OF IRELAND. 283 desire that Bonrepaux sbould go to Chester for tbe sake of a full discussion of this important proposition. But that wary minister declined a step which would have amounted to tbe opening of a negociation, untU he bad authority from his government. He promised to keep the secret, especiaUy from BariUon, who il was feared would betray it lo Sunderland, then avowedly distrusted by the lord deputy. The minister, in communicating this pro position lo his court, adds, that be very certainly knew tbe King of England's intention lo be to deprive his presuraptive heir of Ireland, lo make that country an asylum for all bis Cathohc subjects, and lo complete his measures on that subject in the course of five years ; a time whicb Tyrconnel thoughl much [loo long, and earnestly besought the King to abridge. Bonrepaux also observes, that the Prince of Orange certainly apprehended such designs ; and James told the nuncio that one of the objects of the extraordinary mission of Dykveldl was the affair of Ireland, bappUy begun by Tyrconnel ;" as the same prelate was afterwards informed by Sunderland, that Dykveldt expressed a fear of general designs against the succession of the Prince and Princess of Orange, b Bonrepaux was speedily instructed to inform Tyrconnel that if on the death of James he could maintain himself in Ireland, be might rely on effectual aid frora Louis to preserve the Catbolic rehgion, and lo separate that country from England, when under the dominion of a Protestant sovereign. " Tyrconnel is said to have agreed, without the knowledge of bis own raaster, to put four Irish sea-ports, Kinsale, Waterford, Limerick, and either Galway or Coleraine, inlo the bands of France."* The remaining particulars of this bold and hazardous negociation were reserved by Bonrepaux till bis return lo Paris ; but he closes his last des patch with the singular intimation that several Scotch lords had sounded bira on the succour they might expect from France, on the death of James, to exclude the Prince and Princess of Orange from the throne of Scotland : objects so far beyond the usual aim of ambition, and means so much at variance with prudence as well as duty, could hardly have presented themselves to any mind whose native violence had not been inflamed by an education in the school of conspiracy and insurrection; nor even to such but in a country which, from the division of its inhabitants, and lhe " Lettere de Mons. D'Adda, 7tb Febbraio, 1687. ' Id. 20tb June, 1687. Splgnelai^Bonrepaiix, 29th September, 1687, '' Sheridan IWSS 284 THE KING'S RUPTURE WITH THE TORIES. impolicy of its administration, had constantiy stood on the brink of the mosl violent revolutions ; where quiet seldom subsisted long but as the bitter fruit of terrible exaraples of cruelly and rapine, and where the majority of the people easUy listened to offers of foreign aid against a government whieh they considered as the raost hostile of foreigners, CHAPTER V. Rupture with the Protestant Tories-.— Increased'Decision of the King's Designs, , Encroachments on the Churohv Establishment — Charter House.— Oxford Unt- versity College.— Christ Church. — Exeter CoUege, Cambridgje.- Magdalen Col lege, Oxon. — Declarationof Liberty of Conscience. — Similar Attempts of Charles. — Proclamation at- Edinburgh. — Resistance of tfae'Chnrcbi. In the beginning of the year 1687, the rupture of James with the powerful party who were ready to sacrifice all but the Church to bis pleasure appeared to be irreparable; He had' apparently des tined Scotland to set the exaraple of unbounded submission, under the forms of the constitution; and he undoubtedly hoped' that the revolution in It-eland would supply himwith the raeans of securing tbe obedience of his English- subjects by intiraidalion or force. The faUure of his project in the raost Protestant part of his dorai nions, and its alarraing success in the raost CathoUc, alike tended to widen the breach between' parties in England. The Tories were more alienated from' the crown by the exaraple of their friends in Scotiand, as well' as by their dread of the Irisb. An unreserved corapliance wilh the King's' designs becarae notoriousiy the con dition by which office was to be obtained or preserved ; and, excepta very few instances of personal friendship; the public pro fession of the Catholic faith was required as the only security for that corapliance. The royal confidence and the direction of pub lic affairs were transferred fl-ora the Proteslanl Tories, in spite of their services and sufferings during half a century, intolhe hands of a factioir, who, as their titie to power was zeal for the advance ment of Popery, must be called Papists, though sorae of fhem HIS MEASURES AGAINST THE CHURCH. 285 professed the Protestant religion, and Ibou^ -their maxims of po Ucy, both in church and state, were dreaded and resisted by the most considerable of tbe English Catholics. It is bard to determine, pehbaps il might have been impossible for James himself to say, bow far bis designs for the advancement of tbe Roman Catbolic church extended at the period of his ac cession to the throne. It is agreeable to the nature of snch projects that he sbould not, at first, dare to avow to himself any intenti^Hi beyond that of obtaining rehef for his religion, and placing it in a condition of safety and honour; but it is akogether improbable that be bad even then steadUy fixed on a securYJi:6re po^t|(^p,,sOj|rn- portant could not. directiy interfere. "The attapk .qn ,the jQha,rt,er House was suspeiided, and never afterw^p.ds resumed. ToBerinet who thus threw hiijqsplf. alpne into .fhe^rpejjjh, nrucb^jot j-be :^erit - of ibeistand whiph- foUowed justly, belongs : ,j^q, was,reqiiitpd, like other public benefactors; his ffiends forgot the service, iapdhis eneraies were excited by the, remembrance, of it to djeftat his pro raotion, on the pretext of his free exercise of reason in, the iuter- pretation of the Scriptures, which the eslabbsbed clergy zealously , maintained in vindication of their own separation from tbp Roman Church, but treated , with liftle. tendfi:nesSj, in ihose, who chs^er\ted from their own creed. Measures of a bolder nature were rfisorlcd, to, on a more,^, con spicuous stage. The two great universities of Oxford and Cam bridge, ,the most opulent and spl^endid literary instituti9ns of Eurppe, were from their foundation urider, jthe goyernrpent, of the clergy, the only body of men who then poissf^^ed suj^fjijCnt, le^r^ing to conduct education. Their constitutiprl was not rojifcb.jS^Jtered at the Beforrrralion : the same reverence wl\ich^ spared, .their mopastic regulations happily preser;yed|lhei?,-ricb endo,w^ents from rapine; and though many of their rr^enrbers suffered at the close of.the civU war frora, , their .adherence lq,;,the,,5j3nqi^i^hed party, the corporate, properly was undisturbed, and, their .studies flourished both under the , Commonwealth and th^ Pi;cjtectorate. Their fame as seats of learning, t^eir station as the ,ec,9lf|i^^tical capitals of the kingdora, and their ascendant over the susceptible rainds of all youth of family and fortune, uow rendered, thpm the chief scenes of thd decisive contest between James and the esta blished church. Obadiah Walker, ,l\Jaster of UniversUy Qpllpge in Oxford, a man of no sraall note for ability and learning, arid long a concealed Catholic, now, obtained for himself, and two of his fellows, a dispensation from alf those acts of participatidir in, the " 25th June,, 1687. AGAINST THE CHURCH. 289 Protestant worship wbicb tbe laws since the Reformation required from them," togeiher wilh a hcense for the publication of books of Catholic theology. He estabhshed a printing press, and a Catbolic chapel in his college, which was henceforth regarded as having fallen inlo the bands of the Catholics. Both these exertions of the prerogative bad preceded tbe determination of the judges, which was supposed by the King lo estabUsh its legality. Ani mated by tbat determination, he (contrary to the advice of Sun derland, who thought U safer to choose a weU affected Protestant) proceeded to appoint one Massey, a Catholic, wbo appears to have been a layman, to the high station of Dean of Chrisi Church at Oxford, by whicb he became a dignitary of the Church of Eng land, as well as the ruler of the greatest college in the university. A dispensation and pardon had been granted lo bim on the 1 6tb of December, 1686, dispensing witb tbe numerous statutes wbicb stood in the way of his promotion, one of whicb was the act' of uniformity, the only foundation of the legal establishment'' of the Church. His refusal of the oath of supremacy was recorded ; but be was, notwithstanding, instaUed in tbe deanery wilhout resist ance or even remonstrance, by Aldrich, the sub-dean, an eminent divine of the high church parly, who, on the part of the College, accepted the dispensation as a substitute for tbe oaths required by law. Massey appears lo bave attended the chapter officially on several occasions, and lo have presided al the election of a Bishop of Oxford near two years afterwards. Thus did that celebrated society, overawed by power, or stUl misled by their extravagant principle of unlimited obedience, or, perbaps, not yet aware of tbe extent of tbe King's designs, recog nise the legality of bis usurped power by the surrender of an academical office of ecclesiastical dignity inlo hands whicb the laws bad disabled from holding it. Il was no wonder, that the unprecedented vacancy of tbe archbishopric of York for two years and a half was generaUy imputed to the King's intending it for Father Petre; a supposition countenanced by bis frequent appli cation to Bome lo obtain a bishopric and a cardinal's hat for that Jesuit;" for if be had been a Catholic bishop, and if the chapter ¦ In May, 1686. Gulch's CoUect Curios, i. 287. VVood's Athenae Oxon. iv. 438 . ed. 1820. Dod's Church History, ill. 454. ' Letlers of Henry Eari of Clarendon, 11. 278. Gulch's Coll. Cur. 11. 294. The dispensation to Massey contained an ostentatious enumeration ofthe laws which it ^ets at defiance. " Dod's Ch. Hist. ill. 511. D'Adda's MSS. Corresp. 1637, 1. 19 290 THE, KING'S MEASURES of York Were as submissive as that of Christ Church, the royal dispensation would have seated hira on the archiepiscopal throne. The JesuUs were bound by a vow" not lo accept bishoprics unless corapeUed by a precept frora the Pope, so that his interference was necessary to open the gates of the EngUsh church to Petre. An attempt was raade on specious grounds lo lake possession of another college at Oxford, by a suit before the ecclesiastical com raissioners, in which private individuals were the apparent parties. The noble faraily of Petre (of whom Father Edward Petre was one) , in January, 1 687, claimed the right of noraination to seven fellowships in Exeter College, which had been founded there by Sir W. Petre, in the reign of Elizabeth. Il was acknowledged on the part of the college, that Sir William and his son had exercised that power, though the latter, as they contended, had nominated only by sufferiance. The Bishop of Exeter, the visitor of the college, had, in the reign of James I., pronounced an opinion against the founder's descendants, and a judgment had been ob tained against them fn the Court of Common Pleas about the sarae time. Under the sanction of these authorities, the college had for seventy yeai'S nominated to these followships without disturbance from the famUy of Petre. AUibone, the Catholic lawyer, contended, that this long usage, which would otherwise have been conclusive, deserved little consideration in a period of such iniquity towards Catholics that they were deterred from asserting their civU rights. Lord Chief Justice Herbert observed, that the question turned upon the agreement between Sir William Petre and Exeter College, under which that body received the fellows on his foundation. Jeffreys, perhaps, fearful of violent measures at so early a stage, and taking advantage of the non appearance of the Crown as an ostensible party, declared his con currence with the Chief Justice, and the court determined that the suit was a civil , case; dependent on the interpretation of a contract, and therefore not within their jurisdiction as commis sioners of, ecclesiastical causes. Sprat afterwards look some merit to himself for having contributed to save Exeter College frorathe hands of the, eneray. But the concurrence of the Chan- " Imposed by Ignatius", at .tbe suggestion of Claude Le Jay, an original member i> 6^4. Thq wprtls gf hjs speech ar* copied from bis OHB MS. memoirs. " Acts of the fiirliaments of Scotland, yiii. 242. ^ StatiB Trials, vUi. 843. Woodrow, i. 205. 217. ; a narrative fall of interest, pud obviously written witb a careful regard to truth. Laing iv., wbere the moral feelings of tbat upright and sagacious historian are conspicuous, " -Life ofjames II,, ii. 656., verbatim from the King's memoirs. DESIGNS OF THE KING. '365 a wish to reserve that power for further and more fatal measures. Tbe dispensation granted before lo the incumbent of Battersea showed tbe facUity witb which such a prerogative might be em ployed to elude tbe whole proviso of the proposed bill in favour of tbe King's promises to protect the endowments of the Protestant clergy. Instead of comprehending, as all wise laws sbould do, tbe means of its own execution, it would bave faCUitated the breach of its own most important enactments. If it had been adopted by the next parliament, another slill more compliant would have found it Easier, instead of more difficult, to establish the Catholic religion, and abolish toleration. This essential, defect was confessed raiher than obviated by tbe impracticable remedies, for il is recommended in a tract, entitled " A new Test," * which, for the security of the great charier of reUgious liberty about to be passed, proposed that every man in tbe kingdora shaU, on obtaining the age of twenty- one, swear to observe il, that no peer or commoner should take his seat in eilher house of parliaraent till he had taken the Uke oath ; and that all sheriffs, or others, making false returns, peers or com moners, presuming to sif in either bouse without taking the oath, or who shaU move or mention any thing in or out of parliament that may tend to the violating or altering the liberty of conscience, shall be hanged on a gallows made out of the limber of his own bouse, which was for that purpose lo be demolished.'' Il seems not to have Occurred to this writer that the par-liament wbom be tbus proposes to restrain, would begin their operations by repealing bis penal laws. Notwithstanding the preparations made for a parliament, il was nol believed, by the most discerning and well-informed, that any determination was yel adopted on tbe subject. Lord Nottingham early thought that, in case of a general election, " few dissenters would be chosen, and fhat such as were, would not, in present cir cumstances, concur in tbe repeal of so much as tbe penal laws, because to do it might encourage tbe Papists to greater aUempts,"* Lord Hahfax, at a later period, observes, that tbe moderate Catho lics acted reluctantly; that the Court, finding their expectations not • "A New Test instead of the old One. By G. S." Licensed 24th March, 1688, *- The precedent alleged for this provision is the decree Of Darius, for rebuilding the temple of Jernsalen^: — " And I have made a decree that whoever sball alter tkis word, let timber be pnlled down from his house, and beiii|; set up, let him be banged thereon." Ezra vi. II. ' Lord Nottingham to Prince of Orange, 2d Sept 1687. App. Dalrymple, book 5. '*''» CODRT PARTIES. answered by the Dissenters, they had thoughts of returning td their old friends the High Churchmen; that he thought a raeeting, of Parliament impracticable, and continued as rauch an unbeliever for October, as he had before been for April.* In private he raen tioned, as one ofthe reasons of his opinion, that some of the cour tiers had decUned to take up a bet for five hundred pounds, which he had offered, that the Pariiaraent would nnt meet in October; and that, though they liked him very little, they liked his raoney as weU as any olher raan's.'' The perplexities and variations of the Ceurt were multiplied by the subtie and crppked pphcy pf Sunderland, whp, thpugh willing to purchase his continuance in pffice by unbpunded cpmpliance, was yet extremely splicilcus, by a succession of various projects and reasonings adapted to the circumstances of each moraent j to divert the mind of James as long as possible from a Parhament, or a foreign war; from acts pf unusual severity or needless insult :to the Constitution; from any of those bold or even decisive measures, of which no man could foresee the consequences lo his own power, or to the. throne of his spvereign. He had gained every pbject, of ambition : he could only Ipse by change, and instead pf betraying Jaraes by -viplent counsels, he appears to have belter consulted his own interest, by offering as prudent advice to lhal monarch as he could venture without the risk pf incurring the rpyal displeasure. He might lose his greatness by hazarding loo gppd cpunsel, and he must lose it if his master were ruined. Thus placed between two precipices, and winding his course between them, he could find safety only by sometiraes appreaching to pne, and spinetimes going nearer to the pther. Anpther circumstance cpntributed to augment the seernirig incpnsislencies pf the rainister. He was sometiraes tempted to deviate from his Pwn path by the pecuniary gratificatiens which, after the exaraple of Charles and James; he clandestinely received from France ; an infamous practice, in that age verypre- valent aniong European statesmen, and regarded by many .of them as little more than the receipt of the perquisites pf pffice." It will appear in the sequel that, like his raaster, he received. French money only for doing what he otherwise desired to do, and that il ¦ Lord Halifax to P. of Orange, 12tb April, 1688. Ibid. ;, ' Johnstone, 27tb February, 1688. ' b'Avaux passim. Lettres Ae De Witt, Iv., containing the letters of De, Groot (the son of Grotins) from Sweden. EUis, History of the Iron Masque for Italian Princes. COURT PARTIES. 367 rather induced him lo quicken or retard, to enlarge or contract, than substantially lo alter bis measures. But though he was, too prudent lo hazard the power which produced all this emolument for a single gratuity, yet this dangerous practice raust have multi plied fhe windings of bis course. From these deviations in oppo site directions, in some measure arose the fluctuating counsels and varying language of the Government of which be was the chief. The division of the Court into parlies, and the variety of tempers and opinions by which he was surrounded, added new difficulties lo the garae which he played. It was raore simple al first ; when he coalesced with the Queen and the whole Catholic party, at that time united, and professing moderation as his sole defence against Bochester, tbe leader of the Protestant Tories. But after the de feat of that parly, and the dismissal of their chief, divisions began to show themselves among the victorious Catholics, which gradually widened as the moment of decisive action seemed to approach. Il was then " that he made an effort to strengthen himself by the revival of the office of lord treasurer in his perspn ; a project in which he endeavoured to engage Father Petre by proposing that Jesuit to be his successor as secretary of state ; and in which he obtained the co-operation of Sir Nicholas Buller, a new convert, by suggesting that he should be Chancellor of the Exchequer. The King, however, adhered lo his determination that the treasury sbould be in commission notwithstanding the advice of Butler, and the Queen declined to interfere in a matter where her husband ap peared lo be resolute. It sbould seem, from the account of this intrigue by James, that Petre neither discouraged Sunderland in his plan, nor supported it by the exercise of his own ascendancy over the mind of the King. In the spring of 1 688, they formed three separate and unfriendly parties, whose favour it was not easy for a minister to preserve al the same time. The Catholic nobility and gentry of England continued to the last adverse lo those rash courses which honour obliged them apparentiy to support, but which they had always dreaded as dangerous to their sovereign and their religion. Lord Powis, Lord Bellasis, and Lord Arundel, vainly laboured to inculcate their wise maxims on the mind of * "A little before Christmas." Life of James II. ii. 131, 132; passages quoted from King James's Memoirs, t. 9. p. 213. The King's own memoirs are always deserving of great consideration, andin unmixed cases of fact are, I am wUUngto hope, generally conclusive. The additions of (Mr. Dicconson) the anonymous com- piler are often very inaccurate. 368 COURT PARTIES James. The remains of the Spanish influence, formerly so power ful among the British Catholics, were employed by the ambassador; Don Pedro Bonquillo, in support of this respectable party. Sun derland, though he began, early after his victory over Rochester, to moderate and temper the royal measures, was afraid of displeasing his irapalient raaster by openly supporting thera. The second party, which may be called the Papal, was that of the nunciOj who, in the beginning, considered the CathoUc aristocracy as loo lukewarm in the cause of religion ; but though he continued outwardly lo countenance all doraestic effprts for the advanceraent of the faithi became at length more hostile tp the connexion of James with France, than zealous for the speedy accomplishraent of lhal Prince's ecclesiastical policy in England'. To him the Queen seems to have adhered, both from devotion lo Bome, and from that habitual ap prehension of the displeasure of the House of Austria which an Italian princess naturally entertained towards the raasters of Lom bardy attd Naples.* When hostility towards Holland was more openly avowed, and when Louis XIV., no longer content with acquiescence, began to require from England the aid of armaraents and threats, if not co-operation in war, Sunderland and the nUncio becarae more closely united, and both drew nearer to the moderate Catholics. The third division pf the Catholics, knewn by the narae of the French er Jesuit party, suppprled by Ireland and the clergy, and possessing thej personal favour and confidence of the King, considered all delay in the advancement of their religion as dan gerous, and were devoted lo France as the only ally able and wUling to ensure the success of their designs. Emboldened by the pregnancy of the Queen, and by so signal a mark of favour as the introduction of Father Petre into the councU,"an aot of folly whicb tbe rapderate Catbplics wpuld have resisted, if tbe secret had not been kept frora them till the appointraent,*— they became impa tient of Sunderland's evasion and procrastination, especially of his disinclination to hostile deraonstratiotts against Holland, which their agent, Skelton, the British rainister at Paris, represented lo the French Government, as " a secret opposition to all measures against • Le Roi a BariUon, 23 May (2 Juin), 1688. Louis beard of this partiaUty from his ministers at Madrid and Vienna, and desires Barillon to insinuate tC ber tbat neither she nor her hnsband has any thing to hope from Spain. ' fibr.au R6i,FoxMSS. Bonrepaux, Ibid. "The account of Petre's adVanW- meBt fay Dod, t£e church historian of the Catholics, is A s^ediden of (be Apiaion entertuned by the secular clergy of the regulars, bal espeuiklly Af the Je^iis. COURT PARTIES. 309 the interest of the Prince of Orange ;" * and Ihougb Barillon acquits tbe minister of sucb treachery," it should seem tbat, from tbat moment, he eeased lo enjoy tbe full confidence of tbe French party. In tbe beginning of 1688, he prevaUed witb difficulty on the majority of the councU to postpone a Parliament till they should be strengthened by tbe recall of the English troops from the Dutch service." Two months after, it was proposed to call a Parliament before tbe deUvery of the Queen, in whicb they would bave tbe advantage of the expectation of a Prince of Wales. Tbe King and the majority of tbe council declared for this mea sure ; but Sunderland, conformably to bis policy of delaying de cisive, and, perbaps, irretrievable steps, resisted it al last with suc cess, on the ground that matters were not ripe, that it required mucb longer time lo prepare the corporation, and that, if the Nonconfor mists in the Parhament should prove mutinous, an opposition so national would render the' employment of any otber raeans more bazardous.* In March, Lord Shrewsbury communicated the dis union to tbe Prince of Orange." Suriderland owed his support to the Queen, wbo, together with tbe nuncio, protected him from the attack of Father Petre, wbo, after a considerable period of increas ing estrangement, now declared against bim with violence. ^ In the meantime tbe French Government, which bad hitherto affected impartiality in the divisions of tbe British Catholics, made ad vances to Petre as he receded from Sunderland. In January, he declared in councU, that tbe King ought fo be sohcitous only for tbe friendship of France.^ The King desired Barillon lo convey tbe assurances of his high esteem for the Jesuit,'' who replied with becoming gratitude ; and the ambassador undertook lo consider of some more efficacious proof of respect lo him, agreeably to the King's commands. ' Henceforward the power of Sunderland was seen to toller. Il was thought that be himself even saw lhal he ¦ Le Roi a BariUon, 1 (II) Dec. 1687. " Barillon au Roi, 26 Dec. 1687 (5 Jan. 1688). " Id. ibid. Johnst. Jan. 6 (16) 1688. "Sidney beUeves tbat Sunderiaud bas prevaUed, after a great struggle, to dissuade the council from a war or a parliament." " 'D'Adda, 2 (12) Mar. 1688. BariU. in Mas. ii. 399. "'ll y avail beaucoup d'inlrignes et de cabales de Conr sur cela djrigees contre my Lord Sunderland. La reine le soutient, et il a emporte." • Shrewsbury to the Prince of Orange, 14th Mar. 1688. Dal. App. bk, ,. vi, ' Van Citters, 30 March (9 April), 1688. « Barillon au Roi, 23 Jan. (2 Feb.), 1688, ' Le Roi a Barili. 9 (19) March, 1688. ' BariU. au Roi, 19 (29) March, 1688. I, -24 870 COURT PARTIES, could npt stand long, even by the friendship ef the Queen, since the French ambassador began to trim between hira and Petre, .and the whole French party leant against hira.* Pfitre, through whom he formerly had a hold on the Jesuitical party, became now a for raidable rival for power, and was beUeved lo be so infatuated by arabition as to pursue the dignity of cardinal, lhal he might more easily become prime minister of England.'' Al a later period, Barclay, the celebrated Quaker, bpasled pf having recpncUed Sun derland to Melfort, which, he trusted, weuld be the ruin pf Petre;" and Sunderland told the nuncio that he considered it as the first principle of the King's policy to frame 'all his measures with a view lo their reception by Parliament;'' a strong proof of aversion to extrerae raeasures, to which il will be presently seen that he ad hered in the discussipn pf fhe iraportant prpceedings then under ccnsideratipn. A fitter pppprtunity wUl present itseff hereafter for relating the circumstances in which he demanded a secret gratuity from France, in additipn to his pensipn frnm that Cpurt of 60,000 livres yearly (2500/.) ; pf the skUI with which Barillpn beat dewn his deraands, and made a bargain less expensive to his Gpvern raent ; and of the address wifh which Sunderland claimed the bribe for raeasures on which he had before determined, so that he raight seera rather to have obtained il under false pretences, than to have been diverted by it frora his own policy. It is impossible to trace clearly the serpentine course of an intriguing minister, whose opinions were al variance with his language, and whose craving passions often led him astray from his interest.. But an atterapt lo discover it is necessary, to the illustration of the governraent of James. In general, it seems to be clear that, from the beginning of 1687, he struggled in secret lo moderate the raeasures of the Governraent; and that in the spring of 1688, when he carried lhal system to the utraost, the decay ofhis power became-apparenl. As Halifax had fost his office by liberal principles, and Sunderland had outbidden Bochester for the King's favour, so Sunderland himself was now on the eve of being overthrown by the influence of Petre, at a lime when no successor of specious pretensions pre sented hinrself. He seeras to have raade one atterapt to recover • Johnstone, 12th March and 2d April, 1.688. '' Lettre au Roi, 1 Aout, 1687, In the Depot des Affaires Etrangeres at Pans, not signed, but probably from Bonrepaux. ' Clar. Diary, 23d Jane, 1688. " D'Adda, 25 May (4 June), 1668. THE JESUITS. 371 strength, by remodeUing the Cabinet CouncU. For a considerable time the Catbolic counsellors had been summoned separately, togeiher witb Sunderland hiraself, on all confidential affairs : whUe the raore ordinary business only was discussed in the presence of the Protestanls : thus forming two cabinets ; one ostensible, the olher secret. He now proposed to form thera into one, in order to remove the jealousy of the Protestant counseUors, and lo encourage them to promote bis Majesty's desigris. To this united cabinet the affairs of Scotland and Ireland were lo be committed, whicb had been separately administered before with manifest dis advantage to uniformity and good order. Foreign affairs, and others requiring tbe greatest secrecy, were still to to be reserved to a smaUer number. The public pretences for this change were specious ; but the object was to curb the power of Petre, who now ruled witboirt control in a secret cabal of his own communion and selection. " Tbe party which had now the undisputed ascendant was deno minated Jesuits, as a lerm of reproach, by the enemies of that famous society in the Church of Bome, as well as among the Protestant comraunions. A short account of their origin and character may facilitate a faint conception of the admiration, Jealousy, fear, and hatred, the profound submission or fierce re sistance, which tbat formidable namfe'once inspired. Theirinstitu- tion originated in pure zeal for religion, glowing in the breast of Loyola, a Spanish soldier ; a man full of imagination and sensi bility, in a country wbere wars, rather civU than foreign, waged against unbehevers for ages, bad rendered a passion for spreading the Catholic faith a national point of honour, and blended il with tbe pursuit of glory as well as with the memory of past renown. The legislative forethought of his successors gave form and order to the product of enthusiasm, and bestowed laws and institutions on their society which were admirably fitted to its various ends. '' " D'Adda. 13 (23) April, 1688. '' Lamer and Aquaviva. Originally consisting of seven men ; it possessed, at the end of tbe sixteenth century, 1500 colleges, and contained 22,000 avowed members. Parts of tbeir constitution were .allowed "* to be kept and to be altered, .without tbe privity of tbe Pope himself. "The simple instifiition of lay brethren, who, in orders, were the servants of tBe community, being in tbe hands of tbe Jesuits, combined witb tbe privilege of secrecy, afforded tbe means of enlisting in tbeir society powerful individuals, among whom Louis XIV. and J'dmes II; ar& generally numbered, ' By raul ru , Mull, Alg, Book six, c, 4. 24* 372 THE JESUITS. Having arisen in the age of the Beforraation, they naturally became the charapions of the Church against her new eneraies. Being established in the peripd pf the revival of letters, instead pf foUpwing the exaraple pf the unlettered raenks, who decried knPwledge as the melher of heresy, they jpined in the general mPvement pf raankind; they cultivated pplite hterature with splendid success ; Ihey were the earliest and, perhaps, mpst ex tensive reforraers pf European educalipn, which, in their scbcpls, made a larger stride than il has al any succeeding moment;* and, by the just reputation of their learning, as weU as by the weapons with wbicb il armed tbem, they were enabled to carry on a vi gorous contest against the mosl learned impugners of the authority of the Church. Peculiarly subjected lo the see of Bome by their constitution, they became ardently devoted lo its highest preten sions, in order to maintain a monarchical power, of which they felt the necessity for concert, disciphne, and energy in their theological warfare. WhUe the nations of the Spanish penirrsula hastened with barbaric chivalry to spread religion by the sword in the newly explored regions of the East and the West, the Jesuits alone, the great missionaries bi, lhal age, either repaired or atoned for the evUs caused by fhe misguided zeal of fheir countrymen.. In India, they suffered martyrdora with heroic constancy.'' They penetrated through the barrier whicb Chinese policy opposed to the entrance of strangers ; they cultivated the mpsl difficult pf languages with such success as to corappse hundreds of volumes in il; and, bythe public UtUity of their scientific acquirements, they obtained tolera tion, patronage, and perspnal honours, frora that jealous govern ment : and the natives of America , who generally felt the supe- < riority ofthe European race pnly in a mpre rapid pr a mpre gradual destructipu, and tp whpra even the exceUent Quakers dealt out little ' " For education," says Bacon, within fifty years of the institution of tbe order, " consult tbe schools of the Jesuits. Nothing hitherto tried In practice surpasses tbem." De Augment. Sclent, lib. v. c, 4. " Education ^ that excellent part of ancient discipline, has heen, in some sorts, revived of late times In the colleges of the Jesuits, of whom, in regard of this and of some otber points of huraan learning and raorai matters, I may say, " Talis cum sis utinam noster esses." Advancement of Learning, book 1. Such Is tbe disinterested testimony of fhe wisest ot men fo the merit of tbe Jesuits, to the unspeakable importance bf reforming education, and to the infatuation of those wbo, in civUized nations, attempt to resist new opinions by mere power, without calling in aid such a show of reason, If not tbe whole substance of reason, as cannot be raaintained without a part of the substance. I" Lettres Edifiantes et Curieuses. THE JESUITS. 373 more tban penurious justice, were, under the paternal rule of fbe Jesuits, reclaimed from savage marmers, and instructed in tbe arts and duties of civU lU"e. At tbe opposite point of society they were fitted by tbeir release from conventual life, and their allowed inter course witb tbe world, for tbe perilous office of secretly guiding the conscience of princes. Tbey maintain tbe highest station as a religious body in tbe literature of Catholic countries. No other association ever sent forth so many disciples who reached such eminence in departments so various and unlike. WbUe some of their number ruled the royal penitents at Versailles or tbe Escu rial, others were teaching the use of the spade and the shuttle lo the naked savages of Paraguay; a third body daily endangered their lives in an attempt lo convert the Hindoos lo Christianity ; a fourth carried on tbe controversy against the Reformer's ; a portion were at liberty to cultivate polite literature, and the greater part con tinued to be employed either in carrying on the education of Catbolic Europe, of which they were the first improvers, or In the government of their society, in ascertairung the abUity and dispo sition of the junior merabers, so lhal well-qualified men might be selected for the extraordinary variety of offices in their immense commonwealth. Tbe most famous constitutionalists, themost skilful casuists,, tbe ablest schoolmasters, fbe most celebrated professors, the best teachers of the humblest mechanical arts, the missionaries wbo could most bravely encounter martyrdom , or wbo witb most patient skiU could infuse tbe rudiments of religroi^ into tbe minds of ignorant tribes or prejudiced nations, were the growth of their fer tile schools. The prosperous administration of such a society for two centuries, is probably the strongest proof afforded from au thentic history that an artificially-formed system of government and education is capable , under some circumstances, of accomplishing greater things than fhe general experience of if would warrant us in -expecting from U. Even here, however, fhe materials were supplied, and the first impulse given by enthusiasm; and in this memorable instance the defects of sucb a system are discoverable. The whole ability of the members being constantly exclusively and intensely directed to the various purposes of the order, the mind of the Jesuits, bad not tbe leisure or liberty necessary for works of genius, or even for discoveries in science, to say nothing of original speculations iu philosophy, wbicb are interdicted by implicit faith. That great society, whicb covered the world for two hundred years, 374 THE JESUITS. has no naraes which can be opposed to those of Pascal and Bacine, produced by fhe single coramunity of Port Boyal, which was in a state of persecution during the greater part of its short existence. But this remarkable pecuharity ampunts perhaps to littie more than that they were more eminent in active than in contemplative life: A far more seripus pbjection is the manifest tendency of such a sys tem, while it produces the precise excellences airaed at by its mode of cultivation, to raise up aU the neighbouring evUs with a certainty and abundance, a size and maUgnity unknown lo the freer growth of nature. Tbe mind is narrowed by the constant concentration of the understanding; those who are habituaUy intent on one object learU at last lo pursue il al the expense of others equaUy or more important. The Jesuits, the reforraers of education, sought to en gross it, as weU as lo slop il at their own point. Placed in the front of the battle against the Protestants, they caught a raore than ordi nary portion of that theological hatred against their opponents which so naturaUy springs up where the greatness of the comraunity, the farae of the controversialist, and the salvation of mankind seem to be al stake. Affecting more independence in their missions than other religious orders, they were the formidable enemies of epis- cppal jurisdictipn, and thus armed against themselves the secular clergy, especially in Great Britain, where they were the chief missipnaries. Entrusted with the irrespensible guidance oif kings, they were tPP pften betrayed intp a ccmplianl moraUty; excused probably to themselves, by the great public benefits which Ihey might thus obtain by the nuraerous teraptations which seeraed to paUiate royal vices, and by the real difficulties of determining, in raany instances, whether there was raore danger of deterring such persons frora virtue by unreasonable austerity, or of aUuring thera into vice by unbecoming relaxation. This difficulty is indeed so great, that casuistry bas, in general, vibrated between these ex tremes, rather than rested near the centre. TO exalt the papal power they revived the scholastic doctrine * of the popular origin of government, that rulers might be subject lo the people, while the people themselves, on aU questions so difficult as those which » Mariana de Rege et Regis Institutione (sive, mntato titulo, Interfectione), as bis eneraies suggested. It is true tbat Mariana only, contends for the right of *tlie people to depose sovereigns, without building tbe authority of the Pope on thaf principle, as tbe schoolmen bave expressly done j but his manifest approbation of tbe assassination of Henry HI, by Clement, a fanatical partizau of the league, snU).. ciently discloses bis purpose. THE JESUITS, 37& relate lo the limits of obedience, werelo listen wilh reverential sub mission lo the judgment of the sovereign Pontiff, the common pastor of sovereigns and subjects, tbe unerring oracle of humble Christians in all cases of perplexed conscience. * The ancient practice pf excommunication, wbicb, in ils original principle, was no more than the expulsion from a community of an individual who did nol ob serve its rules, being stretched so far as to interdici intercourse with offenders, and, by consequence, to suspend duty towards them, became, in the middle age, the means of absolving nations from obedience lo excommunicated sovereigns. "' Under these specious colours both Popes and councUs bad been guilty of alarming en croachments on the crvU authority. The church had indeed never solemnly adopted the principle of these usurpations into her rule of faith or of life, ihougb many faraous doctors gave thera a dangerous continuance. She bad not condemned or even disavowed those equally celebrated divines who resisted them, and though the Court of Bome undoubtedly patronised opinions sofavourableto its power, the Cathohc church, whicb had never pronounced a collective judgment on them, was still at liberty lo disclaim them, without abandoning her haughty claim of exemption from fundamental error." On the Jesuits, as the mosl staunch ofthe polemics'* who struggled to exalt the church above the stale, and who ascribed lo fhe Supreme Pontiff an absolute power over fhe church, the odium of these doctrines principally fell. Among reformed nations, and especially in Great Britain, the greatest of them, tbe whole order was regarded as incendiaries perpetually plotting the overthrow of Protestant Governments, and as immoral sophists who employed their subtie casuistry to sUence tbe remains of conscience in tyrants of their own persuasion. Nor was the detestation of Protestants rewarded by general popularity in Catholic countries. All other regulars envied their greatness ; the universities dreaded their ac- " La Mennais, La Religion consideree dans ses rapports avec I'Ordre politique, Paris, 1826. ' Fleury, Discours sur I'Histoire Ecclesiastique; "On doit eviter Ies excom- mnnies, n'avoir aucun commerce avec eux. Done un Prince excommunle doit etre evlte de tout le monde. Il n'est plus permisde recevoirses ordres," Disc, iii, s. 18. " "Il est vrai que Gregoire VII. n'a jamais fall aucune decision sur ce point, Dieu ne I'a pas permis." Id. ibid. It is evident tbat if sucka determination bad, in Fleury's opinion, subsequently been pronounced by the church, fbe last word.* of this passage would have been unreasonable. ' Bayle, in the article BeUarmine, who is'said by tbat unsuspected judge to have had the best pen for controversy of any man of that age. 3'iB THE JESUITS. quiring a monopoly of education. Motfarchs, tbe mosl zealously Catholic, though they often" favoured individual Jesuits, Often also looked witb fear and hatred on a society who would reduce them to the condition of vassals of the priesthood : and in France, the raagistrates, who preserved their integrity and dignity in the midst of general servUity, raaintained a more constant conflict with these forraidable adversaires of the independence of the state and the church. The kings of Spain and Portiigal envied their well-earned authority, in the missions of Paraguay and California, over districts which tbey had conquered from tbe wilderness. The impene trable mystery in which a part of their constitution was enveloped, though it strengthened their association, and secured the obedience of its members, was an irresistible temptation to abuse power, and justified the apprehensions of temporal sovereigns, while it opened an unbounded scope for heinous accusations. Even in the eighteenth century, wben many of their pecuharilies had become faint, and they were perhaps little more than the most accom plished, opulent, and powerful of religious orders, they were charged* ¦with spreading secret confraternities over France. Their greatness became early so invidious as to be an obstable tp the ad vanceraent pf their raembers ; and it was generallybelieved that if Bel- larrrune had belenged to any other than the raost powerful order in Christendom, he would have been raised lo the chair of Peter. '' The Court of Bome itself, forwhom they had sacrificed aU, dreaded auxUiaries who were so pOlent lhal tbey raight easily become masters. Tbese champions of the Papal monarchy were regarded with jealousy by Popes whose policy they aspired to dictate or con- trpl. Temporary circurastances at this tirae created a more than ordinary alienation between the Jesuits and the Boraan Court. They, in their original character of a force raised for the defence of tbe church against the Lutherans, always devoted themselves to the teraporal sovereign who was al the bead of the Catholic party ; they were attached to PhUip II., at the lime when Sextus V. dreaded his success ; and Ihey now placed their hopes on Louis XIV., in spite of bis patronage, for a time, of the independent maxims of the Gallican church."' On the other hand, Odeschalchi, • Montlosier, Memoire a Consuller, 20. 22. Paris, 1826 ; quoted only to prove . tbat such accusations were made. " Bayle in BeUarmine. " Bayle NouveUes de la Republique des Lettres, April, 1686. " Aiijourd hui plus attaches a la France qu'ii I'Esp^ne." lb. Nov. 1686 ; and they -are charged with giving secret intelUgence to Louis XIV. of the state of the Spanish Nether- THE JESUITS. 377 1 who governed the church Under the name of Innocent XL, feared the growing power of France,* resented the independeiice of fbe, Gallican church, and was, fo tbe last degree, exaspei'ated by fhe insults offered to bim in his capital by the comraand of Louis. He was born in fhe Spanish province of Lorabardy, and, as an Italian sovereigrr, be could not be indifferent to the borabardraent of Genoa, and to the hurailiation of that respectable republic, by re quiring a public subraission from the Doge al Versailles. As soon then as James became the pensioner and creature of Louis, the re sentments of Odeschalchi prevaUed over his zeal for the extension of the church. ' The Jesuits had treated himself and those of his predecessors who hesitated between them and their opponents with offensive liberty.* Wbile they bore sway at Versailles and Sl. James's, they were, on that account, less obnoxious lo the Boraan court. Men of wit reraarked at Paris, that things would never go well tiU the Pope becarae a Catholic, and King James a Huguenot.'' Sucb were the intricate and dark cpmbinatipns pf opinions, passions, and interests which placed the nuncio in opposition to the raost potent order of fhe church, and completed the alienation of the British nation from James, by bringing on the party which now ruled his councils the odious and terrible name of Jesuits. lands. The French Jesuits suspended for a year the execution of the Pope's order lo remove Father Maimbourg from tbeir society, in consequence of a direction from tbe King. * Bayle, Nouv., Oct. and Nov. 1686. ' " Et tout le ijai'li Protestant, Du Saint Pere en vain tres content, Le chevalier de SiUery, En partant de ce Pape ci,. Soubailait pour la paix pnbliqne, Qu'il se fut rendu catholique, Et le roi Jacque Huguenot," L.\ Fontai.ne. Racine expresses the same sentiments in a milder form : — " Ft I'enfer couvrant lout de ses vapeurs funebres, Sur les yeux les plus saints a jette les tenebies." Prologue d'Esiher, END OF THE FIRST VOLUME. 25 HISTORY THE REVOLUTION IIV '1 688. PSINTED by j. smith, 16, RDE MONTMORENCY. HISTORY PF THE REVOLUTION IN ENGLAND IN 1688. COMPRISING A VIEW OF THE REIGN OF JAMES 11. FRPM HIS ACCESSION, TO THE ENTERPRISE PF THE PRINCE PF PRANGE, BY THE LATE RIGHT HON. SIR JAMES MACKINTOSH 5 AND COMPLETED^ TO THE SETTLEMENT OF THE CROWN. TO VVHICH IS PREFIXED, A NOTICE OF THE LIFE, WRITINGS, AND SPEECHES OF , SIR JAMES MACKINTOSH. VOL. II. PARIS, BAUDRY'S EUROPEAN LIBRARY, RUB DU COQ, NEAR THE LOUVKE. SOLD ALSO BY AMYOT, RUE DE LA PAIX ; TRUCHY, BOULEVARD DES ITALIENS ; THEOPHILE BARROIS, JUN., RUE RICHELIEU: LIEHAIRIE DES STRANGERS, RUE NBUVE-SAINT-AUGUSTIN ; AND FRENCH AXD ENGLISH LIBKARY, BUB VIVIENNE. 1834. CONTENTS. CHAPTER IX. Declaration of Indulgence renewed.^Order tbat it sbould be read in Churches.— Deliberations of the Clergy. — Petition of tbe Bishops to tbe King. — Their Exa mination hefore tbe Privy Council, Committal, Trial, and Acquittal. — ^Reflections. — Conversion of Sunderland. — Birtb of the Prince of Wales. — State of Af fairs • . .... 1 CHAPTER X. Doctrine of Obedience. — Right of Reslstance.-r-Comparlson of Foreign and Civil War. — Right of calling Auxiliaries. — Relations of tbe People of England and of Holland. ... 47 CHAPTER XI. Extraction of tbe House of Orange.— rRevlew of the Struggles in tbe Netherlands, — Character, Situation, and Projects of William 111.— ^Intrigues of Charles II. — Fate of the War. — Results of tbe Treaty of Nimeguen. — Aggrandisement of Louis XIV.— Austria.— Tbe Netberlands.—England.— Popish Plot.— Bill of Ex- closion. — Connexion of English Aff'airs vfilh William's Policy. . . 57 CHAPTER XII. Artifices of James. — Designs and Measures of WUllam.-f-Conduct of Louis XIV.— His Quarrel with the Pope. — rDesigns of William upon England.— Penn's Mission. r— Negociations between James and William.— rSupposed secret Treaty vvith , France. — Liberty of Conscience. — The Protestant Succession. — Mission and In- irigues of Dyckvelt, and of Zuyllsteln. — Correspondence of Stuart and Fagel. — Letters between the King andthe Princess] .... . 104 CHAPTER XIII. Discussions between James and the States General. — Abuse of the Press.-rrConduct of Tyrconnel. — Recall of tbe British Regiments from Holland. — Intrigue ef Sun derland.— Pretences and Preparations of the Prince of Orange. — ^Second Mission of Zuylistein. — Tbe Prince invited over. — Principles ofthe King and the Revo lutionists.— Letters to the Prince from England. — Armament of the Prince. — Conduct of the King. — Mission of Bonrepaux. — Meraorial of D'Avaux. — Enter- prise of the Prince. . . . . .137 vi CONTENTS. CHAPTER XIV. Counsels of tbe King and Sunderland. — Offers and Supplies of Louis XIV. — War on the Continent. — Fears of the King. — His Overtures to tbe States General— The King's Interviews with tbe Bishops. — Enquiry respecting tbe Birth of tbe Prince of Wales. — Fall of Sunderland. — Naval and Military Preparations of the King . 108 CHAPTER XV. Intrigues In tbe Biltisb Navy.— Tbe Dutch Fleet puts to Sea. — Tbe Prince's De-* clarations, — Parting of tbe Prince and tbe States General.— Tbe Prince weigbs anchor and is put back. — Tbe Bishops refuse " an Abhorrence " of tbe Invasion. — Tbe Prince sails for England. — Conduct of Lord Dartmouth. — Tbe Prince lands at Torbay. — Measures of the King. — Progress of the Prince,— The Exeter As,sociation. — Defections from the King. — James puts himself at the Head ofhis Army.— 'His Retreat. — Defection of Prince George and tbe Princess Anne ... .185 • CHAPTER XVI. Desertion of tbe Princess Anne..— Progress of Insnrrectlon. — Tbe King treats with the Prince.^Intrigue of Lord Halifax. — The Prince of Wales sent to Portsmouth, — Negociation witb William. — Terror of James.-r-Tbe Queen and Prince of Wales sent to France. — First Flight of the. King. — Disorders in London. — Irisb Alarm. — Assembly of Peers In tbe City.— ^Progress ofthe Prince . 225 CHAPTER XVII. The King seized at Feversham.— rHis Return to Wbiteball. — Tbe Dutch Troops march upon tbe Capital. — Second and final Departure of tbe King. — Entry of the Prince of Orange into London. — Tbe Peers summoned by bim. — Reception and Conduclof James II, in France 253 CHAPTER XVIII. Proceedings of tbe Peers. — Meeting of Commoners, — Addresses to tbe Prince.— William invested with tbe Executive Govemment, — State of Parties. 273 CHAPTER XIX. Meetings and Proceedings ofthe Convention. — Settlement of tbe Crown . 300 APPENDIX. No. 1. — " Estrattl delle jLettere de Mosignor D'Adda, Nunzio Aposto lice," &c . . , ." 333 II. — Letters of Sunderland. Kirke, and Jeffreys .... 3()8 III. — The Invitation to tbe Prince of Orange 372 IV. — " Reclt du Depart du Roi Jacques II. d'AngletA're, ecrit de sa ^ main,"&c . . . .' 380 V,—" Reoit de la Mort du feu Roi d'Anj^terre Charles II." &c. . 38H INDEX . . ... . . . ¦ . 3!I5 HISTORY OP THE REVOLUTION IX 1688. CHAPTER IX. Declaration of Indulgence renewed. — Order tbat It sbould be read in Churches, — ¦ Deliberations of tbe Clergy. — Petition of tbe Bishops to the King. — Their Exa mination before the Privy Council, Committal, Trial, and Acquittal. — Reflections. Conversion of Sunderland. — Birtb of the Prince of Wales, — State of Affairs. When the changes in the secret councils of the King had ren dered them most irreconcileable to the national sentiments, and when the general discontent produced by progressive encroach ment had quietly grown into disaffection, nothing was wanting to the least unfortunate result of such an alienation, but that an infa tuated government shpuld exhibit to the public thus disposed one of those tragic spectacles of justice violated, of religion menaced, of innocence oppressed, of unarmed dignity outraged, with all the conspicuous solemnities of abused law, in the persons of men of exalted rank and venerated functions, who encounter wrongs and indignities with mild intrepidity. Such scenes, performed before a whole nation, revealed to each man the hidden thoughts of his fel low citizens ; add the warmth of personal feeling to the strength of public principle, animated patriotism by the pity and indignation which the sufferings of good men call forth, and warm every heart 2 SECOND DECLARATION OF INDULGENCE. bythe reflection pfthe same passipns from the hearts of thousands; until at length the enthusiasm ofa nation, springing up in the bosoms of the generous and brave, breathed a momentary spirit into the most vulgar souls, and drags into its service the herd pfthe selfish, the ccld, the mean, and the cpwardly. The cpmbustibles were accumulated ; a spark was pnly wanting tp kindle the flame. Accidents, in themselves trivial, seem pn this occasion, as in other times and cpuntries, ,tp have filled up the measure pf provpcation. ' In such a gpvernment as that of James, fprmed pf adverse parties, mpre intent on weakening or supplanting each other than on secur ing the commpn fpundation ; every measure was tPP much esti mated by ils bearing pn these nnavpwed pbjects, tp allpw a calm cpnsideratipn pf its effect pn the interest pr even pn the temper of the public. On the 27th ef April, the King republished his declara- tipn of the former year for liberty of conscience :" sl measure ap parently insignificant ;'' which was probably proposed by Sunder land, to indulge his master in a harmless show of firmness, which might divert him from rasher councils." Tp this declaration a sup plement was annexed, declaring, that the King was cpnfirmed in his purppse bythe numerpus addresses which assured him ofthe pational concurrence ; that he had removed all civil and military officers who had refused to co-operate with him ; and that he trusted that the people wpuld dp their part, by the chpice pf fit members tp serve in parliament, which he was resolved to assemble in Novem ber " at farthest." This last, and only impprtant part ofthe procla mation, was promoted by the contending parties in the cabinet with opposite intentions. The moderate Catholics, and Penn, whose fault was only an unseasonable zeal for a noble principle, desired a parliament from a hope, that if the convocation were not too long delayed, it might produce a comprpmise, in which the King might fpr the time be cpntented with an universal teleration of worsliip. The Jesuitical party desired a parliament also : but it was because they hoped that it would produce a final rupture, and a recurrence to those more vigorous means which the age of the King now required, and of which the expected birth of a Prince of " London Gazette, 26th (SOtb) April, 16S8. ¦' " The declaration, so long spoken of, is publisbed. As nothing is said more tban last year, politicians cannot understand the reason of so lU-tlmed a measure," Van Citters, 1 (11) May. (Secret Dispatch.) • Barillon, 25 April (6 May). REFUSAL OF THE BISHOPS. S Wales would warrant the safety.^ Sunderland acquiesced in the insertion of this pledge, because he hoped to keep the violent in check by the fear of the parliament^ and partly, also, because he by no means had determined to redeem the pledge. "This lan guage is held," said he to Barillon (who was- alarmed atthe sound of a parliament), " rather to show, that parliament will not meet for six months, than that it will be then assembledj which must de pend on the public temper at that time."'' For so far, it seems, did this ingenious statesman carry his system of liberal interpretation, as to employ words in the directly opposite sense to that in which they were understood, and to say 'that November should be the latest time for the meeting of parliament, when he meant that it should be the earliest. So jarring were the motives from which this Declaration proceeded, and so opposite the constructions of which its authors represented it to be capable. Had no other step, however, been taken but the publication, it is not probable that it would have been attended by serious consequences. But in a week after, an order was made by the Kingin council, commanding the Declaration to be read at the usual time of divine service, in all the churches in London on the 20th and 27th of fliay, and in all those in the country on the Srd and 10th of June." W^ho was the adviser of this order, which has acquired such importance from its immediate effects, has not yet been ascertained. It was publicly disclaimed by Sunderland,'' but at a time which would have left no value to his declaration, but what it might derive from being uncontradicted^ and agreeable to the general tenor of hig policy. It now appears, however, that he and other- counsellors dis avowed it at the time ; and they' seem to have been believ'ed by keen and watchful observers." Though it was then ru moured that Petre had also disavowed this fatal advice, the concurrent testimony of all contemporary historians ascribe il to him, and it accords well with the policy of that party, which received in some degree from his ascendent over them the unpo pular appellatioii of Jesuits. It miust be owned, indeed, that it is one of the numerous cases in which the evil effects of an impru- ' Burnet, iii. 211. '' Barillon, 3(13) May. " Order issued 4tb May, 1688. Lond.' Gaz. Sd— 7th May, 1688. " Letter from tbe Hague, 28th Mar. 1680. • Johnstone, 23d«May, 1688. Sunderland, Melfort, Penn, and, they say, Petre, deny having advised this Declaration ;" but Van Citters, 4 June (25 May), Says that P^tre is believed to Iiave advised the order. 1* i REFUSAL OF THE BISHOPS. dent measure proved far greater than any foresight could have apprehended. There was considerable reason for expecting sub mission from the Church. The clergy had very recently obeyed a similar order in two obnoxious instances. In compliance wilh an order made in council by Charles II., officiously suggested to him, it is said, by Sancroft himself," they read frpm their pulpits that prince's apology, for the dissolutipn pf his twp last parliaments ; severaUy arraigning varipus parliamentary prpceedings, amongst which was a resolution of the house of Commons against the per secution of the Protestant Dissenters.'' The compUance of the clergy on this occasion was chteerful, though they gave offence by it to many of the people." Now, this seemed to be an open in terference of the ecclesiastical order in the fiercest contests of political parties, which the duty cf undistinguishing pbedience alpne cpuld warrant.* The same principle appeared still more necessary to justify their reading the declaration of Charles on the Rye House Plot," published within a week of the death of Lord Russell, where it was indecent for the ministers of religion to prp- mulgate their apprpyal pf blopdshed, and unjust to inflame preju dice against those who remained to be tried. This declaration was immediately preceded by the famous decree of the university of Oxford, and followed by a persecution of Nonconformists, on whom it reflected as the authors of the supposed conspiracy.'' These examples of compliance appeared to be grounded, on the un defined authority claimed by the, King, as supreme ordinary, on judicial determinations, which recognised his right ia that character to make ordinaries for the outward rule of the church,^ and by the Rubric of the Book of Common Prayer (declared, by the Act of Uniformity,'" to be part of that statute), which directs, " that no thing shall be pubhshed in Church by the minister,' but what is pre scribed by this book, or enjoined by the King." These reasonings i " Burnet, Hi. 212. '• London Gazette, 7th (llth) April, 1681. ' Kennett, ill. 388. Echard, lii. 625. . ' .,; ' It was accompanied by a letter from the'Klng lb Sancroft, which seems to imply a previous usage In such cases. " Oariwill is, thai yon give such directions as bave heen usual in sucb cases for tbe reading of our said Declaration." Kennett, iii. 388. Note from Lambeth MSS. D'Oyley's Sancroft, i. 253. " Now," says Ralph, " tbe cry of Church and King was echoed from one .side of tbe kingdom to the other," Ralph, i. 590. Immediately after began the periodical libels of L'Esti-ange, and lhe invectives against parliament, under tbe form of loyal addresses. •~ Lond. Gaz. 2d— 6th August, 1683. Kennett, iii. 408. Echard, Hi. 66il, ' This fact is reluctantly adraitted by Roger Nortb. Examin, 396, ' Cro, Jac. 37. Moor, 735. ' 14 Car, II, chap, 4. REFUSAL OF THE BISHOPS. 5 and examples were at least sufficient to excuse the confidence with which some of the royal advisers anticipated the obedience either of the whole, church, or of so large a majority as to make it safe and easy to punish the disobedient. A variation from the precedents of a seemingly slight and formal nature seems to have had some effect on the success of the measure. The bishops were now, for the first time, commanded hy the order published in the Gazette to distri bute the declaration in their dioceses, in order to be read by the, clergy. Whether the insertion of this unusual clause was casual, or intended to humble the bishops, it is now difficult to conjecture. It was naturally received and represented in the most offensive sense." It fixed the eyes of the whole nation on the prelates. It rendered the conduct of their clergy visibly dependent solely on their determination, and thus concentrated, on a small number, the dishonour of submission which would have been lost by dispersion among the whole body. So strongly did tlie belief that insult was intended prevail, that Petre, to whom it wajs chiefly ascribed, was said to have declared it in the gross and con tumelious language used of old, by a barbarous invader, to the de puties of a besieged city."" But though the menace be imputed to him by most of his contemporaries," yet, as they were all his ene mies, and as no ear- witness is quoted, we must be content to be doubtful whether he uttered the offensive words, or was only so generally imprudent as to make it easily believed that they were spoken by him. The first effect of this order was to place the pre lates who were then in the capital or the neighbourhood in a situa tion of nosmall perplexity. They were not forewarned of the blow by the Declaration. They must have been still more taken by surprise than the moderate ministers, and, in that age of slow con veyance and rare publication, they were allowed only sixteen days from the order, and thirteen froin its official publication,* to ascer tain the sentiments of their brethren and of their clergy, without " Van Cltlers, 15lh (25th) May. One of tbe objections was, that tbe order was not transmitted in the usual and less ostentatious manner^ through tbe Primate, as in 1681, '' "That tbey should eat their own diing," the words of Rabsbeliah, tbe Assyrian general, to the officers of Hezekiah, king of Judah. 2 Kings, xviii. ' Burnet, Kennett, Echard, Oldmixon, Ralph ; and the earliest printed statement of this threat is probably in a pamphlet, called, "An Answer from a Country Cler gyman lo the, Letter of his Brother in the City" (Dr. Sherlock), wbicb must -have been published in June, 1688. Baldwin's Farther State Tracts, 314. .Lond. 169?. '' Loudon Gaz., published on 7th April. 6 REFUSAL OF THE BISHOPS. the knowledge of which their determination, whatever it was, might promote that division which it was one of the main objects of their enemies, by this measure, to excite. Resistance could be formidable only if it were general. It is one of the severest tests of human sagacity to call for instantaneous judgment from a few leaders when they have not support enough to be assured of the majority of their adherents ; and had the bishops taken a single step without concert, they would have been assailed by charges of a pretension to dicta torship, equally likely to provoke the proud to desertion, and to furnish the cowardly with a pretext for it. Their difficulties were increased by the character pf the mPst distinguished layman whem it was fit tp cpnsult. Rpchester was no longer trusted. Claren don was zealous, but of small judgment. Both Nottingham, the chief of their party, and Halifax, with whom they were now com pelled to coalesce, hesitated at the moment of decision.* The first body whose judgment was to be ascertained was the clergy of Lon don, among whom were, at that time, thfe hghts and ornaments of the Church. They at first ventured only to cpnverse and cprres- , pond privately with each other.'' A meeting became necessary, and was hazarded. A diversity of opinions prevailed. It was urged on one side that a refusal was inconsistent with the professions and practice of the Church ; that it would provoke the King to despe rate extremites, expose the country to civil confusions, and be re presented to the Dissenters as a proof of the incorrigible intolerance of the establishment : that the reading of a proclamation implied no assent to its contents, and that it would be presumption in the clergy to pronounce a judgment against the legality of the dispens ing power, which the competent tribunal had already adjudged to be lawful. Those of better spirit answered, or might have an swered, that the danger of former examples of obsequiousness was now so visible that they were to be considered as warnings rather than precedents ; that cpmpliance weuld briiig on them command after command, till at last another rehgion was established ; that the reading, unnecessary for the purpose of puWication, would be understood as an approval of the Declaration by the contrivers of the order, and by the body of the people ; that the parliamentary " " H^ntax'aud Notilngham wavered at first, which had almost ruined tbe busi ness." Johnstone, 27th May. " Van Cifters,' 18 (28) May. - (Secret Despjitcb.) REFUSAL OF THE BISHOPS. 7 tondemnations of the dispensing power were a sufficient reason to excuse them from a doubtful and hazardous act ; that neither con science nor the more worldly principle of honour would suffer them to dig the grave of the Protestant church, and to desert the cause of the nobility, the gentry, and the whole nation. Finally, that in the most unfavourable event, it was better to fall then under the King's displeasure, but supported by the consolation of having fear lessly performed their duty, than to fall a little later, nnpitied and despised, amidst the curses ofthe people whom they had ruined by their compliance. From such a fall they would rise no more.* One of those middle courses was suggested which is very apt to captivate a perplexed assembly. It was proposed to gain time, and smooth a way to compromise, by entreating the King to revert to the ancient methods of communicating his commands to thc Church. The majority appeared at first to lean towards submis sion or evasion, which was only disguised and deferred submission. Happily, a decisive answer was produced to the most plausible ar gument of the compliant party. Some of the chief ministers and laymen among the Nonconformists earnestly besought the clergy not to judge them by a handful of their number who had been gained by the Court ; but to be assured that, instead of being alien ated from the Church, they would be drawn closer to her, by her making a stand for religion and liberty.'' A clergyman present read a note of these generous declarations, which he was authorised by the Nonconformists to exhibit to the meeting. The independent portion of the clergy made up, by zeal and activity, for their infe riority in numbers. Fatal concession, however, seemed to be at hand, when the spirit of an individual, manifested at a critical mo ment, contributed to rescue his order from disgrace, and his coun try from slavery. This person, whose fortunate virtue has hitherto remained unknown, was Dr. Edward Fowler, then incumbent of a parish in London, who, originally bred a dissenter, had been slow to conform at the Restoration, was accused of the crime of whiggism" at so dangerous a period as that of Monmouth's riot ; and, having been promoted to the see of Gloucester, com bined so much charity with his unsuspected orthodoxy as to receive the last breath of Firmin, the most celebrated Unitarian of thaJt " Sherlock's " Letter from a Gentleman in the City to a Friend in the XUountry." Baldwin's Farther State Tracts, 309. ' Johnstone, ISth May. ' Allien. Oxon., ii. I0S9. 8 REFUSAL OP THE BISHOPS. period.* When he perceived that ^he ceurage of his brethren faltered, he' addressed them shortly : " I must be plain. There has been argument enough. More only will heat us. Let every man now say Yea .or Nay.' I shall be sorry to give pccasion tp schism, but I cannct in cpnscienee read the Declaraticn ; fpr that reading weuld be an exhortation to my people to obey commands which I deem unlawful," Stillingfleet declared, on the authority of lawyers, that reaiding the Declaration would be an offence, as the publication of an unlawful document. He excused himself frpm being the first subscriber tp an agreement net to ccmply, on the ground that he was already proscribed for the prominent part which he hstd taken in the controversy against the Romanists. Patrick offered to be the first, if any man would second him, and Fowler answered to the appeal which his own generosity had called forth.'' They were supported by Tillotson, though only recovering from an attack of apoplexy, and by Sherlock, who then atoned for the slavish doctrines of former times. The opposite party were subdued by this firmness, and declared that they would not divide the Church." The sentiments of more than fourscore ofthe Lon don clergy * were made known to the metrppplitan ; and a meeting at Lambeth, pn Saturday, the 12th of May, where there were pre sent, besides Sancroft himself, cnly the Earl of Clarendon, three bishops, Compton, Turner, and W^hite, together with Tennysen, it was resplved net tP read the Declaraticn ; tp petitipn the King that he wpuld dispense with that act cf pbedience, and tp entreat all the prelates within reach pf Lpndpn, tp repair thither tp the aid of their brethren." It was fit to wait a short time fpr the cpn- currence pf these absent bishpps. Llpyd pf St. Asaph, late ef Chichester, Kenn pf Rath and Wells, and Trelawney, quickly cpmplied with the summpns ; and were present at anpther and more decisive raeeting at the archiepiscopal palace on Friday, the eight eenth of the same LlandafFand Worcester. Gutch, i. 33L *^ PETITION OF THE SMVEN BISttOPS. to whom he was guardian, on one of her softs,' openly and perpe tually abandoned his diocese; for which he was suspended by San croft, and restored on submission ; but continued to reside at Hack ney, without professing to discharge any duty, till his death. Sprat, who would have honoured the episcopal dignity by his talents, if he had not earned it by a prostitution of them ; '' Cartwright, who had already approved himself the ready instrument of lawless power against his brethren ; Crew, whose servility was rendered more conspicuously disgraceful by birth and wealth ; Watson, who, after a leng train of offences^ was at length deprived of his See; together with Croft, in extreme old age; and Barlow, who had fallen into second childhood ; were, since the death of Parker, the only faithless members of an episcopal body, which in its then in complete state amounted to twenty-two. On Sunday, the 20lh of May, the first day apppinted for reading the Declaraticn in Lcndpn, the prder was generally dispbeyed ; thpugh the administratipn of the diocese during the suspension of the bishop was placed in the per fidious hands of Sprat and Crew. Out of a hundred, the supposed number of the London clergy at that time, seven were the utmost who are, by the largest accpunt, charged with submissicn. Sprat himself chpse tP pfficiate as dean in Westminster Abbey ; where, as soon f s he gave orders for reading the Declarktion, so great a mur mur arose that nebody could hear it ; but, before it was finished, no one was left in the church but a few prebendaries, the choris ters, and the Westminster scholars. He, himself, could hardly hold the prpclamation in his hands for trembling." Even in the chapel at WhitehaU, itwas read by a chorister.'' At Serjeant's Inn, the Chief Justice desiring that it should be read, the clerk said that he had forgotten it." The names of four complying clergymen only are preserved, — EUiott, Martin, Thomson, and HaU ; who, obscure as they were, may be enumerated as specimens of so rare a vice as the siiiister courage which, for base ends, can brave the most generous feeUngs of aU the spectators of their conduct. The • Kennett, in Lansdown MSS. in the British Museum. D'Oyley's Sancroft, i. 193, ' Narrative of tbe Rye House Plot. n/,„>ii " La lettura non se essequi che in pocbisslmi luoghi." D'Adda, 20 (30) May. Clarendon states tbe number lo be four ; Kennett and Burnet, seven. Perhaps the smaller number refers to parochial clergy, and the larger to those of every denomi nation. Burnet, iii. 218, note by Lord Dartmouth, then present as a Westminster scholar. • Evelyn, 20th May. ' Van Citters. PETITION OF THE SEVEN BISHOPS. 13 temptation on this occasion seems to have been the bishopric of Oxford; in the pursuit of which. Hall, who had been engaged in negotiations with the Duchess of Portsmouth for the purchase of Hampden's pardon,* by such connexions and services prevailed over his competitors. On the following Sunday the disobedience was equally general ; and the new reader at the Chapel Royal was so agitated as to be unable to read the Declaration audibly.* In general, the clergy of the country displayed the same spirit. In the dioceses of the faithful bishops, the example of the diocesan was almost universally followed ; in that of Norwich, which contains twelve hundred parishes, the Declaration was not read by more than three or four." In Durham, on the other side, Crew found so great a number of his poor clergy more independent than a vast revenue could render himself, that he suspended many for disobe dience. The other deserters were disobeyed by nineteen twentieths of their clergy ; and not more than two hundred in all are said to have coniplied out of a body of ten thousand.'' " The whole Church," says the nuncio, " espouses the cause of the bishops. There is bo reasonable expectation of a division among the Angli cans, and our hopes from the Nonconformists are vanished." " Well, indeed, might he despair of the dissenters, since, on the 20th of May, the venerable Baxter, above sectarian interests and un mindful of ancient wrongs, from his tolerated pulpit extofled the bishops for their resistance to the very Declaration to which he now owed the liberty of commending them.*^ It was no wonder that such an appearance of determined resistance should discontent the Go vernment. No prospect now remained of seducing some Protes tanls, of punishing some others, and by this double example of gain ing the greater part ofthe rest. The King, after so many previous acts of violence, seemed to be reduced to the alternative of either surrendering to exasperated antagonists, or engaging in a mortal combat with all his Protestant subjects. In the most united and vigorous government, the choice would have been among the most difficult which human wisdom is required to niake. In the dis tracted councils of James, where secret advisers thwarted respon sible ministers, and fear began to disturb the judgment pf some, while anger inflamed the minds of others, a still greater fluctuation ¦¦ Lords' Journals, I9th Dec. 1689. ^ Van Citters. ' Life of Prideanx, 41 . in D'Oyl. Sane. 1. 270. ¦¦ Van Citt. 15 (25) June. Ralp. ii. I. ¦ D'Adda, 1 (11) June. ' Johnst. 23d May. 14 PETITION OF THE SEVEN BISHOPS. and contradiction prevailed, than would have naturally arisen from the great difficulty of the situation. Pride impelled the King tfl advance, caution counselled him to retreat. Calm reason, even at this day, discovers nearly equal dangers in either movement. It is one of the most unfortunate circumstances in human affairs, that the most important questions of practice either perplex the mind so much by their difficulty, as to be always really decided by temper, or excite passions too strong for such an undisturbed exercise of the understanding as alone affords a probabUity of right judgment. The nearer approach of perils, both political and personal, rendered the counsels of Sunderland more decisively moderate ;" in which he was supported by the CathoUc lords in office, conformably to their unifprm principles ;'' and by Jeffreys, whp, since he had gained the prize cf ambitipn, began mere and more to think of safety." It appears, also, that those who recoiled fi["om an irreparable breach with the Church, the nation, and the Protestants of the royal family, were now not unwiUing that their raoderation, should be kn6wn. Jeffreys spoke to Lord Clarendon of " moderate counsels ;" declared, that " some men would drive the King to distraction ;" and made prpfessipns pf " service tp the bishpps," which he went sc far as tP desire that npbleman to com municate to them. William Penn, on a visit, after a very l6ng interval, to that lord, betrayed an inquietude, which sometimes prompts men almost instinctively to acquire or renew friendships.'' Sunderland disclosed the nature and grounds of his own counsels, very fully, both to the nuncio and to the French ambassador." " The great question," he said, "was how the punishment of the bishops would affect the probability of accomplishing the King's purpose through a parliament. Now, it was not to be expected; that any adequate penalty could be inflicted on them in the ordi nary course of law. Recourse must be had to the ecclesiastic cpmmissipn, which was already sufficiently cbnpxious. Any legal proceeding would be long enough, in the present temper of men, to agitate aU England. The suspension or deprivation by the eccle siastical commissioners, whioh might not exclude the bishops from » D'Adda, 24 May (3 June). Barillon, 24 May (3 June). '' "Lord Powls, Arundel, Dover, and Bellasis, are very zealous for moderation." Van Citters, 1 (IJ) June. " Clarend. Distry, 14th and 27th June, 5tb July, 13th August. '' Clarendon, 21st May. " Tbe first time I had seen him for a long time. He professed great kindness." ' Despatches last cited. PETITION OF THE SEVEN BISHOPS. 15 their pariiamentary seats, would, in a case of so extensive dehn quency, raise such a fear and cry of arbitrary power, as to render all prospect of a parliament desperate, and to drive the King to a reliance on arms alone ; a fearful resolution, not to be entertained wilhout fuller assurance that the army was and would remain un tainted." He therefore advised, that " his Majesty should content hunself with publishing a declaration, expressing his high and just resentment at the hardihood of the bishops, in disobeying the su preme head of their Church, and disputing a royal prerogative recently recognised by all the Judges of England ; but that, in consideration of the fidelity of the Church of England in past times, from which these prelates had been the first to depart, his Majesty was desirous of treating their offence with clemency, and would refer their conduct to the consideration of the next Parliament, in the hope that their intermediate conduct might warrant entire forgiveness." It was said, on the other hand, " that the safety of the government depended on an immediate blow ; that the impunity of such audacious contumacy would embolden every enemy at home and abroad ; that all lenity would be regarded as the effect of weakness and fear ; and that the opportunity must now or never be seized, of employing the eccle siastical commission to strike down a church, who supported the Crown only as she dictated to it, and became rebellious at the mo ment when she was forbidden to be intolerant." To strengthen these topics, it was urged " that the factions had already boasted that the Court would not dare to proceed juridically against the bishops." Both the prudent ministers, to whoni these discussions were imparted, influenced probably by their wishes, expected that moderation would prevaU;" but, after a week of discussions, Jeffreys, fearing that the King could not be reconciled to absolute forbearance , and desirous of removing the odium from the eccle siastical commission, of which hewas the head,'' proposed that the bishops should be prosecuted in the Court of King's Beneh, and ' D'Adda and Barillon, 1 (II) June. ' Van Cillers, 1 (II) June. , The biographer of James II. tells us tbat tbe Chancellor advised Ine King to prosecute tbe bishops for tumultuous petitioning, Ignorantly supposing the statute passed at the Restoration against such petitioning to be applicable to tbeir case. James II. ii. 158. Tbe passage in tbe same page, which quotes the King's own MSS., is more naturally referable to tbe secre't advisers of the order in council. Tbe account of Van Citters, adopted m the text, recon- 16 PETITION OF THE SEVEN BISHOPS. the cpnsideration of mercy or rigour postponed till after judgment: a compromise probably more impolitic than either ofthe extremes; inasmuch as it united a conspicuous and solemn proceeding, and a form pf trial partly popular, with the utmost boldness pf defence, some probabUity of acquittal, and the least punishment in case of conviction. On the evenmg ofthe 27th of May , the second Sunday appointed for reading the Declaration, it was determined to pro secute the bishops ; and they were accordingly summoned to appear before the Privy CouncU on the 3th of June, to answer a charge of misdemeanour. In obedience to this summons, the bishops attended at Whitehall on the day appointed, about five o'clock in the afternoon, and being caUed into the council chamber, were graciously received by the King. The chanceUor asked the Archbishop, whethei- a paper now shown to him was the petition written by .him, and presented, by the other bishops to his Majesty. The Archbishop, addressing himself to the King, answered, " Sir, I am called hither as a criminal, which I never was before : since I have that unhappiness, I hope your Majesty will not be offended that I am cautious of answering questions which may tend to accuse myself." The King called this chicanery; adding, "I hope you will not deny your own hand." The Archbishop said, " The only reason for the question is to draw an answer which may be ground of accusation." Lloyd of St. Asaph added, " All divines of all Christian churches are agreed that no man in our situation is obliged to answer such questions ;" but the King impatiently pressing for an answer, the Archbishop said, " Sir, though not obliged to answer, yet, if your Majesty commands it, we are wUling to obey, trusting to your justice and generosity that we shall not suffer for our obedience." The King said he should not command them, and Jeffreys directed them to withdraw. On their return, they were commanded by the King to answer, and they owned the petition. There is some doubt whether they repeated the condi tion on which they made their first offer of obedience;* but, if they ciles tbe Jacobite tradition followed by Dicconson witb tbe language of Jeffreys to Clarendon, and to tbe former complaints of tbe Catholics against his lukewarmness mentioned by Barillon. ' ' * Dr.'D'bjley, i. 278., seems on this point lo vary from the narrative in Gntch, Coll. Curios. 1. 351. It seems to me more probable tbat Ibe condition was repeated afler tbe second entrance ; for Dr. D'Oyley is certainly right In thinking tbat the statement of tbe Arcbbisbop's woMs, as having been spoken " after the third or fourth coming in," must be a mistake. It is evidently at variance with the whole course of the examination. THEIR COMMITTAL TO THE TOWER. 17 did not, their forbearance must have arisen from a respectful con fidence, which disposed them, with reason, to consider the silence of the King as a virtual assent to their unretracted condition. A tacit acceptance of conditional obedience is indeed as distinct a promise to perform the condition as the most express words. They were commanded to withdraw; and, on their return a third time, they were told by Jeffreys that they would be proceeded against; " but," he added (alluding to the obnoxious commission), " with all fairness, in Westminster Hall." He desired them to enter a recognisance (or legal engagement) to appear. They de clared their readiness to answer, whenever they were called, without a recognisance ; and, after some conversation, insisted on their privilege as peers not to be bound by recognisance in mis demeanour. They were directed once more; and, after several ineffectual attempts to prevaU on them to accept the offer of being discharged on their own recognisances, as a favour, they were com mitted to the Tower by a warrant, which all the privy counsellors present, except Lord Berkeley and Father Petre, subscribed; of whom it is observable, that nine only were avowed Catholics, and nine professed members of the English church, besides Sunder land, whose renunciation of that religion was not yet made public* The order for their persecution was, however, sanctioned in the usual manner, by placing the names of all present at the head. The people, who saw the Bishops as they walked to the barges which were to conduct them to the Tower, were deeply affected by the spectacle ; and, for the first time, manifested their emotions in a manner which would have still served as a wholesome admonition to a wise government. The demeanour of these prelates is de scribed by eye-witnesses as meek, composed, and cheerful ; " be traying no fear, and untainted by ostentation or defiance, but endowed with a greater power over the fellow-feeling of the be holders by the exhortations to loyalty, which were'doubtless uttered with undesigning sincerity by the greater number of the venerable sufferers. The mode of conveyance, though probably selected for mere convenience, contributed to deepen and prolong the interest of the scene. The soldiers who escorted them to the shore had no need to make any demonstrations of violence, for the people were too much subdued by pity and reverence to vent their feelings other- ¦ Gutch, Coll, Curios, i. 353, 354, ' Reresby, 261. n. -2 18 COMMITTAL OF THE BISHOPS wise than by tears and prayers. Having never before seen prelates M opposition to the King, accustomed to look at them only in a state of pacific and inviolate dignity, the spectators regarded their faU to the condition of, prisoners and the appearance of culprits with amazement, awe, and compassion. The scene seemed to be a pjcQcession of martyrs. Thousands, says Van Citters, probably an eyerwitness, begged their blessing. * Some persons ran into the ¦^ater to implore a blessing from the prisoners. Both banks pfthe Thames were lined with multitudes, whp, when they were too dis tant to be heard, manifested their feelings by falling down on their knees, and raising up their hands, beseeching Heaven to guard the sufferers for reUgion and liberty." On landing at the Tower, several of the guards knelt down to receive their blessing. Some even of the officers yielded to the general impulse; and as the Bishops chanced to land at the accustomed hour of evening prayer, they immediately repaired to the chapel, where they heard, in the ordi nary lesson of the day, a remarkable exhortation to the primitive teachers ofChristianity, " to approve themselves the ministers of God, with patience, in afflictions, in imprisonments." " The court Ordered the guard tp be doubled. On the following days multi tudes crpwded tp the Tpwer, '' of whom the raajprity gazed on the prison with distant awe, while a few entered to offer homage and counsel to the venerable prisoners. " If it be a crime to lament," said a learned contemporary, in a confidential letter, " innumerable are the transgressors. The nobles of both sexes, as it were, keep their court at the Tower^ whither a vast concourse daily go to beg the holy men's blessing. The very soldiers act as mourners."" The soldiers on guard, indeed, drank their healths; and though reprimanded by Sir Edward Hales, now Lieutenant ofthe Tower, declared that they would persevere.' The amiable Evelyn did not faU to visit them on the day previous to that on which he was to dine with the ChanceUor, appearing to distribute his courtesies with the neutrality of Atticus;^ but we now know that Jeffreys himself, on the latter of these days, had sent a secret message by Clarendon, assuring the Bishops that he was much troubled at the prosecution, and offering his services to them.'' None of their visiter* " Van Cillers, 8 (18) June. ¦¦ Burnet, Echard, Ralph. - 2 Cor. vi. " Clar. D,iary, 9tb, lOtb, 12tb June. ° Dr. Nalson's Letter to bis Wife, in Gutch, Coll. Cur. 1. 360. , 'Reresby. = Evelyn's Diary, I Sth and I4th June, '¦ Clar. Diary, Htb Jane, TO THE TOWEfJ. 18 were more remarkable than a deputation often Nonconformist mi nisters, which so incensed the King that he personally reprimanded them; but they answered, that they could not but adhere to the Bishops, as men constant to the Protestant religion,* — an exemple of magnanimity rare in the conflicts of religious animosities. The Dissenting clergy seem, indeed, to have been nearly unani mous in preferring the general interest of religious liberty to the enlargement of their peculiar privileges. Alsop was full of sorrow for his compliances in the former year. Lobb, who was seized with so enthusiastic an attachment to James that he was long after known by the singular name of the " Jacobite Independent," alone persevered in devotedness to the court ; and when the King asked his advice respecting the treatment of the Bishops, advised that they should be sent to the Tower." No exertion of friendship or of public zeal was wanting to prepare the means of their defencie, and to provide for their dignity, in every part of the proceeding. The Bishop of London, Dr. Tennyson, and Johnstone, the secret agent of the Prince of Orange, appear to have been the most active of their friends. Pemberton and Pollexfen accounted the most learned among the elder lawyers, were engaged in their cause- Sir John Holt, destined to be the chief ornament ofa bench purified by liberty, contributed his valuable advice. John Somers, then in the thirty-eighth year of his age,* was objected to at one of their consultations, as too young and obscure to be one of their coun sel ; " and, if we may believe Johnstone, it was owin^ to him that this memorable cause afforded the earliest opportunity of making known the superior intellect of that great man. Twenty- eight peers were prepared to bail them, if bail should be required.' Stanley, chaplain to the Princess of Orange, had already assured Sancroft that the Prince and Princess approved their firmness, and were deeply interested in their fate.^ One of them, probably Trelawney, a prelate who had served in the civil war, early told Johnstone that if they were sent to the Tower, he hoped the Prince of Orange would take them out, which two regiments and his authority would do;*" and, a little later, the Bishop of St. Asaph ¦ Reresby. >• Johnst. 13th June. " Johnst. 13th June. "I told the Archblshop of Canterbury," says Johnstone, " that their fate depended on very mean persons." Burnet, iii. 217. " Bom 1650. • Kennett. ' Gntch, Coll. Curios, i. 357. where their names appear. Id. 307. ' Johnstone, 27th May. so PROCEEDINGS AGAINST THE BISHOPS. assured the same trusty agent, who was then coUecting the opinions of several eminent perspns pn the seaspnableness pf resistance, that " the matter wpuld be easily done." * This bold prelate had famiUarised himself to extraordinary events, and, was probably tempted to daring counsels' by an overweening confidence in his own interpretation of mysterious prophecies, which he had long "laboured to Ulustrate by vain efforts of abUity and learning. He made no secret of his expectations ; but, at his first interview with a chaplain of the Archbishop, exhorted him to be of good courage, and declared that the happiest results were now to be hoped, for the pepple, incensed by tyranny, were ready to take up arms to expel the Papists from the kingdom, and to punish the King him self, which was to be deprecated, by banishment or death; adding, that if the Bishops escaped from their present danger, they would reform the Church from the corruptions which had crept into her frame, throw open her gates for the joyful entrance of the sober and pious among Protestant Dissenters, and relieve even those who should continue to be pertinacious in their ncncpnfprmity from the grievous yoke of penal laws."" During the imprisonment, Sunderland and the CathoUc lords, now supported by Jeffreys, used every means of art and argument, to persuade James that the birth of the Prince of Wales (which wiU presently be related) afforded a most becoming opportunity for signalising that mpment pf na-^ tipnal jpy by a general pardon, which would comprehend the Bishops, withput invplving any apparent cpncessicn to them." The King, as usual, fluctuated. A proclamation, couched in the most angry and haughty language, commanding all clergymen, under pain of iraraediate suspension, to, read the Declaration, was several tiraes sent to the press, and as often: withdrawn.'' " The King," said Jeffreys, " had once, resolved to let the proceedings faU; but some men would hurry him to destruction."" The obstinacy of James, inflaraed by bigoted advisers, and supported by commenda tion, with proffered aid, from France, prevailed over sober counsels. • Johnstone, 18th June. Tbe Bishop's observation is placed between the opinions of Mr. Hampden and Sir J. Lee, both zealous for Immediate action. J '' Diary of Henry Wbarton, 25th June, 1688. D'Oyley's Sancroft, 11. 134. The term "ponteficlos," wbicb is rendered in tbe text by Papists, may perhaps be limited, by a charitable construction, to the more devoted partisans of papal authority. "Tbe Bishop of St. Asaph was a secret favourer of a foreign interest." Life of Kettlewell,'I75. London, 1718j from the papers of Hicks and Nelson. , " Johnstone, 13tb June. " V, Citt, iO May (8 .lune), ¦ Clarend. Diary, 14tb June. PROCEEDINGS AGAINST THE BISHOPS. 21 On the 15th of June, the Bishops were brought before the Court of King's Bench by a writ of Habeas Corpus. On leaving the Tower they refused to pay the fees required by Sir Edward Hales as lieutenant, whom they charged with discourtesy. He so far forgot himself as to say that the fees were a compensation for the irons with which he might have loaded them, and the bare walls and floor to which he might have confined their accommodation.* They answered, " We lament the King's displeasure, but every other man loses his breath who attempts to intimidate us." On landing from their barge, they were received with increased re verence by a great multitude, who made a lane for them, and foUowed them into Westminster Hall.'* The nuncio, unused to the slightest breath of popular feeling, was subdued by these ma nifestations of enthusiasm, which he relates with more warmth than any olher contemporary. " Of the immense concourse of people," says he, " who received them on the bank of the river, the majority in their immediate neighbourhood were on their knees : the Archbishop laid his hands on the heads of such as he could reach, exhorting them to continue steadfast in their faith; they cried aloud that all should kneel, while tears flowed from the eyes of many." " In the Court of King's Bench they were attended by the twenty-nine peers, who offered to be their sureties, and the court was instantly fiUed by a crowd of gentlemen attached to their cause. The return of the lieutenant of the Tower to the writ of . Habeas Corpus set forth that the Bishops were committed under a warrant signed by certain privy counsellors for a seditious Hbel. The Attorney General moved, that the information should be read, and that the Bishops should be caUed on to plead,' or, in common language, either to admit the fact, deny it, or, allege some legal justification of it. The counsel for the Bishops objected to reading the information on the ground that they were not legaUy before the court, because the warrant, though signed by privy counsellors, was not stated to be issued by them in that capacity and because the Bishops, being peers of pariiament, could not law fully be comraitted for a libel. The court overruled these objec tions, the first with evident justice; because the warrant of com mitment set forth its execution at the councU chamber, and in the ° Johnst 18tb June; and a more general statement to the same eff'ect, Evelyn^ '29th June. '^ Clarend. l.'ilb June, &c. • D'Adda, 15 (22) June, and Reresby. 28 PROCEEDINGS AGAINST THE BISHOPS. presence pf the King, which sufficiently shewed U te be the act cf the subscribing privy counsellors acting as such : the second, with much doubt touching the extent of privUege of parliament, acknow ledged on both sides to exempt from apprehension in all cases but treason, felony, and the peace ; which . last term was said by the counsel for the Crown to comprehend such constructive offences against the peace as a libel, and argued on behalf of the Bishpps tp be cpnfined tp thpse acts or threats of violence which, in coramon language, are termed breaches of the peace. The great est judicial authority on constitutional law since the accession of the House of Brunswick has pronounced the determination of the Judges in 1688 to be erroneous.* The question depends too much upon irregular usage and technical subtleties to be brought under the cognisance of the historian, who must be content with observing, that the error was not so manifest as to warrant an imputation of bad faith to the Judges. A delay of pleading till next term, which is called an imparlance, was then claimed on the part of the Bishops. The officers usually referred to for the practice of the court declared it for the last twelve years tp have heen that'the defendants shpuld immediately plead. Sir Rpbert Sawyer, Mr. Finch, Sir Francis Pemberton, and Mr. Ppllexfen, hore a weighty testirapny, frpm their Ipng experience, tp the raore indulgent practice pf the better times which preceded ; but Sawyer, cpvered with the guilt of sp many odipus proceedings. Finch, who, was by no means free from participation in them, and even Pemberton, who had the misfortune to be Chief Justice in evil days, seeraed to contend against the practice of their own ad ministration with a bad grace ; the veteran Pollexfen alone, with out fear of retaliation, appealed to the pure age of Sir Matthew Hale. The court decided that the Bishops should plead, but their counsel considered theraselves as having gained their legitiraate object hy showing that the government employed means at least disputable against them.'' The Bishops pleaded Not , guilty, and "- Lord Chief Justice Pratt, afterwards Lord Camden. Wilkes's case, 1763. "* State Trials, xll. 183. The general reader may be referred vrith confidence to ^ie excellent Abridgment of tbe State Trials, by Mr Pblllipps, London, 1826; 2 vols, 8vo. ; a woit probably not tp be paralleled by tbe union of discernment, knowledge, impartiality, calmness, clearness, and precision, it exhibits on questions tbe most angrify contested. It is, indeed, far superior to the huge and most unequal compilation of whicb it is an abridgment, to say nothing of the Instructive obser vations on legal questions iu which' Mr. Phillipps rejudges the determinations of PE^st times. PROCEEDINGS AGAINST THE BISHOPS, 23 they were enlarged, on their own undertaking to appear on the trial, which was appointed to be on the 29th of June. As they left the court they were surrounded by crowds, who begged their bless ing. The Bishop of St. Asaph, detained in Palace Yard by a mul titude, who kissed his hands and garments, was delivered from their importunate kindness by Lord Clarendon, who, taking him into his carriage, found it necessary to make a circuit through the Park to escape from the bodies of people by whom the streets were obstructed.* Shouts and huzzas broke out in the court, and were repeated all around at the moment of the enlargement. The beUg of the Abbey Church of Westminster had begun to ring a joyful peal, when they were stopped by Sprat amidst the execrations of the people.'' No one knew, said the Dutch minister, what to do for joy. When the Archbishop landed at Lambeth, the grenadiers of Lord Lichfield's regiment, though posted there by his enemies, received him with military honours, made a lane for his passage from the river to his palace, and fell on their knees to ask his bless ing." In the evening the premature joy at this temporary libera tion displayed itself in bonfires, and in some outrages to Roman Catholics, as the supposed instigators of the prosecution.*' No doubt was entertained at court of the result of the trial, which the King himself took measures to secure by a private interview with Sir Samuel Astry, the officer whose province it was to form the jury." It was openly said that the bishops would be condemned to pay large fines ; to be imprisoned tUl the payment, and suspended from their functions and revenues.' A fund would thus be ready for the King's liberality to Catholic colleges and chapels, while the punishment of the archbishop would remove the only licenser of the press ^ who was independent of the Crown. Sunderland still contended for the policy of being generous after victory, and Of not seeking to destroy those who would be sufficiently degraded. He believed that he had made a favourable impression on the King.*" But that Prince spoke of the feebleness which had disturbed the reign of his brother, and brought his father to the scaffold. Ba- ¦ Claren. 15th June. ' Van Citters, 15 (25) June. ' Johnst. 18th June. ¦" Narc. Lutterell, and the twolast-mentioned authorities. " Clar. Diary, 31sl June and 27th June, wbere an agent of tbe court is Said to have busied himself in striking tbe jury. ' Barillon, 21 Jun^ (1 July). V. Citters, 22 June (2 July). » ^ It appears from Wharton's Diary, that tbe chaplains at Lambeth discharged this duty with more regard even then to the feelings of the King than to' tbe rights of Protestant controversialists. ' D'Adda, 29 June (9 July). 24 TRIAL OF THE BISHOPS. rillon represents him as inflexibly resolved on rigour,* and the opinion seeras to have been justified by the uniform result x)f every previous deliberation. Men of corarapn understanding are rauch disposed to consider the contrary of the last unfortunate error as being always sound policy; they are incapable of estimating the various circumstances which may render vigour or caution ap plicable at different times and in different stages of the same proceedmgs. They pursue their single raaxim, often founded on shaUow views, even of one case, with headlong obstinacy; and if they be, men also of irresolute nature, they are unable to re sist the impetuosity of violent counsellors; they are prone to rid themselves frpra the pain pf fluctuation by a sudden determina tion to appear decisive; and they often take refuge from past fearSj and seek security from danger to come, by a rash and violent blow. " Lord Sunderland," says Barillon, " like a good courtier and an able politician, every where vindicates, with warmth and vigour, the measures which he disapproved and had opposed."'' The bishops, on the appointed day, entered the court surrounded by the lords " and gentlemen, who, on this solemn occasion, chose thatmodeofoncemore testifying their adherence to the public cause. Some previous incidents inspired courage. Levinz, on of the counsel retained , having endeavoured to excuse himself from an . obnoxious duty, was compeUed, by the threats of attornies, to per form it The venerable Serjeant Maynard, urged to appear for the Crown, in the discharge of his duty as King's serjeant, boldly answered, that if he did he was bound also to declare his conscien tious opinion of the case to the King's Judges. '' The appearance ofthe bench was not consolatory to the accused. Powell was the only impartial and upright Judge. AUibone, as a Rpman CathpUc, was, in reality, abcut tp try the question whether he was himself le gaUy quaUfied for his office. Wright and Holloway were placed on the bench to betray the law. Jeffreys himself, who appointed the Judges, now loaded them with the coarsest reproaches,* more, ' »' Bar. 21 June (1 July). ' Bar. ubi supra. ° " Thirty -five lords." Johnstone, 2d July ; .probably about one half of the legally qualified peers then in England and able lo attend. There were eighty-nine tem poral lords who were Protestants. Minority, and absence from tbe kingdom, and sickness, may account for nineteen. * Johnst. 2d July. • Clar. 27th June, " Rogues.", 5tb, " Knaves, Fools," He called Wrigbt " a beast ;" but this, it must be observed, was after bis defeat. TRIAL OF THE BISHOPS. 25 perhaps, from distrust of their boldness than from apprehension of their independence. Symptoms ofthe overawing power of national opinion are indeed perceptible in the speech of the Attorney-Gene ral, which was not so much the statement of an accusation as an apology for the persecution. He disclaimed all attack on the bishops in their episcopal character; he did not now complain of their re fusal to read the King's Declaration, but only changed them with the temporal offence of composing and publishing a seditious libel, under pretence of presenting a humble petition to his Majesty. His doctrine on libel was, indeed, subversive of liberty ; but it has often been repeated in better tinties, though in mUder terms, and with some reservations. " The bishops," said he, "are accused of cen- ¦ suring the government, and giving their opinion about affairs of state. No man may say of the great officers of the kingdom, far less ofthe King, that they act unreasonably, for that may beget a desire of reformation, and the last age will abundantly satisfy us whither such a thing does tend." The first difficulty arose on the. proof of the handwriting of the bishops, which seems to have been decisive against Sancroft, sufficient against some others, and altogether want ing inthe cases of Ken and Lake. All the witnesses on this sub ject gave their testimony with the most evident reluctance. The court was equaUy divided on the question whether there was suffi cient proof of the handwriting to warrant the reading of the peti tion in evidence against the accused. The objection to reading it was groundless, but the answers to it attempted were so feeble as to betray a general irresolution and embarrassment. The counsel for the Crown were then driven to the necessity of calling the clerk of the privy council to prove the confessions before that body, in obedience to the commands ofthe King. When they were proved, Pemberton, with considerable dexterity, desired the witness to relate all the circumstances which attended these confessions. Blathwaite, the clerk,, long resisted, and evaded this question, of which he evidently felt the importance. Hewas at length com pelled to acknowledge that the bishops had accompanied their offer to submit to the royal command, by expressing their hope that no advantage would be taken of their confession against them. He could not pretend that they were warned against such a hope be fore their confession was received ; but he eagerly added, that no promise to such an effect had been made, as if chicanery could be listened to in a matter which concerned the personal honour of a '"' TRIAL OF THE BISHOPS. sovereign. WiUiaras, the enly pne pf the cpunsel of the Crown who was more provoked than intiraidated by the public voice, drew the attention ofthe audience to this breach of faith by the vehe mence with which he resisted the adraission of the evidence which proved it. Another subUe question sprung frora the principle of English law, that criraes are triable only in the county where they are comraitted. It was said that the aUeged libel was wriiten at Lambeth in Surrey, and not proved to have been published in Middlesex ; so that neither of the offences charged could be tried in the latter county. It was proved that it could not have been written in Middlesex; because the archbishop, who was the writer, had been confined by illness to his palace for some menths. The counsel then endeavoured to prove by the clerks of the privy coun cil, * that the bishops had owned the delivery of the petition to the King, which would have been a publication in Middlesex. But the witnesses proved only an admission of the signatures. On every failure, the audience shpwed their feelings by a triumph ant laugh or a shout of joy. The Chief Justice, who at first feebly reprimanded thera, soon abandoned' the attempt to, check them. In a long and irregular altercation, the advocates of the accused spoke with increasing boldness, and those for the prpsecu- tion with more palpable depression^ except Williams, who vented the painful consciousness of inconsistency, unvarnished by success, in transports of rage which descended to the coarsest railing. The court had deterrained that there was no evidence of publication before the examination of the latter witnesses, who certainly faf- forded none. The Attorney and SoUcitor-General, however, after the faUure of that examination, proceeded to argue that the case was sufficient; chiefly, it should seem, to prolong the brawls till the arrival of Lord Sunderland, by whose testimony they ex pected to prove the delivery of the petition to the King. But the Chief Justice, who could no longer endure such wearisome confu- sipn, began to sum up the evidence to the jury, whora, if he had adhered to his previous declaration, he raust have instructed to ac quit the accused. Finch, either distrusting the jury, or excused, jf not justified, by the Judge's character, by the suspicious so leranity of his professions of impartiality and by his own too long famUiarity with the darkest mysteries of state trials, suspected some ¦ Pepys, the noted secretary to ibe Admiralty, was one of tbe witness^ examined. He was probably a privy counsellor. TRIAL OF THE BISHOPS. 27 secret design, and respectfuUy interrupted W^right, in order to as certain whether he stiU thought that there was no sufficient proof of writing in Middlesex , or of publication any where. Wright, who seeraed to be piqued, said, he was sorry Mr. Finch should think him capable of not leaving it fairly to the jury. He scarcely contained hi? exultation over the supposed indiscretion of Finch. * PoUexfen requested the Judge to proceed, and Finch pressed his interruption no farther. But WiUiams, who, when Wright had begun to sum up, countermanded his request for the attendance oi Lord Sunderland as too late, seized the opportunity of this inter ruption to despatch a second message, urging him to come without delay, and begged the court to suspend the summing up, as a per son of great quality was about to appear who would supply the defects in the evidence. He triumphantly said, that there was a fatality in this case, and Wright said to the bishops' counsel, " You see what comes of the interruption ; now we must stay." All the bystanders condemned Finch as much as he soon afterwards com pelled them to applaud him. An hour was spent in waiting for Sunderland. It appears to have been during this fortunate delay that the bishops' counsel determined on a defence founded on the iUegaUty ofthe dispensing power, from which they had before been either deterred from an apprehension that they would not be suf fered to question an adjudged point; or diverted at the raoraent by the prospect that the Chief Justice would sum up for an acquittal. '• By this resolution, the verdict, instead of only insuring the escape ofthe bishops, became a triumph of the Constitution. At length Sunderland was carried through Westminster in a chair, of which the head was down. No one saluted him. The multitude hooted " " The C. J. said, ' Gentlemen, you do not know your own business ; but since you will be heard, you shall be heard.' " Johnst. 2d July. He seems to have been present, and, as a Scotchman, was not very Hkely to bave invented so good an illustration of the future tense. It is difficult not to suspect tbat Wright, after admitting that there was no positive evidence of publication in Middlesex, did not intend to tell the jury that there were circumstances proved from which they might reasonably infer tbe fact. Tbe only circumstance, indeed, wbick could render it doubtful that he would lay down a doctrine so well founded, and so suitable to his purpose, at a time wben he could no longer be contradicted, is tbe confusion which, on Ibis trial, seems to have more than usually clouded his weak understanding. ' " They waited about an hour for Sunderland, which luckily fell out, for in fbia time tbe bishop's lawyers recollected themselves, in order to what followed.'' Johnst, 2d Jnly. A minute examination of the trial explains these words of Johnstone, and remarkably proves bis accuracy. From tbe eagerness of Pollexfen that Wright should proceed with his address to the jury, it is evident tbey did not then intend to make the defence which was afterwards made. 28 TRIAL OF THE BISHOPS. and hissed, crying out " Popish dog." , He was so disordered by this reception, that when he came into court he trembled, changed colour, and looked down, as if fearful pf the cpuntenances cf ancient friends, and unable tp bear the cpntrast between his own disgraceful greatness and the honpurable calamity pf the bishpps. He preved that the bishops came to hira with a petition to the King, which he decUned to read, and that he introduced them immediately to the King, tp whom he had cpramunicated the pur ppse fpr which they prayed an audience. The general defence then began, and the cpunsel fpr the bishops, without relinquishing their minor objections, arraigned the dis pensing power, and maintained the right of petition with a vigour and boldness which entitles such of them as were only mere advo cates to great approbation, and those among them who were actuated by higher principles to the everlasting gratitude of their country. When Sawyer began to question the legality ef the Declaraticn, Wright, speaking aside, said, " I must net suffer thera tp dispute the King's power of suspending laws." Powell answered, " They raust touch that point ; for if the King hafh no such power (as clearly he hath not), lhe petition is no attack on the King's legal power, and therefore no libel." Wright peevishly replied, " I know you are full of that doctrine, but the bishops shall have no reaspn to say I did not hear them. Brother, you shall have your way for once. I wiU hear them. Let them talk tiU they are weary." The substance of the argument was, that a dispensing power was unknown to the ancient constitution; that the Commons, in the reign of Richard II., had formally consented that the King should, with the assent of the Lords, exercise such a power respecting a single law till the next parliament; that the acceptance of such a trust was a parliamentary declaration against the existence of such a prerogative; that though there were raany cases of dispensations from penalties granted to individuals, there never was an instance of a pretension to dispense with laws before the Restoration ; that it was in the reign of Charles II. twice condemned by parliament, twice relinquished, and once disclaimed by the Crown ; that it was declared to be illegal by the House of Commons in their very last session; and finally, that the power to suspend was in effect a power • 15lR. 11. Rot. Pari. TRIAL OF THE BISHOPS. 29 abrogate ; that it was an assumption of the whole legislative authority, and laid the laws and liberties of the kingdom at the mercy of the King. Mr. Somers, whose research had supplied the ancient authorities quoted by his seniors, closed the defence in a speech admirable for a perspicuous brevity adapted to the stage of the trial at which he spoke, on which, with a mind so unruffled by the passions 'which raged around him as even to preserve a beau tiful simplicity of expression rarely reconcUeable with anxious con densation, he conveyed in a few luminous sentences the substance of all that been dispersed over a rugged, prolix, and disorderly controversy. " My Lord, I would only mention the case respect ing a dispensation from a statute of Edward VI., wherein all the Judges determined that there never could be an abrogation or sus pension (which is a temporary abrogation) of an act of parliament but by the legislative power. It was, indeed, disputed how far the King might dispense wilh the penalties on such a particular law, as to particular persons, but it was agreed by all that the King had no power to suspend any law. Nay, I dare venture to appeal to Mr. Attorney-General, whether, in the late case of Sir Edward Hales, he did not admit that the King could not suspend a law, but only grant a dispensation from its observance toa particular person. My Lord, by the law of all civUised nations, if the prince requires something to be done, which the person who is to do it takes to be unlawful, it is not only lawful, but his duty, rescribere pnMcipi',* to petition the sovereign. This is all that is done here; and that in the most humble raanner that could be thought of. Your Lordships will please to observe how far that humble caution went'; how careful they were that they might not in any way justly offend the King : they did not interpose by giving advice as peers ; they never stirred till itwas brought home to themselves as bishops. When they made this petition, all they asked was, that it might not be so far insisted on byhis Majesty as to oblige them to read it. Whatever they thought of it, they do not take it upon them to desire the Declaration to be revoked. My Lord, as to the matters of fact alleged in the petition, that they are perfectly true we have shown by the Journals of both Houses. In every one of those years . * This phrase of the Roman law, whicb at first sight seems mere pedantry, conveys a delicate and happy allusion to the liberty of petition, whicb was allowed even under the despotism of tbe emperors of Rome, 30 TRIAL OF THE BISHOPS. which are raentipned in the petitien, this power was considered by parliaraent, and upon debate declared to be contrary to law. There could then be no design to diminish the prerogative, for the King has UP such prerpgative. Seditious, my Lord, it could not be, nor could it possibly stir up sediUonin the rainds ofthe people, because itwas presented tc the King in private and alone; false it could not be, for the matter of it was true; there could be nothing of malice, fpr the pccasion was not spught, but the thing was pressed upon thera; and a libpl it cculd net be, because the intent was in- npcent, and they kept within the bpunds set up by the law that gives the subject leave to apply tc his prince by petition when he is aggrieved," The Crown lawyers, by whora this extensive and bold defence seeras to have been unforeseen, manifested in their reply their characteristic faults. Powis was feebly technical, and Williaras was offensively violent.* Both evaded thegreat question of the prerogative by professional common-places of no avail with the jury or the public. They both reUed on the us\ial topics em ployed by their predecessors and successors, that the truth of a libel could not be the subject of enquiry; and that the falsehood, as well as the malice and sedilion charged bythe information, were not matters of fact to be tried by the jury, but qualifications appUed by the law tp every writing derogatory from the govern raent. Both triuraphantly urged that the parliaraentary proceed ings of the last and present reign, being neither acts nor judgraents of Parliaraent, were np prpof of the illegality pf what they con deraned, withput adverting to the very obvious cpnsideratipn that the bishpps appealed tp thera enly as such manifestations of the seilse of Pariiaraent as it would be imprudent in thein to disregard. WUliams, in iUustration of this argument, asked whether the narae (jfadeclarationin ParUament could be given to the BiU oi exclusion, because U had passed the Coramons (where he had been very ac tive in promoting it). This indiscreet allusion" was received with a general hiss. He was driven to the untenable position, that a petition frora these prelates was warrantable only "to Parliament, * Pollexfen and Finch took no small pains to Inveigh against tbe King's dispens ing power. The counsel for tbe Crown waved tbat point, though Mr. SoUcitor was fiercely earnest against the bishops, and took the management npon himself, Mr. Attwney's province being lo put a smooth question now and then. Mr. (after wards Baron) Price to the Duke of Beaufort. Macpherson. Stale Papers. ' V. Citt. 99 June (9 July). TRUL OP THE BISHOPS, 31 and that they were bound to delay it tiU Parliament was assembled. Wright, waving the question of the dispensing power,* instructed the jury that a delivery to the King was a publication; and that any writing which was adapted to disturb the governraent, or make a stir among the people, was a Ubel : language of fearful import, but not peculiar to him, nor confined to his tirae. Holloway thought, that if the intention of the bishops was only to raake an innocent provision for their own security, the writing could not be a libel. Powell declared that they were innocent of sedition, or of any other crime. " If such a dispensing power be allowed, there wiU need no Parliament; all the legislature will be in the King. I leave the issue to God and to your consciences; AUibone overleaped all the fences of decency or prudence so far as to affirm " that no man can take upon himself to write against the actual exercise of the government, unless he have leave frora the government, but he makes a libel, be what he writes true or false. The government ought not to be impeached by arguraent. , This is a libel. No pri vate man can write concerning the governraent at all, unless his own interest be stirred, and then he must redress hiraself by law. Every raan may petition in v/hat relates tohis private interest; but neither the bishops, nor any other man, has a right to intermeddle in affairs of government." After a. trial which lasted ten hours, the jury retired at seven o'clock in the evening to consider their verdict. The friends of the bishops watched at the door of the jury-room, and heard loud voices at midnight and at three o'clock • so anxious were they about the issue, though delay be in such cases a sure symptom of acquittal. The opposition of one .4rnold, the brewer of the King's house, being at length subdued by the stea diness of the others, they informed the Chief Justice, at six o'clock in the morning, that the jury were agreed in their verdict,'' and desired to know when he would receive it. The Court met at nine • "The dispensing power is more effectually knocked on tbe bead than if an act of Parliament had been made against it, Tbe Judgeis said nothing about it except Powell, who declared against it. So it is given up in Westminster Hall! My Lord Chief Justice is mucn blamed at court for allowing it to be debateiL" Johnst. 2d July. •' Letter of Ince, the solicitor for the bishops, to Sancroft. Gutch, Coll. Cur. i. 374. From this jetter we leam that the perilous practice then prevailed of snccessful parties giving a dinner and money to tbe jury. The solicitor proposed that the dinner should be omitted, but that 150 or 200 guineas should be distribnted among twenty-two of the paimel wbo attended. " Most of them {i- e. the pa^nel of the jury) are Church of England men : several are employed by tbe King in the navy and revenue ; and some are or once were of tbe Dissenters' party." News 32 ACQUITTAL OF THE BISHOPS. o'clock. The nobility and gentry covered the benches, and an im raense concourse of people fiUed the HaU, and blocked up the ad joining streets. Sir Robert Langley, the foreman of thejury, being, according to established form, asked whether the accused were guUty or not guilty, pronounced the verdict, " Not guilty." No sppner were these words uttered than a loud huzza arose from the audience in the court. It was instantly echoed from without by a shout of joy, which sounded like a crack ofthe ancient and raassy roofof Westrainster HaU.* It passed with electrical rapidity from voice tp vpice alpng the infinite multitude who waited in the streets. It reached the Teraple in a few minutes. For a short tirae no raan seeraed to know where he was. No business was done for hours. The Solicitor General infornied Lord Sunderland, in the presence pf the nimcip, that never within the remembrance of man had there been heard such cries of applause raingled with tears of joy. " The acclaraations," says Sir John Reresby, " were a very rebeUion in noise." In np long tirae they ran to the camp at Houn slow, and were repeated with an orainous voice by the soldiers in the hearing of the King, who, on being told that they were for the acquittal of the bishpps, said, with an ambiguity probably arising frora cpnfusion, " So rauch the worse for thera." The jury were received with the loudest acclamations : hundreds, with tears in their eyes, embraced them as deliverers." The bishops, almost alarmed at their own success, escaped from the huzzas of the peo ple as privately as possible, and exhorted them to fear God and honour the King. Cartwright, Bishop of Chester, had reraained in court during the trial unnoticed by any ofthe crowd of nobility and gentry, and Sprat raet with little more regard.'' Cartwright, in going to his carriage, was caUed a " wolf in sheep's clothing;" and as he was very corpulent, the populace cried out, " Room for the raan with a pope in his beUy!"" They bestowed also on Sir WU Iiara WUliams very raortifying proofs of disrespect.' IMoney was thrown araong the populace to drink the healths of the King, the bishops, and the jury. In the evening they did so, together with Letter. Ellis, 2d series, iv. 105. Of this last class we are told by Johnstone (2d July), that, " on being sounded by tbe Court agents, tbey declared that if they were jiirors, they sbould act according to their conscience." ¦ Clarendon, 30th June. " D'Adda, 6 (16) July ' V. cut. 3 (13) July. ' Gutch, i. 382. • V. Citt, 3 (13) July. ' Id. ACQUITTAL OF THE BISHOPS. 33 confusion to the Papists, amidst the ringing of heUs, and around bonfires which were lighted throughout the city, blazing before the windows of the King's palace,* where the Pope was burnt in effi- gy*" by those who were not aware of his lukewarm friendship for their enemies. Bonfires were particularly kindled hefore the doors of the most distinguished Roman Catholics, who were required by the multitude to defray the expense of this annoyance. Lord Arundel, and others, submitted. Lord Salisbury, with the zeal of a new convert, sent his servants to disperse the rabble; but after having fired and kUled the parish beadle, who came to quench the bonfire, they were driven back into the house. .411 parties, Dissenters as well as Churchmen, rejoiced in the acquittal; the bishops and their friends vainly laboured to temper the extrava gance with which it was expressed." The nuncio, at first touched by the effusion of popular feeling, but now shocked by this bois terous triumph, declared, " that the fires over the whole city, the drinking in every street, accompanied by cries to the health of the bishops and confusion to the Catholics, with the play of fireworks, and the discharge of fire-arms, and the other demonstrations of furious gladness, mixed with impious outrage against religion, which were continued during the night, formed a scene of un speakable horror, displaying, iu all its rancour, the malignity of this heretical people against the church." '' The bonfires were kept up during the whole of Saturday, and the disorderly joys of the multitude did not cease till the dawn of Sunday reminded them ofthe duties of their reUgion." The same rejoicings spread through the principal towns ; and the grand jury of Middlesex refused to find indictments for a riot against those who tumultuously kindled the bonfire, though four times sent out with instructions to find them.' The Court also manifested its deep feelings on this occa sion. In two days after the acquittal, the rank of Baronet was conferred upon Williams ; Powell for his honesty, and HoUoway for his hesitation, were removed from the bench : the King be trayed the disturbance of his mind even in his camp,^ and, though accustomed to unreserved conversation with Barillon, he observed ¦ V. citters, 3 (13) July. » Johnst. 2d July. Gerard, News Letter, 4tb July. News Letter. " D'Adda, 6 (16) July. M\is, iv. 110. ^ ' Reresby, 265. Gerard's News Letter, 7th July. Reresby, nbi supra. 34 REFLEXIONS ON THE TRUL. a sUence on the acquittal which that rainister was too prudent to interrupt.* In order to form a just estiraate of this memorable trial, it is necessary to distinguish its pecuhar grievances from the evUs which always attend the stricter adrainistration of the laws against political libels. The doctrine that every writing which indisposes the people to the administration of the government, however subversive of aU poUtical discussion, is not one of these peculiar grievances ; for it has often been held in other cases, and perhaps never distincfly disclairaed. The position that a libel raay be conveyed in the form of a petition is true, though the case must be evident and flagrant which would warrant its application. The extravagances of WUliams and AUibone might in strictness be laid out of the case, as peculiar to themselves, and not necessary to support the prosecution, were it not that they pointed out the threatening positions which success in that attack raight encourage »nd enable the enemy to occupy. But it was absolutely necessary for the Crown to contend that the raatter of the writing was so inflammatory as to change its character from a petition to a libel ; that the intention in coraposing it was not to obtain relief, but to excite discontent ; and that it was presented to the King to insult hira, and to raake its contents known to others. The atterapt to extract such conclusions from the evidence against the bishops was an excess beyond the furthest Umits of the law of libel, as it had even then been practised in any number of cases which could araount to authority.' But the generous feeUngs of raankind did not so scrupulously weigh the deraerits of the prosecution. The effect of the excess was to throwa strong light on all the odious qualities (hid from the raind in their coraraon state by famiUarity) of a jealous and restrictive legislation, directed against the free exercise of reason, and the fair examination of the interests of the coramunity. AU the vices of that distempered state in which a governraent cannot endure a fearless discussion of its principles ' Whitehall, 6th July. His Majesty bas been pleased to remove Sir Richard Holloway and Sir John Powell from being justices of tbe King's Bench. Lend. Gazette. In tbe Life of James II. itis said tbat "tbe King gave no marks ol bis displeasur? to the Judges Holloway and Powell ;" 11. 163. It is due to the character of James, to say that this falsehood does not proceed from him: and justice requires it to be added, tba't as Dicconson, tbe compiler, thus evidently neglected the most accessible meins of ascertaining tbe truth, very little credit is due to .those portions of bis narrative for wbicb, as in the present case, he cites no authority. CONVERSION OF SUNDERLAND. 35 and measures, appeared in the peculiar evils of a^ single con spicuous prosecution. The feelings of mankind, in this fespect more provident than their judgment, saw, in the loss of every post, the danger to the last entrenchments of public liberty. At the moment, a multitude of circumstances," wholly foreign to its cha racter as a judicial proceeding, gave the trial the strongest' hold on the hearts of the people. Unused to popular meetings, and little accustomed to poUtical writings, the whole nation looked On this first public discussion of their rights in a high place, and sur rounded by the majesty of public justice, with that new and intense interest which it is not easy for those who are familiar with such scenes to imagine. It was the prosecution of men of the mOst venerable character and manifestly innocent intention, after the success of which no good man could have been secure. l/'was an experiment, in some measure, to ascertain the means and probabilities of deliverance. The: government was on its trial; and by the verdict of acquittal, the King was jiistly convicted of a conspiracy to maintain usurpation by oppression. The solicitude of Sunderland for moderation in these proceed ings had exposed him to such charges of -lukewarniness/ that he deemed it necessary no longer to delay the long-promised and decisive proof of his identifying his interest with' that of his master. Sacrifices of a purely religious nature cost him little.* Some time before, he had compounded for his own delay by causing his eldest son to abjure Protestantism ; " choosing' 'rather," says Barillon, " to expose his son than'himself tt>' future hazard." The specious excuse of preserving his vote in 'Pariiament had hitherto been deemed sufficieftt. The shame of apostasy, and an anxiety not to embroil hirasidlf ' irrejparably with a' Protestant successor, were the motives for delay;' But nothing IfeSs' than a public avowal of his conversion would now suffice to shut the mouths of his enemies, who imputed hi? advice of lenity toward.s the bishops to a desire of keeping measures with the adherents of the Prince of Orange.'' It was aoeordiaglyiin the .week of the bishops' trial 'that he mad^ {Itfblic his renunciation of tb^P'fptestant religion, but without any solemn abjuration;: because be had the " " On ne scalt pas de quelle religion il est." Lettre d'un Anonyme (peut-etj'e Bonrepaux) sur la Conr de Londres, 1687. MSS. au Depot des Affaires" EtPang4res. * "Ha voulu fenner la bouche a ses ennemis, et leur oter tout prete»*,e de dire qu'il peut entrer dans sa conduite quelque menagement pour la parisif: j|b M, le Prince d'Orange." Barillon, 29 June (8 July), 1688. 3" 39 BIRTH OF A PRINCE OF WALES. year before seci'etly performed that cereraony to Father Petre." By this measure he corapletely succeeded in preserving or recovering the favour of the King, who announced it with the warmest com mendations to his Catholic counseUors, and told the nuncio that a resolution so generous and holy would very much contribute to the service of God. " I have, indeed, been informed," says that rainister, *' that sorae of the raost fanatical merchants of the city have observed that the royal party raust certainly be the strong est, since, in the raidst of the universal exasperation of men's minds, it is thus erabraced by a man so wise, prudent, rich, and wdl inforraed." •" The Catholic, courtiers also considered the con version as an indication of the superior strength and approaching triumph of their religion." Perhaps, indeed, the birth ofthe Prmce of Wales raight have encouraged him to the step. But it chiefly arose from the prevalence, of the present fear for his place over the apprehension of remote consequences. Ashamed ofhis conduct, he employed a friend to communicate his change to his excellent lady, who bitterly deplored it." His uncle, Henry Sidney, the most confidential agent of the Prince of Orange, was incensed at his apostasy,* and openly expressed the warmest wishes for his downfaU." Two days aftfer the imprisonment of the bishops, as if all the events which were to hasten the catastrophe of this reign, however various in their causes or unlike in their nature, ¦vyere crowded into the same scene, the Queen was delivered in the palace of St. James's, of a son, whose birth had been the object of raore hopes and ,fears, and was now the hinge on which greater events turned, than that of any other' royal infant since human affairs have been recorded in authentic history. Never did the dependenc.e c^f a raonarchical government on physical accident * Barili. ubi ^upra. "Father Petre, thougbit was irregular, was forced to say two masses in one morning, because Lord Sunderland and Lord Mulgrave were not to know of e»ch other's conversion." Halifax MSS. The French ambassador al Constantinople Informed Sir Williara Trumbull of tbe secret abjuration. Ibid. " It is now necessary," says V. Citters, " to secure tbe King's favour ; the Queen's, if she be, regent J and, bis own place in the Council of Regency, li there be bne." V. enters; 24 Jiihe (6 July). ' ' ' ' D'Adda, 29 June (9 July). r " Johnst. 2d July. ' Johnst. ubi supra. Evelyn, wbo visited Altborp a fortnight after, alludes to tt "After a warm panegyric on Lady 'Sunderland (Lady Anne Digby), he says, 'I wish from my soul that the Lord ber husband, whose parts are otherwise con spicuous, were as worthy ofher, as by a fatal apostasy and court ambition he bas made himself unworthy.' " Evelyn, 18tb Jnly, 1688. • John,st. ubi supra. , BIRTH OF A PRINCE OF WALES. 97 more strikingly appear. On Trinity Sunday, the 10th of June," between nine and ten in the morning, the Prince of Wales was born, in the presence of the Queen Dowager, of most of the Privy Council, and of several ladies of quaUty ; of aU, in short, wha were the natural witnesses on such an occasion, except the Princess Anne, who was at Bath, and the Archbishop of Canterbury, who was a prisoner in the Tower. The cannons of the Tower were fired, a general thanksgiving was ordered, and the Lord Mayor was enjoined to give directions for bonfires and public rejoicing. Some addresses of congratulation followed; compUments were received on so happy an occasion from foreign powers. The British ministers abroad, in due time, celebrated the auspicious birth with undisturbed magnificence, at Rome; amidst the loudest manifestations of dissatisfaction and apprehension at Amsterdam. From Jamaica to Madras, the distant dependencies, with which an unfrequent intercourse was then maintained by tedious voyages; continued their prescribed rejoicings long after other feeUngs openly prevailed in the mother country. The genius of Dryden, which often struggled with the difficulty of a task imposed, commemorated the biAh of the "son of prayer" in no ignoble verse,'" but with prophecies of glory, which were speedUy clouded, and in the end most signaUy disappointed; The universal beUef that the chUd was suppositions is a fact which Ulustrates several principles of huraan nature, and affords a needful and wholesome lesson of scepticism, even in cases where many testimonies seem to combine, and all judgments for a time agree. The historians who wrote while the dispute was stiU pending enlarge on the par ticulars ; in our age, the only circumstances deserving preservation are those which throw light on the origin and reception of a false " In the Gregorian Calendar the 20tb. ' Britannia Rediviva : — " Born in broad daylight, tbat the ungrateful rout May find no room tor a remaining doubt : Truth, wbicb itself is light, does darkness shun, And tbe true eaglet safely dares tbe sun. Fain would tbe fiends bave made a dubious birtb, ? ? ? * No future ills, nor accidents, appear, To sully or pollute the sacred infant's year. * ? ? ? But kings too tame are despicably good Be this tbe mixture of tbe regal child, By nature manly, but by virtue mild." 38 BIRTH OF f PRINCE OF WALES. opinion^ which •»"** be owned. jto have contributed to the subse quent events; Few births are so well attested as that ofthe unfor tunate prince whora" alraost aU English protestants then believed to be spurious. , The Queen had, for raonths before, aUuded to her pregnancy, in the raost unaffected raanner, to the Princess of Orange.* The delivery took place in the presence of many per sons of unsuspected veracity, a considerable number of whom were prptestants. Messengers were early sent to fetch Dr. Chamberlain, an eminent obstetrical practitioner, and a noted Whig, who had been oppressed by the King, and who would have been the last per son sumraoned to be present at a pretended delivery.'' But as " not one in a thousand" had credited the pregnancy, the public now looked at the birth with, a strong predispositipn to unbelief, which a very natural neglect suffered for some tirae to grow stronger from being uncontradicted. This prejudice was provoked to greater violence by the triumph of the Catholics, as suspicion had before been awakened by their bold predictions. The importance of the event had, at the earlier part of the pregnancy, produced raystery and reserve, the frequent attendants of fearful anxiety, which were eagerly seized on as presuraptions of sinister purpose. When a passionate and inexperienced Queen disdained to take any raeasures to silence malicious rumours, her inaction was imputed to inabihty ; when she submitted to the use of prudent precautions, they were represented as betraying the fears of conscious guilt : every act of the rpyal.famUy had sorae handle by which ingenious hostUity could turn it against thera. Beason was eraployed only to discover ar guraent in support of the judgment which passipn had prpnounced- In spite of the strongest evidence, the Princess Anne honestiy persevered in her [incredulity." Johnstone, who received minute inforraation of aU the particulars of the delivery frora one of the Queen's attendants,'' could not divest hiraself of suspicions, of which the good faith seeras to be proved by his not hazarding a positive judgraent on the subject. • The sUghtest incidents of a lying-in room were darkly coloured by his suspicions. It is evident that no in- • Ellis's Letters, Hi. 348. (1st series, 1824.) 21st Feb., I5tb May, and after wards 6tb July and 13th. The last is decisive. '' Dr. Chamberlain's Letter to tbe Princess Sophia. Dalrymple, Append. " Princess Anne to Princess of Orange. Ibid. " " Johnst. June 13. Mrs. Dawson, one of the gentlewomen of the Queen's bedchamber, a Protestant, afterwards examined before the privy council, who communicated all the circumstances to her friend, Mrs. Baillie, of Jerviswood, Johnstone's sister, , ^ BIRTH OF A PRINCE OF WALES. 39 cidents in human hfe could have stood the test of a trial by minds so prejudiced, especially as long as adverse scrutiny has the ad vantages of partial selection and skUful insinuation, undisturbed by full discussion, in which all circumstances are equally sifted. When the before-mentioned attendant of the Queen declared to a large company of gainsayers that " she would swear," as she after wards did, " that the Queen had a chUd," it was immediately said, " How ambiguous is her expression ! the chUd might have been born dead." At one moment he boasts of the universal unbelief; at another he is content with saying that even wise men see no evidence of the birth ; that, at all events, there is doubt enough to require a parliamentary enquiry, and that the general doubt may be lawfully employed as an argument by those who, even if they do not share it, did nothing to produce it.* He sometimes endeavours to stifle his own scepticism by public opinion, and on other occa sions has recourse to these very ambiguous maxims of factious casuistry ; but the whole tenour of his confidential letters shows the groundless unbehef in the prince's legitiraacy to have been as spon taneous as it was general. Various and even contradictory ac counts of the supposed imposture were circulated. It was said that the Queen was never pregnant ; that she had miscarried at Easter ; that one child, and by some accounts two chUdren, in succession, had been substituted in the room of the abortion. That these tales contradicted each other, was a very slight objection in the eye of a national prejudice. The people were very slow in seeing the con tradiction. Some had heard only one story, some jumbled parts of more together. The zealous, when beat out of one version, re tired upon another. The skilful chose that which, like the abor tion, of which there had actually been a danger, had some apparent support from facts. When driven successively from every post, they took refuge in tlje general remark, that so many stories must have a foundation ; that they all coincided in the essential circum stance of a supposititious birth, though they differed in facts of in ferior moment ; that the King deserved, by his other breaches of' faith, the humUiation which he now underwent ; that the natura^\ punishment of those who have often deceived is to be disbelieved when they speak truth. It is the policy of most parties not to dis courage zealous partisans. The multitude considered every man who hesitated in thinking the worst of an enemy, as his abettor ; ¦^ Johnst. ISth June. 40 DISAFFECTION OF THE CHURCH. ~ and the loudness of the popular cry subdued the remains of candid donbt in those who had at^first, from policy, countenanced, though they did not contrive, the delusion. At subsequent times, it was not thought the part of a good citizen to take away any prop from the Re'volution, and to detect a prevalent error, which afforded a justification of it, which, though ignoble, enabled the partisans of inviolable succession to adhere to it -without inconsistency during the reign of Anne.* By a belief in the spuriousness of the Prince of Wales, the House of Hanover were brought more near to an here ditary right. Johnstone, on the spot, and at the moment, almost worked hiraself into a belief of it ; Lloyd, bishop of St. Asaph, honestly adhered to it many years after.'" The collection of incon sistent rumours on this subject by Burnet reflects more on his judgment than any other passage of his history ; yet, zealous as he was, his conscience would not allow hira to profess his own belief in what was still a fundaraental article of the creed of his party. Echard, under George I., intiraates his disbehef, for which he is almost rebuked by Kennet. The upright and judicious Bapin, thpugh a French Prptestant, an efficer of the array led by the Prince of Orange into England, yet, in the liberty of his foreign retire ment, gave an honest judgraent against his prejudices. Both par ties, on this subject, so exactly believed what they wished, that per haps scarcely any individual before him exarained it on grounds of reason. The Catholics were right by chance, and by chance the Protestants were wrong. Had it been a case of the teraporary suc cess of artful irapostures, so coraraon an occurrence would have deserved no notice. But the growth of a general delusion frora the prejudiee and passion of a nation, and the deep root which enabled it to keep a place in history for half a century, render this transaction worthy to be reraerabered by posterity. The triumph of the Bishops did not terminate aU proceedings of the ecclesiastical coraraissioners against the disobedient clergy. They issued an orders requiring the proper officers in each diocese •Ho raake aTeturn of the naraes of those who had not read the royal • Caveat against tbe Whigs, part ii. 50., where the qnestion is left in doubt at the critical period of 1712. ,,.,,, „ij • ^ See bis acQOunt, adverted to by Burnet and others, pubhshed by Oldmixon, i. 734. " Tbe bishop wbom your friends know, bids me tell them that he had met with neither man nor woman who were so good as to believe the Prince of Wales to he a lawful child." Johnst. 2d July. This bold bishop was probablj Compton. ' 12tb July, Lond. Gaz. THE DISSENTERS. 41 declaration. On the day before that which was fixed for the giv ing in the return, a meeting of chancellors and archdeacons was held, at which eight agreed to return that they had no means of procuring the information but at their regular visitation, which did not fall within the appointed time. Six declined to make any re turn ; and five excused themselves on the plea that the order had not heen legally served upon them.* The coraraissioners were now content to shut their eyes on lukewarmness, resistance, or evasion. They affected a belief in the reason assigned for noncom pliance, directed a retiirn to be raade on the 6th of December, and appointed a previous day for a visitation.*" On the day when they exhibited these symptoms of debility and decay, they received a let ter from Sprat, tendering the resignation of his seat at their board, which was universally regarded as foreboding their speedy dissolu tion ;" and the last dying effort of their usurped authority was to adjourn to a day on which they were destined never to meet. Such, indeed, was the discredit into which these proceedings had fallen, that the Bishop of Chichester had the spirit to suspend one ofhis clergy for obedience to the King's order in reading the royal declaration.'' The Court and the Church contended with each other for the alliance ofthe Dissenters, but with very unequal success. The last attempt of the King to gain them, was the admission into the privy councU of three gentlemen, who were either Noncon formists, or well disposed towards that body, — Sir John Trevor, Colonel Titus, and Mr. Vane, the posthumous son of the cele brated Sir Henry Vane." In the meantime, the Church took better raeans to unite all Protestants against a usurpation which clothed itself in the garb of religious liberty. The established clergy held several consultations on the mode of coming to a better under standing with the Dissenters.' The archbishop and clergy of London had several conferences with the principal dissenting mi nisters on the measures fit to be proposed about religion in the next parliament.* The primate himself issued admonitions to his • Sayers' News Letter, 18tb August. '' 16th August, London Gazette. " Sayers' News Letter, 22d August. " The secretary gave this letter to tbe cbancellor, wbo swore tbat the bishop was mad. He gave it to the lord president, but it was never read to the board." Sucb was then the disorder in their minds and in tbeir proceedings. ¦' Sayers' News Letter, I9th Sept., Kenn. iii. 515, note; in both whicb, the date of Sprat's letter is 15th August, 1688, the day before the last meeting of the commissioners. ' 6th July, Lond. Gaz. ' Sayers' News Letter, 7tfa July, " News Letter, 2lstJuly. Ellis, iv. 117, (2d series,) 42 THE ARMY. clergy, in which he exhorted them to have a very tender regard to their brethren, the Protestant dissenters, and to entreat them to join in prayer for the union of all reforraed churches "at horae and abroad, against the common eneray,"* conformably to the late petition of himself and his brethren, in which they had declared their willingness to come into such a teraper as should be thought fif with the Dissenters, when that raatter should be considered in parliament and convocation. He even carried this new-born ten derness towards the long persecuted Dissenters so far as to renew those projects for uniting the more moderate of them to the Church, by sorae concessions relating to the terms of worship, and for exempting those whose scruples were insurmountable from the se verity of penal laws, which had been smothered by his friends, when they were negotiated by Hale and Baxter in the preceding reign; and, within a few months after, these amicable overtures were again resisted, by the same party, with too much success. The disaffection of the Church raanifested itself in several instances. The University of Oxford refused so sraall a corapliance as that of conferring the decree of doctor of divinity on their bishop, ac cording to the royal raandaraus, *" and hastened to elect the young Duke of Ormond to be their chancellor on the death of his grand father, in order to escape the imposition of Jeffreys, for whom they apprehended a recomraendatipn frpra the Cpurt. Several syraptpras now indicated that the national discontents had infected the arraed force. The searaen in the squadron at the Nore received sorae raonks who were sent to officiate araong them with boisterous raarks of derision and aversion; and, though the tumult was composed by the presence of the King, it left behind disposi- tionsfavourabletothe purposes of disaffected officers. His proceed ings respecting the army were uniformly impolitic. He had, very early, boasted of the nuraber of soldiers in the guards who were converted to his reUgion; thus disclosing to thera the dangerous secret of their iraportance to his designs." This sensibility to the misfortunes of the bishops, shown at the Tower and at Lambeth, betokened a proneness to feUow-feeling with the people, which Sunderland had before intiraated to the nuncio, and of which he probably forewarned his raaster. After the triuraph of these pre lates, on occasion of whichthe feelings ofthe array declared thenj- ; Doyley, i. 324. " Sayers' News Letter, 25th July. " D'Adda, 5tb Dec. 1687, THE ARMY. 43 selves more loudly, the King had recourse to the very doubtful expedient of paying open court to them. He dined twice a week in the camp,* and showed an anxiety to ingratiate himself with them by a display of affability, of precautions for their comfort, and of pride in their discipline and appearance. Without the boldness which quells a mutinous spirit, or the firmness which, where acti vity would be injurious, can quietly look at a danger tiU it disap pears or may be surraounted, he yielded to the restless fearfulness which seeks a momentary relief in rash and mischievous efforts, that rouse many rebeUious tempers and subdue none. A written test was prepared, which even the privates were required to sub scribe,'" by which they bound themselves to contribute to the repeal of penal laws. It was first to be tendered to some regiments who were most expected to set a good example to the army. The ex periment was tried on Lord Ljchfield's regimentj and all those who hesitated in complying with his Majesty's commands were com manded to lay down their arms : the whole regiment, except two captains and a few Catholic soldiers, actuaUy laid down their arms. The King was thunderstruck ; and, after a gloomy moment of silence, ordered them to take up their muskets, saying, " that he should not again do them the honour to consult them." " When the troops returned from the encampment to their quarters, another plan was attempted for securing their fidelity, by the introduction of trustworthy recruits. With this view, fifty Irish Catholics were ordered to be equally distributed among the ten corapanies of the Duke of Berwick's regiment at Portsmouth, which, having a colo nel incapacitated by law, was expected to be better disposed to the reception of recruits liable to the same objection. But the experi ment was too late, and conducted with a slow formality alien from the genius of soldiers. The officers were now actuated by the same sentiments with their own class in society. Beaumont, the lieutenant-colonel, and the five captains who were present, posi tively refused to comply. They were brought from Windsor under an escort of cavalry, tried by a councU of war, and sentenced to be cashiered. The King relented, or rather faltered. He offered ¦ Ellis, ix. News Letter, iii, "' Johnst. 2d July. Oldmix. 1. 739. ° Kennet, lii. 516. Ralph speaks doubtfully of this scene, of which, indeed, no writer has mentioned the place or time. The written lest is confirmed by John stone, and Kennet could hardly have been deceived about tbe sequel. Tbe place must bave been the camp at Hounslow, and the lime was probably about the middle, of July. 44 STATE OF AFFAIRS, pardon, on condition of obedience; a fault as great as the original atterapt. They all refused. The greater part of the other of ficers of the regiraent threw up their coraraissions ; and, instead of intiraidation, a great and general discontent was spread throughout the array. To the odium incurred by an attempt to recruit it from those who were deeraed the raost hostile of foreign enemies, was superadded the contempt which feebleness in the execution of ob noxious designs never fails to inspire.* Thus, in the short space of three years from the death of Mon raouth and ofthe destruction of his adherents, when all who were not zealously attached to the Crown seeraed to be dependent on its raercy, were all ranks and parties of the EngUsh nation, without any previous show of turbulence, and with not much of that cruel oppression of individuals which is usuaUy necessary to awaken the passions of a people, slowly and almost iraperceptibly con ducted to the brink of a great revolution. The appearance of the Prince of Wales filled the rainds of those who believed his legi tiraacy with terror, and roused the warraest indignation of those who» considered his supposed birth- as a flagitious imposture. Instead ofthe governraent of a Protestant successor, it presented^ after the death of Jaraes, no prospect but an adrainistration cer tainly not raore favourable to reUgion and liberty, under the regency of the Queen, and in the reign of a prince ediicated under her superintendence. These apprehensions had been brought horae to the feelings ofthe people by the trial of the Bishops, and they at last affected even the army, the last resource of power ; a tremendous weapon, which cannot burst without threatening de struction to all around, and which, if it were not sometimes hap pily so overcharged as to recoil on him who wields it, would rob all the slaves in the world of hope, and aU the freemen of safety. The state ofthe other British kingdoms was not snch as to abate the alarms of England. In Ireland the government of Tyrconnel was always sufficiently in advance ofthe English minister to keep the eyes of the nation fixed on the course which their rulers were steering.'' Its • Reresby, 270 — 272; who seems to have been a captain In this regiment Burnet, iii. 272. ' " I do not vindicate all tbat Lord Tyrconnel, and others, did In Ireland before tbe Revolution, which, most of any thing, brought il on. I am sensible tbat their carriage gave greater occasion to King James's enemies than all the other mal-administrat!ons charged upon bis government." Leslie, Answer to King's State of the Protestants, 73. Leslie is tbe ablest of James's apologists. STATE OF AFFAIRS. 45 influence in spreading alarm and disaffection through the other do minions ofthe King, is confessed by the ablest and most zealous of his apologists. Scotland was also a mirror in which the English nation might behold their approaching doom. The natural ten dency ofthe dispensing and suspending powers to terrainate in the assumption ofthe whole authority of legislation, was visible in the declarations of indulgence issued in that kingdom. They did not, as in England, profess to be founded on limited and peculiar preroga tives of the King, either as the head of the Church or as the foun tain of justice, nor on usages and deterrainations which, if they sanc tioned such acts of power, at least confined thera within fixed boundaries, but upon what the King himself displayed, in all its ampUtude and with all its terrors, as " our sovereign authority, prerogative royal, and absolute power, which aU our subjects are bound to obey without reservation." * In the exercise of this alarm ing power, not only were aU the old oaths taken away, but a new oath, professing passive obedience, was proposed as the condition of toleration. A like declaration of 1 688, besides the repetition of so high an act of legislative power as that of " annulling" oaths which the legislature had prescribed, proceeds to dissolve all the courts of justice and bodies of magistracy in that kingdom, in order that by their acceptance of new commissions conformably to the royal pleasure, they might renounce all former oaths, so that every member of them would hold his office under the suspending and even annulling powers, on the legitiraacy of which the whole judi cature and adrainistration of the realm would thus exclusively rest."" Blood had ceased to flow for religion, and the execution of Ren- He skilfully avoids all the particulars of Tyrconnel's governmentj before the Re volution. 'Thai silence, and this general admission, may be considered as con clusive evidence against it. ¦ -Proclamation, 12th February, 1687. Woodrow, il., App. No. cxxix. " We bere in England see what we must look to. A parliament in Scotland proved a little stubborn; now absolute power comes to set all right; so wben tbe closeting has gone round, we may perhaps see a parliament bere; but if it chance to be untoward, then our reverend Jndges will copy from Scotland, and will discover to us this new mystery of absolute power, which we are all obliged to obey without reserve." Burnet's Reflections on Proclam. for Toleration. Eighteen Papers on Affairs of State, 10. Lond. 1689. '' 'Proclamation, 15th May. Woodrow, ii., App. No. cxxxviii. Fountainhall, j. 504. The latter writer informs us, that "this occasioned several sheriffs lo forbear awhile." Perth, tbe Scotch chancellor, wbo carried Ibis Declaration to Scotland, assured tbe nuncio, before leaving London, " that the royal prerogative was then so extensive as not to require the concurrence of parliament, which was only an useful corroboration." D'Adda, 11 (21) May, 1688. 44 STATE OF AFFAIRS, wick," a pious and intrepid rainister, who, according to the princi ples ofthe most zealous party among the Presbyterians,'" openly denied James II. to be his rightful sovereign, is rather an ap parent than real exception ; for the offence imputed to hira was not of a religious nature, and must have been punished by every established authority, though an impartial observer would rather regret the imprudence than question the justice of such a declaration from the mouths of these persecuted raen. Books against the King's religion were reprehended or repressed by the Privy CouncU." Barclay, the celebrated Quaker, was at this time in such favour, that he not only received a liberal pension, but had influence enough to procure an indecent but successful letter from the King to the Court of Session^ in effect annulling a judgraent for a large sura of raoney against Sir Ewen Caraeron, a bold and fierce chieftain, who was the brother-in-law of the accomplished and pacific apologist.'' Though the clergy of the Established Church had two years before resisted an unlimited toleration by prerogative, yet we are assured by a competent witness, that their opposition arose chiefly from the fear that it would encourage the unhappy Presbyterians, then alraost entirely ruined, and scattered through the world." The deprivation of two prelates, Bruce, Bishop of Dunkeld, for his cpnduct in Parliament, and Cairncrpss, Archbisliop of Glasgow, in spite of subsequent submission, for not censuring a preacher against the Chur«h of Rome,' showed the English clergy that suspensions like that of Compton might be fol lowed by more decisive measures, but seems to have silenced the complaints of the Scottish Church. From that timCj at least, their resistance to the Court entirely ceased. It was followed by symp- toms of an opposite disposition. Among these may probably be reckoned the otherwise inexphcable return to^.the pffice of Lprd Ad- vpcate pf the eloquent Sir George Mackenzie, their principal in struraent in the cruel persecution of the Presbyterians, who now accepted that station^ at the moment ofthe triumph of those princi- • 17tb February, 1688. Fountainhall. Woodroi*-,' . "¦ Called Cameroui'ans, ' A bookseller In Edinburgh, "threatened for publisblng aii account of the per.'ieculion In France." Fountainhall, Sth Feb. 1688, Cockburn, a minister, torbidden to continue a Review, taken chiefly from Le Clerc's "Bibliotheque Universelle," containing sorae Extracts from Mabillon's Iter Italicum, which were supposed to reflect on the Church of Rome. "¦ Fountainhall, 2d June, 1688. ' Balcarras, Affairs of Scotland, 8. Lond. 1714. ' Skinner, Eccles. Hist, of Scotland, il. 500—504. " 23d Feb. 1688. Fountainhall. DOCTRINE OF OBEDIENCE, 47 pies which he had forfeited the same office by opposing two years before. The Primate prevailed on the University of St. Andrews to declare,by an address to the King,their opinion that he might take away the penal laws without the consent of Parliament.* No manifesta tion of sympathy appears to have been made towards the English Bishops, at the moment of their danger or of their triumph, by their brethren in Scotland. At a subsequent period, when the Prelates of England offered wholesome and honest counsel to their Sove reign, those of Scotland presented an address to him, in which they prayed that " God might give him the hearts of his subjects and the necks of his enemies." '' In the awful struggle in which the English nation and Church were about to engage, they had to num ber the Established Church of Scotland among their enemies. CHAPTER X. Doctrine of Obedience. — Right of Resistance. — Comparison of Foreign and Civil War. — Right of calling Auxiliaries. — Relations of tbe People of England aud of Holland. The time was now corae when the people of England were called upon to determine, whether they should by longer submission sanction the usurpations and encourage the further encroachraents of the Crown, or take up arms against the established authority of their Sovereign for the defence of their legal rights, as well as of those safeguards which the constitution had placed around them. Though the solution of this tremendous problem requires the calm est exercise of reason, the circurastances which bring it forward commonly call forth mightier agents, which disturb and overpower the action of the understanding. In conjunctures so awful, where raen feel more than they reason, their conduct is chiefly governed by the boldness or wariness of their nature, by their love of liberty or their attachraent to quiet, by their proneness or slowness to fellow-feeling with their countrymen. The generous virtues and turbulent passions rouse the brave and aspiring to resistance; some " FountainhaU, 29th March, 1688. •• 3d Nov. 1688. Skinner, ii. 513. 48 DOCTRINE OF OBEDIENCE. gentle virtues and useful principles second the qualities of human nature in disposing many to subraission. The duty of legal obe dience seems to forbid that appeal to arras which the necessity of preserving law and liberty aUows, or rather demands. In such a conflict there is Uttle quiet left for moral deliberation. Yet by the immutable principles of morality, and by them alone, raust the historian try the conduct of all raen, before he allows himself to consider all the circurastances of time, place, opinion, example, temptation, and obstacle, which, though they never authorise a removal ofthe everlasting landmarks of right and wrong, ought to be well weighed, in aUotting a due degree of coraraendation or cen sure to human actions. The English law, like that of most other countries, lays down no limits of obedience. The clergy of the Established Church, the authorised teachers of public raorality, carried their principles much farther than was required by a raere concurrence with this cau tious sUence of the law. Not content with inculcating, in coraraon with all other moralists, religious or philosophical obedience to civU government as one of the most essential duties of huraan life, the English Church perhaps alone had solemnly pronounced that in the conflict of obligations no other rule of duty could, under any circumstances, becorae raore binding than that of aUegiance. Even the duty which seems paramount to every other, that which re quires every citizen to contribute to the preservation of the com munity, ceased, according to their moral system, to have any binding force, whenever it could not be performed without re sistance to established governraent. Regarding the power of a monarch as more sacred than the paternal authority frora which they vainly laboured to derive it, they refused to nations oppressed by the raost cruel tyrants* those rights of self-defence which no raoraUst or lawgiver had ever denied to children against unnatural parents. To palliate the extravagance of thus representing obe dience as the only duty without an exception, an appeal was raade to the divine origin of governraent, as if every other raorai rule were not, in the opinion of all theists, equally enjoined and sanc tioned by the Deity. To denote these singular doctrines, it was thought necessary to devise the terms of passive pbedience and non- resistance, uncouth and jarring forms of speech, not unfitly re- " Interpretation of Romans, xiii. 1 — 7., 'written under Nero. Among many others, South, Sermon, 5tb Nov. 1663. DOCTRINE OF RESISTANCE. 49 presenting a violent departure from the general judgment of man kind. This attempt to exalt submission so high as to be always the highest duty, constituted the undistinguishing loyalty of which the Church of England boasted as her exclusive attribute, itf contradis tinction to the other reformed communions, as weU as to the Church of Rome. At the dawn of the Reforraation it was promulgated in the homUies or discourses appointed by the Church to be read from the pulpit to the people,* and all deviations from it had been re cently condemned by the University of Oxford with the solemnity ofa decree from Rome or from Trent.'" The seven Bishops them selves, in the very petition which brought the contest with the Crown to a crisis, boasted of the inviolable obedience of their church, and of the honour conferred on them by the King's re peated acknowledgments of it. Nay, all the ecclesiastics and the principal laymen of the Church had recorded their adherence to the sarae principles, in a stUl more solemn and authoritative mode. .By the Act of Uniformity, " which restored the legal establishraent of the episcopal church, it was enacted that every clergyman, school master, and private tutor should subscribe a declaration, affimling that " it was not lawful on any pretext to take up arms against the King," which members of corporation •' and officers of militia" were by other statutes of the same period compelled to swear ; to say nothing of the stUl raore coraprehensive oath whichthe high-Church leaders, thirteen years before the trial of the Bishops, had laboured to irapose on all public officers^, raagistrates, ecclesiastics, and members of both Houses of Parliament. That no man can lawfully proraise what he cannot lawfully do, is a self-evident proposition. That there are some duties superior to others, wiU be denied by no one ; and that when a contest arises the superior ought to prevail, is iraplied in the terms by which the duties are described. It can hardly be doubted that the highest obligation of a citizen is that of contributing to preserve the com munity; and that every other political duty, even that of obedience to the magistrates, is derived from and must be subordinate to it. It is a necessary consequence of these simple truths, that no man who deems self-defence lawful in his own case, can, by any en gagement, bind himself not to defend his country against foreign " Homilies of Edw. VI. and Eliz. ' Pari. Hist. 20tb July, I6S3. ' 14 Cb. II. u. 4. "-13 Cb. IL st ii. c. 1. ' 14 Ch. H. c. 3. II, 4 *" DOCTRINE OF RESISTANCE, or domestic enemies. Though the opposite proposUions reaUy involve a contradiction in terras, yet declarations of their truth were imposed by law, and oaths to renounce the defence of our country were considered as binding, tiU the violent collision of such pretended obligations with the security of all rights and institutions awakened the national mind to a sense of their repugnance to the first principles of raorality. Maxiras, so artificial and overstrained, which have no raore root in nature than they have warrant from reason, raust always fail in a contest against the affections, senti ments, habits, and interests, which are the raotives of huraan con duct, leaving little rapre than corapassionate indulgence to the smaU number who conscientiously cling to thera, and fixing the injurious imputation of inconsistency on the great body who forsake them for better guides. The war of a people against a tyrannical governraent may be tried by, the same tests which ascertain the raorality of a war be tween 'independent nations. The eraployraent of force in the in-. tercourse of reasonable beings is never lawful, but for the purpose of repeUing or averting wrongful force. Huraan life cannot law fully be destroyed, or assaUed, o-r endangered, for any other object than, that of just defence. Such is the nature and such the boun dary of legitimate self-defence, in the case of individuals. Hence the right of the lawgiver to protect unoffending citizens by the ade quate punishraent of criraes : hence, also, the right of an indepen dent state to take aU raeasures necessary to her safety, if it be at tacked or threatened frora without ; provided always that repara tion cannot otherwise be obtained, that there is a reasonable pros pect of obtaining it by arras, and that the evUs of the contest are not probably greater than the raischiefs of acquiescence in the wrong ; including, on both sides of the deliberation, the ordinary consequences of the exaraple, as well as the iraraediate eff'ects of the act. If reparation can otherwise be obtained, a nation has no necessary, and therefore no just cause of war ; if there be no pro bability of obtaining it by arras, a governraent cannot, with justice to their own nation, erabark it in war ; and if the evUs of resistance should appear, on the whole, greater than those of submission, wise rulers will consider an abstinence frora a pernicious exercise of~ right as a sacred duty to their own subjects, and a debt which every people owes to the great comraonwealth of mankind, of which they and their enemies are alike members. A war is just DOCTRINE OF RESISTANCE. 61 against the wrongdoer when reparation for wrong cannot other wise be obtained ; but it is then only conformable to all the princi ples of morality, when it is not likely to expose the nation by whom it is levied to greater evUs than it professes to avertj and when it does not inflict on the nation which has done the wrong sufferings altogether disproportioned to the extent of the injury. When the rulers of a nation are required to determine a question of peace or war, the bare justice of their case against the wrongdoer never can be the sole, and is not always the chief, matter on which they are moraUy bound to exercise a conscientious deliberation. Prudence in conducting the affairs of their subjects is, in thera, a part of justice. On the sarae principles the justice of a war made by a people against their own judgment must be examined. A governraent is entitled to obedience from the people, because without obedience it cannot perform the duty, for which alone it exists, of protecting them from each other's injustice. But when a governraent is en gaged in systematically oppressing a people, or in destroying their securities against future oppression, it commits the same species of wrong towards them which warrants an appeal to arms against a foreign enemy. A magistrate who degenerates into a systematic oppressor shuts the gates of justice on the people, and thereby re stores them to their original right of defending themselves by force. As he withholds. the protection of law frora them, he forfeits his moral claim to enforce their obedience by the authority of law. Thus far civU and foreign war stand on the same moral foundation. The principles whicb determine the justice of both against the wrongdoer are, indeed, throughout, the same. But there are cer tain peculiarities, of great importance in point of fact, which in other respects permanently distinguish them from each other. The evils of failure are greater in civU than in foreign war. A body of insurgents is exposed to ruin. The prohabflities of suc cess are more difficult to calculate in cases of internal contest than in a war between states, where it is easy to conipare those merely material means of attack and defence which raay be measured or numbered. An unsuccessful revolt strengthens the power and sharpens the cruelty of the tyrannical ruler, while an unfortunate war may produce Uttle of the former evil and of the latter nothing. It is almost peculiar to intestine war that success may be as mis chievous as defeat. The victorious leaders may be borne along by the current of events far beyond their destination ; a goverit^ 4* 52 DOCTRINE OP RESISTANCE. ment may be overthrown which ought to have been repaired ; and a new, perhaps a more formidable, tyranny may spring out of vic tory. A cegular governraent raay stop before its fall becoraes pre cipitate, or check a career pf ccnquest when it threatens destruction to itself But the feeble authority of the chiefs of insurgents is ra,r6ly able, in the one case, to raaintain the courage, in the other to repress the impetuosity, of their voluntary adherents. FinaUy, the cruelty and misery incident io all warfare are greater in do raestic dissension than in contests wilh foreign enemies. Foreign wars have little effect on the feeUngs, habits, or condition of the majority ofa great nation, to most of whom the worst particulars of thera raay be. unknown. But civil war brings the same or worse evils into the heart pf a country and into the bosom of raany families: it eradicates all habits of recourse to justice and reverence for law; its hostilities are not mitigated by the usages which soften wars between nations; it is carried on with the ferocity of parties who apprehend destruction from each other ; and it may leave behind it feuds still raore deadly, -^^'hich raay render a country depraved and wretched through a long sucoession of ages. As it involves a wider wastp of virtue and happiness than any other species of war, it can only be warranted by the sternest and most dire necessity. The chiefs of a justiy disaffected party are unjust to their fellows and their followers, as well as tp aU the rest pf their countrymen, if they take up arms in a case where the evils of submission are not more intolersible, the irapossibihty of reparation by pacific means raore apparent, and the chances of .obtaining it by a^ms greater than are necessary to justify the rulers pf a nation towards their own subjects for undertaking a foreign wari A wanton rebellion, when con sidered with the aggravation of its ordinary consequences, is one of the greatest of crimes. The chiefs of an inconsiderable and ill- concerted revolt however provoked, incur the inost formidable responsibility to their foUowers and their country. An insurrection rendered necessary by oppression, and warranted bya reasonable probabUity ofa happy termination, is an act of public virtue, always environed with so much peril as to merit admiration- In proportion to the dpgree in which a revolt spreads over a large body tiU it approaches unaniniity, the fatal peculiarities of civil war are lessened. In the insurrection of provinces, either distant or separated by natural boundaries, more especiaUy if the inhabitants, differing in religion and language, are rather subjects DOCTRINE OF RESISTANCE. 53 of the same government than portions of the same people, hos tilities which are waged only to sever a legal tie may assume the regularity, and in some measure the mildness, of foreign war. Free men, carrying into insurrection those habits of voluntary obedience to which they have beeii trained, are more easily restrained from excess by the leaders in whom they have placed their confidence. Thus far it may be affirmed^ happily for man kind, that insurgents are most humane where they are likely to be most successful. But it is one of the most deplorable circum stances in the lot of man, that the subjects of despotic governments, and still more those who are doomed to personal slavery, though their condition be the worst, and their revolt the most just against their tyrants, are disabled to conduct it to a result beneficial to themselves by the very magnitude of the evils under which they groan; for the most fatal effect of the yoke is, that it darkens the understanding and debases the soul, and that the victims of long oppression, who have never irabibed any noble principle of obe dience, throw off every curb when they are released from the chain and the lash. In such wretched conditions /of society, the rulers may, indeed, retain unliraited power as the moral guardians of the community, while they are conducting the arduous process of gradually transforming slaves into men; they cannot justly retain it without that purpose, or longer than its accomplishment requires; and the extreme difficulty of such a reformation, as well as the dire effects of any other emancipation, ought to be deeply considered, as proofs of the enormous guilt of those who introduce any kind or degree of unlimited power, as well as of those who increase, by their obstinate resistance, the natural obstacles to the pacific amendment of evUs so tremendous. The frame of the huraan mind, and the structure of civihsed society, have adapted themselves to the important differences between civil and foreign war. Such is the force of the consider ations which have been above enumerated ; so tender is the regard of good raen for the peace of their native country, so nuraerous are the links of interest and habit which bind those of a more common sort to an establishment, so difficult and dangerous is it for the bad and bold to conspire against a tolerably vigilant administration; the eVils which exist in moderate governments appear so tolerable, and those of absolute despotism so incorrigible, that the number of unjust wars between states unspeakably sur- 54 DOCTRINE OF RESISTANCE. passes those of wanton rebeUions against the just exercise of authority. Though the maxira, that there are no unprovoked revolts, ascribed to the Due de Sully, and adopted by Mr. Burke,* cannot be received without exceptions, it raust be owned that in civUised times raankind have suffered less frora a rautinous spirit than from a patient endurance of bad governraent. Neither can it be denied that the objects for which revolted subjects take up arras do, in raost cases, concern their safety and well-being raore deeply than the interests of states are in general affected by the legitimate cause of regular war. A nation may justly raake war for the honour of her flag, or for dorainion over a rock, if the one be insulted, andthe other be unjustly invaded; because acquiescence in the outrage or the wrong may lower her reputation, and thereby lessen her safety. But if these soraetimes faint and reraote dangers justify an appeal to arms, shall it be blaraed in a people who have no other chance of vindicating the right to worship God according to their consciences, to be exempt frora iraprisonraent and exaction' at the mere wUl and pleasure of one or a few, to enjoy as perfect a security for their persons, for the free exercise of their industry, and for the undisturbed enjoyment of its fruits, as can be devised by human wisdora under equal laws and a pure administration of justice P What foreign eneray could do a greater wrong to a coraraunity than the ruler who would reduce thera to hold these interests by no higher tenure than the duration of his pleasure ? What war can be more necessary than that which is waged in defence of ancient laws and venerable institutions, which, as far as they were suffered to act, had for ages approved theraselves to be the guard of all these sacred privUeges, the shield which protects reason in her fearless search of truth, and conscience in the performance of her humble duty towards God ; the spur which rouses to the utmost every faculty of raan; the nursery of genius and valour, the spur of probity, humanity, and generoaty ? As James was unquestionably an aggressor, and the people of Eng land drew their swords only to prevent him frora accomplishing a revolution which should change a legal and limited power into law less despotisra, it is needless, on this occasion, to raoot the ques tion, whether arms may be as justly wielded to obtain as to defend " L'Eclnge, Mem. de Sully. Burke, Thoughts on the present Discontents. DOCTRINE OF RESISTANCE, 55 liberty. It may, however, be observed, that the rulers who obsti nately persist in withholding from their subjects securities for good government, obviously necessary for the permanence of that bless ing, generaUy desired by competently informed men, and capable of being introduced without danger to public tranquillity, appear thereby to place themselves in, a state of hostiUty against the nation whom they govern. Wantonly to prolong a state of insecurity seems to be as much an act of aggression as to plunge a nation into that state ; when a people discover their danger, they have a raorai claim on their governors for security against it. As soon as a dis temper is discovered to be dangerous, and a safe and effectual remedy has been found, those who withhold the reraedy are as rauch morally answerable for the deaths which raay ensue as if they had administered poison. But though a reformatory revolt may in these circumstances becorae perfectly just, it has npt the sarae likelihppd ofa prosperous issue with those insurrections which are more strictly and directly defensive. A defensive revolution, of which the sole' purpose is to preserve and secure the laws, has a fixed boundary, conspicuously . marked out by the well-defined object which it pursues, and which it seldom permanently over-reaches ; and is thus exempt from that succession of changes which disturbs all habits of peaceable obe dience, and weakens every authority not resting on mere force. Whenever war is justifiable, it is lawful to call in auxUiaries. But though always legitimate against a foreign or domestic enemy, it is often in civil contentions peculiarly dangerous to the wronged peo ple themselves. It exposes them to the peril of becoming the slaves ofthe foreign prince who enters as their aUy; it must always hazard national independence, and will therefore bethelastresource- of those who love their country. Good men, more especially if they are happy enough to be the natives of a civUised, and still more of a free country, religiously cultivate their natural repug nance to a remedy of which despair alone can warrant the eraploy ment. Yet the dangers of seeking foreign aid vary extremely in different circumstances. These variations are chiefly regulated by the power, the interest, and the probable disposUion of the auxi liary to become an oppressor. The perils are the least where the inferiority of national strength in the foreign ally is such as to for bid all projects of conquest, and where the independence andgreat- 56 RELATIONS WITH HOLLAND. ness of the nation to be succoured are the main or sole bulwarks of his own. These fortunate peculiaritieswere all to be found in the relations between the people of England and the republic of the United Provinces; and the two nations were further united by their comraon apprehensions from France, by no obscure resemblance of national character, by the strong sympathies of rehgion and liberty, by the reraerabrance of the renowned reign in which the glory of England was founded on her aid to Holland, and perhaps, also, by the esteera for each other which both these maritime na tions had learned in the fiercest and most raeraorable corabats which had been then celebrated in the annals of naval warfare. The British people derived a new security against the dangers of foreign interposition frora the situation of him who was to be the chief of the enterprise to be attempted for their deliverance, who had as deep an interest in their safety and well-being as in those of the nation whose forces he was to lead to their aid. William of Nassau, Prince of Orange, Stadtholder ofthe repubhc of the United Provinces, was, before the birth of the Prince of Wales, first prince of the blood royal of England ; and his consort, the Lady Mary, the eldest daughter of the King, was at that period presumptive heiress to the crown. It is now, then, time to turn our attention towards that great man, the deliverer of Holland and the preserver of Europe ; from whom alone the people of England hoped for deUverance, and who, without their powerful aid, would have been unable to secure the independence of civUised nations, the sole object of his glorious life. 57 CHAPTER XI. Extraction of tbe House of Orange. — ^Review of the Struggles in tbe Netherlands.— Character, Situation, and Projects of WiUiam III.— Intrigues of Charles II.— Fate of the War.— Results of the Treaty of Nimeguen. — Aggrandisement of Louis XIV.— Austria.- The Netberlands.—England.— Popish Plot.— Bill of Ex clusion. — Connexion of English Affairs with William's Policy. The house of Nassau stood conspicuous, at the dawn of modern history, among the noblest of the ruling families of Germany. In the thirteenth century, Adolphus of Nassau succeeded Rodolph of Hapsburg in the imperial crown, the highest dignity of the Christian world. A branch of this ancient house acquired ample possessions in the Netherlands, together with the principality of Orange in Provence; and under Charles V., WUliam of Nassau was the most potent lord of the Burgundian provinces. Educated in the palace and almost in the chamber of the eraperor, he was nominated in the earliest years of manhood to the government of Holland and the command of the iraperial army by that sagacious monarch, who, in the meraorable solemnity of abdication," leant upon his shoulder as the first of his Belgic subjects. The same eminent qualities which recomraended him to the confidence of Charles awakened the jealousy of PhUip II., whose anger, breaking through all the restraints of his wonted simulation, burst into fu rious reproaches against the Prince of Orange as the fomenter of the resistance of the Flemings to the destruction of their privileges. Among the three rulers who, perhaps unconsciously, were stirred up at the same moment to preserve the civU and religious liberties of mankind, William I. must be owned to have wanted the brilliant and attractive quaUties of Henry IV., and to have yielded to the commanding genius of Elizabeth ; but his principles were more in flexible than those of the amiable hero, and his mind was undis- " By the ancient name of Stadtbonder (whence tbe Englisb term Stadtholder) or Lieutenant of Holland. Kluyt, Vetus Jus Pub. Belg. p. 364. ; and Wagenaar,, Vaderland. Hist., in many places. '' 25th Oct. 1555, when the Prince of Orange had entered his twenty -third year. 58 - THE HOUSE OF NASSAU. turbed by the infirraities and passions which lowered the illustrious queen. Though he performed great actions with weaker means than theirs, his course was more unspotted. Faithful to the King of Spain as long as the preservation of the coraraonwealth allowed, he counselled the Duchess of Parraa against all the iniquities by which the Netherlands were lost; but faithful also to his country, in his dying instructions he enjoined his son to beware of insidious offers of coraproraise frora the Spaniard, to adhere to his aUiance with France and England, to observe the privileges of provinces and towns, and to conduct hiraself in all things as became the chief ma gistrate of the republic* Advancing a century beyond his con- temppraries in civUised wisdpm, he braved the prejudices pf the Calvinistic clergy, cpntending for the tpleratipn of CathoUcs, of whpra the chiefs had swprn his destructipn." Thoughtful, of un conquerable spirit, persuasive though taciturn, of siraple character, yet raaintaining due dignity and becoraing raagnificence in his pub lic character, an able coramander and a wise statesman, he is per haps the purest of those who have risen by arras frora private sta tion to suprerae authority, and the greatest of the happy few who have enjoyed the glorious fortune of bestowing liberty upon a peo ple. " The whole struggle of this iUustrious prince was against foreign oppression. His posterity, less happy, were engaged in doraestic broils, partly arising from their undefined authority, and from the very coraplicated constitution of the coraraonwealth, of which a general outiine seems necessary to be inserted in this place. The seven provinces who established their independence made Uttle change in their internal institutions. The revolt against Philip's personal coraraands was long carried on under colour pf his legal authprity,< conjointly exercised by his lieutenant, the Prince of Orange, and, by the states, coraposed of the nobility and of the deputies of towns, who had before shared a great portion of it. But, being bound to each other by an indissoluble confederacy, established at Utrecht in 1579, the care of their foreign relations , ' D'Estrades, frnm his MSS. in the bands of bis youngest son. ' Burnet, i. 547. ' Even Strada himself bears one testimony to this great man, which outweighs all his vain reproaches. " Nee postea mulavere (Holland!) qui vtdebant et glo- riabantur ab unius hominis conatu caBptisqne illi utcunque Infelicibus assurgere In, dies Hollandlcum nomen Imperlumque." Strada de Bello Belgico. Dec. Ii; Tib. v., snb ann. 1581. THE REPUBLIC OF HOLLAND, .'iO and of all tjieir coramon affairs was entrusted to delegates, sent frora each, who gradually assuraed the name of States-general, which had been originally bestowed only on the occasional as semblies of the whole states of all the Belgic provinces. These arrangeraents, hastUy adopted in times of confusion, drew no distinct lines of demarcation between the provincial and federal authorities. Hostilities had been for many years carried on before the authority of Philip was finally abrogated; and after that decisive measure the states showed considerable disposition to the revival of a monarchical power in the person of an Austrian or French prince, or of the Queen of England. WiUiam I, seems about to have been invested with the ancient legal character of Earl of Holland at the moment of his murder,* He and his successors were Stadtholders ofthe greatest provinces, and some times of all ; they exercised in that character a powerful influence » on the election of the magistrates of towns ; they coraraanded the forces of the confederacy by sea and land ; they corabined the prerogatives of their ancient raagistracy with the new powers, of which the necessities of war seeraed to purify the assuraption, and they becarae engaged in constant disputes with the great bodies, whose pretensions to an undivided sovereignty were as recent and as little defined as their own rights. The province of HoUand forraed the main strength of the confederacy ; the city of Amsterdam predominated in the councils of that province. The provincial states of Holland, and the patricians in the towns frOm whora their raagistrates were selected, were the aristocratical ^ntagoniste of the Stadtholderian power, which chiefly rested on officral patronage, on military command, on the favour of the populace, and on the influence of the minor provinces in the States-general. Maurice, the eldest Protestant son of WUliam, surpassed his father in mihtary genius, but fell far short of hira in that raoderation of temper and principle which is the most indispensable virtue of the leader of a free state. The blood of Barneveldt and the dungeon of Grotius have left an indelible stain on his memory ; nor is it without apparent reason"" that the aristocratical party have charged him with projects of usurpation natural to a family of re publican magistrates aUied by blood to all the kings of Europe, and ¦ Pestel, Comm. de Repub. Batav., II. 42, 43. Lugd. 1795. '¦ Aubery Dnmanrier. Memoires de la Hollande, 293. Vandervynkt. Troubles des Pays-Bas, iii. 27. 60 WILLUM HI. distinguished by raany approaches and pretensions to the kingly power, which they were always terapted and soraetiraes provoked to pursue. Henry Frederick, his successor, was the son of WUliam I. by Louise de Coligny; a woman singular in her character as weU as in her destiny ; who, havmg seen her father and the husband of her 'youth murdered at the raassacre of Saint Bartholoraew, was dooraed to witness the faU of a raore iUustrious husband by the hand of an assassin of the sarae faction, and who in her last widowhood earned the affection of Williara's children by former wives, so as to ensure their protection to a son whora she inspired with her own virtues. Having raaintained the farae of his family in war, he was happier than his raore celebrated brcther in a dpmestic administratipn, which was racderate, tplerant, and unsus pected.* He lived tp see the final recpgnitipn pf Dutch independ ence by the treaty cf Munster, and was succeeded by his sen, WUIiara II., who, after a short and turbulent rule, died in 1650, leaving his widow, the Princess Royal of England, pregnant, who was delivered of her only child, Williara III., on the Mth of Noveraber, 1650, eight days after the death of his father. This posthumous orphan, pf feeble frarae, with early indicatipus pf disteraper, seemed tp be invelved in the clpud pf misfortune which then cpvered the deppsed and exiled family pf his mother. The patricians of the commercial cities, who had gathered strength with their rapidly increasing wealth, were incensed at the late attack of WiUiara II. on Amsterdam ; they were emboldened by the. establishment of a republic in England, and prejudiced, not 'without reason, against the Stuart family, whose absurd principle of the divine right of kings always disposed Jaraes I. to regard the Dutch as no better than successful rebels,'" and led his son, in 1631, a period of profound peace and professed friendship with Holland, to conclude a secret treaty with Spain for the partition of the Repubhc, in which England was to be rewarded for treachery and rapine by the sovereignty of Zealand." Under these circumstances the aristocratical repubUcans found no dif ficulty in persuading the States to assurae all the authority hitherto exercised by the Stadtholder, without fixing any period for con- " D'Estrades, i. 55. Aubery Dumaurier. ' " In bis table discourse he pronounced tbe Dutch to be rebels, and condemned tbeir cause, and said tbat Ostend belonged to the Archduke." Carte, iii. 714. ° Clarendon,'State Papers, i. 49., and ii. App. xxvii. WILLIAM III. 61 ferring on the infant Prince the dignities which had been enjoyed by three generations of his family. At the peace of 1654, the States of Holland bound themselves by a secret article, yielded with no great reluctance to the demands of Cromwell, never to choose the Prince of Orange to be their Stadtholder, nor to con sent to his being appointed Captain-general of the forces of the confederacy; a separate stipulation, at variance with the spirit of the union of Utrecht, and disrespectful to the judgment of the weaker confederates, if not injurious to their rights." After the Restoration, however, this engagement lost its power. Rut when the prince of Orange had nearly reached years of discretion, and when the brilUant operations of a mUitary campaign against Eng land had given new vigour to the republican administration, John De Witt, who, under the raodest title of pensionary of Holland, had long directed the affairs of the confederacy with a success and reputation due to his matchless honesty and prudence,'" prevailed on the States of Holland to pass a law, entitled, "A perpetual Edict for the Maintenance of Liberty," by which they abolished the Stadtholdership in their own province, and agreed to take effectual means to obtain from their confederates edicts excluding all those who may be Captain-generals from the Stadtholdership of any of the provinces, binding theraselves and their successors by oath to observe these provisions, and imposing the like oath on all who may be appointed to the chief command by land or sea." Guelderland, Utrecht, and Overyssell acceded. Friesland and Groningen, then governed by a Stadtholder of another branch of the family of Nassau, were considered as not immediately in terested in tlbe question. Zealand alone, devoted to the House of Orange, resisted the separation of the supreme railitary and civil offices. On this footing De Witt professed his readiness to confer the office of Captain-general on the Prince, as soon as he should be of fit age. He was allowed to take his seat in the Council " Cromwell was prevailed upon to content himself with this separate .stipulation, very imperfect in form, but which tbe strength of the ruling province rendered in substance suflicient. Whitelock, Memor., 12tb May, 1684. ' It can hardly be Injurious lo tbe memory even of this great man, to appeal to the testimony ot Sir William Temple, aman of such sense and integrity, wbo waa generally opposed in politics to De Witt, and wbo wrote after bis death. Temple on the United Provinces, chap iv. i ' 3d August, 1667. "The immediate occasion of this edict seems to have been a conspiracy, for which one Buat, a spy employed by Lord Arlington, was executed in 1666. Hist, de J. D. De Witt, liv. 1!, chap. ii. Utrecht, 1709. 62 WILLIAM III. of State, and took an oath to observe the perpetual edict." His opponents struggled to retard his railitary appointment, to shorten its duration, and to limit its powers. His partisans, on the other hand, supported by England, and led by Amelia of Solms, the widow pf Prince Henry, a wcraan pf extraordinary ability, who had trained the young Prince with parental tenderness, seized every opportunity of pressing forward his noraination, and of preparing the way for the enlargement of his authority. This contest might have been longer protracted, if the conspiracy of Louis and Charles, and the occupation of the greater part of the country by the array, had not brought undeserved reproach on the administration of De Witt. Fear and distrust became, uni versal; every man suspected his neighbour; accusations were heard with greedy creduUty; raisfortunes were imputed to treachery, and the multitude cried aloud for huraan victims. The incor- pprate pfficers pf the great tpwns, priginally chpsen by, the burgh ers, had, pn the usual plea pf avpiding turault, obtained the right of filling up all vacancies in their own nuraber. They thus strengthened their po'vver, but destroyed their security. No longer connected with the people by election, the aristocratical famUies received no fresh infusion of streiigth, and had no hold on the attachraent of the community. They forraed, indeed, the better part of the people ; they had raised the fisherraen of a few raarshy districts to be one of the greatest nations of Europe. But the raisfortunes of a moment banished the reraerabrance of their ser vices ; their grave and harsh virtues were raore unpopular than vices; the needs and disasters of war served to. heighten the plebeian clamour, and to strengthen the raiUtary power which forraed the combined force of the Stadtholderian party. It was in vain that the republicans endeavoured to satisfy, that party, and to gain over the King of England by the nomination of the Prince of Orange to be Captain-general.'' Charles was engaged in deeper designs." The progress of the French arras still farther exasperated the populace, and the republicans incurred the le- ' Sir William Temple's Despatches to Lord Arlington. ' 2!>tb February, 16'}2. Wagenaar, " Peter de Groot, the son of Grotius, ambassador from the slates at Paris, had discovered tbe secret treaty for tbe destruction of Holland concluded by the Duchess of Orleans at Dover, on tbe 2'2d of May, 1670 ; lo which De Witt alluded in his conversations with Temple. — Summary of Treaty in Rose's Observations on Fox, collated in June, 1825, with MSS. in tbe possession of Lord Clifford. WILLIAM m. 63 proach of treachery by a disposition, perhaps carried to excess, to negociate with Louis XIV. at a moment when all negociation wore the appearance of submission. So it had formeriy happened. Barneveldt was friendly to peace with Spain, and Maurice saw no safety but in arms. Men equally wise and honest may differ on the difiicult and constantly varying question, whether uncompro mising resistance, or a reservation of active effort for a more fa vourable season, be the best mode of dealing with a formidable conqueror. The dangers of either course are often so great that it may be hard, even after the event, to pronounce a sound judg ment. Though the war policy of Demosthenes terminated in the destruction of Athens, we dare not affirm that the pacific system of Phocion would have saved it. In the contest of Maurice with Barneveldt, and of De Witt with the adherents of the House of Orange, both parties had an interest distinct frora that of the com monwealth, for the influence of the States grew in peace, and the authority of the Captain-general was strengthened by war. The populace revolted against their magistrates in all the towns, and th^ States of Holland were compeUed to repeal the edict, which they caUed perpetual, to release themselves and all the officers from the oath which they had taken to observe ft, and to confer on the Prince the office of Stadtholder,* which they deemed it dangerous to join to the military command. In two years after the Stadtholdership, hitherto elective for Ufe, was made hereditary to his descendants. The popular commotions which produced this revolution were stained by the murder of John and Cornelius De Witt, a crime per petrated with such brutal ferocity, and encountered with such he roic serenity, that it may almost seem to be doubtful whether the glory of having produced such pure sufferers raay not in sorae de gree console a country for having given birth to assassins so atro cious. These excesses are singularly at variance with the calm and orderly character ofthe Dutch; but it is mere justice to observe, that, in the first century of their comraonwealth, both the parties which divided it were fruitful in great men, who acted and suf fered with equal dignity in those tragic scenes of which the con templation strengthens and exalts human nature. Perhaps no free state has, in proportion to its magnitude, contributed more araply to the amendment of mankind by examples of public virtue. •' 4th July, 1672. Wagenaar. 64 WILLIAM III. The Prince of Orange, thus hurried to the supreme authority at the age of twenty-two, was ignorant of these crimes, and avowed his abhorrence of thera. The raurders were perpetrated raore than a month after his highest advanceraent, when they could pro duce no effect but that of bringing odiura upon his party. But it raust be for ever deplored that the extrerae danger of his position should have prevented him from punishing the offences of his par tisans, tUl it seemed toolate to violate that species of tacit amnesty which tirae insensibly estabUshes. It would be irapossible ever to excuse this unhappy impunity, if we did not call to raind that Louis XIV. was at Utrecht, that the populace of the Hague had imbrued their hands in the blood of the De Witts, and that the ma gistrates of Amsterdam might be disposed to avenge on their coun try the cause pf their virtupus chiefs. Henceforward the Prince directed the counsels and arms of HoUand. He gradually formed and led a confederacy to set bounds to the ambition of Louis XIV. ; and he became by his abUities and dispositions, as much as by his position, the second person in Europe. From that raoment, aisp, he began tp act as a persenage pf the utraost iraportance in the internal history of England. We possess unsuspected descriptions of his character from ob servers of more than ordinary sagacity, who had an interest in watching its development, before it was surrounded by the daz zling iUusions of power and fame. Among the mpst valuable pf these witnesses were sprae pfthe subjects and servants pf Lpuis XIV. At the age of eighteen the Prince's good sense, knowledge of af fairs, and seasonable concealment ofhis thoughts, attracted the at tention of GourviUe, a raan of experience and discernraent. St. Evre- mond, thpugh hiraself distinguished chiefly by vivacity and accom plishments, saw the superiprity pf AiViUiara's ppwers thrpugh his si lence and cpldness. After Ipng intimacy. Sir WUliam Temple des cribes his great endpwments and excellent qualities, his (then al raost singular) corabination of " charity and religious zeal," "his desire ( rare in every age ) to grow great rather by the service than the servitude of his country : " language so raanifestly considerate, discrirainating, and unexaggerated, as to bear on it the inimitable starap of truth, in addition to the weight which it derives from fhe probity ofthe writer. But, of all those who have given opinions of the young Prince, there is none whose testimony is so important as that of Charies II. That raonarch, in the eariy part of his reign. WILLIAM HI. 65 was desirous of gaining an ascendant in Holland by the restoration of the House of Orange, and of subverting the government of De Witt, whom he never forgave for his share in the treaty with the English Republic." Some retrospect is necessary, tp explain the experiment by which that monarch both ascertained and made known the ruling principles of his nephew's mind. The mean negociations about the sale of Dunkirk betrayed to Louis XIV. the passion of Charles for French money. He, at the same time, offered to.the French ambassador to aid Louis in the conquest of Flanders, on condition of receiving French succours against the revolt ofhis own subjects.* He strongly expressed his desire of an offensive and defensive alliance with Louis XIV., in 1 664, to Ruvigny, one of the most estimable of that monarch's agents;" but the most pernicious of Charles's vices, never bridled by any virtue, were often mitigated by the minor vices of indolence and irresolution. Even the love of pleasure, which made him needy and rapacious, unfitted him for undertakings full of toil and peril. Projects for circumventing each other in Holland, which Charles airaed at influencing through the House of Orange, and Louis hoped to master through the republican party, retarded their secret advances to an entire union. De Witt was compelled to consent to some aggrandisement of France, rather than expose his country to a war not to be attempted without the co-operation of the King of England, who was ready to betray a hated ally. The first Dutch war appears to have arisen from the passions of both na tions, and their pride of maritime supremacy; employed by Charles as instruments to obtain booty at sea, and supply from his parlia ment; and by Louis as the means of enabling him, without opposi tion, to seize the Spanish Netherlands. When that war was closed by the peace of Breda,'' the Court of England seemed for a moment to have changed its maxira, by the conclusion ofthe Triple Alliance, which prescribed some liraits to the arabition of France ; " a systera which De Witt, as soon as he raet so honest a negociator as Sir William Temple, eagerly and joyfully hastened to embrace. Temple was, however, duped by his master. It is probable that the Triple AUiance was the result of a fraudulent project, sug- " O'Estrades, i. which contradicts Clarendon's account. •' D'Estrades, v. 450. Ed. London, 1743. ' Memoire de Ruvigny an Roi. Seme Juill. 1B68. Dalrymple, ii. 11. D'Es trades, V. 18th Dec. 1664. 20th Dec. 1663. '' July, 1667. • January, 1668. II. 5 86 WILLIAM Hf. gested originaUy by GourviUe to ruin De Witt, by embroiling him with France beyond the probabUity of reconcihation.' Charies raade haste to disavow the intentions professed in that alUance, and to attribute the contrary appearances to the coldness with which France received his earnest and iraportunate proposals for a closer connexion.*" A negociation for a secret treaty with France was ira raediately opened, partly by the personal intercourse of Charles with the French ministers at his court, but chiefly through his sister, 'the Duchess of Orleans; an amiable princess, probably the only person whora he ever loved; This correspondence, which was 'concealed from those of his rainisters who were not either Catholics or well affected to the Catholic religion," lingered for about two years, till the secret treaty was concluded at Dover, in May, 1670, under cover of a visit raade by the Duchess to her bro ther.'' The essential stipulations of this unparalleled corapact were three : — that Louis should advance money to Charles, to enable him the more safely to execute what is called in the treaty " A de- ", Mem. de GourviUe, li. 14—18. and 160. Ed. Paris, 1724. " Charles II. to Duchess of Orleans, 13 (23) Jan, 1668. Dal. li. 5. " This treaty has been laid to the charge of tbe cabinet called the Cabal, Irnjustly, for, of tbe five members of that administration, two only, Clifford and Arlington, were privy to the designs of tbe King and the Duke bf York, Ashley and Laud were too zealous Protestants to he trusted with it. Buckingham (whatever might be bis indifference In religion) had too much levity lobe trusted with sucb secrets, but he was so penetrating that it was thought prudent to divert bis attention from the real negoclatlpn, hy engaging bim In negoclatlng a simulated treaty, in which the articles favo,iirable lo tbe Catbolic religion were left out. On the other bandj Lord Arundel and Sir R. Belling, Catholics, not ofthe Cabal, were negociators. ¦' 22 May, (1 June) 1667 ; signed by Lords Arlington and Arundel, Thomas Clifffird, and Sir R. Belling, on tbe part of tbe King of England ; and by Colbert de Croissy, the brother of the celebrated financier, on tbe part of France. , Rose, Observ. on Fox, 51. Summary collated with the original, in tbe bands of tbe present Lord Clifford. The draft of the- same treaty, sent to Paris by Arundel, does not materially differ. Dalrymple, 11. 44. " The life, of James II.," 1. 440t— 450., agrees, in most circumstances, witb these copies of tbe treaties, and with the correspondence. There Is one Important variation. In the treaty it is stipulated tbat Charles's measures In favour of the Catbolic religion sbould precede the war against Holland, according to tbe plan whicb be bad always supported. " The Life" says, that tbe resolution was taken at Dover to begin with the war against Holland. But tbe despatch of Colbert from Dover 20 (30) May (Dal. 11. 57.), almost justifies the statement, whicb may refer lo a verbal acquiescence of Charles, piobabiy deemed sufBcienl in tbese clandestine transactions, where that prince desired nothing but snch assurances as satisfy gentlemen in private life. It Is true that tbe narrative of the Life is not bere supported by those quotations from tbe King's original Memoirs, on which the credit of tbe compilation essentially depends. But as in tbe eighteen years, 1660 — 1678, which exhibits no such quotations, there are Intemal proofs tbat some passages, at least, of tbe Life are taken from tbe Memoirs, the absence of quotation does not derogate so much from the credit of this part of tbe work as it would from tbat of any other, Edinb, Review, xxvi. 402—^30. WILLUM in. 67 claration of his adherence to the Catholic religion," and support him with men and money, if that measure should he resisted by his subjects; that both powers should join their arms against Holland, the islands of Walcheren and Cadsand being allotted to England as her share of the prey, in a manner which clearly left the other territories of the Republic at the disposal of Louis ; and that Eng land should aid Louis in any new pretensions to the crown of Spain, or, in bther and plainer language, enable him, on the very probable event of Charles II. of Spain dying without i^ue,* to incorporate with a monarchy already the greatest in Europe the long-coveted inheritance of the House of Burgundy, and the two vast peninsulas of Italy and Spain. The strength of Louis would thus have been doubled at one blow, and all limitations to his farther progress x>n the Continent must have been left to his own moderation. It is hard to imagine what should have hindered him from rendering his monarchy universal in the civilised world. The port of Ostend, the island of Minorca, and the permission to conquer Spanish America, with a very vague promise of assistance of France, were assigned to England as the wages of her share of this conspiracy against mankind. The fearful stipulations for rendering the Ring of England in dependent of Pariiament, by a secret supply of foreign money, and for putting into his bands a foreign military force, to be employed against his subjects, were, indeed, to take effect only in case of the avowal of his reconcUiation with the'church of Rome; But as he represented it himself as a re-establishmfint of that Catholic Church, as he considered it as essential to the consolidation of his authority, which the raere avowal of his religion would rather have weakened, and the bare toleration -of k could little, if at all, proraote ; as he confessedly meditated measures for quiet ing the alarms of the possessors of church lands, whom the simple letter of the treaty could not have much disturbed ; as he proposed a treaty with the Pope to obtain the cup for the laity, and the mass in English,'' concessions which are scarcely intelligible with out the Supposition that the Church of Rome was to be established ; as he concealed this article from Shaftesbury, who must ha,ve known his religion, and Was then friendly to atoleration of it; and " Charles II,, King of Spain, was then a feeble and 'distempered child of nine vears old. • ' Dairy, ii. 84, Colb. 3d June, 1672. ¦ 68 WILLIAM in. as Pther articles were fraraed for the destruction of the only powerful Prptestant state pn the Cpntinent, there canupt be the slightest dpubt that the real pbject pf this atrpcipus cprapact, however disguised under the sraooth and crafty language of diploraacy, was the forcible iraposition of a hated rehgion* upon the BrUish nation, to which the conspirators foresaw a national resistance, to be stifled or quelled by ^ foreign army. It was evident that the most tyrannical measures would have been necessai'y for the accoraplishment of such purposes, and that the transfer of all civU, raUitary, and, ecclesiastical power to the mem bers of a coraraiinion, who had np barrier against public hatred but the thrpne, must have tended tp render the pewer of Charles absolute, and afforded hira the raost probable means of effectually promoting the plans of his ally for the subjugation of Europe. II the foreign and domestic objects of this treaty be considered, together with the raeans by which they were to have been accom plished, and the dire consequences whichmust have flowed from their attainraent, it seeras probable that so much falsehood, trea chery, and raercenary raeanness were never before combined in the decent formalities of a solemn corapact between sovereigns, with such preraeditated. bloodshed and unbridled cruelty,- for the pur pose of overthrowing the independence of all nations, and for ever subjecting raankind to civil tyranny and religious persecution. The only serablance of virtue in the dark plot was the anxiety shown to conceal it ; which, however, arpse raere from the fears than the shame of the conspirators. In spite of aU their precautions it transpired. The seicret was extorted from Turenne, in a raoment of weakness, by a young raistress, as a condition of favour to an aged lover.* He disclosed sorae of the secret corresppndence tp Puffen- dprf, the Swedish rainister at Parjs, tp detach the Swedes froD(i the triple alUance," and it was made known by that rainister as weU as ¦ It is but juat to mention, that Burnet mentions tbe " toleration of popery," Bum. 1. 526. He bad seen only Prlmi's history, and he seems to speak of the negociation carried on througb Buckingham, from wbom we know tbat the full extent of the plan was concealed; '¦ Memoires de Choisy ; and Charles II. to the Duchess of Orleans, 20lb January, 1669.' Dalrymple, il,t20; Louis XIV. forgave bim, observing, tbat lovers of sixty must purchase favour hy extraordinary sacrifices. It derogates from lie glory of Bossuet that this unseasonable amour sbould nearly coincide in time with the conversion of Turenne to tbe Roman Catbolic communion, which was ascribed to a Celebrated work of thfe great controversialist. Tbe narralive of Choisy is , confirmed by Ramsay, Hist, de Turenne, i. 429. Paris, 1735. • Sh' W. 'femple to Sir Orlando Bridgman, 24tb April, 1669. WILLIAM III. 69 by De Groot, the Dutch ambassador at Paris, to De Witt, who had never ceased to distrust the sincerity of the Stuarts towards Hol land.* The suspicions of Temple hiraself were early awakened ; and he seems to have in some measure played the part of a willing dupe, in the hope of entangling his master in honest aUiances. The substance of the secret treaty was the subject of general conversa tion at the Court of England at the time of PuffendorPs discovery.'" A pamphlet published, orat least- printed, in 1673, inteUigibly hints at such a treaty, influenced by corruption, " about four years hefore." " Not long after, Louis XIV., in a raomentof dissatisfaction with Charies II. , permitted or commanded the Abbate Prirai to print a history of the Dutch war at Paris, which derived credit from being soon suppressed atthe instance ofthe English rainister, and which gave an almost verbally exact summary of the secret treaty, with respect to three of its objects, — the partition of Hol land, the re-establishment of the CathoUc religion in the British Islands, and the absolute authority of the King.* The project for the dismemberment of Holland, adopted by Charles I. in 1631," appears to have been entertained by his eldest son tUl the last years of his reign.' As one of the airticles of the secret treaty had provided a petty sovereignty for the Prince of Orange out of the ruins of his eountry, Charles took the opjportunity of his nephew's visit to England, in October 1670,*^ to sound him on, a project which was thus baited for his concurrence. " All the Protestants," said the King " are a factious body, broken among themselves since they have been broken from the- main stock. Look into these things better; do not be misled by your Dutch blockheads.'"" The King immediately imparted the failure of his attempt to the French ' * De Witt observed to Temple, even in the days of tbe triple alliance: — "A change of councils in England would be our ruin. Since tbe reign of Elizabeth there has been such a fluctuation in the English councils that it bas been Impossible to concert measures with them for two years." ^ Pepys' Diary, •28lb April, 1669. " For a sum of money we are lo make a league with France. The money will so help, the King that he will not need the parliament. We must leave tbe Dutch, and that I doubt will undo us. It will make tbe parliament and kingdom mad." ' England's Appeal from the Private Cabal at Whitehall. Tracts in the reiga of Car. II. London, 1689, folio. ¦¦ State Trials in the reign of W.HI., i. Introd. 10. Lond. 1705, fol. ' Clar. Stale Papers. ' MSS. Plan of a joint war against Holland in the last six months of 1682, in Ijord Preston's papers, in the possession of Sir James Graham, ol Netberby. « Evelyn's Diary, 4th Nov. 1670. ' Burnet, i. 475. 70 WILLIAM HI. ambassador ; " I am satisfied with the Prince's abilities, but I find hira too zealous a Dutchman and a PrOtestant to be trusted with the secret." * But enough had escaped to disclose to the sagacious yputh the, purposes of his uncle, and to throw a strong light on the motivesof all his subsequent measures. The inclination ofCharles towards the Church pf Rpiiie ceuld never have rendered a raan so regardless of reUgion solicitous for a conversion, if he had not con sidered it as subservient to projects for the civU establishment of that church, which, as it could subsist only by his favour, must have been the instrument of his^ absolute power. Astonished as William was by the discovery, he had the fortitude during the life ofCharles to conceal it frora all but one friend, or at raost two. It was re served for later tiraes to discover, that Charies had the inconceiv able baseness to propose the detention of his nephew in England, where the teraptation of a sovereignty, being aided by the recovery of his freedora, raight act raore powerfully on his mind ; and that this proposal was refiised by Louis, either from magnaniraity, or from regard to decency ; or, perhaps frpra reluctance to trust his ally with the sole disposal of so iraportant a prisoner. ^ When the French army had advanced into the heart of Holland, the fpTtitude pf the Prince was unshaken. Louis pffered tP raake him sPvereign pf the remains of the country, under the prctectipn pf France and England. But at that moment of extreme peril, he answered, with his usual calraness, " I never wiU betray a trust, nor sell the liberties of ray country, which my ancestors have so long defended." AU around hira despaired. One of his very few con fidential friends, after having expostulated with hira on his fruitiess obstinacy, at length asked hira, if he had considered how and where he should live after Holland was lost. " I have thought of that," he replied : " I ara resolved to live on the lands I have left in Ger many. I had rather pass my life in hunting there than sell my country or rayjiberty to France at any price." " Buckingham and Arlington were sent from England to try, whether, beset by peril, the lure of sovereignty might not seduce him. The former often ¦ Colbert au Roi, 4tb Dec. 1670. Dalrymple, 11. 70. '' Dalrymple, ii. 79. Summary of Letters between Colbert De Croissy and his Court in October and November, 1670. It is unfortunate that neither tbe originals nor extracts from tbem are given. ' 'Temple, i. 381., folio; London, 1721. Memoirs, 1672—1679. This friend was probably bis uncle Zujlestein, for the conversation, passed before his intimacy wifh entinck. WILLIAM 111. 71 said, " Do you not see that the country is lost ?" The answer of the Prince to the profligate jbuffoon spoke the same unmoved resolution with that which he had made to Zuleystein or Fagel ; but it natu raUy rose a few degrees towards animation : — "I see it is in great danger, but there is a sure way of never seeing it lost; and that is, to die in the last ditch."* The perfect simplicity of these declara tions may, perhaps, authorise us to rank them among the most genuine specimens of true magnanimity which human nature has produced. Perhaps the history of the world does not hold out a better example, how high above the reach of fortune the pure prin ciple of obedience to the dictates of conscience, unaUoyed by in terest, passion, or ostentation, can raise the mind of a virtuous man. To set such an example is an unspeakably more signal service to mankind, than all the outward benefits which flow to them from the most successful virtue. It is independent of events, and it burns most brightly in adversity; the only agent, perhaps, of power to call forth the native greatness of soul which lay hid under the cold and unattractive deportment ofthe Prince of Orange. His situation in 1672 was calculated to ascertain whether his actions yould correspond with his declarations. Beyond the im portant country extending from Amsterdam to Rotterdam, a district of about forty miles in length, the narrow seat of the government, wealth, and force of the commonwealth, which had been preserved from invasion by the bold expedient of inundation, out of which the cities and fortresses arose like islands, little remained of the republican territory except the fortress of Maes tricht, the marshy islands of Zealand, and the secluded province of Friesland. A French army of a hundred and ten thousand men, encouraged by the presence of Louis XIV., and commanded by Conde and Turenne, had their head-quarters at Utrecht, within about twenty miles of Amsterdam, and impatiently looked forward to the moraent when the ices of winter should form a road to the spoils of that capital ofthe commercial world. On the other side, the hostile flag of England was seen from the coast. The Prince of Orange, a sickly youth of twenty-two, without fame or expe rience, had to contend against such enemies at the head of a new government, of a divided people, and a little army of twenty thousand men, either raw recruits or foreign mercenaries, whOm, • Burnet, i. 569. '2 WILLUM ni. the exclusively maritime policy of the late administration had left without officers of skiU or name. His imraprtal ancestor, wheO' he founded the repubUc abput a centurybefpre, saw at the lowest* ¦ ebb of his fortune the hope of aid from England and France. Far.' darker were the prospects of WiUiara EI. The degenieirate suc cessor of Elizabeth, abusing the ascendant of a parental relation, sought to tempt him to become a traitpr to his country for a share in her spoUs. The successor of Henry IV. offered him only the choice of being bribed or crushed. Such was the fear of France, that the Court of Spain did not dare to aid him, though their only hope was from his success. The German branch of the house of Austria was then entangled in a secret treaty with Louis, by which the Low Countries were ceded to him, on condition ofhis guaran teeing to the Eraperor the reversion of the Spanish monarchy on the death of Charles II. withput issue. Np great statesraan, ne U- lostrious commander but MontecucuUi, no able prince but the great Elector of Brandenburgh, was to be found araong the avowed friends or even secret well-wishers of WilUam. The territories of Co logne and Liege, which presented all the raeans of mihtary inter course between the French and Dutch frontiers, were ruled by the creatures of Louis XIV. The final destruction of a rebeUious and heretical confederacy was foretold with great, but not apparently unreasonable confidence, by the zealots of absolute authority in church and state;* and the inhabitants of Holland began seriously to entertain the heroic project of abandoning an enslaved country, * 1 subjoin two specimens of the opinions and Inclinations of Bi^lisb ministers concerning Holland at that time ..^ " HicjaceoBafavomm Celebris respnblica. Ex aqnis Data, ex aqois sastentata, nunc aqnis mersa. Exiguis inifiis, ipvidendis fortunis, stnpendis incrementis sic crevi, Ut terris viz cemnlam, mari vero parem minime tnlerim, RebeDibns receplacolo, periclitantibus auxilio mollis adstifi. None deseror ab omnibns ; A Gallo Et Anglo contra Hispanos defensa; Nunc ab iisdem opprimor," Dantzick, SOih Aug, 1672. State Paper Office. ^ " It is almost certain that al the rate the King of France now goeth, while I am inaking a circuit tp find him, tbe country will be gone. The French are within two or tbree leagues of Amsterdam, which, althoiigh it bath drowned tbe conntry about it, yet the multitnde of people, want of fresh water, and, above all, fear, will hinder them f^om doing the utmost for defence." Lcrd Halifax to Lord ALrlington, Bruges, ad Jnly, 1672. Downshire MSS. " In case of the snccess of tbe Invaders, the Zealanders, all zealous Protestants, hare resolved to offer themselves to England. I told the states of lhal province, the WILLIAM HI. TS and transporting the commonwealth to their dominions in the In dian islands. At this awful mament, fortune seemed to pause. The unwieldy magnificence of a royal retinue encumbered the ad vance of the French army. Though masters of Naerden, which was esteemed the bulwark of Amsterdam^ they were too late to hinder the opening of the sluices at Murden, which drowned the country to the gates of that city. Louis, more intoxicated with triumph than intent on conquest, lost in surveying the honours of victory the time which should have been spent in seizing its fruits. Impatient of so long an interruption ofhis pleasures, he hastened to display at VersaUles the trophies of a campaign of two months, in which the conquest of three provinces, the capture of fifty fortified places, and of 24,000 prisoners, were ascribed to him by his flat terers.* The cumbrous and tedious formalities of the Dutch con stitution enabled the Stadtholder to gain some time without suspi cion. Even the perfidious embassy of Buckingham and Arlington contributed somewhat to prolong negociations. He amused them for a moment by appearing to examine the treaties they had brought from London, by which France was to gain all the fortresses which commanded the country, leaving Zealand to England, and the rest of the country as a principality to himself."" Submission seemed inevitable and speedy, while the inundation rendered military move ments inconvenient and perhaps hazardous. Thej Prince thus obtained a little leisure for the execution of his measures. The people, unable to believe the baseness ofthe Court of London, were animated by the appearance of the ministers who came to seal their ruin. The government, surrounded by the waters, had time to negociate at Madrid, Vienna, and Beriin. The marquis de Monte rey, governor of the Catholic Netherlands, without instructions from the Escurial, had the boldness to throw troops into the important King had no fixed resolution to ruin them." The same to the same. Middleburgh, 5th July. (The above note, wben compared witb tbe text to which it refers, may appear to the reader not quite complete, or not qnite applicable. It is printed exactly as il was left by Sir James Mackintosh.) * " More tban a bnndred fortresses and military posts.'' CEuvres de Louis XIV., iii. 245. ' Tbe official despatches of these ambassadors are contained in a MS. volume, probably tbe property of Sir W. TrumbuU, now in the bands ofhis descendant, the Marquis of Downshire. These tiespatches show that the worst surmises, circulated at the lime, of the purposes of this embassy, were scarcely so bad as tbe truth. Ralph, i. 207. et seq. This embassy ended in a new treaty between Charles and Louis. Dumont. 74 WILLIAM HI. fortresses of Dutch Brabant, Breda, Braga-op-Zoom, and Bois-le- Duc, under pretence of a virtual guarantee of that territory by Spain. In England, the continuance of prorogations for two years ¦• re lieved the King frora parliaraentary opposition, but deprived him of sufficient supply ; drove him to resources alike inadequate and infamous,'" and foreboded that general indignation which, after the combined fleets of England and France had been worsted by the marine of Holland " alone (at the Very inoment when the remnant of the republic seeraed about to be swallowed up), corapelled him to desist '' from the open . prosecution of the odious conspiracy against that republic. The eraperor Leopold, roused to a just sense of the imrainent danger of Europe, cpncluded a defensive alUance withthe States-general." The Germanic body generally manifested the same spirit. Frederic WUliam of Brandenburgh,, called the Great Elector, took the field in the auturan, in conse quence of a defensive alliance which hehad concluded with Holland. After thc'Coraraenceraent of hostihties,' Turenne was corapelled to raarch from the Dutch territory to observe, and, in case of need, to oppose; the Austrian and Brandenburg troops ; and the young prince ceased to incur the risk and to enjoy the glory of being opposed to that great comraander, who ¦was the grandson of WiUiara I.,^ and had been trained to arras under Maurice. The winter of that year was unusuaUy late and short;'" but as soon as the ice seemed suffi ciently solid, Luxemburgh, who was left in coraraand at Utrecht, ad vanced, in the hope of surprising the Hague. A providential thaw obUged hira to retire ; his operations were liraited to the destruction of two petty towns ; and it seeras doubtful whether he did not owe his escape to' the irresolution or treachery of a Dutch officer en- ' From February, 1671, lo February, 1673. '¦ Shutting up the Exchequer, 2d January, 1672.1 ' Battle of Southwold Bay, 28th and 29tb May, 1672. In these memorable actions even the biographer of James II. in effect acknowledges, that De Ruyter had tbe advantage. James II., i. 457 — 476. He thrice encountered the combined fleet without defeat, on tbe 28tb May, the 4th June, and tbe lltb August, 1673. ' Peace between England and Holland, 9th (19) January, 1674. " 25th July, 1672. Dumont, vll., par. 1. 208. ' 26tb April, 1672. Id. ibid. 194. See also tbe defensive treaty between Leopold and Frederick William. Beriin, 15th (25) June, 1672. Id. ibid- 201. Tbe Englisb statesmen thought the German alliances could not save Holland : — " Not that we fear the revival of the Hollanders thereby from their desperate condition." Lord Arlington to sir B. Gascoyne. 26tb July, 1672. Miscell. Aui. 74. London, 1702. ' By Elizabeth of Nassau, Duchess of Bouillon. ' Louis XTV. complains of this hard winter. WILLIAM HI. 7ft trusted with a post which coramanded the line of retreat. At the perilous moment of Luxemburgh's advance, Williara had the bold ness to undertake a long march through Brabant to the attack of Charleroi, which he could not then hope to retain if he could have taken it. But he did raore than gain a fortress, bj giving spirit to his friends, and we know that his enterprise produced such an effect on his enemies as to interrupt the sleep of Louis XIV. ' In the ensuing year he began offensive operations with more outward and lasting consequences. Having deceived Luxemburgh, here- covered Naerden,* and shortly hazarding another considerable march beyond the frontier, he captured the city of Bonn, and thus compeUed Turenne to provide for the safety of his army by recross ing the Rhine. The Spanish governor of the Low Countries de clared war against France; and Louis was compeUed to recall his troops from Holland. Europe now rose on all sides against the monarch who not many months before appeared to be her undis puted lord. So mighty were the effects of a gallant stand by a sraall people, under an inexperienced chief, without a councU or minister but the pensionary Fagel, the pupUand adherent of De Witt ; who, actuated by the true spirit of his great master, conti nued faithfully to serve his country, in spite of the saddest examples ofthe ingratitude ofhis countrymen. The deliverance of HoUand in 1672, though the most signal triumph of a free people over mighty invaders since the defeat of Xerxes by the Greeks, which it even surpassed in the important circumstances that the valour of the aggressors was at least equal, whUe their military discipline, genius, and fame, were superior, has yet been so often related," and is so distantly connected with the subject of this work, that the above brief recital of it could scarcely be justified, if it had been po,ssible otherwise to manifest the character of the most important actor in the history of Eng land. In the six years of war which followed, a few particulars only can be mentioned here as contributing to the same end. The Prince commanded in three battles against the greatest generals of France. At Senef,'' it was a sufficient honour that he was not defeated by Conde; and that the veteran declared, on reviewing; • Lettre du Roi a Louvois, 23d Dec. 1662, — " a une heure apres minuit." CEuvres de Louis XIV., iii. 274. " September, I67'3. '" It is due to Voltaire to confess, tbat the passion to magnify bis hero has, on this occasion, yielded to bis natural feelings of humanity and justice. Siecle de Louis XIV. chap. xi. '' llth Aujgriist, 1674. »6 WILLIAM III. the events of the day, — « The young Prince has shown all the quaUties of the raost experienced coraraander, except that he exposed his own person too rauch." He was defeated without dishonour at Cassel, ' by Luxemburgh, under the nominal com mand of the Duke of Orleans. He gained an advantage over the same great general, after an obstinate and bloody action, at St. Denis, near Mons.'" This last battle was of raore doubtful moraUty than any other of his mihtary life, being fought four days after the signature of a separate treaty of peace by the Dutch plenipotentiaries at Nimeguen." It was not, indeed, a breach of faith, for there was no armistice, and the ratifications were not executed. It is uncertain, also, whether he had information of what passed at Nimeguen; the official despatches from the States- general reached hira only the next morning. The treaty was sud denly and unexpectedly brought to a favourable conclusion by the French ministers in one day; and the Prince, who condemned it as alike offen.sive to good faith and sound policy, had reasonable hopes of obtaining a victory, which, if gained before the final signa ture, raight have determined the fluctuating counsels of the States to the side of vigour and honour. He could not have hoped for this result if he had known that the treaty was signed. The morality of soldiers, even in our age, is not severe in requiring proof of the necessity of hloodshed, if the combat be fair, the event brilliant, and, more particularly, if the comraander freely exposes his own life. His gallant eneraies warmly applauded his attack, distinguished, as it seems erainently to have been, for the daring valour, which was brightened by the gravity and raodesty of his character ; and they declared it to be " the only heroic action of a six years' war between all the great nations of Europe." It is agreed, that if the official despatches hadnot hindered hira frora pro secuting the attack on the next day with the EngUsh auxiliaries, who raust then have joined hira, he was likely to have changed the fortune of the war.** Had he been raore scrupulous on this oc casion, his conduct would have been raore blaraeless ; but it raay be doubted whether the fraraes of raind which would have dis posed him to yield to such scruples would have fitted hira better for perforraing the great duty of his life. • llth April, 1677. ' I4th August, 1678. l ,Dnmont, vii., p. i. 350. lOtb of August; ratified at Versailles on tbe IStb of August, and at the Hague nn tbe 191b of September. " Sir William Temple's Memoirs, 1672—1679. WILLUM «I. 77 The object of the Prince and the hope of his confederates was to restore Europe to the eondition in which it had been placed by the treaty of the Pyrenees.* The result of the negociations at Nimeguen was to add the province of Franche Comte, and the most important fortresses of the Flemish frontier, to the cessions which Louis at Aix-la-Chapelle'" had extorted from Spain. The Spanish Netherlands were thus farther stripped of their defence, the barrier of Holland weakened, and the way opened for the reduction of all Jthe posts which face the most defenceless parts of the English coast. The acquisition of Franche Comte broke the military con nexion between Lombardy and Flanders, secured the ascendant of France in SwUzerland, and, together with the usurpation of Lor rain, exposed the German empire to new aggression. The ambi tion of the. French monarch was inflamed, and the spirit of neigh bouring nations broken, by the ineffectual resistance as much as by the long submission of Europe. The ten years which followed the peace of Nimeguen were the period of his highest elevation. The first exercise of his power was the erection of three courts, composed ofhis own subjects; and sitting, by his authority, at Brissac, Mentz, iand Besangon, to determine whether certain territories ought not to be annexed to France, which he claimed as fiefs of the provinces ceded to him by the Empire by the treaty of Westphalia. These courts, called Chambers of Union, summoned the possessors of these supposed fiefs to answer the King's complaints. The justice of the claim and the competence of the tribunals were disputed with equal reason. One of these provinces, called the three bishoprics, had been in the possession of France for more than a century. Its sovereignty, as weH as thatof Alsace, had been finally ceded thirty years, by the treaty of Westphalia. The crown of France had made no attempt during its possession or sovereignty to exercise those rights of paramount lordship to which claim was now laid. They had been long disused (if they really ever existed) by fhe ancient masters, and could not therefore be within the true con struction of the cession. To revive such superannuated preten sions, even by the equal forms of negociation, was an invasion of the principle of possession, on which the security of nations as well as of individuals alone reposes. To require foreign rulers to ¦ 7th Nov. 1659. Duraont, vi., p. ii. 264. ¦¦ 2d May, 1668. Dumont, vii., p. 1. 89. 78 WILLIAM III. answer such a plaint before French courts, was a declaration of war against all states'; raore especiaUy alarraing to the raultitude of weak princes and towns whp formed the Germanic bcdy. The chamber of union at Mentz decreed the confiscation of eighty fiefs, for default of appearance by the feudatories, among whom were the Kings of Spain and Sweden, and the Elector Palatine. Some petty spiritless princes actually did homage to Louis for territories, which were said to have been anciently fiefs ofthe see of Verdun. Under colour of a pretended judgraent of one of these courts, estabUshed at Brissac, '' the city of Strasburgh, a flourishing Pro testant republic, which coramanded an iraportant pass on the Rhine, was surrounded at midnight, in a tirae of general and profound peace, by a body of French soldiers, who compelled those magistrates who had not been previously corrupted to surrender the city to the crown of France, " araidst the constern ation and affliction of the people. On the same day, and almost at the same hour with the seizure of Strasburgh, a body of troops entered Casal, in consequence of a secret treaty with the Duke of Mantua, a dissolute and needy youth, who for a bribe ofa hundred thousand pounds, betrayed into ithe hands of Louis that fortress, then esteeraed thc bulwark pf Lprabardy.'' Bpth these usurp- atipns were in cputerapt pf a nptice frpra the imperial rainister at Paris, against the eccupation of Strasburgh, an iraperial city, or Casal, the capital of Montferrat, a fief of the Erapire." On the Belgic frontier, that raonarch employed means more summary and open than pretended judgraents or clandestine treaties. Taking it upon himself to determine the extent of terri- * Acte deFoi et Hommage rendu a la Coprunne de France parle Comte de Llnanges, Dum. vii,, p. il. 13. ^ Flassan, Histoire de la Diplomatle Francaise, iv. 59. 63. ° CEuv. de Louis XIV., iv. 194., where the original correspondence is published. The pretended capitulation Is dated on tbe SOth September, 1681. The design against jStrasburgb had been known in July. MSS. Letters of H. Saville, minister at Paris, to Sir Leoline Jenkins. Downshire Papers, ¦" QSuv. de Louis XIV., Iv. 216, 217. Correspondence of Louvois with Boufflers and Catinat. The mutinous conscience of Catiuat astonished and displeased tbe haughty minister. Casal had been ceded in 1678 by Matthio)i, the Duke's mi nister, who, either moved by remorse or by higher bribes from tbe House of Austria, advised bis master not to ratify the treaty ; for which he was carried prispner into France, and detained there in close and harsh custody. If basbeen lately speciously maintained tbat be was tbe famous prisoner with the iron mask, who died in the Bastille. The bargain for Casal was disguised In thf diplomatic forms of a con vention between the King and the Duke. Duraont, vii. p. ii. 14. An army of 15,000 men was collected in Daupbiny, at the desire ofthe Duke, to give his sale tbe appearance of necessity. Letters of H. Saville. • , • H. Saville to Sir L. Jenkins. Fontainbleau, 12th Sept. 1689, '* i • AGGRANDISEMENT OF LOUIS XIV. 79 tory ceded to him at Nimeguen, he required from the Court of Madrid the possession of such districts as he thought fit. Much was immediately yielded. Some hesitation was shown in surren dering the town and district of Alost. Louis sent his troops into the Netherlands till his demands were absolutely complied with ; and he notified to the governor, that the slightest resistance would be the signal of war. Hostilities soon broke out, which made him master of Luxemburg, one of the strongest fortresses of Europe, and were terminated in the summer of 1684, by a truce for twenty years, leaving him in possession of his usurpations, and giving the sanction of Europe to principles so fruitful in wrong as those from which they sprung. To a reader of the- nineteenth century, famUiar with the present divisions of.terfitory in Christendom, and accustomed to regard the greatness of France as well adapted to the whole state of the European system, the conquests of Louis XIV. may seem to have inspired an alarm disproportioned to their magnitude. Their real danger, however, will be speedily perceived by those, who more accurately consider the state of surrounding countries, and the subdivisicn pf dpminion in that age. Two monarchies only of the first class existed on the Continent, as the appellation of " the two crowns," then coramonly used in speaking of France and Spain, sufficiently indicate. But Spain, which, under the last Austrian king, had perhaps reached the lowest point of her extraordinary fall, was in truth no longer able .to defend herself. The revenue of somewhat more thaii .two miUions sterling was inadequate to the annual expense.* It was about one fourth of that of Louis XIV. at the same period.'" RonquiUo, the minister of this vast empire in London, was re duced to the necessity of dismissing his servants without payment." An- invader who had the holdness to encounter the shadow of a great name had little to dread, except from the poverty, which rendered the country incapable of feeding an army.ii Naples, Lombardy, and th§. Catholic Netherlands, though the finest pro vinces of Europe,' were a drain and a burden in the hands of a government sunk into imbecile dotage, and alike incapable of ruling and of maintaining these envied possessions. France had " Memoires de GourviUe, 11. 82. An account apparently prepared witb care. I adopt tbe proportion of thirteen livres to the pound sterling, wbicb is tbe rate of exchange give? by Barillon, in 1679. Dalrymple, 1. App. 314. , '' Notice sur Colbert par Lemontey. Lettre a I'Academie Francaise, Juin, 1S22, ' Honquillo, MSS, Lett, ¦> Gmirville,in 1669. 80 STATE OF EUROPE. in twenty years acquired a fourth of the Spanish Netherlands, the barrier of HoUand, under pretences so slight as never to be want ing at a convenient season. WhUe Spain, a lifeless and gigantic body, covered the South of Europe, the manly spirit and raUitary skill of Germany were rendered of almost' as little avaU by the minute subdivisions of territory. From tha Rhine to the Vistula, a hundred princes, jealous of each other, fearful of offending the conqueror, and often competitors for his disgraceful bounty, broke into fragments the strength of the Gerraanic race. The houses of Saxony and Bavaria, Brandenburgh and Brunswick, Wurtemburg, Baden, and Hesse, though araong the most ancient and noble of the ruling famUies of Europe, were but secondary states. Even the genius of the late Elector of Brandenburgh did not exerapt him frora the necessity or the temptation of occasional compliance with Louis. ' From the French frontier to the Baltic, no one firm mass stood in the way of his arms. Prussia was not then a monarchy, nor Russia an.European state. The conquests of France were already equal to the collective dorainions of many princes, not one of whora could then be overlooked in forraing a con federacy for European independence, which rendered it the bulwark of the Erapire against the irruptions ofthe Turkish barba rians. In the south-eastern provinces of Gerraany, where Rodolph of Hapsburgh had laid the foundations of the greatness of his farailv, the younger branch had, frora the death of Charles V. forraed a raonarchy, which, aided by the Spanish alliance, the imperial dignity, and a railitary position on the central frontier of Christendora, which rendered it the bulwark ofthe Erapire against the irruptions of the Turkish barbarians, rose during the thirty years' war to such a power, that it was prevented only by Gustavus Adolphus from enslaving the whole of Germany. France, which under Richelieu had excited and aided that great prince and his foUowers, was hence regarded for a tirae as the protector of the Gerraan States against the Emperor. Ravaria, the Palatine, and the three ecclesiastical Electorates, partly from reraaining jealousy of Austria, and partly frora growing fear of Louis, were disppsed to seek his protection and acquiesce in raany of his encroach raents." This nuraerous, weak, timid, and mercenary body of • The Palatine, together witb Bavaria, Mentz and Cologne, promised to vote for Louis XIV. as emperor in 1658. Ffeffel, ii. 360. 4to. Paris, 1776, A 'mor.e authentic and very curious account of this extraordinary negociation, extracted from the STATE OF EUROPE. 81 German princes, Supplied the chief materials out of which it was possible that an aUiance against the conqueror inight ofie day be formed. On the other hand, the military power of the Austrian monarchy was crippled by the bigotry and tyranny of ils princes. The persecution of the Protestants, and the attempt to establish absolute monarchy, had spread disaffection through Hungary and its vast dependencies, the Main basis of their power. In a tiontest between one tyrant and many, where the ftatiott itt a slate of personal slavery is equally disregarded by both, reason and huttia- nity might be neutral, If reflection did not remind us, that even the contests and fictions of a turbulent aristocracy call forth an energy, and magnanimity, and ability, which are extinguished under the quieter and more fatally lasting domination of A single master. The emperor Leopold 1., instigated by the Jesuits, of which or der he was a lay member, rivalled and anticipated Louis XIV.* in his cruel prosecution of the Hungarian Protestants, which drove the nation to such despair that they sought refuge in the aid of the comraon enemy ofthe Christian narae. The Turks, encouraged by the revolts of the oppressed Huiigarians, and stiraulated by the intrigues ofthe Court of VersaiUes, which began early,*" and con tinued for many years, at length invaded Austria with a mighty army, and would have mastered the capital of the most noble of Christian sovereigns, had not the siege of Vienna been raised, after a duration of two months,'^ by John Sobieski, King of Poland, the heroic chief of a people* whom in less than a century the House of Austria contributed to blot out of the raap of nations. While these dangers irapended over the Austrian raonarchy, Lpuis XlV. had been preparing to deprive it of the iraperidl sceptre, which in his hands would have proved no bauble. By secret treaties to which French archives, is publisbed by Lemontey (Monarchic de Louis XIV. Pieces Justif. No. 2.), by which it appears tbat tbe Elector of Mentz betrayed Mazarin, wbo bad distributed immense bribes to him and bis fellows. " He banished the Proiestant clergy, of whom 250, originally condemned to be stoned or burnt to death, but having nnder pretence, probably, of humanity, been sold to the Spaniards, were redeemed from the condition of galley slaves by tbe illustrious De Ruyter, after his victory over tbe French, on the coast of Sicily. CoKe, House of Austria, chajl, 66. '' Voltaire, Siecle de Louis XIV., says, before the peace of Nimeguen; Sir William TrumbuU, ambassador at Constantinople from August, 1687, to July, 1691, names French agents employed in fomenting the Hungarian rebellion, and negoclating with the Vizir. Memorials of my Embassy at Constantinople. Down shire MSS. ¦ I4th July to I2th September, 1683. 82 STATE OF EUROPE." the Elector pf Bavaria was terapted to agree, in 1670, by the pros-- pect of raatrimonial alliance with the House of France, and which were iraposed on the Electors of Brandenburgh and Sa^ionyin 1679, after the hurailiation of Europe at Niraeguen, these princes agreed to vote for Louis in case of the death of the Eraperor Leopold, which his infirm health had given frequent occasion to expect. The four Rhenish electors, especially after the usurpation of Stras burgh and Luxemburgh, were in his net, and he seems to have en tertained the like project for the Dauphin to a stUl later period." Such were the dangers which undermined or beset the only mo narchy ofthe continent capable of making head against Louis. In the United Provinces, the vanquished party, whose antipathy , to the House of Orange was exasperated by the cruel fate of De Witt, sacrificed the care of the national independence to jealousy of the Stadtholderian princes, and carried their devotedness to France to an excess which there was nothing in the exaraple of their justly revered leader to warrant. *" They obliged the Prince of Orange to accede to the unequal conditions of Nimeguen : they prevented him from making military preparations absolutely re quired by safety : they compelled hira to submit to the truce for twenty years, which left the entrances of Flanders, Gerraany, and Italy, in the hands of France. They concerted all the raeasures of doraestic opposition with the French minister at the Hague, and though there is no reason to believe that the opulent and creditable chiefs of that party, if they received French raoney at all, would deign to employ it for any other than what they bad unhappily been raisled to regard as a public purppse, there is the fullest evidence pf the emplpyraent of bribes to an extent and with a success not proved to exist on any other occasion, to raake known at VersaUles the raost secret counsels of the, Coraraonwealth." Arasterdara raised troops for her own defence, '' declared her deterraination not to contribute towards hostilities which the raeasures ofthe general " Lemontey, Nouv. Mem. de Dangeau, 478. Monarch, de Louis XIV. Pieces Justif. No. 3, ** The speed and joy with which be and Temple concluded tbe triple alliance seem, indeed, to prove tbe contrary. That treaty, so quickly concluded by two wise, accomplished, and, above all, honest men, is unparalleled in diplomatic trans actions. "Nulla dies unquam memori vos eximet tevo.-" ' Negociations de M. Le Comte d'Avanx en Hollande, 1679—1688. 6 vols. 12mo. Paris, 1754, i. 13. 23. 25. 47, 48. 86., 109. 135, &c. Examples; of treachery, in some of which tbe secret was known only to three persons. Sometimes, copies of orders were obtained from tbe'iPrince's private repositories, li. 53, " Dav. ii. 76. STATE OF EUROPE. 83 government might occasion, and entered into a secret correspon dence with France, which was treated by the Prince of Orange as an act of high treason, and which, even if her claims to sove reignty were acknowledged, must be owned to he the act of a trea cherous confederate. Friesland and Groningen, then under a se parate Stadtholder, of a junior branch of the House of Nassau, re called their troops from the common defence, and bound thera selves, by a secret convention with Arasterdara, to act in concert with that potent and rautinous city. The signature of the truce seemed to establish the supremacy pf France. The provinces of Guelder land, OverySseU, Utrecht, and Zealand adhered, indeed, to the Prince, and he still preserved a majority in the States of Holland; but it consisted only of the order of nobles and of the deputies of inconsiderable towns. Fagel, his wise and faithful minister, ap peared to be in danger of destruction by the republicans, who ab horred him as a deserter frora their standard. Rut Heinsius, pen sionary of Delft, probably the ablest man of that party, having, on a mission to VersaiUes, seen the effects of the civil and reUgious policy of Louis XIV., considering consistency as dependent, not on naraes, but on principles, thought it the duty of a friend of liberty to join the party most opposed to that monarch's designs." So trembling was the ascendant of the Prince in Holland, that the ac cession of individuals was, from their situation or ability, of great importance to hira. His cousin, the Stadtholder of Friesland, was graduaUy gained over; and Conrad Van Renningen, one of the chiefs of Arasterdara, an able, accomplished, and disinterested re publican, fickle from over-refinement, and betrayed into French councUs by jealousy of the House of Orange, as soon as he caught a glimpse of the abyss into which his country was about to fall, recoiled from the brink of the precipice. He called Louis XIV. a swallower of towns and provinces." He assured his republican friends that the intention of the King of France could only be to deceive, to divide, to conquer ; that he was a conqueror, and that it was not the nature of a conqueror to stop in the midst of his conquests. D'Avaux, pressed by such unanswerable observations, made an attempt to obviate them in a raanner very unworthy of his • Dav. ii. 98. 16th Feb. 1684, '¦ Byn^ersboek, who presided in tbe Court of HoUand during tbe suspension of the Stadtholdership, ironically calls the impeachment of the High Pensionary of Amsterdam by the Prince of Orange, " Crimen leeste majestatis Orangite." ' Dav, i. 142. 6* 84 STATE OF ENGLAND. talents. " Van Benningen," said he, " does not know the King. He is as much above all other conquerors as they are above ordi nary men." * Thus did the very country where the Prince of Orange held sway, fluctuate between him and Louis; insorauch, indeed, that if that monarch had observed any raeasure in his cruelty towards the French Prptestants, it raight have been irapossible, tiU it was too late, to turn the force of Holland against him. But the weakest point in the defences of European independence was England. It was not, indeed, like the continental states, either attacked by other eneraies, or weakened by foreign influence, or dwindling from inward decay. The throne was fiUed by a traitor. A creature of the comraon enemy commanded this important post. Fora quarter ofa century Charles II. connived at the conquests of Louis. For this long series of treasons against his own country, which could only stand or fall with Europe, he was bribed by the conquerpr with mpney, and with the prpraise pf a fpreign railitary fprce, tp imppse the religien and governraent of France upon his subjects. The first specimen of that policy had been the sale of Dunkirk to France, by which he strengthened that country on her conquering side, and sacrificed that means of protecting the Ne therlands with which Crorawell had arraed England.* Very shortiy afterwards Louis was -perfectly assured of Charles's subserviency.'^ It was not long before the King of England besought Ruvigny to procure for hira a secret pecuniary treaty with the French rao narch.'' The negociations suspended by the first Dutch war were, as we have seen, most perfidiously renewed at the very moment of the triple aUiance. The degenerate Charles never had the ex cuse of yielding to seduction. He constantly assailed Louis with the iraportunity as well as venality of an abject prostitute. During the second Dutch war, he revealed to the worid the designs which he was at other tiraes compelled to disserable. During the last fourteen years of his reign, he appears to have engaged in eight • Dav. iv. 13,14. ¦' There is some reason to believe that tbe Protector, alarmed at the progress of French conquest, bad, at the moment of his death, a project of an aUiance with Spain against France, in which Calais was to be the lot of England; aii acquisition wiiich, together with Dunkirk, might bave prevented tbe conquest of Flanders. " " Me lier avec la derniere liaison avec I'Angleteri^e, ce que je puis faire dn soir au lendemaln." Le Roi a D'Estrades, 20tb Dec. 1663. D'Estr. ii. 347. ¦¦ Dec. 1664. Compare D'Estrades' despatch of IStb Dec 1664, in D'Estrades, ii. 569. witb Ruvigny's Report to his master, 3d July, 1668. Dalrymple, Ap pend. II. STATE OF ENGLAND. i>5 secret treaties for French money, to all of which his brother and probable successor was privy. More than one of these "were during the time in which he was acting the part of an impartial me diator in the negociation at Nimeguen, solicitous apparently only for justice, or, if biassed, only by anxiety for the general security of Europe. During the last ten years ofhis reign he received a secret pension, on condition of abandoning the Continent to Louis, as well as of suspending the constitution, and violating an express law, by the intermission of parliament. '" When, however, Louis became desirous of possessing Luxemburgh, Charles extorted an additional bribe for connivance at that new act of rapine.'' After he had sold the fortress, he proposed himself to Spain as arbitrator in the dis pute regarding it; '' and so notorious was his perfidy, that the Spanish ministers at Paris did not scruple to justify their refusal to his ambassador, by telling him, " that they refused because they had no mind to part with Luxemburgh, which they knew was to be sacrificed if they accepted the offer." " After a short interrup tion ofgoodunderstanding, Charles, in soliciting money from Louis, distinctly avowed to Barillon the ruling principle of his life, — " 1 should rather depend on your master than on my people." ' The Duke of York most zealously seconded his brother : — " Not one of your Majesty's subjects," said a French arabassador to his so vereign, " wishes you more success than the two brothers." He adds, as a raerit towards Louis, what is the strongest mark of thc alienation of these unnatural princes from their own nation : — " But you can count only on these two friends in England." ^ Both equally betrayed the interest and dignity of the Prince of Orange. The King betrayed to the French the anxiety of the Dutch and even of the Prince for peace.'' Out of deference to the Court of France, he refused his consent to the Lady Mary's raarriage with the Prince in 1 674 ; and when it was at length agreed on, he excused it (with equal baseness whether the excuse were false or true), as an expedient for quieting the suspicions of his subjects of his con- • Dairy. App. to Review, 98— 117 and 156— 192. >¦ Ibid. 301. ° " My Lord Hyde (Rochester) ne m'a pas cache que si son avis est suivi, te Roi s'en entrera dans un concert secret pour avoir a V. M. la ville de Luxemburgh." Id. App. p. 18. Barillon au Roi, 7 (If) Nov. I68I. 21 Nov. (1 Dec.) 1681. " Barillon, 15 (25) Dec. 1681. ' Lord Preston to Secretary Jenkins, Paris, 16 (26) Dec. 1682. ' Barillon, 2 (12) Jan. 1679. Dairy. ! Gourlin au Roi, 18 (28) Jan. 1677. Dairy. " Id. 26 Oct (5 Nov.), 1676. Ibid, and Blancard's Report, Dal. App. 117, 80 STATE OF ENGLAND, nexipns with France." The Duke pf Yprk said to Barillpn, " I cpnsider rayself as ruined^br my religion, if the present pccasicn dpes npt serve tp subject England." *" At the sarae tirae, he pre- fessed tp the Prince pf Orange his zeal for the war against France ; and acceded with apparent jpy tP that Prince's proposal, that the Duke should himself coramand the English auxUiaries in Flanders." These specimens of the poUcy of Charles and James, selected from the documents already published, are sufficient to show, that the English government was in their hands the raain stay of the com mon enemy. Frora raany intimations in the published correspon dence, from the evident neghgence with 'whiph the search has hi therto been conducted, and from the fact, that raany of the corrupt and clandestine agreements being raerely verbal, must have left traces too faint to be perceived by hasty exarainers, it seeras very prpbable that farther inyestigatipn might yet discover more com plete evidence of a systera of treachery, which, for the length of its continuance, the vileness of its raotives, the baseness of its raeans, and the raagnitude of its evU consequences, is without parallel in the history of raankind. Even with our present information, it may be safely affirmed, that in the reign of Charier, no criminal who. suffered death had been guilty of so raany immoral and per nicious acts as his sovereign. So signal an example of perfidy tended to destroy all faith between governments, and to render concert against the conqueror impossible. Almost the whole ag- graudiseraent of Louis XIV. might have been averted by common honesty on the part of Charles II. To his faithless and merce nary breach of the triple . alliance may justly be ascribed the ex pense, danger, desolation, and bloodshed, which were incurred by the European confederacy in those wars, which were waged_ for twenty-five years to reduce the power of Louis XIV. within rea sonable liraits. The internal condition of Eugland herself was dis composed by the suspicion entertained by all, and the knowledge possessed by some, of the "sinister designs pf the gpvernraent. A king who called in foreign aid, and received foreign bribes, ex posed hiraself to the danger of seeing his rainisters corrupted, and his opponents terapted to iraitate his exaraple. Some of those who ' BariUon au Roi, 21 Oct, (1 Nov.), 1677. Dal. '' BariUon au Roi, 8 (18) April. 1678. Dal, " Perdu;)u!n' sa religion," is strange ly translated by Dalrymple, " Lost as to his religion." "•'Letters from tbe Duke of York to tbe Prince of Orange, Jan.— Api il, il678. Pal, STATE OP ENGLAND. 87 opposed Charles in pariiament, had been so often deceived by hira, that, believing his show of preparation for war against France in 1 678 to be merely an expedient for obtaining an army and a re venue, which would enable him to become absolute, they opposed measures * into which circumstances might then have hurried that prince, and by which he might have involuntarily contributed to a less ruinous peace than that of Niraeguen. Louis, adraitted by the King within the circle of domestic differences, as he found Charles by his fears driven to support the cause of Europe, did not scruple to make advances to the English enemies of the Court. Desirous of detaching France from their own sovereign, aqd of thus depriving him of the most effectual ally in his project for rendering hiraself absolute, they reprehensibly and unhappUy accepted the aid of Louis in counteracting a policy which they had good reason to dread. They' considered this dangerous understanding as al lowable for the purpose of satisfying their party, that in opposing Charles they would not have to apprehend the power of Louis, and disposing the King of France to spare the English constitution, as sorae curb on the irresolution and inconstancy of his royal depend ent, in those cases where these despicable qualities might themr selves have accidentally rendered him a less obedient slave. To destroy confidence between the Courts seemed to be an object so iraportant, as to warrant the use of ambiguous means ; and it was not unnatural to hope, that if Louis became familiar with such ne gociations, they might reconcile him, to the power of parliament, as a barrier against succeeding kings of more Ekiglish spirit. The usual sophistry, by which men who are not depraved excuse to themselves great breaches of morality, could not be wanting. They could easily persuade themselves that they could stop when they pleased, and that the example could not be dangerous in a case where the danger was too great not to be of very rare occurrence. In these circumstances, some of them are said by the French am bassador to have so far "copied their prince as to have received French money, though tliey are not charged with being, like him, induced by it to adopt any measures at variance with their avowed principles ; a raaterial difference, indeed, but rather as it aggravates his guilt, than as an excuse for the gross, and perilous, and odious quali ties ascribed.to his adversaries. Barillon is a single ^^dlness, whq * BariUon, 4 (14) Maich,'l678, 8* STATE QF ENGOLAND. might' l^^ve fabricated thQ aceowts of the distribution of raoney to cpver the oonversipu pf the funds tp his own private purposes; \jflioge expenditure in this case raust have been unchecked by the necessity of producing vouchers, and whose unsupported testiraony i^as screened by the prftfound secrecy ofhis correspondence frora , the ordinary risks of detection. As it was not pretended that the largesses were to influence the public conduct of the parties, the most importaut raeans of corroboration or contradiction were altogether wanting. If, uppnthisdefeotiveevideDce,andin acaae where we oan neverhjarthedefeneopf the accused, we should be inchned tp believe, that in an age of little pecuniary delicacy, whep large presents from sovereigns were scarcely deeraed dishonourable, and when raany princes, and almost aU rainisters, were in the pay of Louis XIV., some pari of the stateraent raay be true, it is due to the haughty teraper, not to say to the high principles of Sidney ; it is due, though ia a very inferior degree, to the araple fortunes of others of the persons oaraed, to believe, that the polluted gifts, if received at all, -ygiiere appUed hy them to elections and other public interests of the popular party, which there might be a fantastic gratification in promoting by treaaures, diverted from the use of the Court. These unhappy transactions, which in their full extent require a more cyitieal scrutiny of the original documents than that to whioh they have been s,ul5JeQted, are not pretended to originate tiU ten years after the concert of the two courts; and were relinquished as soon as that coneert was resumed. Yet the reproach brought upon the cause of liberty by the infirmity of some men af great soul, and of others.pfthe purest virtue is, perhaps, the most wholesome adraonition pronounced hy the warning voice of histoi-y against the employraeiit of sinister and equivocal raeans for the attainraent of the best ends. To the cprrupt policy cf the Court raust also, in a great raeasure, be ascribed the ready credit given to the Popish Plot. A real conspiracy against the reUgion and liberties of the kingdora was weft known to exist. The tale of TUus Oates found an easy en trance into minds predisposed to beheve such things by their know ledge of the designs of Charles and Jaraes in concert with Louis. Th,e apparently strong confirraation given to his stateraent, whieh iraputed a correspondence with Phre La Chaise * to Coleman, by ^ " The Duke perceiving that Oates had named Coleman, bid him look to him seU. ¦ Life of Jaines, 1. 5'i4. ; — express words of James. Oates was examined be fore tbe Privy Council on tbe 6th September, and before Godfrey, on the 27tb Sep tember. Godfrey sent Coleman to tbe Duke with tbe deposition. Godfrey was STATE OF ENGLAND. 89 the actual discovery ofa small part of that correspondence in Cole man's House-, the probabUUy , or rather moral certainty, that Cole man, who bad been warned of his danger a considerable time be fore hy the Duke, had destroyed the great mass of his dangerous letters, and that the few which had been seized had only by acci dent escaped destruction; the contents of these few; their natural meaning, considered ouly in themselves; ' and their singular coin cidence with the comraunications ofthe King and the Duke with the French Court, which appear to have been known to Coleman ; '" to gether with the mysterious circumstances of the death of Godfrey, the magistrate wbo bad taken Oates's inforraation, an event which is to this day incomprehensible, — -form at least an excuse for the first concurrence of all parties in the prosecution of the Plot, espe cially if we coufiae our view to the first paroxysm of fear and hor ror which it excited. The loose assent of the King to the Church of Rome in his youth " neither moderated his vices nor silenced his jests, nor always quelled his doubts; but, besides the deep taint given to his mind by the infliction of punishment, and even of death itself, under his authority, for no other crime than that of being a priest ofthe only religion to which he leaned; the general behef of his defection to an unpopular communion,— had pecuharly import ant effects on national opinion at the more critical periods. It is hard to suppose that the knowledge ofhis religious partialities and of his clandestine projects was not graduaUy imparted to many Ca- foitnd dead at Primrose Hill on tbe 17th Qctoberr. Coleman was not appi^bended till tbe 29tb October, a month after he bad been sent with the depositions, and tweWe days after the d«ath of Godfrey. Whoever will read the three letters aeiised» *nd consider tbese dates, together with the warning give* by ,|»mea,witl bave no doubt that Coleman was confident ofhis having destroyed the whole cor respondence. " See especially the last letter. Howell, State Trials,, vii. 56. "Burnet, Oxford Edit., 11. 167. '¦¦"1 conclude that wben be came into England be was as certainly a Roman Catbolic as a man of pleasure; both very consistent by visible expeiience." Ha lifax's Character ofCharles tl. tiondon, 1751. "Hake il for granted after tbe first year or two" (of residence at Paris,) "be was no more a Protestant." Ibid. Ashe came to Paris after tb^ battle of Worcester, in Septeniber, 1651, aud re mained there till June, 1654 (Clarendon, Life, part vi'.), this passage seems to place bis reconcUiation in 1653. It was knawn to CromweU. Ibid. Itwas accidentally discovered by tbe Duke of Ormond at Brussels, in 1658. Carte's Ormond,, ii. 251. It bud before ibaltime been entrusted' to Dennett and Bristol', wbo were themselves Catholics. Ibid. It was betrayed by Charles to the Prince of Orange in 1670. Burnet, i. It must have been antecedent lo tbe writing ofthe two papers found in his study, ajid Father Huddleslone's account of the solemnities on his death-bed, seema to imply, tbjt be had before been reconciled to the Church. "Le Roi,"' says the Pere d'Orleans, "mauvais Chretien daois ses moeurs, mais Calk Iique dans le coeur." Revolution de I'Angleterre, iv. 208. '"' STATE OF ENGLAND, Iholics, as a consplatipu under their afflicticns; and if we were to indulge a suspicicn that the rapre zealpus politicians, especially among the raonastic communities of the Continent, impatient of the King's slow and wavering policy, and indignant at the cruelties which he suffered to be inflicted on their brethren, were betrayed into such angry language, and daring projects for the summary re- establishraent ofthe Church, as raight afford sorae foundation on which Oates built his first narrative,— a suspicion, however, for which there is no direct evidence,— it would serve raore to illus trate the dangerous influence of the King's iUicit intercourse with France on hisown religion, than either to lessen the guilt ofthe in forraers, to palliate the atrocity of many of the trials,* or to throw any general reflections on the Catholic body. The popular party, who, for years after they knew the Duke of York's conversion, had no thought of disturbing his right of inherit ance, at last, after being longpossessed of full evidence of hisshare in secret plans of war against their religion and Uberty, began to take legal raeasures of self-defence, by introducing a biU into pariiament to exclude hira frora the succession to the crown. Foiled in this attempt, and when Charles, by the disuse of Parliament, had shut up all avenues to peaceable redress, they engaged in consultations, whe ther an armed reistance to his misgovernraent was not practicable, and had not becorae just. Whether Lord Essex, Lprd RusseU, Mr. Sidney, and Mr. Harapden had taken active raeasures tp carry designs pfrevpltintpexecutipu, was a legal questien, rashly answered in the affirraative by juries whp fpund twp pf them guilty pn evidence nptsuf- ficienttpbethefpundatipupfajust cpnvictipn. Asanhistpricalquesr tion, it may stUl be doubted whether they had done an irretrievablciact, or even adopted a final deterraination. Morally, no doubt could be en tertained, except what is founded on the iraprobability of success ; for, of thejustice ofa war against Charies, no raan can doubtwho approves that revolution on which the laws and liberties of England now stand. Every irregular and eccentric raovement of EngUsh parties gave a a new shock to the policy of the Prince of Orange. His connexion with the House of Stuart was soraetimes employed by France to strengthen the jealous antipathy of the republicans against him.. • These trials have been lately estimated by Mr. S. M. Philips (State Trials, 1.; London, 1826) witb judicial sagacity and impartiality, and witb a calmness very agreeable on matters which have excited sucb angry controversy. On, tbe conduct ot tbe trials it is impossible to hesitate, except, perbaps, in tbat of Coleman, As an historical question, tbe Popish plot is still covered with obscurity. INTERESTS OF WILLIAM III; 91 On another occasion he was himself obliged to profess a reliance on that connexion which he did not feel, in order to gain an ap-- pearance of strength. As the Dutch republicans were prompted always to thwart his measures by a misapplied zeal for liberty, so the English Whigs were for a moment compelled to enter into a correspondence with the common enemy by the like motives. But in his peculiar relations with England the imprudent violence of the latter party was as much an obstacle in his way as their alienation or opposition. The interest of Europe required that he should never relinquish the attempt to detach the English govern ment frora the conqueror. The same principle, together with legitimate ambition, prescribed that he. should do nothing, either by exciting eneraies or estranging friends, which could endanger his own and the Princess's right of succession to the crown. It was his obvious policy, therefore, to keep up a good understanding with the popular party, on whom only he could permanently rely ; to give a cautious countenance to their measures of constitutional opposition, and especially to the bill of exclusion,* the most effec tual mode pf cutting asunder the chains which bound England to the car of Louis, ^rather than to the proposed limitations on a Catholic successor, which might permanently weaken the defensive fprce of the monarchy ;*" to discourage and stand aloof from all violent counsels, likely either to embroil the country in such last ing confusion as would altogether disable it for aiding the sinking fortunes of Europe ; or, by their immediate suppression, to subject all national interest and feelings to Charles and his brother ; and in which he could not be neutral without supplying the Court with a specious colour of exclusion against the Princess. As his open declaration against the King or the popular party would have been perhaps equaUy dangerous to English liberty and European indepen dence, he was averse from those projects which reduced hira to so injurious an alternative. Hence his conduct in the case of what is called the Rye House Plot, in which his confidential correspond- ' Burnet, ii. 245. Temple, 1, 355. Mem. part iii., fol. ; London, 1720. " My friendship with tbe Prince (says Temple) I could think no crime, considering how little he bad ever meddled, to my knowledge, in our domestic concerns since the first beats iu Parliament, though sensible ot their Influence on all hls nearest con cerns at bome ; tbe preservation of Flanders from French conquest, and thereby of Holland from absolute dependence on that Crown," Ibid. ' Letlers of Prince of Orange to Sir Leoline Jenkins, July, 1680. February, J68I. Dal, App, to Review. 92 CONDUCT AND CHARACTER ence manifests* indifference and even dislike to those who were charged with projects of revolt ; aU which raight seera unnatural if we did net bear in raind that at the mpment pf the siege pf Vienna, he must have Ippked at England alraost solely, as the only counter poise of France. His abstinence frora EngUsh. intrigues was at this juncture strengthened by Ungering hopes that it was stiU possible tp lure Charles intp thpse unipus which he had begun tp fprm against farther encrpachraent, under the rapdest and inoffensive name of Associations to raaintain the treaty of Niraeguen,'" which were in three years afterwards corapleted by the league of Augsburgh" and which, in 1 689, brought all Europe into the field to check the career of Louis XIV. WUliam, who frora the peace of Niraeguen was the acknowledged chief of the confederacy gradually forraing to protect the reraains of Europe, had now slowly and sUently re moved all the obstacles to its formation, except those which arose from the unhappy jealousies ofthe friends of liberty at horae, and the fatal progress towards absolute raonarchy in England. Nothing but an extraordinary union of wariness -with perseverance, two qualities which he possessed in a higher degree, and united in juster proportions, than perhaps any other man, could have fitted hira for that incessant, unwearied, noiseless exertion which alone suited his difficult situation. His mind, naturaUy dispassionate, became by degrees steadfastly and intensely fixed upon the single object of his high calling, BriUiant only on the field of battle ; loved by none but a few intiraate connexions ; considerate and circumspect in council : in the execution ofhis designs, bold even to rashness, and inflexible to the verge of obstinacy, he held his onward course with * MS. Letters from the Prince to Mr. Bentinck, in Bngland, July and August, 1683. By tha favour of the Duke of Portland, I possess copies of the whole ol the Prince's correspondence with bis friend, from 1677 to 1700; written with the un reserved frankness of warm and pure friendship, in which it is quite manifest that there is nothing concealed. '' The first of these appears to have heen that between Sweden and Holland) at tbe Hague. lOUi SepL 1681, " Pro firma conversationa pacis neumagensis imo et monastlensis." Dumont, vil. par. li. 15. Accession of the Emperor Leopold, 28tb February, 1682. Id. ibid. 19. Of Spain, 2d May, 1682. Id. 22. Circles of Franconia and Upper Rhine, with Elector of Brandenburg,, lOtb June, 1682. Id, 25. Denmark ami Brandenbui^b, 14 Sept. 1682, Id, 36. Emperor and Sweden, 12th Oct.' 1692. Id. 37. Emperor vrith Brunswick and Luxemburg, I4tb January, 1683. Id. 51. Emperor and Bavaria, 36tb January, 1683. Id. 54. Eraperor, Spain, Sweden, Holland, March, 1683. Id. j 55 — 57. Circles of Bavaria and Westphalia, 2d March, 1683. Renewal between Holland aud Sweden, 13th January, 1689. Id,, etc., etc. • League of Augsburgh, 28 June (9 July), 1686. Dumont, vii. p, ii. 131. OF WILLIAM UI. 93 a quiet and even pace which wore down opposition, outlasted the saUies of enthusiasra, and disappointed the subtle contrivances of a refined policy. Good sense, which, in so high a degree as his, is one of the rarest of human endowments, had full scope for Us ex ercise in a mind seldom invaded by the disturbing passions of fear and anger. With all his deterrained firmness, no man was ever more solicitous not to provoke or keep up needless enmity. It is no wonder that he should be influenced by this principle in his dealings with Charles and James, for there are traces of it even in his rare and transient intercourse with Louis XIV. He caused it to be intimated to him " that he was ambitious of being restored to his Majesty's favour ;"* to which it was haughtily answered, " that when such a disposition was shown in his conduct, the King would see what was to be done." Yet Davaux believed that the Prince really desired to avoid the enmity of Louis, as far as was compatible with his duties to HoUand and his interest in England. In a conver sation with GourviUe, which affords one of the most characteristic specimens of intercourse between a practised courtier and a man of plain inoffensive temper, when the minister had spoken to him in more soothing language, he professed his warm wish to please the King, and proved his sincerity by adding that he never could neglect the safety of Holland, and that the decrees of reunion, together with other marks of projects of universal monarchy, were formidable obstacles to good understanding. It was probably soon after these attempts that he made the remarkable declaration,^-" Since I cannot earn his Majesty's favour, I must endeavour to earn his esteem." The death of Charles II. gave William some hope of an advan tageous change in English policy. Many worse raen and more ty rannical kings than that prince, few persons of more agreeable qualities and brUliant talerits, have been seated on a throne. But his transactions wUh France probably afford the most remarkable instance of a King with no sense of national honour or of regal independence, the last vestiges whicb departing virtue might be expected to leave behind in a royal bosom. More jealousy of de pendence on a foreign prince was hoped from the sterner teraper of his successor. W^Uliara accordingly made great efforts and sa crifices to obtain the accession of England to the European cause. " 5th Dec. 1680. Davaux. i. 5. ' GourviUe au Roi. I8tb March, 1681. Mem. li. 204. 94 THE DUKE OF MONMOUTH, He declared his readiness to sacrifice his resentments, and even his personal interests, and to conform his conduct to the pleasure ofthe King in aU things compatible with his reljgion and with his duty to the repubhc ;* Uraitations which raust have been ccnsidered as pledges pf sincerity by hira tp whpra they were ptherwise unac- ceptible. He declared his regret at the appearance pf ppposition to both his uncles, which had arisen only frora the necessity of resist ing Louis, and he sent M. D'Auverquerque to England to lay his subraission before the King, and to request that his Majesty would prescribe the conduct which he desired the Prince to pursue. James desired that he should reUnquish comraunication with the Duke of Monraouth, disraiss the raalcontent EngUsh officers in the Dutch array, and adapt his policy to such engageraents as the King should see fit to contract with his neighbours." To the forraer conditions the Prince subraitted without reserve. The last, couched in strong language by Jaraes to Barillon," hid under more general expressions by the English rainisterlo Davaux, but implying in its mildest form an acquiescence in the projects ofthe conqueror, was probably con veyed to the Prince hiraself in terms capable of being understood as amounting only to an engageraent to avoid an interruption pf the general peace.'' In that incffensive sense it seeras tp have been accepted by the Prince ; since the King declared tp hira that his cpn- cessipus, which cculd have reached ne farther, were perfectly satis factory." During these unexpected advances to a renewal of friendship between the King and his son-in-law, an incident oc curred, apparently inconsistent with them, which has ever since, in the eyes of many, thrown some shade over the sincerity of WiUiam. ¦ Davaux. 13 (23) Feb. and 26 Feb. (8 March), 1685. Tbe last contains an account of a conversation of WlUlam with Fagel, overheard by a person who re ported It to Davaux. A passage In wbicb Davaux shows bis belief that the policy ofthe Prince now aimed at gaining James, is suppressed in the printed collection, but preserved in Fox MSS., ii. 14. '¦ Compare Davaux, 8 Mars, witb Barillon, 19 Feb. (1 Mar.) and 23 Feb. (5 Mar.) 1685, " " Que M. Le Prince d'Orange cbangeat entierement sa conduite a I'egard de la France." Fox, App., 46. ' ^ James afterwards Informed Barillon, that the Prince had answered him satis factorily on all other points, but had not taken notice of tbe wish tbat be sbould connect himself witb France. Fox, Hist. James II. I have not yet discovered in tbe despatches the foundation of this last statement, Mr. Fox's reasoning is unanswerable, and tallies with the text, except that bis supposition charges James with more positive Insincerity than I am wiUlng to Impute to him. ? James to the Prince of Orange, 6 (16), 16 (26), and 17 (27) March, 1685. Dalrymple, App. to part 1. No exact account of the Prince's concessions has yet heen . discovered, which reduces the historian to tbe necessity of being satisfied with probable inferences. THE DUKE OF MONMOUTH. O.'s This was the landing in England of the Duke of Monraouth, with a sraall nuraber of adherents who had embarked at Amsterdam. He had taken refuge in the Spanish Netherlands, and afterwards in Holland, during the preceding year, in consequence of a misunder standing between him and the ministers respecting the nature and extent of the confession concerning the reality of the Rye House Plot, publisbed by them in language whicb he resented as con veying unauthorised imputations on his friends. The Prince and Princess of Orange received bim with kindness, from personal friendship, from compassion for his sufferings,' and for his connex ion, although not blameless, witb the popular and Prptestant party in England.* The transient shadow ofa pretension to the crown did not awaken their jealousy. Tbey were well aware that what ever coraplaints might be made by rainisters, Charles himself would not be displeased by kindness towards his favourite son."" There is, indeed, little doubt, that in the last year of his life he was prevailed upon by Halifax to consult his ease, as well as inclination, by the recall of his son, as a counterpoise to the Duke of York, and thus produce the balance of parties at court, which was oneof the darling refinements of that too ingenious statesraan." Reports were preva lent that Monraouth had privately visited England, and that he was well pleased with bis journey.'' He was assured by confidential letters, evidently sanctioned by his father, that be sbould be recalled in February." It appears also tbat Charles had written with bis own hand a letter to the Prince of Orange, beseeching hira"to treat Mon raouth kindly, which D'Auverquerque was directed to lay before James as a satisfactory explanation of whatever might seem suspi cious in the unusual honours paid to that unfortunate nobleman. ' It ¦' Dav. 13 (23) Feb. 1685. Dav. iv. 139. '¦ "Bentinck et d'autres creatures du Prince disent bautement qu'il ne fait aucune demarche a I'egard de M. de Monmouth que du consentement du Roi d'Angleterre." Dav. 1 (11) Jan. 1685. Fox MSS., ii. 2. This passage, im portant from being written during the life of Charles, is suppressed In the printed despatches. ' Burnet, &c. ^ ^ Burnet, ii. 452. Oxf. edit. " Diary in Monmouth's pocket-book, taken wben be was made prisoner, and published in the Appendix to Wellwood's Memoirs, 5tb January and 3d February (no year certain). ' Davaux, 17 (27) Mar. 1685. Fox MSS. 11. 48. Davaux observes tbat this account was openly and confidently circulated by the Prince's friends; tbat it was believed by tbe magistrates of Amsterdam, his greatest enemies, and that it had been confidentiaUy told by Bentinck, in the lifetime of Charles, to tbe Danish ambassador, wbo gave, credit to it. It becomes more important frora being suppressed iu lhe printed despatches. 90 THE DUKE OF MONMOUTH. was no wionder that Monmouth, on hearing of his father's death, should have been overheard to break out into cries and lamentations-* which fiUal sorrow, however Bincere, could not have produced ; and that the last extract whicb is preserved of his mel.i.ncholy journal should be : — " 1 6 Feb. ; the sad news of his death by L. 0 cruel Fate." " The reraoval of Monmouth from Holland became the necessary consequence of the change produced in the Prince's policy by James's accession. Before he left the Hague, the Prince and Princess approved the draft of a subraissive letter to James which he had laid before thera." They exacted frora hira a promise that he would engage in no violent enterprises inconsistent with this submission."' Nor is there any reason to doubt the sincerity of Monraouth. Despairing of cleraency frora his uncle, he then appears tp have entertained designs pf retiring intu Sweden, er of serving in the iraperial army against the Turks; and he listened for a rapraent tp the projects of some French Protestants, who proposed that he should put himself at the head of their un fortunate brethren, whora they were desirous of exciting to revolt against the ruin which then hung over them. He seems for a considerable tirae to have adhered to his deterraination. He thought the difficulties of an enterprise against England insuper able. The circumstances of his party appeared to hira at the raoment desperate ; and he entreated his more zealous friends tOi consider whether by struggling with their chains they were not likely to raake thera raore gaUing." Subsequent to the death of Charles II.,' even the French minister in HoUand mentions no ' Monmonth a et6 comme un homme desesper^. On I'a entendu daiis la petite maison ou il loge faisant des eris et des lamentations. Dav. 12 (22) Feb., Dav. iv. 136. ' '¦ Notes in Welwood. Welwood was physician to William HI, His hook, dedicated lo tbat monarch, was written at the desire of Queen Mary. It Is charac terised by generous moderation to fallen enemies, and even to religious adversaries. Tbese circumstances, and the extraordinary coincidence of this entry with the despatch of Davaux, place the authenticity of tbe notes In the pocket' book above suspicion. I have before, me two editions; the first in 1700; another in 1710, wben he had lost hls station as a royal physician. L. seems to be Halifax. , ' Davaux, 17 (27) Feb., Dav. Iv. 140. " " Tbe Prince and Princess of Orange will be witnesses for me of the assurance I gave tbem, tbat I would never stir against you." Monmouth lo the King, Sth July, 1685. James II., ii. 32. " Now you see bow little trust is to be given to what the D. of Monmonth says." James II. to the Prince of Orange, |9th May, 1688, Dalrymple, App. p. i. b. 2. ' Monmouth's Letter (Welwood, App. to No. 15.) to an unnamed adherent. ' The enemies of William's character have thrown considerable darkness over this part of history, by dwelling on tbe bonnnrs which be showed to Monmouth, THE DUKE OF MONMOUTH. 97 intercourse of Monmouth with WUliam or bi* friends, except in one or two short interviews which humanity or civility might require.* The Governor of the Spanish Netherlands, desirous of conciliating James, drove Monmouth from their territory, and the importunity of the English and Scotch refugees in Holland induced him to return privately there to be present at their consultations. He found the Scotch exiles, who were proportionately raore nuraerous and of greater distinction, and who felt raore bitterly from the bloody tyranny under which their countrymen suffered, impatiently desirous to make an imraediate attempt for the de livery of their country. Fergusson, tbe nonconformist preacher, whether froni treachery, as was afterwards suspected, or from tbe rashness whicb is the attendant on unacquaintanee with danger, seconded the impetuosity of his countrymen. Andrew Fletcher of Saltoun, a man of heroic spirit, and a lover of liberty even to enthusiasm, who had just returned frora serving in Hungary, dis suaded his friends from an enterprise which his political sagacity and miUtary experience taught him to consider as hopeless, and destructive of its own objects. In assemblies of suffering and angry exiles it was to be expected that rash counsels should prevail, yet Monraouth iappears to have resisted them longer than could bave been hoped from bis judg ment or teraper. It was not tUl two raonths after the death of Charles II. tbat tbe vigilant Davaux intimated his suspicion of a design to land in England.'" Nor was it till three weeks after that he was able to transmit to his Court the particulars of the equipment for that object. It was only then that Skelton, the rainister of James, complauied of these petty armaments to the President of tbe States-general and the magistrates of Amster dam, neither of wbom had any authority in the case. They referred him to the Admiralty of Amsterdam, tbe competent authority in sucb cases, who, as soon as they were authorised by an order without remarking, with sufEcient distinctness, that tbey all preceded tbe death of Charies. Mac. Hist G. B., i. 437., Life of James II., 11. 24., and Pere d'Orl. Rev. d'Angl., iii. 289. • Davaux, 12 (22) Mar. and 9 (19) Ap. 1685. A comparison of tbese passages with Macpherson wUl show tbe boldness of tbe inferences in which the latter indulges. It must be remarked, however, tbat the passages in tbe " Life of James" rest only on tbe credit of Dicconson, the compiler, and tbat the insinuations of the Jesuit are very cautious. " Davaux, 9 (19 April), 1685. 174, n. 7 ?8 THE DUKE OF MONMOUTH. from the States-general, proceeded tq arrest the vessels freighted by Argyle. But in consequence of a raistake in Skelton's descrip tion of their station, their exertions were too late to prevent the saUing of the unfortunate expedition on the Sth of May. The natural delays of a slow and formal governraent, the jealousy of rival authorities, exasperated by the spirit of party, and the license shown in such a country to navigation and traffic, are sufficient to account for this short delay. If there was in this case a raore than usual indisposition to overstep tbe forraalities of the con stitution, or to quicken the slow pace of the adrainistration, it may be well imputed to natural compassion towards the exUes, and to the strong feUow-feehng which arose frora agreeraent in reli gious opinion, especiaUy with the Scotch. If there were proof even of absolute connivance, it raust be ascribed solely to the raagistrates and inhabitants of Amsterdam, the ancient enemies of the House of Orange, who might look with favour on an expedition which might prevent the Stadtholder from being strengthened by his connexion with the King of England, and wbo, as we are told by Davaux himself, were afterwards filled with consternation when they learned the defeat of Monmouth. On the news of Argyle's landing in Scotland, James desired that the States-general should send over the three IScotch regiments in their service to his aid. The Prince offered to go at their head." This offer was declined with no appearance of disgust, and the immediate despatch of tbe three regiments was carried through the States'" by the influence of Fagel and Bentinck, in spite of fhe obstinate resistance of Amsterdam and their adherents. It is somewhat singular that Skelton did not complain of Monmouth's equipment till the 5th of June, two days after the embarkation of that unfortunate nobleman, who found means to elude the search which was in consequence directed to be made for hiro, and finaUy left the coast of Holland on tbe 9tb." Before he quittgd that country, he wrote a letter of thanks to the magistrates of Arasterdara for their favour to hiraself and his adherents, and he expressed hiraself in terras of anger, and even of revenge, against the Prince of Orange, for having sacrificed his friendship to regain • James II. to P. of Orange, 22 May (1 June), and 3 (12) June, 1685. Dal, App. p. i. b. 2. ' Fox MSS., 11. ' Those dates are new style, to suit the despatches of Davaux. THE DUKE OF MONMOUTH. 99 that of James.* The unexpected progress of Monmouth after his first landing induced James to apply for the three English ra iments in the Dutch service.*" An immediate assent was given to that proposition, and the Prince sent his friend Bentinck to Loudon, to offer his personal services, and those of sucb generals and other officers as might be needed, for the suppression of the revolt. The private instructions of Bentinck bore date on the very day on which Monmouth was prevailed upon to cause hiraself to be proclaimed King." Before that event was known in HoUand an irrevocable offer was thus made by tbe Prince, of xybioh the acceptance was likely to provoke Monmouth to make public tbe secret encouragement or instigation be had received at the Hague, if any such had really existed. No man of common understanding Gould have ventured to defy the possessor of so fatal a secret. Bentinck, who heard of Monmouth's declaration on his arrival in England, was gratefully received by James. The answer in which he declined the offer of tbe Prince, bears every mark of satisfaction and confidence.'' Tbe subsequent fate of Monmouth has been already related by historians, and no part of his expedition is, indeed, within the scope of this work, otherwise than as it illus trates tbe conduct of tbe Prince of Orange relating to tbe affairs of England. Common humanity was sufficient to induce him to dissuade Monraouth and Argyle from projects so crude, tbat tbese unfortunate nobleraen were unable, in their first declaration, to specify the sovereign wbom they were to place on the throne, on even the form of government which they were to recommend to the two nations. Nothing, however, is more obvious than that the enterprise tended to disturb his designs, and endanger his interests. It is difficult to determine which of its possible results was likely to be most disadvantageous to bim; its complete suc cess would bave excluded tbe Princess of Orange from the succes sion to the crown ; the effects of its entire failure, in strengthening the influence of tbe French party, are known to us from history; a protracted ciyU war, the only r^njaining result, would have ren- • Fox MSS., ii. Sth July, 1685. This d,espatch, wbjch is not printed, suf ficiently confutes all those w'hich contain insinuations of the Prince's' being privy to ]\Ionmoutb's expedition ; most of which seem to have been intended to fniwsh Louis XIV. with the means of preventing a reconciliation between the English and Dutch governments. . . '' James H. to P. of Orange, 17 (27) June, 1685. Dal. App. p. i. b. 2. ' Bentinek's Instructions, 24 June (4 July), 1685. Copy of Portland MSS., 28. " James II. to P, of Orange, 30 J«ne (9 July), 1685. Dai. App. p. i. b, 2. IflO THE DUKE OF MONMOUTH. ' dered it irapossible for England tb lepd atiy assistance (o the cause»of Europe. . At a raoraent when theprospect of the Prinr cess's succession was daily brightening, it was evidently his policyy even if he had no hopes of gaining over Jaraes, to keep the in ternal tranquillity of England undisturbed. Those writers, who without any evidence irapute to him the design of employing Monraouth tp excite a cpufusipn in Great Britain, of which be might at an undetermined peripd reap' seme uncertain fruit, seem tp be equally strangers tp his character, to- his circurastances, and to the general raaxiras of civU prudence. Men so cautious as he was, are not wiUing to embark in designs of which no huraan sagacity can foresee the probable event. To trust the brittie machinery of political contrivance amidst the shocks of unex pected passions and event's, to incur the risks of a wUderness of crooked policy, where the paths and the issues are alike hid from our view, would have been widely at variance with the plain dictates of that sober and modest gppd sense which was the usual guide of his conduct. The offer of raUitary service, raade by WUliam, was in itself not at all desirable to him ; for though the body of the popular party had shpwn np disppsitipn tp embark in sp desperate an expeditipn as that pf Mpnmbutb, they could look withlittle complacency on his most active opponents; but it is easy to see why he should have regarded it as the least of the evils araong which he had to choose. . It offered a new chance of detaching Jaraes from Louis. It would strengfhen the hppe pf such a separaticn pn the Cpntinent. It affprded means pf acquiring reputatipn and ascendancy in Eng land; and while the defeat pf an Ulegitimate claimant might recora raend hira tp the Prptestant Tpries, whose support was so essential to his succession, it afforded hira the raeans of moderating a vic tory, gained, indeed, only over one unhappy adventurer, but calculated to spread fear and sorrow among the friends of liberty, ¦whose cause was his, and who alone were devbted to him to the last extreraity. The original letters of WiUiam to Bentinck, during his mission in England, are stUl extant, without interruption or rautUation. ' Like every other part ef the cprresppndence, they are written with the mpst unreserved freedom. Their calraness, as well as frankness, show that the writer had nbthing to conceal. ' Being once satisfied that the defeat of Monraouth was the least • injurious issue of the revolt, he wastes no vain regrets on its inevitable eon- THE DUKE OF MONMOUTH. Ml sequences. He is anxious to hear of the success of the royal arftiy. He distrusts the miUtary capacity of Lord Feversham, and be finally expresses his satisfaction at tbe event of the battle. He shows no curiosity about the subsequent language or conduct of Monmouth; and appears so little apprehensive of any secret injurious to him transpiring in England, that after the capture of Monmouth, when such a secret, if it had existed, was most likely to be betrayed, he becomes anxious for the immediate ; return ^of Bentinck, wbo was detained in England some days longer by James, probably with an expectation that the continuance of appa rent concert between him and his son-in-law would extinguish the last hopes of tbe disaffected. Tbe PriniHwas so sensible ofthe services whicb he had performed or tendered, that be instructed Bentinck,* on taking leave, to ask Lord Rochester what succour he might expect, in case of need, from England; and to declare, at tbe same time, that the King would find him not resolved on war at all risks and seasons, but desirous of conforming his policy tolbis Majesty's wishes, with the iraportant reservations of duty to his religion and his country. The unfortunate Monraouth bore a dying testiraony to the truth of these declarations by bis last letter, in which he appeals to the Prince and Princess as witnesses of the reluctance witb whicb he engaged in his rash undertaking, which tbey had obtained his proraise not to attempt. We know little with certainty of tbe particulars, of Monmouth's intercourse with his inexA'able uncle, from his capture till his execution, except the 'compassionate interference of tbe Queen Dowager in bis behalf; a princess whose blaraeless deraeanour in the performance of her long and difficult part bas scarcely obtained the commend ation which it seems to deserve. Rurnet was indeed better informed of these transactions'" than most contemporaries; yet his unsupported statement, that Mary of Este treated Monraouth with arrogance and -cruelty, is not sufficient evidence to maintain so black a charge ; though, on other occasions, she showed her prone ness to indulge those violent passions, which in ber declining years * Points a parier. Portland MSS. ' ' Sir Edward Villers, at that time in tbe household of the Princess of Orange, married tbe daughter of Cbilfenich, in whose apartments, at Whitehall, the interv view between James and Monmouth took place. Thence, probably, the report of Burnet. 102 RENEWAL OF THE TREATY raisfortime and rehgion subdiied. Whatever raay have passed in the inteiwiew between Monmouth and his uticle^ or in the subse quent conversations with Clarendon and Tyrcoriiiel, this is certain, frora the King's conduct iraraediately after, tbat, whatever U was, it tended rather to strengthen than to shake his confidence in the Prince. Sidney was sent with Bentinck to Holland; a choice which seeraed to iftdicate ati extraordinary deference for the wishes of the Prince, and was considered in Holland as a decisive mark of good understandii^ betweeh the two governraentij. The proud and hostUe city of Amsterdara presented an address of con gratulation" to WUliam on the defeat of Monraoilth; and the republican party begaugto despair of effectual resistance to the power of the Stddtholder, now about to be strengthened by the alliance with Bngland. The Dutch ambassadors in London, in spite of the remonstrances of Barillon, sjicceeded in concluding a treaty for the renewal of the defensive alliance between England and Holland, which, though represented to Louis as a raere forraality, was certainly a step which required little raore than that liberal construction to which a defensive treaty is always entitled, to convbrt it into an accession by England to the concert of the other states of Europe, for tbe preservation pf their rights and dorainions. Tbe connexion between the Dutch and English governinents answered dlike the iraraediate purposes of both parties. It over awed the raalcontents of HoUand, as well as those of England; and James comraanded his rainisters to signify to the magistrates of .Amsterdam, that their support of the Stadtholder would be acceptable to his Majesty. But there was an important difference id tbe situation of thfe two parties. The object for wbicb the Princfe of Orange paid, court to the King; which was to obtain the co-operation of England against the farther progress of eonqueSt, absolutely required the perttiinence of the connexion; while the triumph of the maxims of civil and ecclesiastical policy adopted in England as imperiously demanded the friendship, if not the aid^ bf Louis XIV. The King of England, accbrdingly, neVer lost sight of this paramount consideration. During the whole ofhis friendly correspondence 'with Holland, he and Rochester, bis prime mi nister, iraportunately besought the continuance of secret supplies froirt France. He early told tbe Pretaeh arabassador that be be lieved Monraouth to be supported by aU the Protestant princes WITH THE STATES GENERAL, 103 of Germany, "which showed him tbe road that be raust foHow, and the aUy in whom alone be could trust. But Louis evaded the apphcation of Barillon on this subject, and declined advancing any raoney beyond the arrears of the subsidy of the late king, until raore decisive measures in favour of tbe Catholics should render pecuniary assistance necessary. '" On this occasion he betrayed some irritation on the subject of HoUand. When he afterwards learned the despatch of the English regiments from HoUand, he enjoined his minister, in a cold and haughty tone, to reknit to Paris the money which had been entrusted to his charge for the purpose of being advanced to the King of England, which would, he observed, be the more proper, because the unsuccessful revolt would certainly render the King more absolute in his dorainions^ than any ofhis predecessors." But James continued his entreaties. He declared to Barillon, that, being educated in France, and having eaten tbe bread of the Most Christian King, his heart was French ; and that he thought only of deserving the esteem and conforming to the pleasure of Louis; '' that without the aid of Louis, be never could hope to succeed in his designs against tbe Protestants, which he had iraparted to Barillon with less reserve than to his own ministers." Rochester pressed Rarillon witb the same arguments, with the exception of those derived from the interests pf religion. Sunderland, wbo bad determined to effect the reraoval of Rochester by undistinguished corapliance with the King's religious policy, spoke to the French rainister witb no sucb scruples. "The King, my master," he said, " has no object at heart so much as the establish ment of the Catbolic religion, and there can be no other so im portant to him on mere principles of good sense and right reason ; for he must always be exposed to the popular prejudices against that religion until it be fully established : —-a project wbicb suits the interest only of the King of France, whicb can succeed only by his means, and which will be openly resisted or secretly traversed by other powers." This mode of reasoning is evidently inappli cable to any otber measure than that of transferring the whole ¦ " Ce Prince s'expliqne lout haut que les rebeUes sont soulenns de lous les • autres Proteslans d'Europe, et traite de ridicule tout ce qui se dit d'oppose a cela." Barillon au Roi, 28 May (7 June), 1685. App. Fox, 86. ' Le Roi a BariUon, 5 (15) June, 1685. Fox, App. 9, • Le Roi a BariUon, 3 (l3) July, 1685. Fox, App. 97. •' ^Barillon au Roi, 6 (16) July, 1685. Fox, App. 105. ' Fox, App. 100, 104 ARTIFICES OF JAMES, power and privileges to the Roraan Cathplic Church, and was perfectiy cpnfprraable tP the ppinipn pf Barillpn himself, whp eariy declared tp Jaraes that the raaintenance pfthe rpyal aulhprity , and the establishraent of the Catholic religion were inseparable ' objects.* Sunderland added, that the Court of France ought not to be disturbed by reports of connexions between his master and the Prince of Orange, whose situation, interests, and ppinions ren dered all perraanent union between thera irapossible." Louis con tinued irarapveable. He remonstrated against the renewal of the , treaty. " He expressed great displeasure, especially, at the revival of the defensive treaty of alliance of 1 678 ; a treaty entered into by Charles the Secpnd in pne pfthe moments of raisunderstanding with France, always interpreted by hira in the raanner most agreeable tp Lpuis, but pf whicb the deliberate renewal pn the present pccasipn wpuld furnish the Prince pf Orange witb new raeans pf disturbing the peace pf Eurppe. CHAPTER XII. Artifices ofjames. — Designs aud Measures of William. — Conduct of Louis XFV.— His Quarrel with the Pope. — Designs of William upon England. — Penn's Mission, — Negociations between James and William. — Supposed secret Treaty witb , France. Liberty of Conscience. — Tbe Protestant Succession. — Mission and In trigues of Dyckvelt, and of Zuyllsteln. — Correspondence of Stuart and Fagel. — Letters between the King and tbe Princess. The renewal pf the treaty between England and HoUand was negociated without coraraunication to BariUon.'' Upon the French minister's remonstrating after the fact, Jaraes talked, in a high strain, of holding in his hand the balance of power." This ex pression, in the political vocabulary of the tirae, was synonymous with vindicating the honour of England and independence of Eu- " BariUon, 6 (16) April, 1685. » Fox, App. 104. ' 14 (24) August, " S'U desire eifectlvement de conserver mon amttie, U n'en- Irera dans aucun autre engagement qui puisse y etre contraire." ' Le Roi a Barillon, 24 August, 1685. Fox, App. * Bar, au Roi, 13 Dec. 1685. Dal. App. ARTIFICES OF JAMES, 105 rope against Louis XIV. Charity would dispose us to give the unfortunate James credit for a passing visitation of pride and pa triotism, whicb would raise him above the unreUeved meanness of his predecessor. It was but an access of Ul humour against Louis for withholding tbe pension,* whicb descended from one brother lo the other, by scandalous inheritance, witb the crown. Jaraes not only acted from the motives, but employed the arti fices, of Charles. He proposed to BarUlon to contract with bis master new and closer relations, wbicb sbould neutra;lise tbe treaty with the States-general. "Louis instructied bis arabassador to decline all sucb overtures, and intimated plainly that the object of James was to create a pretence for asking money.'' Tbe Dutch, Spanish, and Imperial rainisters, at the Court of London, towards the close of 1 685, began to express hopes, real or pretended, of detaching James from the King of France, Louis upon this did not feel quite secure. He ordered BarUlon to watch tbe raoveraents of tbe King, and aggravate bis pecuniary embar rassments, by gaining the chief members of opposition in parlia raent. Barillon suggested to his raaster in reply, that he raight dispense with pensioning the King, and the leading whigs, by taking into his pay the chief minister of the crown." Lord Sunderland, accordingly, after a negociation, of which the delaUs were as sordid as tbe transaction was base,' accepted a French pension of 25,000 crowns, upon bis undertaking that bis master should contract no foreign engagements adverse to the interests of Louis XIV.^ This incident throws a disenchanting light upon political virtue and popular character in England, on the eve of an epoch, com monly named the most glorious in EngUsh history. They who took money from tbe King of France in tbe reign of Charles," would assuredly have no qualms in that of James. Cardinal Mazarin did not find a prostUute minister and stipendiary patriots in the councUs and parliaments of Cromwell and the Commonwealth. Corruption and degeneracy came in with royalty and the Stuarts at the Restoration. "Voire Majeste a bien reconnu que la cessation des payemens a produit le renouveUement du traite avec les Etats -Gencraux." The same to tbe same, 26 Nov. 1685. Fox, App. <• Le Roi a Bar., 4 Sept. 1685. Fox, App. Liaisons (says he) qui ne se concluent j'amais qu'a mes depens." Ibid. ' Le Roi a Bar., 19 Nov. 1685. Fox, App. " Bar. au Roi, 26 Nov. Ibid. Bar. Corres., Fox MSS. e Le Roi a Bar., 6 Dec. 1685. Ibid. ¦¦ Dal. App,, pp. 314, &.C. 100 DESIGNS OF WILLIAM. The King's alienation frora Louis XIV., and bis union with the Prince of Orange, were hollow and of short duration. He soon resumed with Louis the natural tone and necessary relations be tween two monarcbs, attracted to each otber by the sympathies of religion and despotism.* Lord Sunderland justly observed to BariUon, that the most difficult of all things was concord between two persons, of whora one longed impatiently for the crown worn by tbe other.'' James, in his correspondence with the Prince, con tinued for spme time to disguise his aversion. He found it hard to constrain his real sentiments." The dry style and brief civUity of his letters betray the violence which in writing thera he did to his nature.'' But Jaraes II. combined, with his harsh character and conscientious bigotry, that common art in the education of princes and exercise of kingcraft, ' dissiraulation. The Prince of Orange, at tbe sarae time, pursued secretly his eager arabition and vast designs, with tbe genius and adroitness of a consumraate poUtician. The Calvinist first raaglstrate of a Calvinist republic, he rallied round him Catholic as well as Prp testant princes, — the Empercr, the King pf Spain, and the Pope himself,— in a confederacy of Europe against the eldest and raost powerful son of the Church. Affecting towards James, with an air of patient tranquillity, the deference and duty of a son, he gained over tbe subjects, sapped tbe throne, and finally raade hiraself supreme arbiter of the fate of his father-in-law, under the pretence of zeal for a church, and affection for a nation, tb neither of which he belonged. It would be difficult to cite two projects in theraselves raore vast, aud, when compared with the rank and resources of a Stadt holder of HoUand, raore disproportioned to the adventurer and his means, than those entertained by the Prince of Orange ;— -one to hurable the pride and power of the King of France, the other to displace and succeed the King of England. Had WiUiam dis closed his views with the ostentation of Louis XIV., the voice of Europe would have rebuked his presuraption. He cherished them in tbe soUtude of his own breast, until they discovered theraselves " Life of James II. from bis MS, Mem, ; and Corr. de Bar., Fox MSS, passim- ' Bar. au Roi, 16 July, 1685, Fox, App. " Bonrepaux a Seignelai, 26 Mars, 1686. Fox MSS. '' See the letters (from King William's Cabinet) in Dalrymple's Appendix, CONDUCT OF LOUIS XIV. IOT by that which most commands the homage of mankind, — the pro cess of their achievement. Both designs were intimately Unked with each other. The first in the order of time was that against the King of France. It would bave been imprudent in tbe Prince of Orange to risk an invasion of England without having given Louis fuU occupation on tbe Continent. Were be disposed to run so desperate a hazard, he would have found it impossible. The most calculating and parsi monious of republics wbuld not place at his disposal its men, its ships, and its funds, until he had secured it against the ambition and hatred of the French monarch. The first grand step of the Prince was to concert secretly the league of Atigsburg in 1686. It was not definitively concluded untU the foUowing year. The contracting parties were the Empe ror, tbe Elector of Brandenburg, and otber chief princes of tbe Empire, tbe King of Spain, tbe King of Sweden, the States of Holland, the Duke of Lorraine, and the Duke of Savoy. Tbe Republic of Venice and the Pope, without being formal parties, were secretly pledged to the confederacy. It professed to be a defensive league, having for its object to guard the treaties of Westphalia, Nimeguen, and Ratisbon, from invasion by Louis XIV.* The French King was soon informed of this forraidable asso ciation. He penetrated by his ambassadors and emissaries tbe recesses of all the courts of Europe. Tbe cabinet of the Prince of Orange was not proof against his raeans and instruments. D'Avaux, French minister at tbe Hague, obtained access to it through the confessor of the Prince's confidential valet-de-cham- bre : — " a good Catholic, a good Frenchman, and a man of ho nour ;" says the ambassador, in a despatch to his master.'" A spy and tbree ruffians, under tbe orders of Cardinal D'Estrees, French ambassador at Rome, detected and waylaid a Dutch agent, who communicated with the pope's secretary, Cassoni, in the disguise of a dealer in artificial fruits. They threatened and spared the life of the agent, robbed him of bis basket, and discovered, ingeniously secreted in tbe fruits, scraps of paper, coraraunicating tbe Duke of Savoy's adhesion to the league of Augsburg, and the Pope's promise to supply tbe Emperor with • Dum. Corps Dip. tom. vil. part ii. p. 131. Puffend. Comm. Rer. Brand. lib. XIX. " Negot. du Comte d'Avaux. Fox MSS. 108 CONDUCT OF LOUIS XIV. large sums of money, which should be placed at the disposal of the Prince of Orange, in carrying on war against the Christian King. * The French spy succeeded even in ransacking the papal secre tary's private cabinet. Among the papers which he found there, not yet perused by the Pppe, was pne setting fprth, that the Prince's taking tbe cpraraand pf the iraperial troops in Germany was but a pretext to cover his designs upon England, and that he had entered into, a conspiracy with the English, to put to death the King, and the child of which the Queen was then pregnant, if a son, in order to place hiraself and the princess bis wife on the throne. The Cardinal states, that he lost no tirae in corarauni cating this horrible plot to the young Lord Norfolk (meaning doubtless Lord Thoraas Howard, then at Rorae), who despatched to his raaster two couriers with the news; one by sea, the other by ¦land.'' The absurdity or the iraprobability of the latter part of this, inforraation raay have shut the eyes of Jaraes to the exact and fatal truth of the former. Louis at first atterapted in vain to break the confederacy by intrigue and gold." His next step was raenace, and aggression. He threatened, that upon the slightest infraction of the truce of twenty years then pending, he iwould send forth his arraies across the Meuse, the Rhine, the Alps, and the Pyrenees, and make his flag respected by raeans of a strong fleet at sea. This was not an idle threat. He. kept on foot, in the succeeding war, generally five, soraetiraes six, never fewer than four armies: his, raarine, under the direction of Seignelai, son of the great Colbert, was the best ordered in Eurppe ; and he was prepared tp attack the cen- federates, in 1 688, with a mUitary and naval ferce ampunting tp 450,000 raen.'' The league of Augsburg was signed in July, 1687. Louis XIV., in the foUbwing September, braved the cpnfederacy by an outrage, either in a spirit of insulting defiance, or as a stroke of policy, tp sound tbe extent and forwardness pf its preparatipus. He caused the arms pf France tc be set up within gunshpt pf Namur, in the face pf the Spanish garrispn. The cpnfederates were deaf to the challenge ; and the King* of Spain purchased the removal of the ¦ Card. d'Estrees to Louis XIV. Dal. App, "¦ Card. D'Estrees a Louvois. Dal. App. ' (Euv. de Louis XIV., tom. iv. Mem. MU. Aunee 1689. '' Voltaire, Siecle de Louis XIV. HIS QUARREL WITH THE POPE. 109 nuisance, by ceding two vUlages, in a quarter where the insult was less flagrant. The Emperor, the Venetians, and the Poles were at war with the Turks. James, a mere bigot, saw nothing in tbe contest but Mohammedans and Catholics; and gave the latter all tbat the degenerajte successor of Cromwell and.ElUzaheth could give, in the position to which he had reduced himself, — bis public wishes and his private prayers. Louis, also a religious bigot, but at tbe sarae tirae an ambitious politicia'n, consulting only his political interest,' aided the, infidels against the Christians, and the insurgent Hun garians against tbeir sovereign. ; Odescalchi filled the papal throne, under tbe name of Inno cent XI. An energetic and enlightened temporal prince, unversed in dogmatic theology, or superior to its disputes,* be assisted the Eraperor, the Poles, and tbe Venetians, with his money and his- gaUeys, and combined secretly with the Prince of Orange against the ambition and arrogance of the King of France. Louis, in return, subjected Innocent to every mortification to which the weak can be subjected by the strong, short of renouncing the communion ofthe Church. Eacb ambassador at Rorae bad his particular quarter endowed with a franchise equivalent to the right of sanctuary. This fran chise was grossly abused. The enfranchised quarters becarae tbe refuge of raalefactors. Innocent obtained a renunciation of the privilege from all the Catholic princes except Louis. When the nuncio Ranucci solicited him to follow their example, be 'said it was for bim to give, not to take example ;'" and despatched tbe Marquis de Lavardin, with the special raission of affronting tbe Pope in bis capital." Lavardin, in open contempt of the Pope's authority, entered Rome with an armed escort of a thousand Frenchmen, — residents at R'brae, soldiers, and bis suite, — took mUUary possession of bis quarter, and was excommunicated. The only consequence worth notice (if, indeed, it he worth notice) \ " Bishop Burnet exaggerates in some traits, and perverts.in others, tbe character of this Pope. It Is Iruq his family were bankers, but be was himself bred a soldier, and had served in the army of tbe Milanese. His ignorance of the points in dispute between tbe Jesuits and Jansenists is compatible witb knowledge of another and more useful sort, and bis whole pontificate, as well as the testimony of historians, proves bim not a jealous and fearful man, but a prince and politician of fearless lemper and enlarged views. Another English historian (Oldmixon), erring in the opposite extreme, calls him "tbe Protestant Pope." , ' Voltaire, Siecle de Louis XIV. 'Id, ibid. 110 DESIGNS OF WILLIAM was the erabarrassing and cpmic position of tbe French resident minister. Cardinal D'Estrees, ' who was compelled to accq>t abso lution from the Pope, on his adraission to the presence ofthe holy father after each coraraunication with tbe excoraraunicate Lavardin." Thus fantasticaUy are events the raost iraportant raingled witb weaknesses tbe raost 'pitiable, in tbe anoraalous current of human affairs. There is nothing to give surprise in the subraission of the Pope. The papal soldiers were arraed, as the papal bulls were now issued, for raere show.'" But why did the King of Spain, the Em peror, and the otber confederates of Augsburg, submit to aggres sion and outrage? The most probable supppsitipn, in the absence of direct evidence, is, that they were held back by the Prince of Orange. He was the prirae raover and constituted chief of the league ; his influence was pararaount ; and his projects were not yet ripe for a war with France. He bad not sufficiently concerted with his English partisans the dethroning of Jaraes, the placing of Jaraes's crown upon his own head, and the erabarking of England, with her national resources and antipathies, in the league of Eu rope against Louis XIV. It is still an historical or, party question, frora what period WiUiara conteraplated deposing Jaraes. If his own declarations were to be received as decisive evidence, the question would be easily settled. He assured his CathoUc allies" and tbe people of England," on the eve and during the progress ofhis enterprise, that he did not aira at the crown ; that the sole object of his ex pedition was, to call a free parliaraent for tbe redress of griev ances and the security of tbe Protestant religion. But princes and politicians assume a certain license in tbe morality of their transactions with each other and witb the people. The prince of Orange cpuld plead, in excuse cf bis expedient dissimulatipu, the aUowances and exigencies of a perilous raUitary enterprise, joined with a momentous political scherae. Sorae have dated his design frora the defeat and execution of the Duke of Monraouth. "My Lord Dartmouth," says James, " ever since the Duke of Monmouth's invasion, always told the King, that sooner or later he was confident the Prince of Orange • Voltaire, Siecle de Louis XIV. " Id. ibid. " Letter of tbe Prince of Orange to the Emperor. Dal. APp, ¦" Declaration of the Prince of Orange. UPON ENGLAND. Ill would attempt it." * If Bishop Burnet raay be reUed on, tbe Printie aspired to tbe crown in 1 686, when Burnet came to the Hague. The Bishop gives a circumstancial account of his con versations, on his arrival, with the Prince and Princess of Orange ; who, he says, opened tbeir minds to him with entire confidence. In no part of his history does be more offensively indulge his con- ceU and egotism. " The Prince," says he, " though naturaUy cold and reserved, laid aside a great deal of tbat with me." " It would even appear, however incredible, that Burnet was the raore reserved of the two. " I bad a mind," says be, " to see a little into tbe Prince's notions, before I should engage myself deeper into bis service. I was afraid lest bis struggle with the Louvestein party, might have given hira a jealousy of liberty and of a free government. He assured me it was quite tbe contrary ; nothing but sucb a constitution could resist a powerful aggressor long, or have tbe credit necessary to raise such suras as a great war might require." " The Prince, in a conference, by bis account, of several hours with bim, censured tbe King's proceedings, and disclosed bis own views of government in Church and State with minute particu larity. "I thought it necessary," adds tbe Bishop, "to enter witb hira into all these particulars, that so I might be fumished from bis own mouth to give a full account ofhis sense to some in England."'' Burnet fiirther states, tbat " what particularly fixed bim in the confidence of tbe Prince and Princess of Orange, was tbe liberty he took, in a private conversation with the Princess, to ask her, " what she intended the Prince sbould be4f she came to the crown P " " Tbe Princess of Orange, it seems, did not even com prehend his meaning. She thought her husband must become king to all intents as a matter of course. This ignorance seeras unaccountable in a lady next in succession to tbe crown, whom the Bishop had just described as " having great knowledge, witb a true understanding." He, however, instructed her on tbe subject; referring in iUustration to the marriages of Henry VII. and Eliza beth, PhUip II. and Mary ; " told her a titular kingship was no acceptable thing toa man, especiaUy if it was to depend on another's life ;" and upon being asked by her "to propose a re- • King James's MS. Mem., cited in "Life of James II." vol. 11. p. 177, Hist, of bis Own Times, vol. iii, p. 131. Oxf. ed. 1823. ' Ibid. p. 135. Hist, ofhis Own Times, vol. iii. p. 136. Oxf. ed. 1823. Ibid. 112 DESIGNS OF WILLIAM medy," advised her " to be contented to be merely tbe Prince's wife, engage herself to give hira the real authority as soon as it carae into her hands, and endeavour fc-ffectually to get it to be legally vested in him during his life ; which would lay the greatest obligation on tbe Prince possible, and lay the foundation of a perfect union between them, which had of late been a little em broiled." She instantiy gave the required assurance. The Prince had the reputation of being a despotic husband. His wife not only had no will of her own, but did not dare to murmur when she was outraged.^ Mrs. ViUiers, sister of the wife of Bentinck, and reputed mistress of the Prince, raade no secret of her in fluence. The Princess only wrote her grievances privately to her sister, but the latter sharply desired Bentinck to check tbe insolence of his sister-in-law.'" " I asked pardon," continues Burnet, " for having nioved her in sucb a tender point ; but I soleranly protested, that no person living bad moved rae in it, or so rauch as knew of it." Notwith standing this soleran profestatipn pf the Bishop, Lord Dartmouth has subjoined to this passage in Burnet's history " the following observation : — " I take it for granted, that the Prince ordered Burnet to propose it to the Princess before he would engage in the atterapt upon England ; and she certainly raust understand it so ; for certainly such a little Scotch priest durst not have proposed altering the right of succession to the three kingdoms of his own head, though he had double the confidence he was kno'wn to have." These passages prove, by conclusive implication, that the Prince of Orange at the time' conteraplated his being King of England. But tbe Prince could imagine hiraself king only on the supposition, that King James was deposed and the throne vacant. If the crown devolved upon the Princess, his wife, on her father's de cease, he would not have the slightest ground to expect that the order of succession should be departed frpm, and the rights pfthe Princess Anne sacrificed in his favpur. Npthing but the shuck of a revplution, the necessities pf the time, and the raerit pf a deli verance, cculd warrant a raan pf his sagacity in such an expecta- tipu ; and it was pnly by a very sraaU raajority of one house of ¦ Account of tbe conduct of tbe Duchess of Malborougb, p, 123. Letter of Lord Nottingham. Dal. App. ' Negot. du Comte D'Avaux, Aug. 1685. Fox MSS. ' Oxf. ed, 1823. PENN'S MISSION. ns pariiament, that tbese causes, eo-bperating with others, raised hitii eventually to the throne. But WilUam proved at a much eariier period that he had little tenderness for the rights of his fathet-in-law. He declai-ed his wish that the biU of exclusion should be carried, rather than the powers of the crown should be diminished." He received i*fith pleasure the proposition of enacting, that the PrinbesS should be regent during the Jife of her father ;"" and U would appear, from A letter of Montague to him, after he became King, tbat he knew and approved the Rye House plot." Penn came over to the Hague early in 1686, and ,had several audiences of tbe Prince. Without professing to have any mis sion, he was received as tbe envoy of James,"" and had authority from him.^ His object was to obtain tbe Prince's assent to the repeal of tbe penal and Test Acts ; upon which condition '* he undertook," says Burnet, " that tbe King would enter into an en tire confidence with tbe Princc, and put bis best friends in the chiefest trusts." ' Bishop Burnet could never spare his depreciation of any person, from WiUiam Penn to Major W^Uding, wbo came into collision or comparison with himself. He, on this occasion, describes Penn as " a vain talking man,"* who " had such an Opinion of bis otvn facuUy of persuading, that he thought none could stand against U," and " whom many suspected to be a concealed Papist." The suspicion was really and extensively entertained. It is thus the tolerant, benevolent, phUosophie Christian is traduced by uncha ritable bigotry, or still more uncharitable hypocrisy, in one age a* a concealed Papist, in another as a concealed infidel. The Prince was wUling to abandon the penal laws, but adhered to the tests. Tbe King would have all or nothing ;"¦ and Penn's negociation faUed. About the middle of the year 1686, Skelton, James's ambassa dor at the Hague, was appointed to the court of Versailles. His ' Letter ofthe Prince of Orange to Sir Leoline Jenkins. Dal. App. p. 306, et te^. ' Id. ibid. ' Letter of Lord Montague to King William. Dal. App. part ii. p. 339. "Though he did not pretend any commission for what be promised, yet we (that is, fiumet and the Prince) looked npon him as a man employed." Bur, vol. iii. p. 140. Oxf. ed. 1823. ' " Clarkson's Life of William Penn. Bur. Hist, of his Own Times, vol. iii. p. 139, &c. Oxf. ed. 1823. 'Ibid. Swift has subjoined this note : — " Ho spoke very skgreeably, and witb much spirit." * Ibid. n. 8 It^l COMMUNICATIONS BETWEEN' successor, the Marquis d'AlbyviUe, has been described as a person of disreputable life and character. Burnet mentions him as one White, an Irishman, who had long served the court of Spain in the capacity of a spy, and received frora that court his titie in discharge of his arrears. But the Bishop, wbo has been unjust to individuals from self-conceit or caprice, could not be expected to speak scrupulously of a Papist, an Irishraan, and a personal eneray. The corajfUer of the Life of King Jaraes from his manu script Memoirs, says that d'AlbyviUe received his title from the Emperor;* and the Dutch arabassador. Van Citters, in announcing his appointraent to the States, mentions him as " formerly known by the narae of Baron White, an Irishman and a Roman Catholic, of good understanding and good breeding, who conducted the bu siness of the English monarchy for, several years at Brussels and Madrid in the lifetime pf the late King." " D'AlbyvUle, hpwever, SPPn after his arrival at the Hague, was suspected pf betraying James tP the Prince pf Orange," and bpth tp Lpuis XIV.* It wpuld appear frem his subsequent cpnduct, that he acted impli- citiy as the hired agent cf Lpuis, under the orders of D'Avaux." in this he may not have consulted the real interests, but he cer tainly best consulted the personal 'views, of his master, for Louis judged much better for Jaraes than James for himself Lpuis XIV. granted D'AlbyvUle, through BariUon, 300 guineas for his outfit, and a pension of 60,000 livres, in order to place him heyond the reach of temptation by the Prince pf Orange.' The Prince hardly deigned tp speak tp hira.^ It is np wpnder that a rapnarch thus gratuitpusly prpdigal pf gpld, and having at his cpramand the mpst expert and unprincipled intriguers, lay and spirUual, pf Europe, penetrated the secrets of his neighbours and enenues. HoUand was the great asylum of English poUtical refugees. This was a cpnslant subject pf discussion between Jaraes and the States. The King deraanded that persens whpra he called his rebel subjects should be sent put pf the territpries pf th& Repub- ¦lic ; the States answered by iUusery cprapUances, evasicns, and " Vol ii p 134, ' Lett.'(fVanCitt.l6tb Aug. 1680. ¦^ Negot. du Comte D'Avaux. Fox MSS, " Macph. Hist, of Great Britam. " " 11 me paroit. Sire, que M. d'AlbyviUe ecrit fidelement au Roi son maitre tout ce dont nous convenons' ensemble." N^got. du Comte d'Avaux. Fox MSS. 14 Avril, 1687. ¦-,'>¦-'--- ' Coi res, de Bar, FoxMSb. ¦ ' D'Avaux to the K,'itig,.2itli.May, 1087. JAMES AND WILHAM, 115 delays.* Van Citters, on one occasion, during au audience of tbe King, excused tbe delay in complying witb his demands, as pro ceeding from the forms of the Dutch constitution. James rejoined, that a single letter from Cromwell sufficed to make the States send away the royal family.'" The fact proved only tbat tbe usurper knew bow to make himself respected, and the King did not. D'AlbyvUle, before he even opened his commission," demanded, in the name of the King, tbat Burnet sbould be forbidden the presence of the Prince and Princess of Orange. Tbe historian of his own times would bave it supposed tbat be was proscribed for his importance as a politician. It was only as a pamphleteer tbat be provoked the King's resentment. Pamphlets printed by bim, and other partisans of the Prince of Orange, at Amsterdam and tbe Hague, were circulated privately in England ; and such virtue is there in tbe press, tbat it can reacb the tyrant and disturb bis rest, when nothing else can, short of the appeal to Heaven. The King had already written two letters of complaint, respect ing Burnet, to his daughter. The Bishop relates, witb the utmost complacency, bow a dutiful and religious princess replied to her father's letters, " according to the hints suggested" by the very man wbom her father desired she would dismiss ; and how the Prince and Princess were both so true to tbeir promise of dis missing bim, " tbat, instead of seeing bim henceforth, they com municated to him the whole secret of Englisb affairs througb Dyckvelt and Halewyn." * ¦ The arrival of Bonrepaux, a special envoy of Louis XIV. to Jaraes, in the spring of 1 686, alarraed the Dutch, Spanish, and Iraperial ambassadors. They suspected tbe negociation of a secret treaty, offensive and defensive, between the courts of France and England. A paper, containing reasons in favour of an aUiance witb France for the especial purpose of attacking and extirpating the Republic of Holland, and purporting to be addressed to tbe King in councU, came into tbe hands pf Dpn Pedro RpnquUlo, arabassador of tbe King of Spain. That dexterous minister, in stead of acting in person, instructed the ambassador of the States, as the party chiefly interested, to sound tbe designs of the King. There are two versions of what passed in several conferences on the subject between tbe King and Van Citters : one by Van Cit- ¦ Van Citters, 3Ist May, 1686. ' Letter of Van Ciller.?, 25th June, 1680. , ' Bur. vol. iii. p. 173. Oxf. ed. 1823. " Id. ibid. 110 SUPPOSED FRENCH ALLLVNCE. ters to tbe States ;* the other by his confederate director, Bon- qiuUo, addressed tp tbe King pf Spain. '" Tbe despatch pf the Spaniard is curipusly distinctive nf the in digent grandeur pf the Spanish rapuarchy, and the peculiar genius bf the Spamsh natipu. It opens with his despair On the arrival of the post from Spain without bringing hira any supplies. He saw hiraself reduced to the necessity of abandoning the court, and shutting himself up in his own house ; he was unable to maintain or to discharge his household ; his spies would no longer serve hira; and all this, at the critical moment when the French were straining every nerve to engage the King of England into an aUi ance with the King of France. The ingenious diplomatist, how ever, having sent his household to subsist in London, contrived to maintain his post, without a suite, at Windspr ; and not only dis covered, he says, aU that passed in this important negociation, but obtained, partly by thiyats, partly by proraises, a copy of the above mentioned paper, which he placed in the bands of Van Citters. There is, in reference tp his prpraises, a light touch of humour, characteristic and worthy of the countryman of Cervantes, — " God and your Majesty," says he, in a parenthesis, " know whether they wiU be fulfilled." " The King, having received the paper from Van Citters, declared it a fabrication by the gazetteers of Amsterdam, or by some in England, who, sought to render him odious to his subjects; and expressed his earnest desire to cultivate the friendship of the States. Van CUters, if be raay be believed, resolutely insisted that the raeraorial was genuine ; ascribed it to the Catholic party and court priests ; and said that he could astonish the King, by naming the author.'' It is strange that thc offer, if made, was not accepted. The tone in which the Dutch minister vaunts his own boldness, and takes the whole credit of having obtained the paper, without mentioning RonquiUo, throws some doubt on this part of his account. Jaraes may have, as he declared, seen the paper then for the first time. He raay, also, have beUeved it spurious. But tbe evidence, external and intemal, is in favour bf its authenticity. It was probably drawn up by Bonrepaux. The tone is French, • Letters of Van Citt. 9tb and 27tb August, 1688. •¦ Letter of Don Ped. Ronq. August, 1686. • " Dios y V. M. sabra si se compliran." '' 'Letter of Van CiU. obiMAra. SUPPOSED FRENCH ALLIANCE. ni and it was transmitted in the French language to the States, by Van Citters, who wrote his despatches in Dutch.* The orlgipal. therefore, may be presumed to have been French. The Dutch ambassador sit tbe same time told tbe Ring, that according to recent letters from Constantinople, received by an eminent Smyrna merekant named Vernon, the French iftinislei' there had just announced to tbe Sultan the conclusion of a treaty between bia raaster and tbe King of England, having for its object a joint attaek upon Holland, whicb would divert the attention and forces of the Emperor . from tbe side of Turkey to the Rhine. Bishop Burnet, one of tbe most strenuous asserters of thia pre tended French aUiance, which had so great a share in driving Jaraea from the throne,"' gives, as conclusive evidence of it, a de claration m9.de to him by Sir Williara Trun»bull, then minister at the Porte, that the French ambassador surprised him one raorniuig by a visit without the usual forms, to announce, on the autbority of a letter in cipher froiB M. de Croissy, which be produced, tbe conclusion of a new treaty between their respective masters, whose interests were thenceforth identical."' The answer of the King to Van Citters applies equally to Burnet, He said, " that of the pro ceedings of the French ambassador at Constantinople be knew pothing ; but if he acted ia the manner alleged, it could only be a French artifice to dissuade tbe Turks frora raaking peace with the Eraperor. The King further denied the existence of any new aUiance, actual or prospective, with France. His last words in n private audience to Van Citters were, that be and tbe other foreign ministers should not aUow tbemselves to be deceived by French intrigues and artifices." Both tbe Dutch and Spanish rainisters assured their respective governments that the overtures made by Bonrepaux were decUned by James.' The ministers of the powers confederated against France tried to work upon the King's pride. They intimated to him, that he ¦was treated by Louis, and regarded by others, as a vassal of France. This deUeate topic was touched on hy Van Citters. James repu diated tbe supposition witb indignant vivacity ; repeated several times, witb much beat,-"" Vassal I vassal de France I" and added, ¦ Letter of Van Citt. 16tbAug. 1686. ^ Tbe Spanish version, transmitted by RonquiUo, will be fonnd in the Appendix. ' Sherlock's Letter lo a member of the Convention. '' Bur. vol. lii. p. 290. Oxf. ed. 1823, V Letter of Poi» Ped. Ronq, ubi supra. ' Van Citt. and Rouq, ubi supra. 118 LIBERTY OF CONSCIENCE. ' in a soleran tone, — " Sir, if the Parliament enabled rae, I would bring the kingdora to a height of consideration, abroad and at home, never reached under any of ray predecessors."* More ci-edit would be due to this declaration, if he were not, at tbe mo raent, the stipendiary of the King of France. Jaraes, however, while he received and solicited the degrading liberality pf Louis, manifested, it will be pbserved, to tbe last, a reluctance to commit hiraself implicitiy in his protector's train. He would, perhaps, have even joined the Prince of Orange against the King pf France, prpvided the -English nation placed its laws, liberties, and religien at his feet. Great activity was pbservable in iraprpving the condition and increasing the force of the navy. Van Citters mentioiied this to the King as a source of alarm to the States. He replied, that the neglect or incapacity of the naval administration fpr several years, rendered necessary a cemplete system ef repairs and equipment ; and declared that his pbject was not war, but tP place himself in such an attitude as te command respect abread, and raaintain the peace' cf Europe. , There appears no good reason to doubt his sin cerity. He had no motive for lending himself tp the mere aggran disement pf Lpuis XIV. His great pbject was tp rule his kingdom without parliaraents and above the laws ; and peace abread was favourable, if not necessary, to his establishraent pf tyranny at hprae. It should be observed, that he was jealpus of the Dutch gpvernment, not, because it was Protestant and Bepublican, but because its laws and policy afforded an asylum to English refugees, and its Protestantism and tbe interests of the Prince pf Orange interfered directly with his designs pf rendering his gpvernment tyrannical. D'AlbyviUe repeated tp the States the same pacific declarations which the King had made to their ambassador ; urged in the King's name tho expulsion of the obnoxious English exUes ; and, in private conferences with the Prince and Princess of Orange, assured them, in pursuance ofhis instructions, " that the King never intended to wrcn'g them in the right pf successipn.'"" He repeated, at the same tirae, the desire, which James bad conveyed through Penn, that they would' sanction the repeal of the penal and Test Acts,— even fpr their own sakes, a? a restraint uppn the rpyal prerpgative ; "— - • Letter of Van Citt. 27tb Aug. 1685. ,.,,,, ¦ J Bw. "Vol, iii. p- 175,176. 0x1'. ed, 1823. ' Ibid, p. 174. LIBERTY OK CONSCIENCE. 113 declared, according to Burnet, that the King not only condemned the proceedings, but despised the bigotry of Louis XIV., wbo aUowed himself to be govemed by the Archbishop of Paris and Madame de Maintenon ; * and appealed to the King's bospUable reception of the French Protestant refugees as evidence of bis tolerant liberality. The States professed theraselves satisfied; but tbe Prince, doubting tbe sincerity, or unconvinced by the arguraents of tbe King, or determined only by his own secret purposes, repeated in substance to D'.41byvUle tbe refusal to sanction the repeal of tbe tests which he bad given to Penn. It is iraprobable that D'AlbyviUe really made those contemptuous reflections upon Louis XIV. It is incredible that he should have been authorised to make them by James. But the envoy raay be presumed to bave conveyed the King's opinion of the persecution of tbe French Protestants, as it was expressed by the King himself to tbe Spanish and Dutch rainisters. James admitted to the Spanish minister that Louis XIV. had the same right to revoke, which Henry IV. had to grant, the edict of Nantes, but declared, both to RonquUlo and Van Citters, that be abhorred the eraployment of " tbe bopted missipnaries,"'" bpth as irapplitic and unchristian;" that thpugh he wished tp see his Pwn religipn embraced, be thought it contrary to the precepts of Holy Writ to force conscience; that be only expected to see bis Catholic subjects enjoying the freedom of other Englishraen, not treated as if tbey were traitors;" that he designed no raore than establishing the same liberty of conscience which was so beneficially allowed by the States themselves ; and that he expected the States would not interfere witb his measures for this end." Van Citters, in reply, assured him, tbat their High Mightinesses would not interfere with bis proceedings in reference to religion, which they regarded as a domestic matter to be left to the King's prudence and the providence of God.' The professions of respect for liberty of conscience made by James, were, it will be said, hollow and perfidious. Religious prejudice is of all others the most unjust and blind. Protestants found it impossible in the seventeenth, and find it diffi cult in tbe nineteenth, centuries, to dissociate Popery and into lerance. An opinion of tbe good or bad faith of James is uncalled ' Ibid. p. 170. I Letter of Don Ped. Ronq. 12tb Apri], 1686. ' Letter of Van Citt. 9th Aug, ' ¦" Ronq. ubi supri. ' Van Oiit, ubi supra, ' Letter of Van Citt. <)tb Aug. '^'^ THE PBOTlgSTANT SUCCESSION. for h,pe. It m^y jjp observad, however, ip fjirnessto bis memory ^^d religion, that where he violated law, fee uomBacled con- jiciencei tbat a bebwer in the d^gwas of tbe Cburcb of Rome, and even a zealct fpr prpselytisw, is not necessarily a persecutor ; th^t Fenelon interfered i^ the truest spirit of toleration and charity fqr the perseputed Protectants of France, whilst tbe Protestant bighops of England to a raan forged the chains and urged the per secution of English papists and dissenters; finally, that from tbe restoratipp pf Charies, to the first declaration of indulgence by James, "above \5,QQ0 famibes had be(?n ruined, and more than 500Q persons had died in fepflds, for raere matters of conscience tP God :'" that i§, victims tc the iutpleraut ascendancy pfthe Cbwrch of England. The statement of Burnet respecting tbe King's assurances, through D'AlbyvUle, of "wronging the Prince and Princess of Orange in t^e succession to the crown," is corroborated- Va.«i filters ¦writes tp the States, that the King, in tbe same audience in which he denied the alliance with France, repudiated with veheraence the ^uppositipu of bis promoting his religion by de- fraiiding hi^ chUdren of tbeir inheritance. " At a subsequent period he repeated this assurance, in a Jiplograph letter to D'Alby ville, which tbat envoy placed in the hands of D'Avaux." The ^rdef of succession, then, must have been regarded by the Prince ^ threatened and insecure. fbis raatter is involved in obscurity, No idea of tb?; queen's 3Qtual or future pregnancy was then entertained, What Catholic |ilQces,50r to the exclusion of the Princess of Orange could have feeen in jBonteraplation ? The views of James and Louis are supposed to have been fixed upon the Prince and Princess of Denmark. BariUon, the resident rainister, a raan of pleasure rathev than pf bw^ness,* was better ^)jitgd to the couri pf Charles than to tbat of Jaraes, Denmark was at this period the aUyef France. Accordingly, Bonrepaux, the ip^eiat envoy, was charged or charged himself with sounding the JlSflisb ambassador respecting the conversion of Prince George gf Pej?inRrk.. It was suggested to bim, that bis conversion and that of " William Penn's " Good Advice," &c., cited in Clarkson's Life of Penn, >¦ Dutcb Pol. Corres., ubi supra. • Neg du (?,omte d'Avaux, 22 Av. 1687. Fox MSS. " Volt. gi^le'ieLsBi* XIY, THE PROTESTANT SUCCESSION. 121 the princess his wife, would induce tbe King to exclude the elder sister from the throne in favour of the younger. The ambassador, after conferring witb the Prince, held out to Bonrepaux confident hopes of success.* Prince George, from his want of capacity and character, was governed whoHy hy others. When it was in contem plation to put him forward as a candidate for the throne of Poland, his friends determined for him that he should becorae a Catholic.'' His conversion or conformity, therefore, could he easUy brought about. The conversion of the Princess was expected to follow as a matter of course." Bonrepaux describes her as timid, ambitious, bating the queen, receiving books of controversy obligingly, and, like her husband, wilUng to be instructed. Rut ignorant bigotry and vulgar temper constituted in this Princess a spurious force of character, wbicb rendered it difiicuU to change her convictions, or make her bend them to her ambition ; and ber father never offered the slightest violence to ber religion. For these, and perbapa otber reasons, tbe intrigue of Bonrepaux failed. There is no good evi dence that Jaraes was a party to it, and an intrigue so fruitless and transient could scarcely have alarmed "the Prince of Orange. Bonrepaux, on the eve of his departure, writes to Seignelai, tbat Lord Sunderland had raade to bim an overture, which he thought it imprudent to communicate in writing untU he bad reached Calais.'' There is no trace of this overture in th© MS. letters of BariUon, Bonrepaux, or D'Avaux, obtained from the French archives by Mr. Fox." The perpetual shifting and dnpli-' city of Sunderland add to tbe difficulties of conjecture. An opi^ nion may be hazarded tbat it related to the succession. It was at this period, that Bonrepaux described Jaraes, as finding it hard to conceal his dislike of the Prince ; and Rarillon, in a despatch lo bis master, early in the following year, writes, that the Dutch and Spanish ambassadors were in the greatest fear of James's 4oing soraething entirely adverse to the interests of the Prince of Orange.f It will he found, that, consistently with dates, the intrigue of Tyrconnel witb Louis XIV,, founded on the known inclination of James to deprive a Protestant successor of the crown of Ireland, • Bonrepaux to Seignelai, March, 1686. Fox MSS. >¦ Halifay MS. « Bonr. to Seig;. Ibid. ¦• Bon. to S«ig., Ap?il, 1686. Fox MSS. ' Fox MSa. ifl the possession of Lord Holland. ' " Quelque chose entierement opposee aux interets da Prince d'Orange," Barillon au Roi, 10 Uaxi, 1689. Fox MSS. Ii22 MISSION OF DYCKVELT. wiU npt account for the fears entertained at this period for the Protestant succession to the crown. The petty diplomacy of BarUlon, Bonrepaux, D'Albyville, and D'Avaux, vanished before the antagonist mission of Dyckvelt, sent over to England by the Prince of Orange. Dyckvelt arrived" in Ldndon on the 18th of February, 1686—7. His instructions, as stated by Burnet, who prpfesses to have drawn them up, bore in substance, that he sheuld expostulate, respectfully but firmly, with the King on his poUcy at home and abroad; that is, with reference to the Catholics and his connexion with France; that be should endeavour to bring the King tp a better understanding wifh the Prince; that he should assure the Church party of the Prince's firm attachment to the Church of England; that he sbould press the Dissenters to stand off frora the Court, and not be drawn in by any promises pf the King tp assist hira in the electipus ; that he shpuld hpld put tp them a full tpleratipn, with the hppes ef "a comprehensipn" in "a better time," if they then stood firra ; that he should do away certain irapressions respecting the Prince; — for instance, the suspicion of the Church party "that he was a Presbyterian;" of the Dissenters, "thathe was arbitrary and imperious;" and the report, "which some," says the Bishop, " had the impudence to give out, that he was a Papist."" The Church party raust have had a more tban common share pf self-cpmplacent credulity tp be brought to suppose, that a Dutch Calvinist felt zeal for the Church of England. The notion of the Dissenters, that he was " arbitrary- and imperious," proved too well founded after his accessien tp the throne." As to the report of his being "a papist," it priginated, doubtiess, in certain pplitic raanifestations of favour to the Catholics, raade by him at various tiraes, to James,* the Emperor, and Innocent XI." It would be a wrong to the character, and a misapprehension of the genius, of the Prince of Orange, to suppose that he set the , , value which he professed to set upon religious tests. Inheriting the principles, and living in the practice of religious freedora, — essen tially a politician, — arabitious and enlightened, — he raust have been ' Bur. lii. p. 173, etc. Oxf ed. 183. ' Ibid. p. 17-3. " 'His arbitrary disposition bas been laid to tbe account of bis Dutch advisers, ¦' Dyckvelt," says Lord Halifax, "put tbe King on -aibilrary counsels," iHal. BJS, .'' Le Roi a Bar., 2 Juin, 1687. Pox MSS. • Burn. pp. 174, 175. Oxf ed. Note by Lord Dartmoutb. MISSION OF DYCKVELT. l-JS sensible of their mischievous bigotry and injustice ; but to abandon the tests would bave been to alienate his party in England, and thus throw up the great garae of succeeding in bis own person to the crown. One article only of Dyckvelt's instructions came within the legitimate range of the rights and duties of an ambassador; that which related to his course of proceeding with the King. The rest was a warrant for improper -practice witb tbe King's subjects. But tbe nearest interests of the Prince of Orange were at stake ; the subjects of James conspired with a foreign Prince for their laws and liberties; and in sucb a case men do not look very narrowly into the obligations of international and municipal jurisprudence. D'Albyville, a Catholic, was forced hy James upon tbe States- general and the Prince. He was obnoxious to both, not perhaps for his mere religion, but for the fideUty which it iraplied to the designs of the King. The States refused him , on a point of form, the honours of a ceremonial public audience, and James, in consequence, would not, at first, receive Dyckvelt either pub hcly or privately. After tbe lapse of several days, the States yielded, and the King told Van Citters that Dyckvelt might see him as soon and as often as be pleased.* James suspected the objects of tbe mission. He penetrated tbe very instructions given to Dyckvelt by the Prince. Conversing with the nuncio, he said, the object of Dyckvelt was to observe his measures in favour of the Catholics, reinstate tbe Prince in bis good graces, by making bira come into the raeasures of the Prince, not the Prince, as in duty bound,'" into his; and if this could not be effected, to stir up faction in tbe court, the city, and tbe Par liaraent; "for the Prince," he added, "was a partisan of the test, and a sly Presbyterian."*^ On the 3d of March, the King received Dyckvelt witb marked expressions of personal civility and public friendship. He dis carded or dissembled bis suspicions. " Tbe King," says Van Cit ters, " no longer suspects M. Dyckvelt of secret designs to the prejudice of his affairs." " Dyckvelt urged upon bim, in substance, " Lett, of Van cut. Feb. 25. 1686-7. ' "Come sarebbe il dovere." D'.Adila, Feb. 7, 1686-7. " Un testardo ed un Calvinista finissimo." Tbe words, " sly Presbyterian," ^'^^¦ n"L*°"' *^«. '"*'¦&'•' of "le Italian MS. by Sir J. Mackintosh, as the translation ft Calvinista finissimo," and bave therefore been adopted. Dutch Pol. Corres. ubi supra. 124 MISSION OF DYCKVELT. how eaaUy be raight, witb his resources, if be pleaspd, be seeure at borae and tbe arbiter of affairs abroad, and laboured to convince him that the abolition of the tests would but lead to a common wealth. * The King, in answer, required that the Prince sbould submit implicitly to bis will, as he was head of the famUy. Dyckvelt observed, that the Prince had carried bia complaisance to the utmost length, short of giving up bis religion, James did not condescend to reply; '"but Sunderland andthe otber nunisters stiU pressed the envoy, and engaged that if the Prince concurred in the abolition pf the tests, " the King would go into close measures with him against France." " Dyckvelt cut the matter short by declaring that the Prince could never he brought to hearken to any proposition involving bis consent to the repeal of the tests.'' Burnet professes to have received this account of the mission from Dyckvelt himself. " It is unfaithful in a material point. The fact is suppressed by the envoy or tbe historian, that Dyckvelt for a time concurred in tbe King's measures. His concurrence is placed beyond doubt by the despatches sent frora London to D'AlbyviUe, at the Hague ;' and by a letter of Don Pedro RonquUlo to the King of Spain. « The Spanish minister expressed to Dyckvelt hia surprise tbat the latter should oppose the eat&blishment of liberty of conscience, after having fully apprpved it ten days before."* Dyckvelt replied, that bis opinion was changed by cpmraunicatioo with leading persons of tbe Anglican or Churcb of England party, who convinced bira that if the lest were removed, England, on thfi King's death, would became a repubUc, which would prove ruinous to Holland; and by bis own fears of French in fluence in the King's councils. The Dutch envoy, by entermg into the King's views respecting tbe tests, evideiatly departed from bis instructions. His motives, cannot be assigned with precision or certainty. The King's earnest assurances of a deswe to maintaii peace with the States,--of his readiness even to make eommon enuse with the Dutch for the maintenance of the peace of Europe," -rof his intention npt to invade the rights of the Prptestants, but simply tP give liberty of conscience to the Catholics, by which ¦ Bur. vol. lii. p. 177- Q«f. ed, " Bur. vol. iii. 1>. 178- . Ibid. * Ibid- ' »»¦¦¦ '"1' '"• P- ""' ' D'Ava,w,32Av. 1687. FpxMgS. i ,j 'k-j ' MS. Letter of Ronq. 26tb Mw. 1687. * W. ibid. I Dutch Pol. Cor. Letter of Dyck, 4tb and 18th Marsh, 1687, MISSION OF DYCKVELT. 125 Dyckvelt is stated to have been surprised and gratified*^these assurances, joined with the influence of the iraperial and Spanish rainisters, "" may have brought bim to assent to tbe measures of James. His change of opinion, or rather relapse to bis instructions, is more clearly accounted for. The High Church party, as he told RonquUlo, played upon his fears of a republic ; the Whig op position told bim he should place no trust in tbe King," and the Prince of Orange was put upon his guard by a more specific warning, treacherously conveyed from the bosom of the ill-fated King's most secret councUs. Lady Sunderland addressed a letter with extraordinary precautions of secrecy, to the Prince, inforraing bira of a scheme laid by the government of wbicb ber husband was tbe head, " to flatter Monsieur Dyckvelt witb a great many fine things ; tbat there sball be an entire union between England and Holland, etc., and for this (she says) they a.sk you to bid Monsieur Dyckvelt and Monsieur Citters declare, in your name, that you wish the Pariiament would take off these laws, and that you think it reasonable they sbould do so. By this means they fancy .they can corapass tbeir point, which, wben done, I think 'tis plain the article npon your part is upon record, theirs only verbal ; your Highness is the best judge of the likelihood of its being per- formied. " Two questions may here suggest themselves ; the first, whether the offers of tbe King were deceitful or sincere; tbe second, whether the letter of Lady Sunderland was written with Or with out tbe participation of her husband. There are strong grounds for pronouncing against the sincerity of James. He could not, without violences almost inconceivable, overcome his sympathies, and sever his connexion, religious, political, and pecuniary, with Louis XIV. It is true be was a conscientious religionist, but bis pohtical morality was like tbat of other kings and princes, and be would not scruple to deceive a son-in-law, whom with good reason be hated and feared. His proposition, then, of joining the confederacy against France, may be regarded as a lure to obtain the assent of the Prince to the repeal of the tests, for tbe purpose of ruining his credit in England. There appears no direct proof that Lord Sunderland dictated • D'Avaux, ubi supra. >¦ Letter 6f Konq. nbi supra. • MS. Lett, of Don Ped. Ronq,, 26tb May, 1687. •" Dal. App. pari i. p. 211. 126 MISSION OF DYCKVELT. the letter pf his wife; but the circumstances seem cpnclusive of the fact. He was receiving at the time a French pensipn, de pendent uppn his master's centinuance in the interests of France. By the warning conveyed in his wife's letter, he would at once establish a claim on the Prince, and widen tbe breach between tbe Prince and the King, for the greater security pf his pension frpra Lpuis. This seems tp bear the irapress pf his intriguing ge nius. It may be, and has been supposed, that Lady Sunderland was moved by over-ruling sentiments of religion and patriotism, to address a letter sp extraordinary to one with whom she had no previous correspondence, and little or np perspnal acquaintance. Her character is transmitted by her cpntetappraries with a per plexing diversUy pf judgment. She is represented as an excellent person, whose Protestant zeal was a standing reproach tp her hus band's appstasy,* — as a wpman pf subtle wit and admirable ad dress,'" — as famUiar with intrigues of gallantry and politics," — as a fawning, dissembling flatterer, — as a hypocrite, whose religion was but artifice and ostentation^'' ' The first and favourable testiraony to her character would bear out the supposition that she acted from herself. It is that of Evelyn, a most respectable witness, but one Upon the simplicity of whose virtues, and sincerity of whose high Church zeal, a -woman of ," subtle wit," who raade a show of devotion, raight easily impose. A passage in one of his letters, addressed to Lady Sunderland, favours this opinion : — "I am not unraindfuU," says be, " ofthe late com'and you layed upon rae to give you a catalogue of such books as I believed might be fit to entertain your raore devout and serious hoiirs."" The Princess Anne, writing to her sister of the person who sought such virtuous entertainment for her serious hours, says, '* I can't end ray letter without telUng you that Lady Sun derland plays the hypocrite more tban ever, fer she goes to St. Martin's in the mprning and afternoon, because there are not people enough to see her at WhitehaU Chapel, and is, half an hour before other people come, and half an hour after every body is gone, at her private devotions. She runs frora church to church ' Evelyn's, Dia. '¦ Kennet, vol. iii. p. 488. ' Bonr. to Seign., Slst, July, Mfi7. Fox MSS. D'Avaux, 20tb May, 1688. Fox MSS. '' Letters of the Princess Anne to the Princess of Orano'e. Dal, App. ' Ev,Dia. vol.ii.p. 268. ; MISSION OF DYCKVELT. 1^7 after the faoiousest preachers, and keeps such a clatter with bei- devotions that it really turns one's stomach."^ This vigorous sketch may be somewhat overcharged, but the suspicion is irre sistible, that the person who was Us subject, played uponhoth the Uterary vanity and pious zeal of Evelyn. The letter was communicated to tbe Prince through Sidney, bis chief English confidant in preparing tbe Revolution, and the reputed lover of Lady Sunderland. It was, notwithstanding, talked of in London and at the Hague. Sunderland vindicated hiraself from aU sbare in it by the impossibUity of his trusting Sidney, a man \vhom he must hate as the known lover of his wife.* D'Avaux, on the other hand, treats the favour of Sidney with the lady as the source of his influence over ber lord." Skelton, when minister at the Hague, was instructed by Sunderland to give his confidence to Sidney ; his suspicions were awakened, and he henceforth raade " unreserved communications respecting Sidney and the Prince of Orange only to James himself D'Albyville entertained and acted on tbe same suspicions of an understanding between Sidney and Sunderland. D'Avaux, writing to Louis, says, he bad it from Jaraes's three last ambassadors at tbe Hague, that the Prince of Orange was acquainted with every secret of James's cabinet.'' Bonrepaux, who far exceeded Barillon in penetration and dex terity, writes to his court in July, 1687, soon after the return of Dyckvelt to the Hague, tbat of tbe chief counsellors of James only one served him witb single-minded fidelity. Sunderland, Godolphin, and ChurchUl, he says, already worked in secret to merit tbe favour of the Prince of Orange. The solitary ex ception was the Chancellor Jeffreys, a madman, says Bonrepaux, who did all that was desired of him without providing for tbe future." The Revolution of 1688 has, among many advantages, the signal one of having been bloodless. But whUst other great political changes in nations and governments have been achieved by re solute spirits from motives of ambition, vengeance, love of liberty, or love of country, it wUl be found that in the ruin of James and " Letters ofthe Princess Anne. Dal. App. ¦ ^ Bonr. to Seig. aistJuly, 1687. Fox MSS. " Neg. du Comte D'Avaux. Fox MSS. '' Neg. du Compte D'Avaux, 20th May, 1688. Fox MSS. ' Un extravagant qui fait tout ce qu'on veut, et le seul, peut-etre, qui ne prends pas des niesures secretes. 128 MISSION OF DYCKVELT. elevation of WUliam, the dominant elements were intrigue, perfidy, and intolerance. Dyckvelt returned to tbe Hague at the end of May. An envoy extraordinary frora the Eraperor had corae to London at the same tirae, on the suggestion of the Prince of Orange, for tbe purpose of co-opefating With the Dutch envoy in detaching Jaraes from the King of France.* The rainisters of two princes so zealoiisly CathoUc as the Eraperor and the King of Spain raust have thought the proffered accession of James to tbe confederacy, upon the condition of tbe Prince's assent to the reraoval of the tests, a most reasonable overture, and urged ifcs acceptance. By what arguments or proraises, by what exercise of his autbority or address, the Prince reconcUed his Catbolic confederates to his refusal, has not appeared. The knowledge is perhaps, stiU attainable from the archives of tbe Vatican, Vienna, and Bladrid. It would throw a new and valuable light upon the personal character of William and the history of his tirae. Louis XlV., writing fp D'Avaux when the Prince bad just sailed cn his expedition to England, expresses the most serious fears for the Catholic religion, if the Prince of Orange should prove as fortunate in seducing the people of Eng land as he had been in imposing on the courts of Rorae, Vienna, and Madrid.* It raay be suggested, without rashness, that he held out hopes of relief to the Roman Catholics wbicb be diil not after wards fulfil. But it is due to hira to add, that the Protestant bigotry, which had too great a share in the Revolution, confined religious freedom within a party or a Sect, and debarred King WUUara frora acting on bis own views. A material fact, it has been shown, is suppressed in Bishop Burnet's account of the mission. It is further doubtful whether Dyckvelt addressed tbe King on tbe subject of tbe tests, m the , , tone for wbicb be has received credit frora the historian. The envoy himself, in a letter to the Slates, says, that " the King, in his private cabinet, comraunicated to hira his determination tO give liberty of conscience in rehgion to aU his subjects, in the manner of tbeir High Mightinesses, adding many Christian and politic consi derations and reasons, and stating that a proclamation of his inten tions, provisionaUy to be inserted in the Gazette, was already drawn • D'Avaux, 14th Aug. 1687. Fox MSS. '¦ S'il est aussi bemeux, a s^duire le people d'Angleterre qu'il a et^ i tromper les cours de Rome, Vienne et Midrid, il ne fant pas douter que notre feliglon ne re9oive un tres-grand prejudice. Louis to D'Avaux, Nov. 1688. Fox MSS. MISSION OF DYCKVELT, 129 up in council." * Dyckvelt, in this despatch, does not aUude to any objections made by him in his own name, qr in that of tbe Prince. The King charged him at bis departure with a letter to the States, bearing the most flattering testimony to bis conduct,'" and even made him the vehicle of his reasons for removing the tests to be communicated to the Prince of Orange." Facts and circum stances thus appear to negative Dyckvelt's having remonstrated witb the King on the subject of tbe tests, in a tone so peremptory and decisive as Burnet represents him to have used. He, however, did suggest or propose objections : Barillon mentions, as Dyckvelt's chief argument, that tbe adherence of the Prince and Princess to the high Protestant party promoted the tranquillity of his kingdora, and the interests of the Catholics tbemselves, by preventing tbe nation from proceeding to extremities.'' It would appear from a despatch of D'Avaux," and from the ungenerous letter of the Emperor to James in his subsequent ill fortune, that tbe imperial envoy took the the same view, and advised bim to desist ;' but nothing could check James in his ill-starred career. Deceived by Dyckvelt, and supposing, perhaps, Ihat Dyekvelt was duped by him, the King had hopes of finding the Piince more tractable upon the envoy's return. He was not a little disappointed by tbe contrary effect. The Prince, on the return of Dyckvelt, declai-ed stUl more firmly against the removal of the tests.* This is easUy accounted for. The King, soon after Dyckvelt's departure, knew the fact, but not the extent of the Dutch envoy's intrigues. Dyckvelt hiraself could not conceal his triumph on the eve of his departure."" He left England for the Hague, charged with letters to tbe Prince of Orange from leading persons, both Tories and Whigs, couched in terms so explicit that this mission may be " regarded as the first step in tbe con spiracy which produced tbe revolution." Lord Churchill answers for the Protestantism of the Princess Anne, "even to death;" declares for hiraself, "that be sets at nought his places and the King's favour, in comparison with being ' Dutch Pol. Cor. Dyck. 1st April, 1687. (The declaration of indulgence ap peared on the 4tb of April.) '' Vous ne pouviez pas faire meilleur cboix d'aucnn ministre,— sa personne nous ayant ete si agreable, et sa conduite si sage. ¦¦ The King to the P. of Orange. Dal. App- ¦> Bar. 1'2 Juin, 87. Fox MSS, ,' D'Avaux, 14lh Aug. 1687. Fox MSS. ' Life of K. James. 8 D'Avaux, 19 Juin, 1687. ' D'Adda, 13tb June, 1687. ' See Dyckvelt's mission in Dal. App, II, 9 130 MISSION OF DYCKVELT. true to his religion;"— tbat "in aU things else" the King raay coramand "bis life," and tbat " though he cannot live the life of a saint, he wUl show the resolution of a raartyr." The favourite of a king, througb one of the raost degrading of all relations, — that of brother of the King's raistress, — he could not, in reason or consistency, be expected to have lived the life of a saint, or when he proraised disinterested zeal, and the reso lution of a raartyr, to keep bis word. Accordingly, Lord ChurchUl continued to profit by the places, and betray the confidence of Jaraes, whilst Jaraes had places to bestow; changed sides with fortune, that guide of the base ; and has left the narae of Marl borough, like that of Bacon, a perpetual raemorial to mankind of the excellence of huraan capacity, and infirmity of human nature. Lord Nottingham professed unbounded zeal for the Prince of Orange, assured hira that he was looked to as their sole refuge by tbe Protestants, and refers him for particulars to Dyckvelt. It will be found that, when the hour of trial carae, Nottinghara's conscience revplted, or his heart failed hira. The brothers Cla rendon and Rochester eraployed, in their letters, raere general terras of coraphment and respect. Skelton, wben minister at the Hague, told D'Avaux that the Prince of Orange endeavoured to gain over Rochester upon his disraissal from office : * the letter of Rochester was written in answer to one frora the Prince, and its evasive generalities raay have had a share in provoking the dislike witb which he was ever after regarded by William. Ro chester hiraself *" supposes that tbe displeasure of the Prince of Orange proceeded frora bis not " paying his duty to his Highness when last out of England," and raerely asks pardon for the oraission, without offering any explanation. The corapUer of the " Life of King Jaraes" explains it in a curious raanner. " Rochester asked the King's leave to go to Spa, under the pretence of ill- health, but in reality to see the Prince of Orange. The King granted hira leave, with the embarrassing restriction that he sbould not take Holland in bis way. t' He could neither disobey tbe King, nor give up his journey, without betraying his intention; and by this involuntary sUght be offended the Prince. It appears, ¦ D'Avaux, 19tb April, 1688. Fox MSS. ^ Rochester lo tbe Prince of Orange, IOth July, 1688, Dal. App. ¦ Vol. ii. p. 102. MISSION OF ZUYLISTEIN, 131 however, from Rochester's own letter, tbat tbe Prince had " diverse reasons for being unsatisfied" with him. Tbe fact probably was, that the Prince of Orange, having faUed to win him over to his interests, freely vented his disappointment and disgust. William, whilst his design upon England was stUl pending, discarded irre solute and trimming partisans. Nottingham and Halifax may be cited as instances. It is true he employed them afterwards, but it is not certain that they possessed his confidence or overcame bis contempt. A spirit of petty jealousy of each otber is observable among the chief actors in tbe Revolution of 1 688. Lord Danby insinuates distrust of Lord Halifax, to whom Dyckvelt was accredited by tbe Prince,* and proposes that a deputation of the party should bave a personal conference with hira. The Earl of Devonshire, whose zeal as a Protestant and patriot was stimulated by a heavy fine to which he was conderaned for striking Colonel Culpepper in the King's palace, declares his readiness, in commoa with thousands, to receive the Prince's orders on any occasion. Lord Shrewsbury, converted from popery to protestantism, pro fesses all tbe devotion and zeal of a new convert. Tbe Rishop of London says tbat he and others pray for tbe Prince of Orange, not only on account of " bis near relation to the crown," but for " his usefulness to it;" — " for if," says this prelate, "the King should have any trouble corae upon bim, which God forbid, we do not know any sure friend he bas to rely upon abroad besides yourself" It seems difficult to take those expressions in any otber sense tban tbat of simplicity so gross as to be wholly irrecon cUable with the character of Compton ; or of hypocrisy to a pitch of grossness and grimace which it would be indecent to suppose even in tbat bold prevaricator.* Dyckvelt was not long gone when the death of tbe Duchess, of Modena afforded an opportunity for sending over another emissary, under pretence of condoling with her daughter, Mary D'Este, James's Queen. The person sent was Count Zuylistein, who stood high in the Prince's confidence,; was his relative ; and under the careless gallantry of a soldier and man of pleasure, concealed an expert capacity for business and intrigue. " James at this period • Letter of Lord Danby. Dal. App. part 1. ' See his answers to the King, post. • Lord Mordaunt lo the Prince of Orange. Dal. App. 9* 132 MISSION OF ZUYLISTEIN. had announced his intention of calling a new parliament. It was a leading object of the missipn pf Zuylistein tp discpver whether this prpraise weuld be kept. WhUst a hppe remained tbat rights wpuld be secured and wrcngs redressed by the cpnstitutipnal agency of a parliaraent, it was feared at the Hague tbat tbe mass pf the natipn, and the leading party chiefs, wpuld shrink frora the ex treraities of foreign invasion and doraestic war. It is stated by Burnet,* that Lord Mordaunt proposed fo the Prince of Orange, in 1 686, a descent upon England, and that the Prince rejected the proposition only because at the rapment it was tpp perilpus and rpraantic. A letter pf that npbleman, carried pver by ZuyUstein tp tbe Prince, cpufirras tbe statement. He now, hpwever, '' recoraraends caution and delay,' chiefly on the ground that a parliaraent may be summoned. Nottinghara, on the other hand, reasons at length against tbe probability of a parliament, and upon the weakness of tbe court, but suggests no proceeding."^ Lord HaUfax at tbe same tirae addressed to the Prince of Orange several letters, whicb display every felicity of judgment, wit, and style, and yet inspired the Prince with distrust of his motives or his character. He describes the court as infatuated, the nation as alienated and on the alert, tbe Dissenters as falling off, the moderate Catholics as alarraed : he steadily and sagaciously de clares bis conviction throughout, - that, whatever the proraises or proclaraations of James, England would not see another pariiament in his ireign; and yet he most inconsistently recomraends fo the Prince of Orange caution, delay,, and an attendance upon the course of events.^ Tbe Prince, to whora such counsels were far Irora congenial, gave directions that his secrets should no longer be confided to one so irresolute, vacillating, or intriguing." Lord Danby alone, of those who were then leading poUticians, and whose names are become hisforici appears to haye advised decisive mea sures,' without reference to the question of the caUing or not calUng of a parliaraent, and continued to urge a personal conference with tbe Prince.^ ' Bishop Burnet states that Lords Halifax, Shrewsbury, Devon- ¦ VoL ill. p. 275. Oxf. ed. Mlb Sept. 1687. Dal. App. = Letter of Nottingham to tbe Prince of Orange. Mission of ZiLylistein , Dal, App, '' Letters of HaUfax to the Priuce of Orange. Mission of Zuylistein. Dall, App. i, : Dal. App. Burn. Vol. Hi. p, 278. Ox. ed, 1823, ^ Lett, of Lord Danby, Dall, App, LETTER OF FAGEL. 13'i shire, Danby, Nottingham, Mordaunt, Lumley, Admirals Herbert and Russel, and the Bishop ofLondon, " often met at the Earl of Shrewsbury's, there concerted matters, and drew the declaration on which they advised tbe Prince to engage." Concert upon any matter of decisive importance was scarcely attainable between the persons above named. The mutual jealousies of Halifax and Danby, and tbe scruples or timidity of Nottingham, must bave rendered it inapossible ; and if the declaration aUuded to be that which the Prince of Orange afterwards put forth, it could not have been drawn or sanctioned by those who would not sign tbe in vitation which preceded it. It is true tbat, in 1 687, tbe Earl of Shrewsbury went over on a secret mission to the Prince of Orange; but an agent wbo went introduced and recommended by so tem porising and manoeuvring a politician as Halifax, could hardly have proposed decisive counsels, or greatly advanced the designs of the Prince A conspiracy so irresolute and disunited would have failed against any other reigning prince in Europe. James II., a tyrant and a bigot, without capacity or energy, and obstinate only in his infatua tion, was an easy conquest. The inutUity of the negociations for the repeal of the tests, through Penn and D'Albyville at tbe Hague, and with Dyck velt in London, faUed to show James the hopelessness of aU attempts to obtain tbe sanction of the Prince of Orange. Stuart, a Scotch adventurer in tbe expedition of Argyll, but pardoned, and even received into favour, through the influence of Penn, was authorised by James to address a letter to tbe pensionary Fagel, with a view to obtain tbe concurrence of the Prince. No answer was returned to bis reiterated applications. This sUence was construed into a consent. It was given out that the Prince had at last come into the King's measures. The effects upon the interests and designs of WilUam were alarming. His English partisans felt depression and distrust. The ad vantage tbus fraudulently obtained recoiled upon the King. Fagel, by the direction ofthe Prince, replied to Stuart in detaU. The arguments on both sides have ceased to he interesting. Two sen tences of tbe pensionary's letter may be stiU worth citing. After asserting, somewhat ostentatiously, tbe Prince's sacred regard for the principles of religious freedom, he declares that the Prince and Princess are willing to concur in the repeal of tbe penal laws; 134 LETTER OF FAGEL. " provided always that those laws reraain stiH in their full vigour by which the CathoUcs are shut out of both Houses of Pariiamenf, and out of all public eraployments, ecclesiastical, civil, and mili tary." Here, it raay be observed, the exception devoured the rule, and the pensionary forgot the exclusion of the Protestant dis.senters. It was boasted that the Prince of Orange conceded a liberal toleration, when contrasted with tbe persecutions of Louis XIV. If the rights of conscience entitied the French protestants to fhe Edict of Nantes, the English Catholics-and Dissenters bad assuredly the sarae claira to the sarae raeasure of religious liberty and civil privUege. But the toleration of the Prince of Orange, or rather ofthe raen of 1688, feU far short ofthe Edict of Henry IV. James, it is true, was of the religion of tbe exceptive or hostile rainority, whilst Louis was of that of the raajority, in their respective king doras. This was a reason for rendering tbe throne of England Protestant, upon the raanly principle of the Bill of Exclusion ; not for disfranchising even a fraction of fhe people. The pensionary, in his letter, further seys, " Their Highnesses have ever paid a raost profound duty to his Majesty ; which they will always continue to do, for they consider theraselves bound to it both by the laws of God and of nature." The revolution of 1688, as between Jaraes and his subjects, requires no justifi cation ; but the relations of father and chUdren, between bira and tbe Prince and Princess of Orange, are essentially distinct ; and tbe obligations which in this sentence tbey so soleranly avpw cpntain, perhaps, the strpngest case whicb cpuld be raade against thera by tbeir enemies. Fagel's letter was laid by Stuart befpre tbe King, whe submitted it tp a cabinet cpuncil.* Eventually James, as befpre, wpuld have all er npthing. Burnet ascribes his pertinacity tp the influence pf Jesuits and the French arabassador ; and asserts that tbe lay Catholics pressed him to accept the Prince's offer, " which would have made them both easy and safe for tbe future."* Surely James required no extrinsic influenoe to raake bira reject a cpn cessicn so utteriy futile, witb reference to his grand object of placing Catholics in situations of trust and power. It is nearly as iraprobable that the lay Catholics, in this stage of the King's ' Bur. vol. iii. p. 216. 0x1'. ed. " Ibid, p, 217. LETTER OF FAGEL. 135 fortunes, would have advised bim to accept it. There was, at this period, no aggregate CathoUc opinion. When such opinion is mentioned, it could be understood only as proceeding from a few individuals, more or less conspicuous, in direct personal intercourse with the Court; but those Catholics who had influence over James, or access to him, were either actually enjoying or eagerly looking forward to those objects of ambition and emolument which the Court could bestow, and would scarcely have sat down contented in a state of mere aniraal security and civil degradation. It may bave been the opinion of Lord BeUasis, in whom advanced age, great wealth, and groveUing avarice destroyed every vestige of ambition and generosity ; — who refused the unfortunate King, when going away, the loan of a thousand pounds.* The letter of Fagel was intended for publication. Tbe Prince ordered Bentinck to have it translated by Burnet for tbe purpose.* It was accordingly circulated throughout England by order of the Prince, and it caused a powerful reaction against James. He adopted the desperate resource of proclaiming it either a fabrica tion, or a publication unauthorised hy tbe Prince and Princess of Grange. It was treated as a forgery in a court pamphlet called " Parliamentum Pacificum." Fagel remonstrated, in a letter ad dressed to d'AlbyvUle ; asserted that tbe letter was not only au thentic, but fully approved by the Prince and Princess ; tbat all this was perfectly known to the King, to Sunderland, wbo licensed tbe pamphlet containing tbe falsehood, to D'AlbyvUle himself; and completing tbe Prince's triumph, made the vindication of the letter as public as tbe letter itself. Finding the political conversion ofthe Prince of Orange imprac ticable by negociation, James attempted tbe reUgious conversion of tbe Princess by a polemical correspondence." In justice to one of the most affectionate and unfortunate of fathers, it should he ob-. served that he recommended his creed with candour and modera tion, as well as witb the earnestness of a sincere conviction. But theological disputes are never so envenomed and outrageous as when tbey spring only from factitious zeal and tbe baser passions. Bishop Burnet declares that, upon reading the first letter of the Princess in reply to her father, " it gave him an astonishing joy to • Halifax MS. '' Lettre de Guill. III. an Comte de Portland, 2Ist Sept. 1687. Portland MSS. ' Bur. vol. iii. p. 11)6. Oxf. ed. 136 LETTERS OF THE PRINCESS. see so young a person all of the sudden, loithout consulting any' one person, fo be able to wrUe so solid and learned a letter." This solid learning in divinity contrasts soraewhat incpnsistently with ber ignprance in matters pf state, whicb were materially, thpugh doubtless not equaUy, requisite in tbe presumptive heiress to a crown. But is it credible that the letter of the Princess, upon which much depended, and whicb was sure to be perused by friends and eneraies in England, was neither prepared nor revised by others? The question is one rather of personal veracity than historic truth, and may be abandoned fo the reader as one of the raany instances in which Burnet puts his credit to a perilous trial. If fhe whole letter was the coraposition ofthe Princess, she raust bave been no raean proficient in the artifices of disputation. The raost unscru pulous parapbleteer in politics or theology could not launch a false hood with raore easy confidence as a received truth. " The Church of England," said Jaraes, "does not pretend to infallibUity, yet she acts as if she did; for ever since the Reforraation she has perse cuted those who differ frora her. Dissenters as well as Papists, raore tban is generally known." The Princess rephes, that " she does not see how the Church of England could be blaraed for fbe perse cution of the Dissenters; for the 'laws raade against thera were made by the State and not by the Church, and they were raade for crimes against tbe State!"* The Church, then, has had no sbare in the persecutions of tbe Protestant Dissenters; and the Dissenters have been oppressed and proscribed for political offences, not for their religious tenets ! Burnet, a historian and a bishop, glides wifh seeraing unconsciousness over these monstrous falsifica tions. It is scarcely necessary to add, that tbe King was not more fortunate in bis polemics witb bis daughter, than in bis negociations with ber husband. There is, perhaps, but one aspect under wbicb the correspond ence any longer merits notice. It is difficult to conteraplate, withput a feeling pf ccnteraptupus pity, great principles and the public cause turning uppn a hinge sp ¦weak and werthless as the issue of a theological dispute between a woraan without informa tion or capacity, and a poor bigot, wbbse perverse conscience or obstinate irabecility would have been harmless, if not respectable, ' Burnet, vol. Hi, p, 202. Oxf. ed. MEASURES OF THE KING. 137 at their proper level, in a cloister or in humble fife. Such phe nomena in tbe history, of nations are but natural consequences where a people is not wise, civilised, or independent enough to take into its own hands the substantial administration of its own rights and interests, and all is left to be partitioned or disputed between court factions and tbe crown. CHAPTER XIII. Discussions between James and the Stales General. — Abuse of the Press.' — Conduct of Tyrconnel. — Recall ofthe BrllLsb Regiments from Holland. — Intrigue of Sun- derland.^Pretences and Preparations ofthe Prince of Orange. — Second Mission of Zuylistein. — Tbe Prince invited over. — Principles of the King and the Revo lutionists. — Letters to the Prince from England. — Armament of the Prince. — Conduct ofthe King. — Mission of Bonrepaux. — Memorial of D'Avaux. — Enter prise of tbe Prince. The year 1 688 opened with a lively feeling of its centenary asso ciations, and an ominous presentiment of great events. Men saw, with excited imaginations, the national religion and independence exposed anew, after tbe lapse ofa hundred years, to the terrors of popery and slavery. D'AlbyvUle had come over from tbe Hague, in the autumn of the preceding year, with the Prince's peremptory refusal to sanction the repeal of the tests.* The relations between England and Holland were most precarious. Tbe tone of Jaraes was angry and peremptory, tbat of the States temperate but unyielding ; and their ostensible differences turned upon no question of grave importance to the interests of either nation. The two points in dispute were, the affair of Bantam, so called, — a question of commercial in terests between the Dutch East India Company and British traders to the East, — and the demand of James, tbat Doctor Burnet should be delivered up, " as a fugitive libeller and rebel," to tbe laws of his country and the justice of his sovereign. D'AlbyvUle, on his return to Holland, in January, 1 687-8, renewed in vain his • MS. Letter of Don Pedro Ronq,, 15th Sept. 1687. t38 MEASURES QF THE KING. memorials on both subjects. The affair of Bantam, after several reraonstrances, replies, and rejoinders, was abandoned, without satisfaction giveu ; and the States refused to surrender Burnet, on the ground of his raarriage in Holland and bis naturalisation. Tbeir refusal was just, but tbeir reason untenable. His naturah sation abroad did not affect his aUegiance and resppnsabUity at hprae. The affair pf Burnet is still less irapprfant tban that of Bantara, though he has chosen to treat it as if his personal memoirs were identical with " Tbe History of bis own Times." Both were soon eclipsed and forgotten in an event proclaimed by the Gazette, on the Sth of January, 1688, — tbe pregnancy of Jaraes's queen. It was the fortune of Jaraes II. that circurastances of the most auspicious proraise proved the raost disastrous to him. The death of Monraouth was supposed to consolidate his tyranny. In effect, it only took off the weaker of two rival aspirants for his throne, and ranged all his adversaries under a single leader, who was one of the first generals, and pre-eminently the first politician of Eu rope, in his tirae. The Queen's pregnancy, by multiplying the chances of a Catholic successor, precipitated the invasion. It was not, however, the first circumstance which hastened or decided the views of Williara upon England. The inclination of Jaraes, and tbe secret negociation between Louis XIV. and TyrconneU, to deprive the Princess of Orange of the succession to the crown of Ireland, were known to the Prince, and caused hira the greatest uneasiness.* But the one subject of alarra was reraoved by the other. James, upon the contingency of a Catholic successor, raust bave been as much inclined to perpetuate as he had before been to sever the connexion with Ireland. Tbe Queen's pregnancy was raade tbe subject of satirical plea santries and ribald jests. " The stories," says Ralph, " were neither over decent, well bred, nor charitable. A pillow, a dropsy, a tym pany, a cushion, tbe Queen's maladies, tbe King's crazy constitution, were tbe favourite topics of the wit and huraour of the day. Nor were they confined to conversation only : they found their way to the press ; they were set forth in verse and prose, and circulated " " J'ai su par leJMarquis d'AlbyviUe que la plus grande inquietude du Prince d'Orange est que I'lrlande ne se melle en etat, avant la mort du Roi d'Angleterre, de se soustraire a sa domination lorsque 11 viendra a la couronne. Je sais bien certainement que I'inclination du Roi d'Angleterre est de faire perdre ce royaume a son successeur," Bonrepaux a Seignelai, 4 Sept. 1687. Fox MSS. CONDUCT OF TYRCONNEL. 139 from hand to hand to every comer of the kingdom." It would appear tbat pasquinades on the subject were fixed to dead walls during the night, and that a placard, announcing " a day of thanks giving to God for the Queen's being great with a cushion," was found in the morning upon one of the pUlars of a church.* Lam poons and libels on the subject were publisbed in Holland. Par tridge's predictions, printed at the Hague, were made a vehicle for charging the King with a project to defraud his daughters of the succession, by imposing a supposititious heir.* The severe enforce ment of the act of the 14th of Charles II., revived by the last pariiament against all circulators of unlicensed, seditious, and treasonable publications, together with sucb further punishments as might be inflicted by the utmost rigour of tbe law and the prero gative royal on such offenders for tbeir contempt, was commanded by proclamation." Had the King confined himself to the statute , and left out of sight the tyrant and the prerogative, he might pass unblamed. The exe cution of the law would be regarded even with satisfaction, as one of those signal instances of retributive justice which men call provi- denial. No sovereign could tolerate scurrUities openly bastardising his expected issue, with the aggravation of imputing to him the guUt of imposing upon the nation a spurious beir to the crown ; and the party now brought under the edge of an inhuman act of parliament were both its authors and revivers. The sentiment of justice in tbe moral order is never more lively and unequivocal tban when oppressors become in tbeir turn the victims of their own arts. TyrconneU, it has been observed, intended to overthrow the Act of Settlement in Ireland ; in other words, to compel tbe Protestants to disgorge tbe confiscated estates of tbe Catholics. This measure has been uniformly charged by historians upon his impetuous bigotry and want of understanding. It sbould be judged as the raeans to an end, and with a double reference to its justice and its policy. The Catholics were despoiled by foreign conquest and superior force. An act of parliament of Charles, to whicb they were not parties, affirmed but could not consecrate spoliation. There was not that lapse of time which gives to original and remote iniquity the " Letter to Pere la Chaise. '¦ "There is some project on foot, either about buying, pr selling, or procuring, a child or children, for some uses. Some child is to be topped on tbe lawful heirs, to cheat tbem out of their right and estate." ' Gazette, I2th February, 1687-8. 140 REVOLT OF THE BRITISH colour of right by prescription. The new possessors had not, like the purchasers of national property in France at the Revolution, paid a consideration to the state. There was then no violation of equity in corapelling tbe restitution ; and tbe only question reraain ing is its expediency. The end wbicb TyrconneU proposed to himself was the erection of Ireland into an independent Catholic state under the protection of France. Was tbe overthrow of the settleraent in Ireland by a raan wbo bad this end in view tbe counsel of a rash bigot, or of one wbo pursued a daring project by daring means and witb suitable resolution? By the answer TyrconneU should be judged. It was not tbe only raeasure recoraraended by bim witb reference to the same design. There were six regiraents of British subjects in the pay and service of the States of Holland. He advised tbat these troops sbould be recaUed, and that a regiment coraposed of sucb of thera as were CathoUcs, officers and raen, sbould be kept up in the pay of Louis XIV. in France. * Tbe proposition was raade throiigb BariUon to Louis by Sunderland and by James hiraself Among the inducements held out to hira was, tbat the regiraent thus raaintained would be a nursery for CathoUc soldiers, untainted by those raaxims dangerous to royalty wbicb were so prevalent in England, and from which the Catholics tbemselves were not whoUy free. * It bas been the constant endeavour of tbe enemies of liberty and toleration — churchmen, Tories, and Whigs^^ — to render James odious only as a Papist, and sink bis raisdeeds as a tyrant. The raotives are too ob vious to be pointed out ; but the foregoing, araong raany passages in bis life, would bear out tbe opinion, tbat he encouraged popery, not as bis priraary object, but as an accessary to despotic power. Louis declined receiving into France the British troops whicb sbould be recalled from HoUand, but offered to raaintain 2000 men in England." He undertook at the sarae tirae to assist Jaraes with French troops far exceeding that force, ^ for the purpose of putting " Bar. au Roi, Oct. 16. 1687. Dal. App. •' " Que ce seroit une pepiniere pour elever et former des soldats Catholiques qui ne seront pas infectes des maximes dangereuses pour la royaute repanduespar toute I'Angleterre, et dont les Catholiques eux-memes ne sont pas exempts^" ^Bar. to the King, 13 Oct. 1687. Fox MSS " Bar. au Roi, 6 Nov. 1687. Dall. .'Vpp. "¦ " Je dis a ce prince que j'avais des ordres bien precis de I'assurer, que quand il aurolt besoin des troupes de Votre Majeste 11 en passeroit un plus grand noirfire 10 14S CONSPIRACY AGAINST JAMES. corae over and rescue the nation and tbe religion, be believed he could be ready by tbe end of Septeraber to corae over." So dexterously and ably bad the Prince of Orange conducted his design, that be. tbus appeared to confer tbe highest favour ag the nation's deliverer, whilst he but reahsed the dreara of bis own arabition. . ' War between the confederates of Augsburg and the King of France was irapending at this tirae. The raenacing attitude and preparations on both sides were the common therae of Europe. The Prince, then, fo be in a condition to pledge hiraself to the descent upon England in September, or to pledge himself at aU, raust, by resistless iraphcation, have bad previously corae to an understanding upon it with the States of Holland and tbe other powers leagued against France. Tbe period of Russel's raission is fixed by Burnet indirectly. "The raain confidence," says he, " we (that is, Burnet and the Prince) bad was in the electoral Prince of Brandenburgh, ybr the old elector was then dying; and I told Russel at parting, that unless be died, there would be great difficulties not easUy mastered in the design of the Prince's ex pedition to England." The old elector died in the last day of AprU, and Russel left tbe Hague before that event. The con spiracy, therefore, to dethrone Jaraes, was proceeding both in England and Holland, before tbe second declaration of indulgence was issued, or tbe prosecution of the Bishops thought of; that is, before either of the two raeasures of the King, which the Prince of Orange and bis partisans put forth as having provoked and warranted his invasion.* But it would be mere waste of proof and tirae to fix the designs of tbe Prince at a rauch earlier date than be professed. At the same time it would be uncandid, if not absurd, to exact from hira a raorality incorapatible with the universal practice of states and governments. The principal persons who deputed Russel to tbe Prince of • " As the' people," says Ralph, "had reason to complain, he (tbe Prince) took upon him to redress, and so acquired tbe glorious name bf deliverer, wbile the part he really played was that of a consummate politician. If this is not panegyric it is truth : princes are govemed by their interests and passions as well as private men ; snd those wbo have been mnst idolised by tbe modern world baye, in their most splendid actions, proceeded on motives very different from tbat love ot virtue and glory which animated the heroes of .antiquity." Hist, of England, vol. 1. p. 997. '' Tbe declaration was dated April 27 ; tbe order in council, commanding that it shonld be read in churches, was dated May 4 ; and tbe Bishops were sent to tbe Tower, June 8. CONSPIRACY AGAINST JAMES. 147 Orange were those who, with Russel himself, afterwards signed the memorable invUation, and had already, in the preceding year, corresponded and practised secretly with the Prince, through Dykvelt and Zuylistein. They wiU shortly be found more conspi cuous actors in the drama of the Revolution. WbUst Russel was employed in Holland, Sidney was the chief agent of the Prince of Orange in England. The required in vUation was not sent to the Prince as quickly as be had reason to expect it. A letter, dated the 18th of June; without signature, in a female or feigned hand,* prepared him for Us arrival in a few days. " I believe," says tbe writer, " you expected it before, but it could not be ready. This is only in the name of your principal friends, whicb are Nottingham, Shrewsbtiry, 23 25 Danby, Bishop ofLondon, Sidney, to desire you to defer making 27 31 33 your compliment till you bave tbe letter I mention. What they are likely to advise in the next you may easily guess, and prepare yourself accordingly. Halifax hath heen backward in all this 21 matter: Devonshire bath been with me, and I find will be entirely 24 your friend." This letter, it may be presumed, was from Sidney. If written by Count Zuylistein, who was then in England, it would have been in French. The second mission of Zuylistein merits a distinct and particular notice. He was sent over by tbe Prince and Princess of Orange witb their congratulations to James and his Queen, on the birth of tbeir son, at tbe very moment wben the Prince, and, so far as she was competent or aUowed, tbe Princess, were preparing to dethrone the parents and bastardise tbe chUd. There is in all this something revolting at first sight, considering tbe relations of blood and marriage between the respective parties. Rut it should be reraerabered in extenuation, tbat James was trampUng at the time on the liberties and sentiments of a free people; that the Prince of Orange had a contingent interest in the succes sion to the crown, not merely in right of bis wife, but in his own person ; and that tbe ties of nature are made only for the people. Deception, however, even when pardonable, rarely or never " Published in Dal. App., from King William's cabinet. 10" 148 CONSPIRACY AGAINST JAMES. produces unmixed good. The mission of ZuyUstein, and the fact of the Prince of Wales being prayed for in tbe chapel of the Princess of Orange, whUst tbey contributed to James's security, offended and a;larraed the high Protestant party in England. This formal recognition of the legitiraacy of the child araounted to a renunciation by the Prince of Orange of his wife's rights as pre sumptive heiress. Rurnet accounts for thess acknowledgments of the Prince of Wales, by saying, " the first letters gave not those grounds of suspicion that were sent te them afterwards." This flirasy pretence is exppSed by the Bishop hiraself, in his next page : — " It was," says he, " taken iU in England tbat the Princess should bave begun so early to pray for the preteiided Prince, upon which the naming bim discontinned. But, this was so highly re sented by tbe Court of England, that the Prince, fearing^it raight precipUate a rupture, ordered hira to be again named in the prayers."* Jaraes wrote to his daughter, demanding the reason. She assured hira, in answer, that the oraission proceeded only from fprgetfulness, and nOt frpra her prders. The King w^s net deceived by this sballpw prefence : he, hpwever, iraputed blarae pnly to her husband.* There is nothing inconsistent in Williara's ordering the Prince of Wales, real or pretended, to be naraed or not named " in the prayers," as best suited his designs ; but it is strange that a learned and pious Bishop, and a Princess, less learned, but not less orthodox and sincere, sbould bave seen no offence to the church tenet of the efficacy of prayer in treating the practice as a raere eourt cere mony, and no scandal to the Church liturgy in raaking it the instru ment of a court intrigue." The Prince of Orange now (June, 1688) appUed his whole raind to his intended expedition. Zuylistein, according to Burnet, had now " brought him sucb positive advices, • and such an assurance ofthe invitation be bad desired, that he was fully fixed in his purpose." This is another instance of the Bishop's negligence or iraperfect inforraation. The invitation reached the Prince a raonth before the return of ZuyUstein. It is dated the 30th of June, and appears to bave been immediately forwarded by Sidney with a letter ofthe sarae date. Zuylistein did not leave England • Bur. vol. lii. {). 260. Oxf. ed. <¦ D'Adda, 30tb July, 1688. " MS, Mero, of King James, cited inLlfe, etc.; vol. ii, p. 161. CONSPIRACY AGAINST JAMES. 149 liH the beginning of August, when Sidney accompanied him to the Hague. Tbe memorable invitation to the Prince of Orange bore but seven ^gnatures, — those of Lords Shrewsbury, Devonshire, Danby, and Lumley ; Compton, Bishop of London, Admiral Russel, and Co lonel Sidney, men who deserved well of their country, but 'who wanted grandeur of achievement and stature of mind to figure as personages truly historic, and whose names have failed to become classic among the destroyers of tyrants or liberators of nations. It is a remarkable fact that not one great principle or generous inspiration escapes them in that document. Their invitation is a cold, creeping, irresolute address.* Sidney, in his letter of tbe same date, enclosing or, accompanying it, speaks doubtfully ofthe issue, and even ofthe Prince's accepting the invitation : -^" i/"," says he, " you go on with this undertaking, I think I shall not do araiss to put you in raind of one man that I believe 'will be very useful to you ; it is tbe Marshall Schomberg. If you could borrow him awhile, it would be of great advantage to this affair." So far was he from that^resolved and reckless daring which stakes life upon success, and thus, tends mainly to produce it, thathe requests the Prince to burn his letter, and have the invitation (also in bis handwriting) copied, " or else," he adds, '*-I may suffer for it seven years hence." The man wbo, conspiring against a tyrant, guarded witb so much foresight against contingencies of personal danger so remote, was unfit for his mission. " You will,'' be. concludes, " wonder, I believe, not to see the number 23 among Nottingham the other figures (signatures) : he was gone very far, hut now bis, heart faUs him, and he will go no further. He saith, 'tis scruples of conscience, but we all think 'tis another passion." Viewing the revolution of 1 688 at this, distance of time, and with tbe Ughts of the present day, it is irapossible to deny James a certain superiority in the coniparispn of abstract principles. His Standard bore the nobler inscription. He proclaimed religious li berty impartial and complete, and, had he not sought lo estabhsh it by bis own lawless wUf, — bad his proceedings*;been but worthy of his cause,: — posterity might regard him not as a tyrant justly un crowned, but as a beneficent prince wbo became tbe victim of an " It will be found in the Appendix. IS" CONSPIRACY AGAINST JAMES. intolerant faction, an overweening hierarehy, and a besotted multitude. James, it will be said, only wore tbe mask of Uberality in order to destroy protestantism and enthrone popery in its ancient and exclusive doraination. To suppose hira sincere in aU that he professed would be credulity, not charity or candour. He doubt less had at heart tbe establishment of tbe CathoUc reUgion, with that of absolute power. But did be, directly in tbe teeth of bis reiterated professions, from his address wben Duke of York to the magistrates of Arasterdara in 167&, to the second declaration of in dulgence in 1 688, contemplate the extirpation of protestantism by fraud and force? A sincere and sanguine religionist, may he not have been under the delusion, that what be beUeved to be truth, above aU, sacred truth, must triuraph over error by argument and persuasion, if but allowed to take tbe field on equal terms. The phUosophie observer, weighing the influence of passion, pre judice, and a social systera, vicious to the core, would have less confidence. His calulations would, perhaps, incline fhe other way. But Jaraes was no philosopher. The question is one which each student of huraan nature and of James's reig and character will decide for hiraself. Let it, however, be''assuraed for a moraent, and for the arguraent, that Jaraes II. cherished in secret the treacherous after-thought ©f proscribing protestantisra and re-estabUshing popery ; still religious liberty was not the less beneficent and sacred because it carae from him. The Christian dispensation was not less divine because it carae frora GalUee. It is strange that at the thresheld pf the eighteenth century, net pne pf the whigs ef fhe Revplufipu, thpse bpasted charapions of freedora and protestantisra, appears to have been on a level with the true principle of either. As raoralists and politicians they should have known, tbat the raotive could not vitiate the right or raateriaUy change its operation; that liberty is a wea pon, which, eraployed for his purposes by a tyrant, would recoil upon hiraself; that it was asolecisra to suppose tbe unchaining of religious conscience a way to establish religious slavery. As Eng lishraen they should have reraerabered, that if popery was in possession of tbe throne, protestantism bad on its side the great mass of the nation, and was therefore unconquerable. But fhe real secret, if it be any longer a secret, is, that the whigs of 1 688 had no notion of freedora beyond their sect or party ; that witb CONSPIRACY AGAINST JAMES. LSI liberty on their lips, monopoly and persecution were in their hearts. One man only appears to have been sufficiently in advance of the whigs and of his generation, to reach just views of religious liberty. It was WUliam Penn. " Penn," says Bishop Burnet, " and the tools employed by hira, had stUl some hopes of carrying a parliament to agree witb tbe King ;" in other words, Penn had stiU hopes of estabUshing liberty of conscience on the basis of tbe constitution. Tbe Prince of Orange may be coupled witb the Ulustrious quaker, and the association does him honour. WiUiam was on a level with tbe principle of religious freedom, but was restrained by ambition from espousing it before, and by a bigoted parliament from estabUsbmg it after be became king. Lord Halifax, it has been observed, was " backward," and Lord Nottingham's " heart failed him." Tbe secret of the expedition was not communicated to the former ; it was confided to the latter. An accomplice in conspiracy wbo proves recreant, is the most dangerous of all enemies ; — such was the situation of Nottingham. The fortunes of William and Jaraes, and the lives of those who signed the invitation, were in his hands. It was proposed in con clave, by one of tbe seven subscribers of tbe invitation, to secure his silence by assassinating hira.* Tbe proposition was rejected, on the ground that tbe sarae want of nerve which prevented Not tingham's joining would also prevent bis disclosing the secret of the enterprise. Zuylistein returned to the Hague, accompanied by Sidney, in the beginning of August. He was charged with several letters, containing offers of service to the Prince from his friends in Eng land.* There is, in tbe tone of tbese letters, something too like ihat of vassals transferring their service from one absolute lord of their lives and fortunes to another. Religion is often men tioned ; liberty and country rarely or never. Rurnet and Kennet, in their respective histories, name several persons of distinction and influence, who pledged themselves to join WiUiam on his landing. But the only sure autbority in print is tbe conclusive one, so far as it goes, to be found in Dalrymple's appendix." Admiral Herbert, writing on the 24th of May, in answer to an invitaition from the Prince, conveyed through Russel, begins his * Note of Lord Dartmouth in Bur. v. iii. p. 279. — and Halifax MS. '' Dal. App. p. 22. et seq. Letters addressed to the Prince of Orange. Dal, App. part ii. 152 CONSPIRACY AGAINST JAMES. letter, — " It is frora your Highness's great generosity that I must hope for pardon, for presuraing to write in so unppUshed a style, which wUl npt furnish rae witb wprds suitable fp the sense I have of your Highness's goodness to me in the raidst of ray raisfor tunes." He concludes with the words, — " I have a life entirelyat your devptipu, and shall think every hpur pf it Ipst that is npt employed in your Highness's service." The raisfortunes of this patriot consisted in bis beiug disraissed frora places at court, which he held at the King's pleasui'e, upon his refusal to support the King's government. There are two letters from tbe brothers Clarendpn and Rpchester, uncles pf the Princess pf Orange: the former apprehends the ppssibility pf his npt being in faveur with the Prince ; tbe latter laments having incurred tbe Prince's displeasure. Halifax, sp late as the 25th pf July, suggests tp the Prince sIpw ccunsels, in a spirit pf yain ingenuity and irre levant dissertatipu, euripus only from his unsuspecting ignorance of the progress already made towards the expedition both in Eng land and HoUand. Nottingham writes by Zuylistein to the Prince, on tbe 27th of July, neariy a month after the signature of the invitation, in whicb he had refused to join. His letter is short, but not uniraportant ; and tends to show, that his retreat was the effect rather of bis principles tban bis fears. " The birtb of a Prince of Wales," says he, " and the designs of a further prosecu-, tion of the bishops, and of new-raodelling tbe army, and calling of a parliament, are raatters that afford various reflections. But I cannof apprehend from them sucb ill consequences to our religion, or the just interests of your Highness, that a litfle tirae wUl not effectually remedy." From this sentence, and more especially frpra the significant liraitation of the Prince's interests conveyed in the epithet "just," it raay be conjectured, that Nottinghara withdrew frora the association, wben he perceived that it threatened, the pos session of the crown by Jaraes, and the succession to it by his infant son. The, Bishop of London writing by Zuylistein, raerely says, that he had comraunicated to the imprisoned bishops the expression of the Prince's concern; and assures tbe Prince on their part, of their being " so well satisfied of tbeir cause, tbat tbey wiU lay down their lives before they wUl in fhe least depart frora if." This letter differs in its general tone frora tbat wbicb he had wriiten by Dyckvelt, only in his no longer making a reservation of his CONSPIRACY AGAINST JAMES. 15S allegiance where he devotes himself tq tbe service pf the Prince of Orange. Lord Churchill's letter ofthe 4th of August to the Prince is weU known. Dalrymple, with a curious obliquity of perception, calls it ".spirited;" and others have as curiously cited it in his favour. " Mr. Sidney," he writes, " wiU let you know how I intend to behave myself. I think it is what I owe to God and my country : my honour I take leave to put into your Royal Highness's bands, in which 1 think it safe. If you think there is any thing else tbat I ought to do, you have hut to command me." This letter, without any other testimony, would prove, that he was in the confidence of the projected invasion. No zeal, pretended or real, for God or his country, can cover the infaray of continuing to command the troops, betray tbe confidence, and abuse the kindness of King James, for several raonths after be had deposited his obedience, and what he called his honour, with Jaraes's enemy. Tbe part acted by Sunderland at this crisis, is an historical enigma, of which there is no clear solution. His unprincipled ver- satihty, and incessantiy shifting intrigues, negative any systeniatic or steady purpose, beyond that of keeping his place and supplying bis prodigalities. Bishop Burnet asserts, it has been already ob served, that " the Prince did say very positively he was in no sort of correspondence witb Sunderland;" and "his (Sunderland's) coun sels then lay another way." But there is in Dalrymple's Appendix, what that writer calls " a cant letter to the Prince, apparently in Russel's hand," which contains the foUowing passage : — " Since I came to England, Mr. Roberts is grown so warm, that I can hardly prevailon him to stay for bis being turned out. He is now resolved not to talk of the test and penal laws, nor indeed any thing they would have him do. I believe be is at this time so ill at court that his reign there will hardly last a month. He has desired rae tO assure your Highness of his utraost service. When M. Dyckvelt went away, he writ to you, but you were pleased never to take any notice of it : if you think it convenient, a letter to hira of your good opinion relating to himself would not be amiss, hut I subrah to your better judgraent." Many circumstances, such as bis reign at court, its precariousness, tbe letter to tbe Prince by Dyckvelt,* tend to identify Sunderiand witb " Mr. Roberts." It would tbus appear. In Dal. App, It contained only a few words of mere compliment. 154 CONSPIRACY AGAINST JAMES. that be was prostrating himself at the feet ofthe Prince of Orange, whUe " bis counsels looked another way ; " that is, while be was endeavouring to bring Jaraes to more moderate measures through the influence of the Queen. Two other raiUtary officers, of high rank in the army, engaged themselves, like Lord ChurchiU, to the Prince of Orange. These were. Kirk, noted for his atrocities as the military coUeague of Jeffreys in their joint campaign in tbe West, and Trelawney, who brought his brother, the Bishop of Bristol, over to the sarae side. Lord Mordaunt, better known as Eatl of Peterborough, could hardly bave failed to be engaged in an enterprise which he was the first to propose, and undertook to bring the city of London to support the Prince." Lords Macclesfield and Wharton joined the Prince of Orange at the Hague ; the one frora Gerraany, the other frora England. Lords Winchester, Danby, and Halifax are stated to have sent, the first his two sons, the two latter their respective heirs, to tbe, Hague, as hostages for their joining the Prince of Orange. * But the son of Lord Halifax could not be a hostage for his father, who was not himself engaged in the enterprise." The two sons of the Marquis of Winchester, ^ and the son of Lord Danby, went over to the Hague in tbe beginning of April," before either the Prince of Orange or his friends in England were yet pledged to the undertaking. The Duke of Norfolk, Lords Dorset, Delamere, and WiUoughby, Sir Rowland Gwyn, and Mr. Powle, are also named among those wbo undertook to join the Prince.' The secret of his expedition is said to bave been known and kept by raore than two hundred persons in Holland and England. ^ It is wonderful that raen adopting the perilous resource of inviting a foreign prince for tbe preservation of their liberties made no previous stipulations with hira. Tbeir confidence in tbe Prince of Orange cannot excuse tbeir placing themselves and their country completely at his discretion. If he abstained from abus ing his conquest, and accepted fetters wben be might bave im posed tbem, it is to be ascribed only to his moderation or his policy. Tbe invitation iraplicitly supplicates bim to come over with an armed force, and points out tbe advantages of the con- " Kennet. ' Kennet. ¦ LettersofHallfax to tbe P. ofOrange. Dal. App. Reresby. Mem. J Dal. App. p. 216, • Ibid. p. 217, etc. ' Echard. = Volt. Siecle de Louis XIV. CONSPIRACY AGAINST JAMES. 155 juncture. Those who signed it seera to have thought that tbey were receiving all and giving nothing. There are to be found, it is true, among the politicar tracts of that day, two pieces : one professing to be "A Memorial of the Protestants of the Church of England to the Prince and Princess of Orange ;" the otber, " A Memorial of the English Protestants to the Prince and Princess of Orange, concerning their Grievances and the birth of tbe pre tended Prince of Wales." The former, after setting forth very briefly the grievances to be redressed, recapitulates them as fol lows : — " They most humbly iraplore the protection of your Royal Highnesses, as to tbe suspending of, and tbe encroachments made upon, the laws made for the maintenance of the Protestant re ligion, and our civil and fundamental privileges ; and that your Royal Highnesses would be pleased to insist tbat the free Parlia ment of England, according to law, may be restored ; the laws against Papists, priests, papal jurisdiction, etc., may be put in execution ; tbe suspending and dispensing power declared null and void ; the rights and privileges of the city of London ; tbe free choice of their magistrates, and the liberties of tbat as well as of ofher corporations restored; and all things retumed fo fheir an cient channel." Tbe second memorial is a volurainous pleading, in wbicb irrele vant charges and slanderous misrepresentations against James II. are pUed up with the undiscerning zeal and dishonest arts of vulgar advocacy and rehgious hatred. The imposition of a spu rious heir, untouched in the forraer pieee, is treated elaborately in the latter. But both memorials are unsigned, undated ; and, it should be observed, as most material, unnoticed by those to whom they are addressed. It may be said that the Prince's Deelaration, issued from the Hague on the eve of his expedition, pledged him specifically and in detail to maintain the laws and liberties of the nation. But it was not issued in pursuance of any mutual compact. It was, in fact, but one of those politic manifestoes which are issued by all invaders, to mask, not disclose, their purposes ; and the Prince's Dutch confidants, not his EngUsh friends, had the greater share in preparing it. If in this instance the promises held forth were somewhat better kept, the merit belongs fo tbe Prince of Orange. Tbe state of continental affairs favoured bis designs. From the commencement of the year, war was momentarily expected. The 156 CONSPIRACY AGAINST JAMES. confederates of Augsburg waited only tbe conclusion of peace between tbe Turks and tbe Emperor to attack Louis XIV., wbo, on his side, wanted but a plausible pretence to anticipate thera. * Nothing is too frivolous a cause of war between nations, when their sovereigns are to be gratified in sorae passion or caprice. Two pretexts soon offered themselves to Louis. The Elector Palatine having died, Louis claimed for tbe Duchess of Orleans, sister of the deceased, the allodial succession to a portion of the Palatinate. Tbe actual Elector contended tbat, bythe laws' and usages of the empire, the feudal heir was entitled to the whole, inheritance. The Princess Palatine bad, raoreover, renounced her rights 'by her raarriage contract.* But Louis sought a pretence for. hostUities, not justice for his brother's wife. The second pretence was less frivolous, but equally unjust. Louis XIV, thought it for tbe interests of his policy and arabition to have one of bis creatures raade Elector of Cologne. The person upon wbom he fixed his choice was tbe Cardinal Prince Furstenberg, already a sufferer by his protection, but only the raore devoted to hira, and a deadly foe to tbe Emperor, who bad imprisoned hira in the last war, as a re creant Gerraan in the pay of France." The chapter had, by tbe constitution of the Gerraanic body, the right to choose the bishop, who thereby becarae Elector of Cologne. Ferdinand of Bavaria, the actual Prince-Bishop, was on bis death-bed. The ; power, intrigues, and gold of Louis XIV. brought the chapter to elect Cardinal Furstenburg as coadjutor during tbe life, and bishop upon tbe death, of Prince Ferdinand. A difficulty stiU reraained : the election was not complete without the investiture and confirmation of the new Elector by the Pope and the Emperor, both enemies of the Cardinal and of Louis. Leopold and Innocent, as unscru pulous as Louis, and, like him, actuated by the interests of their policy, alleged certain irregularities in tbe election of Furstenberg, and set up in opposition to hira Prince Cleraent of Bavaria, brother. of the late bishop. The merits of this dispute and tbe dispute itself are here imma terial, excepting only as tbey threatened an European war, and. thus afforded the Prince of Orange a cover for his preparations to invade England. His first step was to reconcUe, by bis personal mediation, differences which had grown up between North and " (Euv. de Louis XIV, vol. Iv, 217, 248. ' Volt, Siecle de Louis XIV. ' Ibid, CONSPIRACY AGAINST JAMES. 157 South Holland, respecting imposts upon tbe conveyance of goods from one province to another. The new Elector of Brandenburg was his chief auxiliary in his intended enterprise. He reconciled the differences which bad arisen between that prince and tbe Dutch East India Company. Upon tbe death of the old Elector; Bentinck was despatched to congratulate tbe successor, and concert measures witb bim. This prince was already pledged to aid the designs of tbe Prince of Orange; and now offered more than was asked by Bentinck. * The Elector of Saxony at the same time ar rived at the Hague, and was engaged in the interests and measures of tbe Prince. Tbe possession of Cologne by the French would open to tbem tbe way to Holland. This dangerous contiguity, and some depre dations comraitted upon Dutch coraraerce by the corsairs of Algiers, were made pretences for increasing to a war scale the mUitary and naval forces of the republic. " Thus," says Burnet, " things went on in July and August, with so much secrecy and so little suspicion, that neither tbe Court of England nor fhe Court of France seemed to be alarmed at tbem." This assertion of security at Paris and London is wholly un founded. Louis XIV. suspected from the beginning of the year tbe real objects of the Dutch armament. James hiraself, so early as tbe 13th of May, declared his conviction that the naval prepara tions in HoUand were designed against England;* but deluded by Lord Sunderland," or the sharer and victim of tbat minister's manoeuvring self-delusions, his judgment, continually veering, did not fix and settle hefore the middle of September. '' Louis XIV., more sagacious and experienced, better served by bis ambassadors and spies at the Hague, Vienna, Rome, and Madrid, and viewing tbe European system from the centre of movement, never for a moment doubted or mistook the real de signs of the Prince of Orange, or ceased to impress his convictions upon James. In tbe beginning of June be proposed a junction of the French and British fleets, to intimidate tbe Prince from bis enterprise, or defeat him if be should attempt it. James's rainisters acknowledged, with many compliments to Rarillon, the beneficial effects ofthe junction upon tbe King's enemies, both abroad and at " Bur. vol. lii. p. 264. Oxf. ed. •• Bar. au Roi, 13 Mai, 1688, Fox MSS Lite of King James, vol, ii. p. 176, 177, ¦> Life of King James. 158 CONSPIRACY AGAINST JAMES. horae, pending the trial of the Bishops.* It was, notwithstanding, eventually declined. The raost earnest warnings, and even the most startling evidence, were now rejected by James, with an obstinacy whicb proves hira the raost deceived of sovereigns, or the most infatuated of raen. D'Avaux acquainted Louis, who, in his turn, acquainted Jaraes, witb tbe real object of the Prince's preparations.* The ^arae inteUigence was coraraunicated to bim directly frcm the Hague by his ewn envoy, D'AlbyviUe." Skelton, his arabassadpr at Paris, denpunced tp bim the prpjected invasipn uppn inforraation stiH more positive. A Frenchman, named Bude de Verace, in the service of the Prince of Orange and intimate confidence of Bentinck, was dismissed under circumstances which provoked bis resentraent. He retired to Geneva, and wrote thence to Skelton, whora be bad known at tbe Hague, that "he had things to communicate fo the King of England, of no less concern than the crown he wore." Skelton repeatedly and vainly pressed James to permit his coraraunicating wifh Verace, and ascertain ing the value of bis disclosures." It is iraputed io Sunderland that be intercepted and suppressed Skelton's letters respecting Verace ; " but the corapiler pf the Life pf James from his MS. Meraoirs, who was far from disposed to extenuate fhe duplicity of the minister, speaks of tbeir having made no irapression upon the King not only as a fact, but as the cause of tbe last raission of Bonrepaux. The objects of this raission appear to be generally raisstated. The first alarm, it has been said, which reached James of the designs of the Prince of Orange, was conveyed to hira by Bon repaux. ' It has been shown that tbe King had raany previous intimations, and tbat his suspicions of tbe Prince were wrought to strong persuasion nearly three raonths before the arrival of tbat envoy on the 25tb of August. The next object of the raission, generaUy alleged, was to " set on foot" an aUiance. This is but a repetition of the atterapt raade in the preceding year to estabUsh tbe behef of a treaty between England and France for the extir pation of tbe Protestant religion throughout Europe. Tbe real purpose for which Bonrepaux carae over appears to have been sim- "' Bar. au Roi, 21 Juin. 1688. Fox MSS. '' Le Roi a Bar. Sept. 1688. Fox MSS. " Life of K. James, vol. 11. p. 176. ¦> Ibid. " Life of King William. ' Burnet and his foUowers. CONSPIRACY AGAINST JAMES. 159 ply this : Louis XIV., finding every attempt to open the eyes of the KUig, and particularly tbe recent endeavours of Skelton, unavail ing, despatched a man of capacity and confidence to con'vince him of his danger, and offer him tbe aid of 30,000 Frenchmen.* Bishop Kennet ventures to suppose that the offer of French troops was rejected through the agency of Divine Providence. Others have ascribed tbe refusal to the advice of Lord Sunder land. Tbat minister himself claims tbe merit of having induced tbe King to decline French aid ; but denies aU knowledge of a treaty, and says not a word of any having been proposed. Sun derland impressed upon tbe King, that the presence of such a French force would reduce him to the condition of a mere viceroy of Louis, and render bim odious to bis subjects. Nothing but a sense of tbe extremity of bis danger icould resist this view of tbe consequences in tbe mind even of James, debased as he was. His danger, however, was reaUy extreme ; and tbe only wonder is, that, witb so many warnings and indications, be did not already en tertain this sense. But Lord Sunderland was assisted by skilful confederates, and James was lulled info treacherous security. RonquiUo, the Spanish ambassador, alarmed anew by the pre sence of Bonrepaux, obtained a private audience of the King, de liberately assured bim, whUst he knew it to he false, that the Dutch arraaraent was not destined against bira,* and suggested to him, tbat tbe continued presence of a French envoy extraordinary not only gave cause of alarm to otber powers, but would defeat every hope of obtaining from a parliament tbe repeal of the tests." The Dutch ambassador. Van Citters, disclaimed, on the part of the States, any designs against the British dorainions,'' and intimated that tbeir preparations were destined against France." Tbe Prince of Orange himself gave James the same assurances of the absence of aU hostile intentions. * Lord Sunderland, thus supported by confederate testimony, ridiculed the idea of a descent upon Eng- land,« " and had so great an influence," says James, " over all those the King most confided in, tbat not one of tbem, except my Lord Dartmoutb, seemed to give any credit to the report." * Bon- • Life of K. James from MS. Mem. vol. ii. p. 176 <" Ibid. vol. ii. p. 177. " Caveat against tbe Whigs. Ralph, vol. i. p. 1007. " Id. ibid. Life of K. James, etc. ubi supra, and MS. Letters of Van Citters. • Kennel. Caveat, etc. Ralph. MS. Mem. of King James cited in Life, ubi supra. = Ibid, ubi supra. Bar. au Roi, Sept. 18. 1688. Fox MSS. MS. Mem. of K. James, Ibid, ubi supra. 160 CONSPIRACY AGAINST jAMES. repaux returned to France astonished at Jaraes's disbelief of the in forraation and rejection of the offer with whicb he was charged. " The court of France," says the corapUer of tbe Life frora the King's Manuscript Meraoirs, " was equally astonished at his Ma jesty's surprising security." His Majesty, however, did not wholly neglect the advices re ceived by bira. He instructed D'Albyville to deraand an explana tion frora the States pf HpUand. " Tbe preparatipus pf their Iprd- ships," D'AlbyviUe said, " by sea and land, but especiaUy by sea, in a fime pf peace and sp late in the year, pbliged the King, as their ancient ally, fp deraand an explanatipu pf their intentipus, and at the same time tp reinfprCe his own fleet, with a view to the main tenance of the peace of Christendora." * Tbe States would have found it difficult to answer this deraand, if a plausible excuse had not conveniently presented itself The raemorial of D'Albyville was dated the Sth of September. D'Avaux presented to tbe States a raemorial, dated the Sth, in the name of his master, inferring, frora several circurastances recited in detaU, that the Dutch naval preparations could have no ofher object than tbe invasion of England, and notifying that his Christian Majesty would regard any act of hostUity against the King of England, a prince with whora he was connected by ties of amity and aUiance, as an infraction of the peace, and an attack upon France. A sirai lar notice was given in the same meraorial respecting Cardinal Furstenberg, Elector of Cologne. The States adroitly turned the raemorial of D'Avaux against D'AlbyvUle. They declared to bim that they bad arraed in iraUation of the King of England and otber princes ; that they were long satisfied of the existence of a secret treaty between the Kings of England and France, that the fact was now placed beyond doubt by the avowal of tbe French arabas sador, and tbat they could not properly answer the English memo rial until tbeir ambassador in London had transmitted to tbem a copy of the treaty between James and Louis. Jaraes had already assured RonquiUo and the other foreign rainisters at his court, thaf no new or secret treaty existed betweenhiraself and the King of France. Tbe meraorial of D'Avaux subjected hira to the imputa tion of bad faith, and tbe odiura ofa French alliance. Lord Sun derland urged in council, that the French raeraorial was a justifi- ' NeuvUle, vol. i. p. 118. and Kennet, vol. iii. p. 519. Dutch Pol. Cor. M.S. CONSPIRACY AGAINST JAMES. 161 cation ofthe Dutch armament ; that the Protestant subjects of James would regard a French aUiance as designed, not only against their Uberties but tbeir lives ; * and that it should therefore be disclaimed. It was accordingly disavowed by the King through his ministers at tbe Hague, Vienna, and Madrid. Louis conveyed through BarUlon his dissatisfaction at James's giving a direct disclaimer, instead of answering vaguely or equivocally. Sunderland rephed, that tbe supposition of a league witb France would revolt the nation ; and Barillon writes to bis master, that he found Englisb pride hurt by James's being placed on a level with Cardinal Furstenberg. The French memorial originated witb Skelton, tbe British am bassador at Paris, in a conversation with Croisy, French minister of foreign affairs. The ambassador observed to tbe rainister, tbat not only were the eyes and ears of the King of England closed against the most decisive evidence of tbe Dutch designs, but that tbe Prince of Orange was informed of several raatters whicb he had written on the subject to James, and that he susjiected treachery in Lord Sunderland, to whom his dispatches were addressed. Tbey concluded that the King could be effectually served only by acting beyond the reach of Sunderland, and consequently without tbe King's knowledge. Skelton advised, that without consulting James, tbe French ambassador at the Hague sbould declare the intentions of the King of France in the manner above stated. A menacing notice was conveyed at tbe sarae time, and on the advice of Skel ton, to Guadagnaga, tbe Spanish governor of Brussels. It was notified to him, that, from the close relations between Spain and Holland, tbe Spaniards would be held parties to any attack by tbe Dutch on the King of England or tbe Elector of Cologne, and French troops should immediately march into the Spanish Netherlands. Sunderland, who was constantly suspected and denounced by Skel ton, and wbo hated, or, as he said, despised Skelton in return, indulged bis resentment, and gave weight to tbe disavowal of the French alliance by tbe recall of the ambassador who had what he called the extravagance to suggest such proceedings.* Skelton, on his recall, was committed to the Tower. Tbe haughty Louis took no serious offence at this disavowal of his arabassador's memorial by James. It is not easy to determine whether be was subdued by policy, compassion, or contempt: He • Life of King James, etc., vol. ii. p. 180. i- D'Adda, 4tb Oct. 1688. n. H lea CONSPIRACY AGAINST JAMES. declared, by way of rejoinder;' that there was no forraaUy signed treaty between hiraself and tbe King of England ; but that tbe re lations of friendship between thera since the accession of tbe latter, constituted an alliance no less binding than if it were expressly sti pulated ; and that Skelton raerited a recorapence, not bis disgrace. Tbe supposition and belief of a treaty suited too well tbe views of the States and the Prince to be easUy abandoned by them. In spite of the disavowal of Jaraes, and the explanation of Louis, they repeated and reiterated its existence. It was tbeir interest not to be cpnvinced. There is less excuse for the bad faith of Burnet, who was bound in every respect by raore sacred obUgations to the truth. With tbe knowledge which he raust have had of the disavowal of Jaraes, tbe explanation of Louis, and tbe positive denial of any secret treaty by Lord Sunderland, he yet bas bad tbe hardihood to consign as a fact, tbat the French aUiance was clearly proved to exist, and leaves it to be supposed that the only adverse evidence was the pretended disgrace of Skelton. Van Citters bad gone over to Holland in the suramer, for the purpose, doubtless, of concerting personally with the States and the Prince, the invasion of England. WiUiara seeras to have given his entire confidence only to his countryraen, — a natural sentiraent in tbe bosora of one, wbo, whatever his faults, raay be justly called a patriot prince ; — but a serious arguraent against a nation's placing a foreigner at the bead of its affairs, — unless tbe nation be so de plorably effete or debased as not to possess within itself the eleraents of executive governraent. The Dutch arabassador, on bis return to London in Septeraber, assured fhe King, in the narae of the States, that tbey were most anxious to preserve bis friend ship, and armed only as a precautionary raeasure of self-defence. He then reraonstrated, by* his own account,, very resolutely against tbe French alliance. The King, after a raoraent's pause, says the arabassador, replied, tbat he thought it right to increase bis navy, because English rebels were protected in Holland, and ruraours prevaUed that the Dutch naval arraaraent was destined to attack hira. He then declared, on the word of a prince, tbat be would raaintain peace with the States, unless they were the aggressors ; tbat Bonrepaiix offered hira the aid of a French fleet and army, ¦ Le Roi a Bar., 30 Sept. 1688. Fox MS,S. CONSPIRACY AGAINST JAMES. 163 which he declined ; that nothing had passed respecting a treaty or a supply of money, but that he believed both would bave been pro posed if be had not declined the first proposition of the French envoy. The last suggestion, — evidently designed to intiraidate the Dutch,— proves the sincerity of his pacific declarations and bis secret fears.. Louis XIV. had coupled the Cardinal Elector of Cologne with the king of England, in tbe raemorial of D'Avaux . The Dutch am bassador again tried to pique the King's pride hy observing, that tbe King of France placed bis Majesty on a level witb his creature and vassal. James replied, that he knew himself to be King of England, and would always act as such. * Unfortunately for hiraself, he did not act, and be was, perhaps, incapable of acting, up to his word. Van Citters, in pursuance of instructions from tbe States, again requested, in the name of his government, a copy of tbe treaty. Tbe King answered by simply asking bow be could furnish a copy of a treaty which never had existence.* James raay be hated for bis tyranny, or despised for bis infatua tion, but he must be pitied for the duplicity with which he was abused fo his destruction. Pending these assurances of pacific in tention, and expressions of pretended alarm by the Dutch ambas sador to tbe King, the Prince of Orange was preparing, with the utmost anxiety and secrecy, for tbe invasion of England. The German princes in bis interest had, early in August, already begun to levy troops for his service. He was troubled by what he calls an egregious blunder" of tbe Duke of Wurtemburg in disclosing to his councU the purpose of tbe levies. The council, however, kept the secret. Lord Danby at tbe same time assured tbe Prince, by letter, that fhe armament of the King of France had reference to other objects than the affairs of Cologne, and expressed doubts whether the expedition sbould not be postponed to the following spring. WUIiam's agitation was extreme. His preparations, he says, were incomplete ; tbe affair had got wind ; he knew not what to resolve ; his mind was tortured by uncertainty, and he had more tban ever need of tbe Divine guidance. The last expression, addressed in a private letter to a friend, could proceed only from a sincere and ¦ Van Citt., 2Ist Sept. 1688. ' Id, 1st Oct. 1686. " " Une grande bevue." Gull. III. au Comte de Portland, 29 Aoiit, 1688. " J'ai plus que jamais besoin de la direction divine, n'elant pas assez eclaire quel parti prendre." Ibid. 11* IM CONSPIRACY AGAINST JAMES. profound feeUng of religion. It is yet strangely out of place, in re ference to a design of which tbe morality was more than doubtful. The draft of a declaration to be published by tbe Prince in justi fication of his enterprisOj was sent over to him by his friends in England. " Peruse," be writes to Bentinck, " and reperuse, with Fagel and Dyckvelt, tbe draft of my declaration. You wiU per- crive, by its cpnclusicn, tbat I thrpw rayself entirely at the mercy ofa parliament. I rauch fear it cannot be otherwise; and yet to trust one's destiny to them is no shght hazard." * Here again he opens bis whole mind only to bis countrymen, and he reveals to them the secret, tbat be bated parUaments like Louis and Jaraes. The indecision of WiUiara respecting the iraraediate execution or postponement of '' the great affair," as be caUs the invasion in his private letters, continued to the end of August. Reasons urged by Fagel at last decided hira.* In the beginning of Septeraber he proceeded to Minden, in WestphaUa, for the purpose of concerting in person bis railitary arrangeraents witb the Electors of Branden burgh and Saxony, the Landgrave of Hesse, the Duke of Lunen burg, and the Duke of ^ell. The fear that the secret ofhis enter prise bad escaped, haunted his iraagination. The Frenehi he supposed, were urging their warlike preparations to prevent his expedition, not, as they pretended, to attack the Emperor. Jaraes, in a letter to the Princess, had said, that he had no news to send her, but that he expected news frora the Hague, in consequence of the great naval arraaraent of the States, and the raarch of the French Marshal D'Humieres to the support of Cardinal Furstenberg. " Tbe King," says Williara to Bentinck, ". certainly named the Cardinal, by way of giving a covert bint tbat he knew what was designed against hiraself" He describes his mind as most painfuUy agitated from an apprehension tbat his design might faU, with the aggravation of being engaged in a great war." WiUiam III. has left the reputation of one of themost resolved, firm, steady-purposed and phlegmatic of men. This effusion of his secret soul, in a pri vate letter, is instructive and interesting, wben corapared with his life and character. It shows thaf rainds of the utmost force may be • " Et pourtant remettre son sort a enx n'est pas peu hazarder. ' GuU. III. au Comte de Portland, 31 Aoiit, 1688. Ibid. ¦ " Certainement U veut faire reflexion sur lui, et nomme le Cardinal pour nons donner le change J'avone que ceci me met dans de terribles' peines et iin.- quietudes, craignant que notre dessein avortera, et que nous voUa engage en une grande guerre." Id. 4 Sept. 1688. CONSPIRACY AGAINST J.\ME9. 165 agitated and unresolved, where the hazards are balanced, and the consequences momentous ; and tbat tbe strongest mind is that whieh keeps the secret of its weakness from the common eye. D'Avaux, on the 7th of September, presented to the States a second memorial, setting forth that his master was aware of certain movements and cabals on the side of the electorate of Cologne, and was resolved to defend tbe rights and privileges of Cardinal Furs tenberg and tbe chapter against all interference. This was equi-i^ valent to tbe menace of a declaration of war. The visit of the Prince to Minden, and his conferences with the German prmcesj were known throughout Europe. WUUam, in corresponding with his devoted father-in-law, either gave him indirectly to understand^ or directly stated to him, tbat the object of fhe Minden confOreiices was to prepare for war against France on the Rhine. " I have," says James, in the last letter addressed by bim to the Prince, " re ceived yours of the 1 7th (new style) from the Hague, by which I find you were corae back thither frora a voyage you had raade into Germany to speak with sorae of the princes there. I am sorry there is so mucb likelihood of war upon the Rhine, nobody wishing more the peace of Christendom tban myself."* Barillon, at tbe same time, writes from London to bis master, that the minis ters of James thought it impossible tbe Prince of Orange could think of inaking a descent upon England, whilst war was ready to break out upon the Rhine and tbe Meuse. He further states that tbe Princess of Orange had written a letter to her father, informing him, that tbe Prince, ber husband, went to Minden for the sole purpose of getting tbe princes assembled there to march their troops to tbe Rhine.* It was a coramon maxim ofthe Protestants of the age, that papists do not consider tbemselves bound in conscience to keep faith with heretics. Here is a ProtestJlnt princess, accounted the most religious of her time, wbo does not scruple to deceive a papist to the peril of his state and life, though that papist was her father! When, at a subsequent period, she ascended with a re volting show of joy the throne from whicb ber father had just been burled by her husband, and in her name, it was said that she acted as tbe mere puppet of a domestic tyrant. The same melancholy plea for outraging filial and Christian piety may, perhaps, be set up for her here. ¦ The King to the Prince, ofOrange, Dal. App. p. 294 ' Bar. au Roi, 16. Oct. 1688. Fox MSS. 166 CONSPIRACY AGAINST JAMES. The conduct ofWilUani isbut one instance more of tbe morality of arabition. But a raan may bave the raerits of a deliverer, with out the virtues or the weaknesses of a hero. Tbe Prince of Orange, in his anxiety to keep his design secret, went to Minden without acquainting the States-General witb bis journey.* On his return to the Hague, be coraraunicated to fhe deputies of foreign affeirs his arrangeraents and bis views. The deputies in their turn reported to tbe States their conference with tbe Prince. Their report bears date tbe 20th of Septeraber, and the design against Jaraes is not yet avowed. His Highness, the deputies say, finding tbat tbe King of France laboured to injure the coraraerce and detach the allies of the States, raore especially their ancient and intiraate ally, the King of England, thought it more than time to assurae a posture of defence, and considering the dif ference between new and old troops in actual war, had contracted at Minden to take into the pay and service ofthe BepubUc German troops, to be furnished by princes of the Empire in the following proportions : viz. the Elector of Brandenburg fo furnish 5900 ; tbe Dukes of Zell and Wolfenbotfel, 3951; the Landgrave of Hesse Cassel, 2400; the Duke of Wurteraburg, 1000 raen. The arrange raent, tbey add, was carried by the Prince only so far as to be still dependent on tbe pleasure ofthe States . On the 8tb of October, the Prince and the States avowed to each other their designs on England. On the advice of the Prince, tbe Republic took into its pay and service a further force of 6000 Swedes.* The enterprise of the Prince of Orange was thus supplied and forwarded by the authorities of the Republic with surprising zeal- It is in politics, and above aU in diploraacy, tbat language is era ployed to conceal, not disclpse intentipus. Npthing could be more superficial than fo suppose, with the manifestoes of the time, that their High Mightinesses, who loved gain quite as much as liberty, and, Uke most other republicans, were indifferent to the liberty of every country but their own, embarked their subjects and their wealth in tbe enterprise against popery, slavery, and Jaraes, from affection to the Prince of Orange, the Protestant religion, or the liberties of the English people. How was tbe Louvestein party, comprising the best citizens of the Republic, and hating both the • Lett, de GuU, III. au Comte de Portland, 4th Sept. 1688, * Secret Delib. St. Gen., SOtb Sept. 1688, MS, CONSPIRACY AGAINST JAMES. 167 house of Orange and the office of Stadtbolder,'reconciled almost of a sudden to the magistracy and tbe magistrate? Bishop Burnet accounts for it by Louis's having cut off tbe supplies of secret ser vice money to D'Avaux, who in consequence could no longer bribe tbe deputies.* The same slander is to be found in the spurious Memoirs of Madame de Maintenon. Both the right reverend his torian, and tbe anonymous fabricator, are refuted by tbe corres pondence of D'Avaux.* That ambassador ransacked the cabinets, and stole tbe secrets of tbe Prince of Orange, the States, and even his own subaltern, D'Albyville, by corrupting no higher virtue than that of domestics, confessors, adepts in forgery, and court intri guers. Jacobite writers bave ascribed tbe zeal and unanimity of tbe chief cities of Holland to tbe interest which they-bad in tbe faU of a King of England, who thought only of extending the trade and husbanding the wealth of his subjects, and to their hopes of benefit from tbe elevation of tbe Prince of Orange, who would govern England witb the prepossessions of a Hollander. This supposi tion is not groundless. The Prince of Orange gave a secret intima tion fo tbe States, that they bad the deepest interest in bis success. D'Avaux writes to his master as a fact of whicb he was assured, that the Prince told the council he was invited over by great lords and bishops, who looked upon Prince George of Denmark as unequal to the crisis ; and that if he did not accept the invitation , England would become a republic, — which would be the ruin of Holland." But the more generous guardians of tbe liberty of the RepubUc must bave favoured his enterprise from other and higher raotives. , His military preparations , so late as the beginning o 1687, were regarded with jealous fear by tbe Dutch patriots, who suspected him of designs against whatever of republican liberty survived the revival of the Stadtholderate.'' His real design, after • Bishop Burnet manoeuvred at tbe same time to engage tbe Duke of Hanover in tbe enterprise. With this view, he, " of himself," by h'S account, " acquainted tbe Duchess Sophia with the secret, and promised the settlement of tbe succession to the crown In ber and ber posterity, by tbe exclusion of Papists;" — tbus disclosing the great secret, and a second tinie disposing of tbe succession, without consulting tbe Prince of Orange. This is one of the strokes of incredible presumption which bave exposed Burnet to suspicion and ridicule. ' Negot. du Comte D'Avaux, in print, and in Fox MSS., extracted from the De. pots des Affaires Etrangeres, at Paris- " " Ce qui serait la ruine de ce pays-ci." D'Avaux to the King, IStb Oct. 1688 Fox MSS. corroborated by extracts from Sec. Delib. of St. Gen. MS. 1 Bonrepaux to Seignelai, 25th Feb. 1686. Fox MSS. 'S" FOREIGN MEASURES ^\ soine time, becarae apparent, and all jealousy disappeared. The Louvestein p^rty, now considering that he had no son to inherit usurped power in HoUand; and concluding that the crown of England must satiate his arabition, however devouring, lent itself wiUingly to an enterprise which would either convert an aspiring hereditary chief of the Republic into a powerful foreign ally-^pr prove fatal to bira. CHAPTER XIV. Counsels of the King and Sunderland.-r-OfFers and [Supplies of Louis XIV.— War on tbe Continent.— Fears of the King. — His Overtures to tbe States General.-- The King's Interviews with the Bishops.— Enquiry respecting the Birth of the Prince of Wales.— Fall of Sunderland.— Naval and MUitary Preparations of the King. . James, raeanwhUe, would not be effectually awakened from bia fetal delusion. He was acted upon by sucb powerful arts of in trigue and perfidy, tbat Barillon, who was within the circle, did not wholly escape tbem. Louis XIV. alone never doubted the designs of the Prince of Orange. Writing to BariUon, on the 18th and 21st of September, be expresses bis astonishment at the blindness of James and his rainisters. '^ At tbe court where you are, " says be, " they seera asleep and speU-bound, whUst threatened at home and abroad with the geatest conspiracy ever formed."* Ba rUlon, without venturing to differ witb bis niaster, says, that Jaraes and Sunderland think the invasion of England visionary, because tbe Prince of Orange could hope to succeed only by conducting the expedition in person; and this was impossible whilst Holland was threatened from the Meuse and the Rhine.* He does not, he says, dispute tbe raatter directiy with Sunderland and the King. It was become a court fashion " to laugh at those who entertained the idea of an invasion as possible, *• and he was hiraself the object ' Bar. Corres. Fox MSS. <• Bar, Corres. 3d and 16tb Sept. Fox MSS. " Air de la cour, etc. The MS. Mem. of the King cited in tbe " Life" and the letters of Barillon tbus coincide. '' Bar. 18th Sept. Fox MSS. OF THE KING. 169 of much court raillery. James, he thinks, but concealed bis fears ; whUst the incredulity of Lord Sunderland was not an artifice to betray, but an effect of the national presumption. It is a common opinion that Lord Sunderland made Rarillon his dupe. He cer tainly employed the most effectual weapon against a Frenchman, whose first fear is tbat of raiUery and ridicule. WhUst Sunderland treated as a chimera* the notion of an inva sion, he took or affected to take measures of defence. Rut if a vigorous resolution was taken one day, it was abandoned the next. It was proposed in a councU of the chief Catholics, tbat officers of doubtful fidelity should be dismissed, and James approved it. But recollecting, or being reminded of, tbe conduct of tbe troops in Monmouth's rebeUion, he changed bis mind.* It was actuaUy re solved, about the middle of September, tbat Halifax, Danby, Shrewsbury, Nottingham, and others, suspected of favouring the Prince of Orange, should he placed under arrest." Two only of those named were engaged in the conspiracy ; but of the wisdom of the measure generally there cannot be a doubt. So obvious was its prudence, that it was anticipated by Sidney as the certain con sequence of a discovery of the Prince's preparations, and as likely to ruin his enterprise. " It is certain," says he, " that if it be made public above a fortnight before it be put in execution, all your friends wiU be clapped up, which will terrify others, or at least make tbem not know what to-do, and will in aU probability ruin the whole design." " This resolution, too, was abandoned through tbe advice of Sunderland ; wbo contended, tbat many could not be seized, and tbe sei'zure of a few would but give an alarm." Louis XIV. persevered in offering Jaraes bis counsels and bis aid, and urged him to prepare for hostilities. The King, in reply, expressed bis readiness to go tbe utraost length short of actual war with the Dutch.' He proposed to equip a fleet of thirty ships of war ; and at tbe same time intimated, through Sunderland, that this increase of the naval force could not be effected without money. Barillon offered 400,000 livres,* whicb sum, after many attempts by Sunderiand to obtain more, was accepted. James en-. gaged to fit out twenty men of war and eight fire-ships. Tbe two • Le Roi a Bar. Fox MSS, ' Bar. 30 Aout. Fox MSS. • Bar. au Roi, 18 Sept. '' Sidney to the Prince of Orange. Dal. App. p. 231. ' Burn. vol. iii. p. 314, ' Bar. au Roi, 22 Mars, 1688. Fox MSS. ' Ibid. 570 FOREIGN MEASURES Kings differed respecting their destination. Louis would have them sent to the Northern Seas, for the purpose of preventing a junction of fbe Dutch and Swedish fleets, Jaraes thought it more advisable that they should be kept in the Downs or the Channel, to attain the sarae end. Neither, probably, avowed his real object. The former sought to precipitate, tbe latter to avoid the chances of a hostUe col lision between the English and Dutch.* Barillon hesitated whether be should insist on a money treaty, regularly signed, or trust to an unsigned raeraorandura, and fhe honour of tbe contracting parties. His master dispensed with a written engageraent ; sent bills of exchange to be eraployed in part payraent ; disclairaed all intention of engaging Jaraes in a quarrel with tbe Dutch or any other power ; and declared, that all he re quested of hira was, to raake such demonstrations, and use such a tone, as would tend to the preservation of peace.* Notwithstanding the coramon interests and intimate relations of the two sovereigns, each obviously practised dissiraulation in his transactions with the other. " Tell your master," said Jaraes to Barillon, " fhat I pledge rayself to every thing short of raaking war; perhaps I raay be brought, by littie and liftle, even fp that : as sPon as I bave ray fleet equipped at sea, tbey shall find me taking a higher tene, and my mediatipn will be rapre authoritative."" He evidently held out this lure as an artifice to expedite the payment of the whole supply. But the circurastance is raore deserving of attention in another re spect. If, in this and other instances, he indisputably disserabled witb Louis, raay not his few and subdued coraraendations of the French King's zeal to eradicate Protestantism in France by perse cution, have proceeded frora the interests of the politician, not frpm the sympathies of the persecutor ? On the Sth of August, Louis doubted for a raoraent, upon wbal he called good inforraation, whether the Dutch fleet would attempt any thing against England before the following year, but declares that his fleet is ready fo act at tbe shortest notice :'' on tbe 1 2th he repeats to Jaraes his warnings of iraraediate danger, and instructs Barillon to ascertain tbe state of the King's forces by sea and land, and the fidelity of the officers." He urged strenuously, that such Barillon au Roi, 8 Avril, 1688. Fox MSS, Le Roi a Bar. 5 Avril, 1688. Fox MSS. The same to tbe same, 15th April, 1688. Le Roi a B-ar. 5 Aug, 1688. Fox MSS. " Id. ibid. OF THE KING. 171 regiments as could be relied on sbould be brought over from Ire land. The prejudice in England against tbe Irisb was still stronger than tbat against the French; and this measure also was over-ruled througb the influence of Sunderland, ChurchUl, and tbe Duke of Grafton.* The French King was now on tbe eve of declaring war nomi naUy against the Emperor — in fact, against tbe whole confederacy of Augsburg. It is stated, that be proposed to begin by attacking Maestricht and tbe Low Countries, — not PhUipsburgh and tbe Em pire,* — which would paralyse or divert the arraaraent of tbe Prince of Orange. This he enjoined Jaraes to keep inviolably secret, even frora his ministers. The States soon reinforced tbe garrison of Maestricht with 6000 men. Louis had confided the secret only to LouVois, and desired to be informed by James whether he had comraunicated it to any person. The latter repUed, that he had told it only to Lord Sunderland ; upon which the French monarch gave bim up in despair, as a man so bent upon bis own ruin that nothing could save him." A version somewhat different is given in the miUtary memoirs of Louis XIV. It is there stated, that war being resolved, the minis ters of Louis were divided as to the manner of opening the cara paign. On the one side it was proposed to operate powerfully by sea, and raarch a strong force against Maestricht and the Low Countries. This would prevent the Dutch from employing their fleet and army in an expedition against England. On the other side it was urged, that the Empire should be attacked witb promptitude and vigour, which would compel the Eraperor, pressed on his eastern frontier by the Turks, to call the Prince of Orange to his aid.^ The latter counsel prevailed with Louis, under the auspices of Louvois ; and the Dauphin left Versailles on tbe 25tb" of Sep teraber, to take the command of the army, which already invested Philipsburgh.' This is described as tbe first false step in tbe first ^ MS. Memoirs cited in Life of K. James, vol. ii. p. 187, I Life of King William. Kennett. ' Dart. Note on Burnel, 314, 315, and Dal. App. ' CEuvres de Lonis XIV. tom. iv, p. 285. Voltaire dates his departure the 22d, and says, tbat when leaving tbe court be was addressed publicly by Louis XIV. in the following words, which, from the mouth of that proud and pampered monarch to the, heir of his crown, are not desti tute of grandeur and magnanimity : — " Mon fils, en vous envoyant commander me.s armees, je vous doime les occasions de faire connaitre votre merite. Allez le mon- trer e^ toute I'Europe, afin que quand je viendral a mourlr on ne s'appercolve pas 'jue le roi soit mort," ' CEuvres de LouisXlV. tom, iv. p, 256, 172 FOREIGN MEASURES war which proved inglorious fo Louis XIV.* D'Avaux writes on the subject with remarkable frankness to his raaster. " Never," says he, "did news give raore joy to tbe Prince of Orange, than the inteUigence of the siege of PhUipsburgh, so mucb did he fear the march of the French troops upon Flanders or the Lower Bhine."* In a subsequent letter he says, the siege of Philipsburgh bad raised the Dutch funds ten per cent., and the States-General had become insolent upon tbeir good fortune." Had Louis fallen proraptly with his chief force upon the Spanish Netherlands and the United Pro vinces, this attack, it has been said, would have disconcerted the raeasures of tbe Prince of Orange." Tbe reraark will probably suggest itself in reply, tbat the Prince witb bis sagacity and pru dence, tbe States witb their pararaount regard to their own safety and interests, must bave conteraplated and provided against a con tingency so obvious. It was, in point of fact, conteraplated, and precautions were taken by the Prince of Orange. But he stiU re garded the opening of the carapaign on the part of the French, by operating against the Low Countries, with the deepest anxiety. He apprehended, as the consequence, thaf the German Princes could not spare hira their troops ; fhat Marshal D'HuraiSres had only to raarch on Brussels in order to become raaster of tbe Low Coun tries ; and tbat the States-General, threatened with danger so ira raediate and forraidable, would abandon altogether the expedition to England." This error of Louis, if really committed by him, was one of his raost serious raistakes both in war and politics. It would seera as if bis more fortunate and sagacious counsels were influenced for a moraent by the evil destiny of James. But whatever may bave been the truth respecting an attack upon Maestricht, and however Louis may have expressed himself respect ing Jaraes as a raan dooraed to destruction, be did not abandon him to bis fate. He proposed to reinforce tbe British fleet with a French squadron of sixteen sail; and with this corabined force to attack and overpower the invading Dutch fleet.' A treaty for the junction of the French and Englisb fleets was signed, but with blanks left for the tirae and place. Jaraes, deferring still to the fears and prejudices of his subjects, and fhe advice of his couhcil,' f CEuvres de Louis XIV, tome iv. p. 256. > D'Avaux lothe King, 27th Sept. 1688. Negot. du Comte D'Avaux. ' Id. 4tb Oct 1688. Ibid. ^ CEuvres de Louis XIV. tom. iv. p. 286. note, f Lett, de GuiU. III. au Comte de Portland. ' Life of K. James, 186. ? Bar. au Roi, 16 Sept. 1688. OF THE KING. 17^ rejected tbe offer of the French squadron, as he had rejected tbat of tbe French troops, but desired that it sbould be kept disposable at Brest. The negociation^ did not escape tbe Dutch ambassador. Van Citters. He remonstrated with tbe King, and repeated bis dis claimer of any hostile designs on tbe part of tbe RepubUc. James repUed, that he bad no intention to employ the French fleet, unless compelled to it by tbe ambassador's masters. * Even when tbe invasion was placed beyond doubt, he abstained frora employing tbe squadron at Brest ; " finding, " he says, " a general aversion, not only in his council, but in all his commanders by sea and land, to tbe assistance proffered by France." * He adds, that " the Duke of Grafton, Lord ChurchUl, and others, had already taken tbeir measures with the Prince of Orange, and bad so great an appre hension of the French squadron joining, tbat tbey industriously fomented the natural aversion the English bave to tbe French, in order to prevent it. Nay, they found fault witb the King's sending for tbe few Irish, and so cunningly insinuated their pretended jealousies, that the councU gave into it — sorae witb a design fo betray the King, others because their heads turned ; so that those very raen, who bad advised the things wbicb bad given sucb offence to tbe Church of England, turned on the toe, and were at once for undoing aU tbey bad done, even to the liberty pf conscience itself" " James mentions Lord Sunderland, without directly accusing him of treachery, hut in such a manner as to negative that minister's assertion that the measures most obnoxious to the Church of England were adopted against bis advice. '^ The incredulity ofthe King respecting the enterprise of the Prince of Orange wholly ceased ahout the middle of September. ^ He stUl declined tbe proffered aid of tbe French squadron, so late as the 1 1th of October. ' Louis, at last, appears to give up in des pair. "The refusal of my fleet," he writes to D'Avaux, " by tbe King of England, to please bis subjects, opens the way to the Prince of Orange, and nothing now remains hut to wait tbe event. " ^ The King,, however, possessed resources, and even took measures for resistance, which, employed by a man commonly resolute and capable, would bave proved fatal to his enemy. But James was • Lett, of Van Citt. '' MS. Mem. of K. James, vol. 11. p. 186. • MS. Mem. of K. James, cited in Life, etc. vol. ii. p. 187. * Ibid. p. 297. • Life of K. James, vol. 11. p. 177. Letters of Louis and Barillon, from 10th to 20th Sept. Fox MSS. ' Bar. to Lonis, llth Oct. Fox MSS. « Louis to D'Av. 17th Oct. Fox MSS. i74 FOREIGN MEASURES OF THE KING. soon abandoned even by tbat spurious resolution of weak rainds — his obstinacy ; and when he thought the heads of bis advisers turned, tbe only bead tbat reaUy turned was his own. He made sorae forlorn atterapts abroad to divert the storm. D'AlbyvUle, in a forraal audience, caUed upon fhe Prince of Orange to explain the raotives of his warlike preparation, and to extin guish the ruraours then prevalent througb Europe, that he was preparing to invade England. The Prince treated the ambassador with more than his usual indifference. His only answer was, that jealousies prevaUed in all quarters.* A raeraorial was presented at the same tirae by D'AlbyvUle to the States-General, solemnly disavowing, in the narae ofhis raaster, any secret treaty of aUiance with fhe King of France ; and offering, on the King's part, fo prove the truth of his asseveration, by taking raeasures, in concert wilh the States, lo raaintain the treaty of Niraeguen, the truce of twenty years, and the peace of Christendora. SiraUar assurances were given by bis envoys to the other powers in araity witb hira. Louis, informed of those proceedings, wrote to Barillon : ^ " I find, " said he, " that the rainisters of the King of England at the Hague, and at Rorae, propose on his part to join ray enemies, if the Prince of Orange consents to desist from bis enterprise. I am, notwith standing, still ready to aid him. " * This was neither friendship nor magnanimity. He at last becarae alarraed lest James, in tbe extremity ofhis danger, sbould join the confederates ; and instructed BariUon to suggest, as from himself, an pffensive and defensive treaty. The States, raeanwhile, continued tp insist pn the exist ence pf a French alliance, and cprapleted the preparatipus pf the Prince. Tbe raUitary part pf the armament ccnsisted pf 1 0,000 fppt and 4000 hprse, the best trppps pf the Bepublic ; and the Prince, acting uppn the advice pf Sidney, bprrpwed Marshal Schcmberg frpra the Fleeter pf Brandenburgh. Admiral Herbert, whp bad gpne pver spme weeks befpre, was apppinted tP tbe cpramand of the Dutch navy, with sprae reluctance and hesitation on the part of the States and the Prince. The States-General had good grounds for distrusting the over tures ofthe King. Lord Sunderland told Barillon, that the King's sole pbject was delay ; that be felt his affairs in the last extremity ; thaf in eight days, perbaps, he might be driven eut pf England ; " " Il y a bien de jalousies de tous colis." Bar. to tbe King, 27tb Sept. 1688; Fox MSS, ' Le Roi a Barillon, 28 Oct. 1688. Fox MSS. DEFENSIVE PREPARATIONS. 173 tbat drowning men catch at any thing ; that if the overtures made to the States bad the effect of conjuring the storm, or creating divi sion between the States and the Prince, his Christian Majesty would, doubtless, be tbe first to rejoice at so fortunate a result." " I see," said Louis, " Sunderland will do any thing, however de- triraental to his master, only to gain time. " The only advantage which James derived from the memorial of d'AlbyviUe, was the equivocal or slight one of publishing it in tbe same Gazette whicb announced to the nation the undoubted intelligence of an invasion from Holland.'' The King's measures of defence may be divided into political and nnUtary. Tbe forraer was an abandonment or recantation of his whole course of domestic policy to that hour. He unsaid and undid all that he had hitherto said and done, and went backwards, as he had gone forward, under the influence of Lord Sunderland." That minister, denounced by bis eneraies, and suspected by bis master, had recovered his credit hy declaring himself a Catholic. The King's first step, under his guidance, was to command the attendance of tbe Archbishop of Canterbury, and such other prelates as were within his reach. Lord Sunderland, who wrote to them inthe King's name, merely stated, that " his Majesty thought it requisite to speak to them. " An interview took place. It ended only in general expressions of favour and affection on tbe part of the King, and of duty and loyalty on tbe part of the bishops.'' One bishop (Ken ) is stated to have observed, " tbat they might as weU not have stirred a foot out of tbeir dioceses."" This descent or ascent from spiritual obsequiousness to profane famiUarity was a sign not to be mistaken ofthe decline and fall of the king. Writs had been issued for the meeting of a parliament. To neutrahse the bad impression produced by tbe " closeting," and calra tbe fears entertained for the Established Church, it was an nounced by proclaraation, for the better guidance of the electors, that the elections sbould take place witb entire freedom ; that his Majesty's object was to establish liberty of conscience by act of parliament, preserve the several Acts of Uniforraity, and exclude ' Bar. au Roi, 3 et 7 Oct. 1688. Fox MSS. ' Gazette, 2Ist Sept. 1678. ' MS. Mem. of King James, cited in Life, etc. " Ralph, vol. 1. p. 1012. Tbe King told tbem be should take off the suspension of the Bishop of London. He little thought that the disobedient Bishop was at tb» time guilty of high treason, in signing the Invitation to the Prince of Orange. " Id. ibid. 176 DEFENSIVE PREPARATIONS. those already disqualified frora tbe House of Commons.* A second proclaraation raade known the fact, and exposed in detaU tbe false pretences and real purposes of the Dutch invasion, led by the Prince of Orange, whose object was absolute conquest of the king dom.* " Whilst (tbe King said) sorae restiess and'wicked spirits, forgetting forraer miseries, and insensible to his reiterated mercies, would erabroil the kingdora in blood and rapine, he relied upon the courage, fidelity, and allegiance of bis people ; and as he bad formerly ventured his life for tbe safety and honour of the nation, so now he was resolved to live and die in the defence thereof" This obliged bira, he said, contrary to his intention and inclinatipn, to recall the writs for Parliaraent, because he could not attend it, having to appear at tbe bead of bis array, where bis presence was no less necessary." The approach of invasion thus put to flight aU hope of a par Uament, which, even without this incident, would probably not bave been assembled.'' On fbe 2d of October, James issued a general pardon, from wbicb, however, sixteen persons, voluntary exUes, or persons fled from justice in fbe late and present reign, were excepted ; " and, to tbe great joy ofthe citizens, proraised the restoration of the ancient charter of London. The Bishops, as may be conceived from the sally pf Bisbpp Ken, were piqued by the fruitless terminatien pf their interview with the King. Tbey bad cpme prepared tp be ccnsulted by him as " the chief suppprt pf tbe English monarchy ;" ' and either to sway his counsels with episcopal humility, or to produce a theatri cal effect whicb should survive the eclat of tbeir late martyrdora m tbe Tower.s The Archbishop of Canterbury, at tbeir request, solicited an audience. He waited on the King for this purpose, on Sunday tbe SOth of September ; and was told that be sbould be received, witb the other prelates, on tbe following Tuesday: Their audience was postponed to Wednesday. Jaraes, raeanwhile, proclairaed his general pardon, and the restoration of its charter to tbe city of London. The Bishops were thus foUed in their cal culation of obtaining credit with the city and the public as the King's advisers in tbese acts of royal grace. ¦ Gaz. 21st Sept. 1688. •¦ Gaz. 28th Sept. 1688. • Life of King James, from his MS. Mem. vol. ii. p. 184. " Bar. au Roi, 2 Sept. 1688. Fox MSS. ' Burnet was ofthe number. ' Echard. ' Vide Sprat's account. Letter to Dorset. defensive; PREPARATIONS. 177 On Wednesday tbe 3d of October the Archbishop, accorapanied by tbe Bishops of Ely, Chichester, Rochester, Bath and Wells, Peterborough, London, Winchester, and St. Asaph, waited on the King with their written advice, under ten several heads. It set forth, in substance, that he sbould employ in tbe pubhc service those only who were legally qualified ; abolish tbe ecclesiastical comraission ; restore tbe president and fellows of Magdalen Col lege ; set aside all licences by which Catholics taught public schools; allow tbe dispensing power to be debated and settled in parUa raent; inhibit the four foreign (Catholic) bishops calling thera selves Vicars Apostolical ; fill up the bishoprics and otber bene fices in England and Ireland, and more especially the arcbi-epis- copal chair of York ; restore the other charters, " as," says the Archbishop, " we hear God hath put info your Majesty's heart to do for tbe city of London, which we intended to have made other wise one of our principal requests;" call a free and regular parlia ment for tbe securing the Church of England and tbe liberties and properties of all his subjects, in which pariiament also provision should be raade for a due Uberty of conscience ; above all, that his Majesty would allow his bishops to offer him sucb motives and arguments as may persuade bim to renounce tbe communion of tbe Church of Rome,iand return to that of tbe Church of England, in wbicb he had been baptised and educated. The King might bave told their Lordships, in reply to this last article, tbat though the fact of being baptized and educated in a religion be one of the most coraraon motives for continuing in it, yet it is no argument for its truth, and consequently no spiritual reason for returning to it. Of two Protestant church dignitaries, the one,* an archdeacon, states that the Archbishop endeavoured to bring back tbe King to tbe religion of his baptism and education in a private conference, by " a discourse which savoured of all tbe free breathings of tbe primitive times of Christianity ; but tbe Romish religion had now taken too deep root in his royal breast." Tbe other, a bishop,* ascribes the perverseness ofjames, not to tbe deep roots of Popery, but to Divine Providence. It is a very offensive, but very common, weakness in raen to raake Providence the partisan of their sectarian passions. This speech from a prelate transgresses the common limits of huraan presumption. " Ecbard, , " Kennet. "• 13 l''* DEFENSIVE PREPARATIONS. The advice of the Bishops failed to effect their purpose, " of getting sorae credit to theraselves and tbe church."* Churchraen, Dissenters, and Catholics umted in denouncing the scherae of re conciliation subraitted by the Archbishop. The parties thus in accord as to the fact of conderanation went upon widely different grounds. Dr. Sherlpck disavowed it, as an abandonment of the ground taken by the Bishops in tbeir petition; Johnson, in a paraph let, reprobated it as " a raountebank reraedy ;" and the Catho lics described it as a contrivance of tbe King's eneraies. Johnson was a zealot, who seldora wrote the word papist without tbe epi thet bloody. His violence was redeeraed by his fearless conscience, and excused by the cruel sentence which he had suffered in the first year^of this reign. If a fanatic were capable of reasoning, he might have reflected that it was the tyrant, not the Papist, who had ¦wronged hira. Jaraes adopted raany of the proposals whicb tbe Archbishop had made to bim. He dissolved the ecclesiastical cmnraission. The resignatipn nf Sprat prpves that tribunal tp have been already on the wane. He restpred the charter pf Lpndpn by the hands of the Chancellor Jeffreys. That person, on bis way to the city, was hooted by the populace ; but received at GuUdhall with joyous ac claraation, a harangue from the Lord Mayor, and tbe vete' pf an address ef thanks fp the Ring. The pther abrpgated charters were restpred. In shprt. Catholics were removed from all but mUUary eraplpyraents ; and the Iprds-Ueutenants ef ccunties were cem manded tc examine and repprt.pu all abuses committed in the recent regulations of corporate bodies.* The Bishop of Winchester was commissioned, as visiter, " to settle the Society of Magdalen Col lege regularly and statutably." " These concessions, though in ac cordance whh the proposals of tbe Bishops, obtained them Uttie credit. They gave offence by sorae concessions which they raade in return to the King. The Archbishop of Canterbury and Bishop of Chichester joined in the consecration of Hall, as Bishop of Ox ford. A new forra of prayer was put forth " on his Majesty's present danger," in glowing terras of loyalty and affection to the King. " We beseech thee, oh God !" fhey say, " in this time of danger, save and protect pur rapst gracicus King : give thy holy angels charge ever him." Two, if not three, of the Bishops who • Sprat's Letter, ^ Gazette, llth October. ^ Ibid. I2th October. BIRTH DF THE PRINCE OP WALES, 179 thus invoked tbe attendance of God's angels to save and protect him, — Compton of London, Trelawney of Bristol, and Lloyd of St. Asaph's, — were engaged to the utmost depth in the enterprise'of the Prince of Orange ! The King derived stiH less advantage from his concessions than tbe Bishops from tbeir counsels. It was supposed that his con^- cessions were extorted from his fears, and would be revoked when he found or thought himself the stronger. Bad faith and a deceit ful after-thought were suspected from his measures, — especially from that relating to Magdalen College, — and tbe defective and in- executable commissions issued for restoring their charters to the corporations.* The pomp with which the Prince of Wales was baptized according to the rites of tbe Church of Rorae was looked upon, says Bishop Kennet, " as a designed insult upon the Protes tant religion."* No effort at tbe same time was left untried to persuade the nation that the child was supposititious, and that tbe King and Queen conspired with tbe Jesuits to practice this outrageous ira poslure. The raemorial already aUuded to, publisbed in Holland, was circulated in England. It was given out that the mother of the pretended Prince was coming over in the Dutch fleet." James was reduced to the necessity of adopting a measure the mosl afflicting and humiliating to bira as a sovereign and parent. On tbe 22d of October he called an extraordinary meeting of the Privy Council to verify tbe birth of his son. Tbe evidence was the most complete, the raost conclusive, andthe most revolting that could be produced, orcanbe imagined. Wben tbe investigation closed, James addressed the council with mournful emotion : — " There are," says he, "none of you but wUl believe me who suffered so much for conscience- sake, incapable of so great a viUany to the prejudice of my own cbildren. I thank God those that know me know well that it is my principle to do as I would be done by, for that is the law and the prophets ; and I would rather die a tbousand deaths than do the least wrong to any of ray chUdren." The evidence, containing de taUs frora whicb the imagination shrinks, was sworn, registered, ' Reresby's Memoirs. "¦ His baptism in the chapel of St. James's, by tbe name ofjames Frahcis Edward, witb tbe Pope represented by the nuncio for his godfather, and tbe Queen-dowager godmother, was announced in the Gazette of the 15th of October. ' Kennet 12* 180 FALL OF'SUNDERL-iND. and made public, " witb," says Burnet, " a quUe contrary effect to what tbe cpurt expected frcm it." Burnet has treated the pregnancy pf the Queen and this investi gation witb a flagrant disregard of decency and truth. He sup presses and perverts, and rakes together, without proof, particulars which, if true, could be known only in the utraost famUiarity of medical or raenial attendance upon the Queen. But be bad col lected evidence and published pamphlets, by order, on the subject during the heat of parties, and the right reverend historian would bear out the partisan. The Princess Anne reraained unconvinced. Her conscience would be entitled to more respect if she had not studiously absented herself from the Queen's delivery and the investigation, whUst her absence was represented to be a contrivance of her father to aid the fraud. She could not conceal her dissatisfaction when a copy of the evidence was presented fo her by her father's order,* and decjined Teceiving it, '¦-' because," she said, " no evidence could bave raore weight wilh her than the word of the King." * Another woraan might have declined the perusal from this raotive, pr frpm the delicacies pf nature and her sex; but in the cparse-rainded and unnatural daughter ef James, it was equivocation and hypocrisy. It should be added, that her doubts vanished for a raoraent into an acknowledgment ot " tbe Prince of Wales,'' and a pious aspiration for bis eternal felicity upon tbe prospect of his death. Writing to her sister on the 9tb of July, 1688, she says, " The Prince of Wales bas been ill three pr fpur days, and if he has been se bad as spme pepple say, I believe it wiU net be long before he is an angel in heaven." " Sunderiand, with all the dexterity of his intrigues and versatility of bis changes, fell at last. His disgrace has been ascribed to tbe discovery of his treachery. The charge made against hira by the friends of James is, that he encouraged his trusting raaster in all the measures respecting religion which raost shocked the interests of tbe clergy and the prejudices of the people ; tbat the King, by his advice, ahenated the Church of England, lay and clerical; that ^ he advised Jaraes to retrace his steps, in order to deprive him of the support of the Nonconforraists, and that he betrayed the most important and secret councils ofhis raaster to the Prince of Orange, ¦ Van Citt., 9tb Nov. 1688. '¦ MS. Mem. of K. James, cited in Life, etc. " Blrcbe's Notes in Dal. App. FALL OF SUNDERLAND. 181 through bis wife and uncle.* Tbe minister was closeted witb the Queen, in the hope of keeping his place through her influenc^, wben a message was brought him from the King, to deliver up the seals to Lord Middleton.* Shrinking from the idea of court dis grace, and catching still at the shadow of court favour, be gave out that be merely retired, because it was impolitic any longer to em ploy Catholics, not from any distrust on the part of the King." His ruin was impending over him since the trial of the Bishop^.'' Tbe King, in an access of confidence, produced by bis receiving a supply of 100,000 crowns from BarUlon, told tbat minister that Sunder land "was afraid;" tbat he thwarted and offended persons the most faithful ; that his services were no longer satisfactory." Tbe faithful servants who complained of Sunderland, were, doubtiess. Father Petre and Lord Melfort, wbo succeeded bim in ruling tbe counsels of tbe King. "Lord Sunderland," says BarUlon, *'did not open bis raind to me ; he raerely said that his sole offence was seeing things as they are — in extremity." ' It may be doubted or denied that Sunderland betrayed the counsels of bis sovereign. He is, at least, chargeable with serving the King in a such manner as not to forfeit the favour of the Prince. But tbe minister wbo served his sovereign with this reservation was a traitor to his trust. It is avowed by hiraself, that " accusations of high treason, and sorae otber reasons relating to affairs abroad, drew the King's dis pleasure on bira,*' and tbat he expected no less than tbe loss of bis, bead." A letter, addressed by him to King William, dated from Amsterdam, March 8, 1 689, would seem to leave Uttle doubt that he bad incurred the penalty. " I thought," says be, " I had served the public so importantly in contributing what lay in me towards the advancement of your glorious undertaking, tbat tbe having been inan odious ministry ought notto have obliged me to be absent."* This avowal would be decisive in tbe case of another man ; but Sunderland was one who would cover himself witb fictitious infamy to serve a purpose of ambition, profit, or court favour. BariUon, writing two days before Sunderland was disraissed, says, " the King iraputed to bim weakness, not treachery;" and gives it as bis own opinion, tbat be sought only to break his fall, and secure a ' Life of James, and Extracts from MS. Mem. ' Bar. au Roij 8 Nov. 1688. Fox MSS, • Life of K. James, vol. li. p. 303. " Bar. au Roi, 8 Nov. 1688. Fox MSS. ' Bar. au Roi, 23 Oct 1688. Fox MSS. ' Id. ibid. ' Letter of Lord Sunderland to a Friend. ' Dal. App. 182 DEFENSIVE PREPARATIONS. retreat.* He asked Barillpn tp prpcure him refuge in FrancCj bpasted pf his fidelity fe tbe gppd cause,* duped the French am- bassadpr intp fprwarding bis request with a recpraraendatipu to Lpuis XIV.," — and went fp HpUand. His career is not without value as a raorai lesson. The raost unprincipled, the most adroit, and, perbaps, the raost able, of tbat compound class of ministers, half statesman, half intriguer, he signally failed, and neither his subsequent re-ascent nor useful services have rescued bis name from conterapt. It is an apparent, not a real, inconsistency in his character, that he was in theory a republican."' Ambitious men, finding theraselves unable to realise their drearas, learn to despise the coraraunity, discard their principles, abandon theraselves wholly to their arabition, and swira witb the streara. Barillon calculated upon Godolphin's being the successor of Sunderland, frora bis possessing the secret of the French pension.'^ But James confided to him that secret from necessity, not choice, because it could not be concealed frora fhe chief of the Treasury department, — and was particularly displeased at the moraent, be cause Godolphin advised negociation with fhe Prince of Orange.* It was expected, for a raoment, that Bochester would be restored to his place and influence in the King's counsels.^ His love of place, subservient high church toryisra, and the vindictive pleasure of a triuraph over Sunderland, rendered this supposition not irapro bable. But his party now either directly participated in the designs of the Prince, or despaired of the fortunes of tbe King. Notting ham, after a long conference by coraraand with the King, refused to sit in the council.* The Catholic interest now recovered its ascendant under the aus pices of Lord Melfort and Father Petre.' The King's counsels were vacUlating and weak ; yet had his raUitary raeasures been but as vigorously pursued as they were prudentiy designed, bis mili tary means but employed with a decision and energy proportioned to their strength, organisation, and the crisis ; — bad James himself possessed the quaUties of an able captain, or had he had a capable lieutenant, instead of the degenerate nephew of Turenne, — the ' 3 ," Se menager une chute plus douce et se preparer une retralte sure." Bar. to. the King, 25th Oct. 1688. Fox MSS. ' -Bar. to tbe King, 4tb Nov, 1688. Fox MSS. • Id. ibid. - . Halifax MS. " Bar. Sth Nov. Fox MSS. ,, ' id 22d Nov = Van Citt,, 9th Nov. 1688. ' Van cut,, 15tb Oct. 1688. ' Van Citt., 9th Nov, Bar. 25th No^ DEFENSIVE PREPARATIONS. 183 Prince of Orange would most probably bave, met the fate of the Duke of Monmouth. Tbe King began by coUecting, strengthening, and disposing his fleet. He fitted out more ships to reinforce the squadron actuaUy at sea. It now consisted of thirty saU, chiefly third and fourth rate, as best suited to tbe season.* To tbese be added sixteen fire- ships. He, at the same time, ordered bome bis squadrons in tbe Mediterranean and the West Indies.* Lord Dartmouth, Sir Roger Strickland, and Sir John Bury were the three flag-officers ap pointed to comraand, Dartmoutb, a Protestant, was placed over Strickland, a Catholic, to concUiate the seamen. " Men came in," says the King, " so fast, tbat greater despatch was made than could weU bave been expected." Tbe King, in spUe ofhis religion, was popular in the navy : that service was greatly indebted to bis zeal, bis industry, and even bis ingenuity; the modern system of communicating by signals was invented by him while Duke of York. He applied himself witb equal diligence to the army. Ten men, chosen for their known fideUty, and more valued on tbat account than for their numerical strength, were added to every regiment, horse and foof, except tbe guards. ¦' This favoured corps was ex cepted through confidence in its fidelity. Royal comraissions were issued for raising several new regiments." Tbe mUitias of London, and of tbe several counties, were called out, and ordered to bold theraselves in readiness to serve for the defence of the kingdora. Three battalions of infantry, a troop of guards, and two regiments of cavalry, were recalled from Scotland.' Three battalions of in fantry, and a regiment of cavalry, were brought from Ireland. The sending for these troops, after long resistance by Lord Sunderland, was tbe first decisive symptom ofthe decline of that minister.^ The King and his counseUors were convinced tbat no persons of rank and property would join the Prince of Orange.'' This inipression was natural. The nobiUty and powerful commoners offered their services, and acceptedcommissionsto raise troops. Araongthe names most conspicuous were those of Newcastie, Derby, Lindsey, Pem broke, Westmoreland, Aylesbury, Burlington, Danby, Fauconberg, ' MS. Mem. ofjames, cited in Life, vol. ii. p. 186. '' Id. ibid. « Id. ibid. p. 191. « MS. Mem. ' MS. Mem. cited in Life, vol. ii. p. 186. ' Id. ibid. ?"Bar. au Roi, 18th Oct. 1688. Fox MSS. ^ Bar. au Roi. Ibid. 184 " DEFENSIVE PREPARATIONS. Brandon. The confidence of Jaraes, then, was natural, and donbtless had its influence in rejecting French aid. He had on foot an array of 32,000 men; which force (with the navy already mentioned) he thought sufficient to deal with the Prince of Orange, either by sea or land.* Of the nobleraen above named several were pledged to join fhe Prince of Orange. " Whitehall," says the compUer of the Life of Jaraes, " was never raore crowded witb people of quality, who carae to give assurance of tbeir fidelity; and none were raore copious in expressions of loyalty and affection than those who were deepest engaged in the treason ; and those wbo durst not venture their persons in the King's presence bad fhe irapudence to send up proffers of their service. The officers of tbe array, theraselves, foUowed this exaraple; and when tbey kissed their raajesties' bands (o go down to their respective coraraands, those were raost profuse in their proffers of shedding their blood for their service who were the first to desert to the eneray."* But the first and greatest failure was on the part of Jaraes to himself His military dispositions, as narrated by bim in his manu script memoirs," appear to betray no want of vigour and foresight ; but when the bour of action came, he was unequal to bis situation. Apprehending that the Prince of Orange had accoraplices in Lon don, that his first atterapt would be by the river, and tbat he raight possess. hiraself of Rochester and Chathara, be concentrated tbe chief strength of bis array round tbe capital. If tbe Prince landed in tbe north or the west, this disposition placed the array at a con venient if not central distance to raarch on tbe point of attack. Portsraouth, Plyraouth, HuU, Chester, and Carlisle were garrisoned witb horse and foot. Rochester, Gravesend, Dartraouth, and Maidstone were secured by detachments from the array which de fended London. Scotiand and Ireland were placed in a state of defence ; the one by tbe Privy Council, the other by Tyrconnel, They were, moreover, not immediate objects of invasion. Tbe King's chief want must have been that of raoney, in the ab sence of a grant from parUaraent. This was supplied by the per raanent revenues, bis own economy, and the supplies of Louis XI V.*" The condition of the last, tacit or express, appears to bave been, " MS. Memoirs, cited in Life. >¦ MS. Mem. cited in Life, 140, 141. " Cited in Life of King James. ¦¦ Bar. to tbe King, 25th Oct. 1688. Fox MSS. INVASION OF ENGLAND. 185 that James should consent to no compromise or negociation with the Prince of Orangfe. Louis, writing to BarUlon on tbe 1st of November, expresses his satisfaction that the money had given James increased firmness; deprecates any negociation with the Prince, as " U would lead only to tbe entire ruin of the royal authority ; " and advises a public declaration of war, hy James, against the Prince of Orange and the States, in order to cut off all communication between them and his subjects.* The ambassador had already assured his master tbat tbe King would rather lose aU than preserve a part of the royal power by concession to the Prince ;* and D'Adda communicated to his court James's declaration, as a king and a gentleman, that, were the enemy at Whitehall, he would send back tbe first messenger who brought offers of negociation from the Prince, hang the second, and answer with his cannon." MeanwhUe, the Prince of Orange and his ruin, were rapidly ad vancing upon him. CHAPTER XV. Intrigues in the British Navy. — Tbe Dutch Fleet puts to Sea. — The Prince's De clarations. — ^Parting ofthe Prince and the States General.— The Prince weigbs anchor and is put back. — The Bishops refuse " an Abhorrence" of the Invasion. — Tbe Prince sails for England.— Conduct of Lord Dartmoutb. — Tbe Frince lands at "forbay. — Measures of tbe King. — Progress of tbe Prince. — The Exeter Association. — Defections from the King. — James puts himself at the Head ofhis Army. — His Retreat. — Defection of Prince George and the Princess Anne. The progress of war on the Continent favoured tbe enterprise of the Prince of Orange. Louis XIV. fell upon his enemies witb his accustomed force ; took PhUipsburgh ; almost comraanded the whole Palatinate; and (if a conquest so easy and ordinary, in all differ ences between the Pope and France, be worth mentioning) stripped his holiness of Avignon. But the incapacity of Marshall d'Hu- inieres, and the resolution of the city of Cologne, frustrated his " Loui's to BarUlon, I2th Nov. 1689. Fox MSS. '• Bar. to Louis, 30th Sept. 1688. Pox MSS. ¦ D'Adda, 29th Oct. 1688. 186 INVASION OF ENGLANIK attempts in the only quarter wbicb would bave endangered lhe safety of HoUand. The Prince was thus at liberty to proceed with the execution of bis designs. D'Avaux, in a despatch dated so early as tbe 27th of Septeraber, states, that the Prince ofOrange had assurances of being joined by a part of the Rritish fleet, from several in England, — among others, from " a Colonel Cornwall. " * This, doubtiess, was Captain Cornwall of the navy ; described in tbe MS. Memoirs of Byng, Lord Torrington, at a much later date, as stiU " zealous for the King ; " as acknpwiedging the favpurs pf James tp hiraself and his family ; as declaring it " a vUlany to attempt any thing against hira;" and as gained over witb difficulty by Byng's persuasions, and the example of bis particular friends. The part thus played by CornwaU, in affecting zeal for James, and pretending tp be wen pver by Byng, when he was already a spy pf the Prince, was but anpther instance pf fhe rautual distrusts and grpvelling duplicities which preceded and endangered the Revclutipn. Infprraatipn carae tp the Hague, that Strickland lay in the Dcwns, with abput eighteen pr twenty raen pf war, in expectatipn pf ira raediate reinforcements. Admiral Herbert, whp cpraraanded the Dutch fleet, received prders to put tp sea, raake fpr the Downs, and, according to Burnet, either attack Strickland, or gain over his squadron. Contrary winds sopn fprced Herbert back intoport, and both tbe States and the Prince, whp had little cpnfidence in him, were satisfied with this issue. The Prince, indeed, had ex pressed it as bis earnest and anxicus wish that Herbert sheuld avpid an engagement.* It is stated that the news pf this event, raagnified in England intp a ccraplete disabling pf the Dutch 'fleet, had the effect cf suspending for a raoraent the restoration of the fellows of Magdalen College, and thus disclosing the secret purpose of James to revoke all his concessions when his danger was past. This charge is raade in raost printed accounts of fhe Revolution, whether ofthe highest or tbe meanest pretension. The only averred fact in evidence is the sudden recall of the Bishop of Winchester to court, wbile executing his commissipn as visitpr pf tbe ccllege. But there is net a particle pf prppf fp shpw the relatien pf cause and effect between the supppsed disaster pf the Dutch fleet and the summpns tp tbe bisbpp ; the chief evidence pn the whele matter is • D'Avaux to tbe King, 27tb Sept. 1688. Fox MSS. ' Lett, de Gull. III. au Comte de Portland, I6tb Sept. 1688. INVASION OF ENGLANI>. 187 contained in a vulgar preface to a vulgair party sermon, preached on St. Bartholomew's day, 1713,* and the supposition is incompa tible with tbe dates.* The Prince of Orange, upon the return of Herbert, resolved to erabark tbe invading arraaraent, and sail for England. A mani festo or declaration was an indispensable preUminary. A draft, concerted by the Prince's Dutch confidants, and translated by Burnet, failed to give satisfaction. Major WUdman, a republican of the commonwealth, who had heen proscribed alike by Crom well and the Stuarts, was its chief opponent. He condemned tbe stress laid on tbe dispensing power, which bad been practised by the kings of England for ages, and on tbe prosecution of the bishops, who had been legally tried, acquitted, and discharged : he proposed a rival manifesto written by himself, in which he carried tbe review of tyrannical grievance far back into the reign of Charles II. ; and " laid down, " says Burnet, " a scheme of the government of England." Wildraan spoke and wrote with con tagious fervour, and the facility of an expert demagogue. He was supported by a party araong his countrymen at the Hague. His design, according to tbe Bishop, was " deep and spiteful : it was to sow discord between tbe EngUsh Church party and the Prince. ' Whatever were Wildman's character and design, his views ap pear to have been just and comprehensive. He rested the cause upon its true basis, — a reform of the political government, not the petty warfare of parties and sects ; and, according to Burnet him self, he was supported hy Lords Mordaunt and Macclesfield. But tbe reign of Charles would have brought embarrassing reminis cences to the church party. The bishops and clergy bad preached passive obedience, and had sanctified orthodox atrocities during a pious reign, in which tbey enjoyed a monopoly of wealth, favour, power, and persecution. James invaded their exclusive privilege ; he was guilty ofthe double sin of popery and toleration; and his tyranny to the nation could no longer be endured by tbe Church. Lord Shrewsbury, Colonel Sidney, and Admiral Russel, ob jected, on tbe ground, that the mention of the last reign would disgust many lords and gentlemen. A schism among the Prince's English followers was prevented only by a mutual compromise of " Cited in Kennet. The letter of recall was dated tbe I9tb, and the Dutch fleet was driven back by stress of weather on tbe 2Ist of October. 188 INVASION OF ENGLAND, oraissions and alterations, and the declaration tbus araended was put forth. The raanifesto of tbe Prince of Orange is too accessible and trite to be introduced here. " There were, however, two pledges,. which should not be passed over ; one to call a legal and free par liament for the redress of grievances, the other to refer to that par liaraent tbe question of tbe birth of "fhe pretended Prince of Wales. " The Prince of Orange fulfiUed the first pledge,^tbe most iraportant in his declaration,— ^but seeraed to have wholly forgptten the secpnd. \His pblivion should not be censured, or but slightly. It raay be a question, whether policy warranted the useful calurany upon the birth of the Prince of Wales ; but WUIiara would have acted with the weakness of Jaraes, not witb his own prudence, had he wasted the lirae of the pariiaraent, the nation, and his Pwn, in a vain and raiscbievpus endeaveur tP disprpve a truth SP cpuclusively established. There was in the Prince's declaratipn up specific disclairaer pf a design upen the crpwn. It wpuld seem as if he wpuld npt cpn- descend fp deny a supppsitipn sp unjust; and the disavpwal is cpnveyed by iraplicatipn as clearly as it cculd have been expressed. But an express and spleran denial was given by the States. On the raptipn pf Dyckvelt,* tbey instructed their rainisters at the several foreign courts to declare, "tbat the Prince of Orange had not tbe least intention to invade or conquer the kingdora of England, or reraove the King from his throne, much less to attempt seizing it himself, or prejudice the lawful succession."" The Prince assured the Eraperor, in a letter written shortiy before he sailed, that what ever reports raay bave been or raight be circulated to the contrary, he had not the least intentipn tp injure the King, or those who bad the right of succession, and still less to raake any attempt upon the crown, or wish fo appropriate it to hiraself. '' He tbus pledged hiraself to respect the rights, not only of James, but of his son. The Eraperor Leopold was a weak politician, but a bigoted * It will be found in tbe Appendix. •¦ Secret Delib. of the States. MSS. 25tb Oct. 1688. • Neuville, cited in Ralph, Hist, of Eng. ¦' " J'ai voulu. Sire, assurer par cette lettre votre Majeste Imperiale, que quel- ?i'aes bruits que l'on puisse avoir, deja semes, et nonobstant ' ceux que l'on pourra aire courir a I'avenir, je n'ay pas la moindre intention de faire aucun lort a sa Majeste Britannique, ni a ceux qui ont droit de pretendre aia succession deses royaumes, et encore moins d'empieter mol-meme sur la couronne, ou de ^vouloir me l'approprier."^Dal. App. p. 255, INVASION OF ENGLAND. 189 devotee to the Catholic faith, and indefeasible right of kings. Ba riUon was apprised of WUIiam's assurance to the Emperor, res pecting the rights ofthe son of James, and doubtless took care that the declaration of tbe Prince of Orange, which bastardised tbe chUd, should reach him. * There are no extant means of knowing how the Prince succeeded in getting over his flagrant violation of bis pledged word. It may, perhaps, be said, tbat the Prince of Orange spoke only of those who had a right to tbe succession, which in his sense would not apply to the pretended Prince of Wales. But writing to the Emperor, there can be no doubt of the meaning which be would convey; and so paltry an equivocation would be more unworthy ofthe Prince than direct falsehood. The fact pro bably 'was, that William exhibited his designs without scruple, in whatever light he judged most politic and favourable, according to the position and ideas of those whom he addressed. A letter was published in the Prince's name, inviting the ofiicers and men of the British army to his standard, and calling upon tbem to prefer their religion to false notions of honour and fidelity. Ad miral Herbert addressed a similar invitation to the British fleet. He was the most unpopular officer in the navy : his opposition to tbe court sprang from sordid disappointments ; and the motives for desertion whicb he held out to the coraraanders and seamen were in accord wilh his example and his character. He told thera, they were placed between infamy and ruin, if tbey did not come over to the Prince, — infamy if the Prince failed, ruin if he succeeded ; and if they did not hasten, tbeir brethren of the army would anticipate tbem. Tbe hackneyed pen of Burnet was employed to reconcUe the in vasion to the subject's duty of allegiance to tbe sovereign. Non- resistance to the King was, be admitted, " the constant doctrine of tbe Church of England ; but all general words, however large," he adds, " have^ a tacit exception and reserve in them, if the matter require it." The extent of obedience to the supreme authority is reducible to eilher of two adverse principles, — that of implicit and absolute non-resistance, held by those who believe in the divine right of kings, — that of resistance, reform, and revolution, held by those wbo assert a mutual compact between the sovereign on the one side, and tbe community from which he derives his power " Bar. lothe King, Fox MSS. 100 INVASION OP ENGLANb- aad existence on the other. Both principles have produced ge nerous virtues and' great actions ; and bofh parties, whUst they oppose, raay respect each otber. But this triraraing Whig church man profits by the one without the honesty to disavow the other ; and envelops hiraself in a flirasy raaxim, which raight be taken up by any kna've or viUain wbo violated tbe ordinances of God and man. Meanwhile, news ofthe King's concessions and reparations carae to tbe Hague. The Prince took no further notice of thera than issuing a suppleraentary declaration, in which he said, in substance, that the Protestant religion and Uberties of England could be se cured only by himself D'AlbyviUe continued at his post in spite of rebuffs and scoffs on every side. " Now," said he, to Sidney, " that the King bas come to a settleraent with his subjects, what can you want witb hira in England ?" Sidney replied, " We will tell hira when we are there?"* The Prince ,of Orange had raade every preparation, and taken every precaution for his raoraentous undertaking, when a second schism arose upon the mode of executing it. Wildman and his party would have the fleet sent out once raore to clear the sea for the invading arraaraent, by fhe defeat or defection of the English navy. The extrerae value of time at a season wben the transports were liable to be ice-bound in port ; the uncertainty of a raeeting between the two fleets if either were indisposed ; the impossibUity of keeping troops and horses long on board, were urged on the other side, and prevaUed chiefly through the firraness and authority of the Prince. The embarkation took place witb reraarkable se crecy and despatch. A transport fleet of 500 vessels was hired in three days ; and the troops, whicb had been raarched frora fhe plains of Niraeguen, were put on board in the Zuyderzee. It was ten days before they could sail out ofthe Texel. On the 20th of October the wind changed frora west to east, and orders were de spatched instantiy to Hoelvoetsluys. Tbe Prince of Orange presented hiraself in a general asserably of the States to take his leave. ' He thanked them for their kind ness, called God to witness tbat in serving them he had no end be fore his eyes but the good of his country, that he went to England witb no Pther intentipns than those he had set forth in his declara- • D'Avaux to the King, Oct. 15. 1688. Pox MSS. INVASION OF ENGLAND. I9l tion, and, Oommitting himself to Providence, earnestly recommended to their care the Princess his wife, who, he said, loved tbeir country equally with her own. " It was," says Burnet, " a sad but a kind parting. Some of every province offered at an answer to what tbe Prince had safd, but they all melted into tears and passion. . . . only tbe Prince himself continued firm in his gra'vity and phlegm." The compUer of tbe life of King James says, that the Prince told the States in this parting speech " he would die their servant, or five their friend ;" and most of the historians and biographers of William have described bim as the first to shed tears. The situa tion was calculated to excite emotion. The Prince ofOrange must bave loved a country which he had served and saved, though he hated the republic; and the speakers may well have " melted into tears and passion," though many present, and those the truest lovers of their country and its freedom, would bave preferred his destruc tion to his return. William must have bad a soul of iron if, as Burnet states, he remained alone unmoved. The Prince of Orange proceeded immediately from tbe Hague to Helvoetsluys. He was detained tbree days on board before he weigbed'anchor. The whole fleet, consisting of fifty-two men of war, twenty-five frigates, twenty-five fire ships, and near 400 transports, was afloat on the nigbt of the 1 9tb. Adrairal Herbert comraanded tbe first line. Tbe Prince commanded tbe main force in the centre, with the colours of England at his top-mast, inscribed witb "The Protestant religion and liberties of England," and un derneath the motto of the House of Nassau, "Je maintiendray." The Dutch vice-admiral Evertzen commanded tbe rear. The wind changed to tbe north-west next day, and the nigbt brought with it a' tremendous storm. After struggling in vain for twenty-four hours, signals were made to return to port. The greater number of vessels had got back by tbe 22d, but several beat the sea for some days. Yet not a single ship was lost, and only one man pej ished, by being blown from the shrouds. The only serious loss was that of horses, from the want of air. Bishop Burnet mentions, indeed, that many vessels were exceedingly shattered, and proves this hy a fact, which mUitates violentiy against the laws both of na vigation and of nature. " Some ships," he says, " were so shat tered, that as soon as they came in, and all was taken out of tbem, tbey immediately sunk down." Both parties, on this occasion, claimed respectively in their favour the special agency of Divine 192 INVASION OF ENGLAND. Providence : the friends of Jaraes for the wreck of the Dutch fleet, the friends of tbe Prince for their escape and safety. But tbe above phenomenon, attested by the Bishop, appears the only raanifesta tion of tbe supernatural. This incident raade no impression on tbe Prince of Orange and the States. Tbey raagnified tbe disaster in the Dutch gazettes to tbe loss of nine raen of war, and several' sraaller craft foundered; a thousand horses thrown overboard, and Dr. Burnet drowned." The object was to delude Jaraes info a revocation of bis concessions or neglect of bis defence. The King did neither. He employed tbe tirae thus gained by hira in recruiting the old and corapleting the new regiments, and in making further dispositions against the invader. An EngUshraan, naraed Langham, who bad served in the Dutch array, was detected in London circulating the declara tion of the Prince of Orange. He was arrested, and indicted for high treason. The crown lawyers did not venture to set forth the contents pf so dangerous a document; and the grand jury, in default of evidence, ignored the bill. The utmost severity of fhe law was denounced, by proclaraation, against all persons, of what ever quality or degree, who should pubUsh, disperse, repeat, hand about, or presume to read, receive, or conceal any of the treason able papers ccntrived by the Prince ef Orange and his adherents to seduce the people and fbe array. The Prince had proclairaed in bis declaration, that he was invited over by several lords, both spiritual and temporal. This startling assertion deterrained the King fo search the faith of the Bishops. No signal or decisive result followed ; and the raatter raay appear of transient interest. But it is in reality one of the great Ughts by which to judge the spirit and genius of the Church as a formidable power existing for itself, by the side of the consti tution, between the nation and the crown. There are several versions of what passed at the interviews between the Bishops and the King. The " apology," professing to emanate frora the pre lates theraselves, coincides in alraost all points witb the recent ver sion given by Archdeacon D'Oyley, in bis Life' of Sancroft, and both, together, constitute the raost copious and autboritative source of reference. On tbe 16th of October, the King coraraanded the attendance of • Life of William. MS. Mem. of K. James, cited in Life, vol, ii. p. 205. INVASION OF ENGLAND. 193 the Archbishop, informed him ofthe designed invasion; and said, that the Bishops owed it to his service and their own characters to publish " an abhorrence" of the designs of the Prince of Orange. The word " abhorrence," it should be remembered, was an ordinary and technical term of episcopal compliance during the late reign. The Archbishop replied, that his brethren had for the most part retired to their respective dioceses, supposing their attendance at court no longer necessary. The King said there were several prelates stUl in London. This remark was rather evaded than met by Sancroft, witb many arguments to prove so great a prince incapable of such a design, and the proposed abhorrence consequently superfluous. The Archbishop took his leave, and James proceeded no farther inthe matter until tbe 31st of Oc tober. On that day, he sent for Compton, Bishop of London. Tbat prelate was, or pretended to be, out of town when the summons came. He presented himself next morning. Tbe King, having read to him the obnoxious passage, asked whether tbe assertion was true. Compton answered with an equivocation. " Sir," said be, " I am confident tbe rest of the bishops will as readily answer in the negative as myself." Tbe prelate wbo gave this answer had incurred the penalties of high treason several months before, by subscribing the invitation to the Prince. Tbe King said he believed them all innocent, but persisted in demanding the customary abhorrence. Compton obtained tirae for consideration, and retired. Sancroft received orders to attend tbe Kmg next day (November 2 ), with such of bis brethren as were in or near London. At this third meeting there were present the Archbishop, and the Bishops of London, Peter borough, Rochester, Durham, Chester, and St. David's. The Ring produced the Prince's declaration, told tbe prelates there was in it a passage which concerned them, ordered tbe passage to be read by Lord Preston, Secretary of State, repeated his belief of tbeir innocence, and intimated that it was incumbent on them to put forth a disavowal. The Archbishop protested bis own innocence, and his conviction that all his brethren were eqnaUy guiltless. The King next questioned the Bishop of Lon don. He replied that he had given bis answer the day before. The Bishop of Durham said, " I am sure I am none of them." " Nor 1," repeated the others, who had not yet spoken. The King n, 13 194 INVASION OF ENGLAND. dismissed fhem with an prder, that tbey should held a meetrag pf such bishpps as were within reach, draw up a vindicaticn pf themselves, and bring pr send it next day. A meeting accprdingly tppk place; and tbe Arcbbisbpp, witb the BisbOps ofLondon, Ro chester, and Peterborough, carae to WhitehaU on the 6th of No vember. Watson, of St. David's, was waiting to join thera in their audience of the King. They declined bis corapany, and obtained bis exclusion. » The King, meanwhUe,' had manifested irapatience. After mu- tu«fl pretestafipns pf innpCence en the pne part, and cpnfidence cn the other, he asked, " But where is the paper I desired you fo draw up and bring rae?" The Archbishop rephed, " Sir, we have brought no paper, nor, with subraission, do we think it necessary or proper for us to do so. Since your Majesty is pleased to say you think us guiUless, we despise what all tbe worid besides shall say." " But," said the King, " I expected a paper from you ; I take it yOu promised rae one." A long dialogue, or rather debate, ensued. Sancroft has recorded, wifh a frankness soraewhat sur prising, fhe disingenuous artifices of dispute employed on his Pwn Side, and tbe prpmpt vigour with which he and his brethren were pressed by the King.* The Bishops began by seeking refuge in a denial of the authenticity of the paper, " We assure your Majesty," said they, " that scarce one in five bnndred believes it to be fhe Prince's true declaration." " Then," said tbe King veheraently, " that five hundred would bring in the Prince of Orange uppn ray thrpaf." " Gpd forbid," responded their lord ships. The Archbishep repeated, that, sp great a prince would 'Uot prodaira a manifest falsehood. " What!" said the King; " he that can do as be does, think you he wUl stick at a lie?" " Truly, Sir,'^ said the Bishops, " this is a business of state, which does not properly 'belong to us." The Archbishop followed up this sarcasm; in a tone of sneering evasion, by referring to the imprisonment of tbe seven Bishpps, for touching on matters of state. " This, my Lord," said the King, " is a querelle d' Allemand, quite out ofthe 'way." Lord Preston was referred to for his recollection of what passed respecting a written paper at the last interview between 'the Bishops and the King. He said in substance, tbat the Archbishop " See D'Oyley's Life of Sancroft, vol. 1. p. 862, &c. INVASION OF ENGLAND. 195 and Bishop of London were to present such a paper to the King before its publication, — if they should agree upon it.* The King still pressed, and the Bishops as pertinaciously evaded or denied his reasonings and his requests. At last it was suggested by them that he might publish their verbal disavowal. " No," said the King, " if I should publish it, the people would not believe me." Sir," replied the Bishops, " the word of a king is sacred, and it ought to be believed on its own autbority. It would be presumptuous in us to pretend to strengthen it, and the people cannot but believe your Majesty in this matter." The King's answer was conclusive. " They," said be, " that could believe me guUty of a false son, what will they not believe of me?" The Prelates, in conclusion, said, that as bishops tbey could assist the King only with tbeir prayers, but as peers they were ready to serve him in a parliament, or assem bled in common with sucb peers temporal as were in London or its neighbourhood. Whether tbe King expressed any satisfaction with their proffered aid of prayer does not appear, but he rejected their services as peers ; and the conference terminated. Sprat, Bishop of Rochester, whose participation in fhe eccle siastical comraission was odious, whose retreat from it was despi cable, and whose late zeal failed to redeem his character, has given an account of this transaction different from the foregoing in some iraportant particulars. Tbe Bishops, be says, urged tbat tbe whole raatter sbould he referred to a free parliaraent; the King was in censed against them; Lord Preston reproached them; the Bishops of Chester and St. David's, who appeared to assist as mere specta tors, were, at the request of tbe Archbishop, ordered by the King to withdraw: the Archbishop then said, " It was contrary to their peerage and profession to promote a war against a prince so nearly aUied to the crown," hut tbey would give a verbal disavowal, which might be printed: tbe King continued to deraand it under their bands, tbe Bishops continued to evade or refuse, and " his Majesty left tbem abruptiy, telling tbem he would trust to his army." The allusion of tbe Archbishop, if he made it, to tbe relation of tbe Prince of Orange to the crown, was inconsiderate. That violence which would have been but simply criminal in another, was parricidal in a son. Sprat laboured systematically to give fhe church the chief credit ofthe Revolution, by way of meriting pardon • A disavowal in the handwriting of Sancroft has been found among bis papers. D'Oyley's Life of Sancroft, vol. i, p. 376. 13* 196 INVASION OF ENGLAND, from bis brother Bishops. His discretion did not always keep pace witb bis zeal. Contrasting, on this subject, the conduct of the Bishops in England wbo refused, and those in Scotland wbo gave the King, if not a declaration of abhorrence, yet an iraprecation of " sharae" upon the Prince ofOrange, be says, that " as the Bishops in England, by refusing to stand by the doctrine of passive obe dience, saved episcopacy in England, so the Scottish Bishops, by adhering to that doctrine, destroyed episcopacy in Scotland." If would appear, then, that passive obedience sbould be adhered to or renounced, as it raight happen to be adverse or favourable to the preservation of episcopacy. The corapiler of tbe Life frora the MS. Meraoirs of King James says, that bis Majesty sent for the Archbishop of Canterbury, and the Bishops of London, Winchester, and two or three raore, and asked them whether tbey had invited tbe Prince of Orange. The Bishops, he says, were puzzled what fo answer, but said at last that fhey would never own any other King while his Majesty lived: the King pressed them to sign an unequivocal abhorrence of the Prince's invasion; but they demurred. It is deeply to be regretted that the corapiler, or the successive corapUers, of the Life did not raake raere frequent and cppipus extracts frpra the text pf the King, There is, in the passages cited frora his Memoirs, a tone of simpli city and raoderation which coraraands iraplicit confidence ; and they are valuable for that method and diligence which formed the better part of the character of Jaraes at the better period of his life. " The King," says James, in one of the passages cited by fhe compiler, " reminded them of their raeraorable petition, and of bis having then told them, that, at tbe instigation of those wbo designed bis and their ruin, they had raised a devU which they could not lay, and when too late would repent tbeir error." To convince them that " sorae of thera had done it raaUcionsly, be assured thera tbat he kept the paper in bis pocket, and yet copies of i|,were spread about, which raised so furious a ferment against him." He bade them take notice how bis predictions bad corae to pass, and urged upon thera tbat tbe least duty they owed to tbe Church, of which they professed theraselves true sons, to tbe service of tbeir sovereign, and " as some araends for the harra they had done him by their petition, and their behaviour after it," was to declare their dislike of tbe invasion, and show tbeir loyalty both in tbe pulpits and out of thera. He was going, be said, fo bead bis array against the in- INVASION OF ENGLAND. 197 vader, and assured them tbat, if it pleased God to give bim success and victory over his enemies, he would keep his promise, " and though he had little reason to be satisfied with many of tbem, yet it should not hinder him from standing to the engagement he had always made, of supporting them in the enjoyment of their religion and possessions, . . . But," continues James, " notwithstanding all the King could say, and all be had done to give them satisfaction, he could not prevail with the Archbishop, nor the majority of them, to declare their dislike of the invasion, though the Bishop of Win chester, and some others, were for doing it." Some writers have thought it strange tbat James sbould not accept the compronuse ofa verbal disavowal, to be published by himself. NeUber the compiler nor the King himself, in the passages cited from his Meraoirs, alludes to any offer of a verbal expression of dislike. The only concession raentioned as coraing frora the Bishops is tbe declaration that " they would never own any other king while his Majesty lived." This expi-ession is ascribed only to the Archbishop, by the apologist and by Sancroft himself. That prelate kept bis word. He wanted superior intelligence and force of character; but he redeemed previous weaknesses by descending from fhe throne of Canterbury, with his principles and conscience, to poverty and obscurity. Supposing, however, the verbal disa vowal offered, fhe King acted prudently in rejecting it. It would be asked by tbe ignorant public, and by the better informed enemies of James, why the disavowal, if authentic, was not put forth by tbe Bishops themselves. The answer would he, tbat this was another pious or Popish fraud ; and a new wreath would be added to tbe crown of martyrdom of tbe Bishops, who, after having, it would be said, suffered in their persons, now suffered, wUh the same Christian meekness, tbe sacrifice of their reputations. But why did those pious persons refuse to pronounee upon the enterprise ofthe Prince of Orange undertheir bands the sentence of condemnation which they pronounced upon it witb their lips? Were it a question of purely temporal interests, and the parties laymen, an answer would readUy suggest itself It would be said, that the verbal disavowal was offered, because it might be pleaded as a merit to James if he maintained himself on the throne, and might he repudiated as a calumny if fortune declared in favour of the Prince. There is one important point upon which the King and the 198 INVASION OF ENGLAND, Bishops are at issue. Their faraous petition was circulated by copies alraost iraraediately after its presentatipn fp tbe King. The Bishpps denied that tbe publicatipn had eraanated frpra thera. But the King says, " be kept the paper in bis pecket." The ccn- tents, then, cpuld npt have got abroad through tbe indiscretion or treachery of his counsellors. Tbe testiraony of the unfortunate Jaraes raerhs consideration, even against that of seven bishops. One observation can haidly fail to suggest itself It would be easy to imagine raotives whichthe prelates raay bave had for circulating the paper; but tbe King, without pne cpnceivable mptive for Us circula tipn, had the strongest reaspus fpr cpncealing and suppressing it. It was urged by the Bishops upon the King, that the teraporal peers were equally implicated with themselves, and shpuld be sub jected fp the sarae scrutiny. Up to the recent publication of tbe " Life of King Jaraes," tbe Bishops only were supposed to bave been put to the test. The compiler of the Life states tbat tbe King sura raoned, araong others. Lords Halifax, Nottinghara, Abingdon, Cla rendon, and Burlingtpn, and received frpra thera a disclairaer, with all iraaginable prptestations pf Ipyalty. * This statement is bprne , eut by the Dutch arabassador. * He names the abpve Lords, with the addition of Lord Weymouth, but says, 'that after giving the required disclaimer, tbey raerely expressed, in general terras, their regret at seeing the King's affairs in so awkward a position. The King, according to his biographer, began with the lords teraporal ; according to Van Citters , with the lords spiritual. WUIiara, meanwhUe , lay at Helvoetsluys, repairing the daraage suffered hy his fleet. When all was repaired, bis expedition was dooraed to a new raishap .- For some weeks it bad blown a continual gale. The Dutch raen of war rode out at sea. On the 27tb of October, the fleet was exposed to a storra during six hours. " There were few among us," says Burnet, " that did not conclude that the best part of the fleet, and consequentiy tbe whole design, was lost."* 'The gallant Bishop deals irapufations of cowardice upon those around bim. *' Wildraan," he says, " plainly bad a show of courage, but was at least then a coward ;" " and tbe contagion of his cowardice seized " raany who were willing to hearken to any proposition that set danger at a distance frora themselves." Again, in speaking of * Life of K. James, vol. ii, p. 210r " Burnet, vol. iii. p. 324, S * MS. Letter of Van Cillers, 16 Nov. 1688. ' Id. Ibid. INVASION OF ENGLAND. 199 tbe six hours' storm, be says, — " Many that have passed for heroes, yet showed then the agonies of fear in tbeir looks and whole deport ment : tbe Prince stUl retained bis usual calmness, and the same tranquUlity of spirit that I had observed in bim in his happiest days." This observer of the Prince must have had, of course, an equal tranquUlity of spirit. There was, however, no reason why either should have lost courage. On the 28tb it calmed, and tbe fleet came in, witb tbe loss only of the rudder of one third-rate. It is quite clear, that if tbe Bishop retained his courage, he greatly magnified the danger. The propitious, or, as it was called in England, the Protestant East wind, came at last ; and, on the 1st of November (old style), the Prince of Orange saUed out, a second time, from Helvoetsluys with an evening tide. Lord Dartmouth, meanwhile, bad arrived from the Nore off Harwich, full of confidence, witb tbe English fleet. " Sir," saidhe, writing to tbe King on tbe 24th,* "we are now at sea before the Dutch, with all their boasting ; and I must confess I cannot see much sense in their attempt." On tbe SOth he writes, tbat he was under saU, witb the ebb, tide ; hoped to get clear of the Galloper before night ; had his scouts out ; believed it impossible to miss the Dutch fleet ; and hoped by the following day to give a good account of them, On Saturday, the 3d of November, bis scouts discovered, at break of day, thirteen sail of tbe Dutch fleet ; and he sent out three fri gates, whicb captured only a fly-boat without her rudder, having on board four companies of English troops. He had, he said, made ready to saU with his fleet on Saturday ; " hut the sea came so heavy, and the tide fell so cross," that he was unable to sail until tbe following morning. This delay of Lqrd Dartmouth, which he imputes to the wind and tide, but which others have variously ascribed to weakness, incapacity, tbe treachery of his officers, and his own, proved decisive of the fortunes ofthe Prince of Orange and King James. The unfortunate commander was sensible of its im portance. He sums up his difficulties and disappointments by these words to fhe King : — " Thus I have given your Majesty a true account of all my proceedings, which are so far from the vain hopes I had, tbat I take myself for lhe most unfortunate man living; though I know your Majesty is too just to expect more than wind , " Lett, of Lord Dartm, to the King. Dal, App. >• Id. Ibid. p. 322. 200 INVASION OF ENGLAND. and weather wiU permit. " * Finding, he says, that the Dutch sailed by Dover on Saturday, had a fresh gale that night, and a fair wind next day, he despairsof coming up to thera before a landing was effected; declines, with the unaniraous advice of the flag offi cers, tbe hazard of attacking a fleet superior to bis own, with the advantage of being discharged of its convoy ; " is at a stand what to do," and waits his Majesty's further pleasure. Lord Dartraouth sbould not be rashly conderaned. He had a re putation fOr professional services and personal honour ; and he died, two years after, a JacobUe prisoner in tbe Tower. He has been both acquitted and condemned by Jaraes. The~ King, replying to bis mournful despatch of tbe 5tb, in a letter dated tbe 9tb of No veraber, says, — " I ara fuUy satisfied that you did all that you could, and tbat nobody could work otherwise than you did. I ara sure aU knowing searaen must be of the same mind, and therefore be at ease as to yourself." But in his MS. Memoirs, referring to this period, he says, — " What reason ray Lord Dartmoutb bad not to do tbe same (that is, give chase with his fleet, as bis scouts did), is yet a raystery; and the King, wbo tiU then had a good opinion of hira, would not censure bira till be heard what be could say in his own justification. But never seeing him raore, that could not be done. Only, in general , it was pretended be was not able to get about the long sandshead, as the wind and tide stood. On the other side, several of the commanders affirmed be might have done if, which if he had, and the other captains been true to bira (which then it is believed tbey would),* be raight have ruined tbeir forraidable fleet, or at least bave hindered their land ing, and broke the whole enterprise." Thp King, when he wrote this passage, appears to have forgotten his letter. Tbe only raate rial fact stated by bira, is tbe opmion of several commanders, that the Admiral raight successfully bave ' given chase. " But tbese coraraanders raay bave been raistaken, or the King misinformed. It would also scarcely be reasonable to expect justice in James's * Lett, of Lord Dartm. to the King,, Dal. App. '' Lord Dartmouth himself seems to have thought so. Writing so late as tbe 5tb of November, be says, — " Every body, I assure you, Sir, I think is so exasperated at the Prince of Orange's proceedings, tbat I am once Tnore confident tbey will ven ture their lives very heartily In your Majesty's service." It is clear, from Lord Torringtou's account before cited, tbat Lord Dartmoutb deceived either himself or the King. The words " once more" would imply lhal he had previously expressed distrusts. " Sir W. Booth told me Lord Dartmouth certainly connived af the passing ofthe Dutch fleet, Halifax MS, INVASION OF ENGLAND. "^Ol after-judgment of a faUure which had its share in depriving him of three kmgdoms. Lord Dartmouth was surrounded by disaffected officers. The numerical majority was faithful, but the most considerable were in the interest of the Prince of Orange, and cabaUed on hoard.* The impossibility of his giving chase on tbe 3d, with a contrary wind and lee tide, is asserted by Lord Torrington, one of tbe disaffected officers,'' who further states, that when the fleet sailed after the Dutch next day, there was a meeting of the captains in cUned to the Prince, of whom some declared, tbat if Lord Dart mouth attacked the Dutch, they were " bound in honour to do their duty, but eventually it was agreed to desert him."" The Duke of Grafton, piqued by the appointment of Lord Dartmouth in preference to himself, went down to the fleet before tbe Prince of Orange bad yet sailed, and not only gained over several of tbe commanders,'' but attempted to inveigle the Admiral, under pre tence of an invitation to dinner, on board tbe ship of Captain Has tings, in order there to seize his person, and assume the comraand of tbe fleet." Lord Dartmouth was apprised of the design, de clined tbe invitation, and did not venture to institute an enquiry. His mind and energy were further distracted between his fidelity as a subject and his conscience as a Protestant. Lord Torrington' states, tbat in a council of war called by Lord Dartmoutb off Harwich, it was prOposed by the officers in the interest of the Prince, tbat they sbould stand over to the Dutch coast, and wait the coming out of tbe Dutch fleet, but that this proposition was over-ruled by the majority stUl faithful to James. It appears from a letter of Lord Dartmouth, that he was cautioned against [such a course by the King himself. " Upon the caution your Rlajesty has given me," says he, " I will not venture over on tbe coast of Holland without I see settled fair weather, which is not impossible after so much bad."^ Judging by tbe uniform practice of the British navy in more recent wars of defence, the course tbus advised by the one party and rejected by the other, would have been the most adverse to the former, and the wisest for tbe latter. The science of maritime war and seamanship haSi ' MS. Mem. of Byng, Lord Torrington, in Dal. App. ' Id. ibid. •= Ibid, •' MS. Mem. of K. James, cited in Life, &c. vol. il. p. 208, ' MS. Mem. of Byng, Lord Torrington, ibid. MS. Mem. of K. James, Life, vol ii. p. 208. ' Dal. App. « Dal. App. p. 321. 202 INVASION OF ENGLAND, if is true, been since advanced, but fbe essential want was that of naval enterprise. Had a Blake pr a Ruyter been in the place pf a Strickland and a Dartmputh, the Dutch fleet would net bave come out of Helvoetsluys, and passed the Straits of Dover, without a battie. Lords Luraley and Danby had undertaken to head an insur rection in favour of the Prince of Orange, if he landed in the North. The Prince accordingly steered northward the first day and night ; but finding fhe wind veering to the west, or being infornied that the King had a sufficient force to oppose hira in tbe North, he changed his ceurse, and sailed dpwn mid-channel between Calais and Dpver, pn Saturday, the 3d pf Npvember, about noon. The spectacle was magnificent.* The opposite shores of France and England were lined with multitudes of spectators, who gazed with strong and opposite eraotions, for several hours, upon the vast armament raoving in a line twenty raUes in extent, and charged with the rival fortunes of princes, religions, and na tions. The fleet was in sight ofthe Isle of Wight by the evening. The Prince of Orange wished to land next day, which would be the anniversary of his birth and raarriage ; but his friends pre ferred landing under the auspices of Guy Fawkes and fhe gun powder treason, the next day but one.* Torbay was judged the best harbour for so large a fleet. The pUpt wbo steered in the van, had orders to sail short of Dartmouth during the nigbt. He mis- reckoned, and found hiraself in the raorning beyond it. The wind still blew east, and it seemed necessary to sail on to Plyraouth, fhe Governor of which. Lord Bath, had given the Prince but vague as surances. This error of tbe pilot, according to Burnet, who was in fhe van ship of the fleet, was regarded as such a disaster, that Adrairal Russell, who came on board in disorder, bade tbe Doctor " go to bis prayers, for all was lost.'' But on a sudden, to the wonder of all present, it calraed a little; the wind then veered fo tbe south ; and, after four hours' sail, tbe whole fleet got safe into Torbay. The Prince iraraediately landed with Marshal Schom berg; they pbtained the best herses they cpuld in the next viUage, and viewed the ground. Bishop Burnet made, he says, what haste be could to join the Prince, wbo took bira heartily bythe hand, and asked him what he then thought of predestination. ' Rapin (who was on board), ' Burnet, vol, iii- p. 3'2e, INVASION OF ENGLAND; 203 The fears of Admiral Russel from tbe ferror of tbe pilot, and tbe exeitenaent with which tbe Prince ofOrange referred to tbe doctrine of predestination, as if be bad just escaped some extreme hazard, bear strong internal evidence of, at least, exaggeration. There is a rkey to tbe latter, which may be applied also to tbe former. " Dr. Rurnet," says a historian of the period,* " wbo understood hut little of mUifary affairs, asked the Prince of Orange wbicb way be intended to march, and when, and desired to be employed hy him in whatever service he sbould think fit. The Prince only asked bim what he thought of predestination, and advised bim, if be had a mind to be busy, to consult the Canons," If this be true, both the Prince and Russel araused themselves by playing upon the fears, ignorance, and conceit of Burnet. The news of tbe Prince's landing was brought by an officer ofthe Swallow frigate, which followed in sight of tbe Dutch fleet. The captain (Aylmer) was one of those engaged to the Prince of Orange ; but tbe officer by whora he sent the news rode witb sucb expedition, that before be -bad given his whole account he fell ex hausted at tbe King's feet. Jaraes was already aware of tbe pas sage of tbe Dutch fleet between Dover and Calais, and bad de tached troops, under the comraand of the Duke of Berwick, to se cure Portsmouth.* But he stiU hoped that, before the Prince landed. Lord Dartmoutb would have fought the Dutch. The landing at Torbay wUbout impediment excited consternation at court. The King called an extraordinary councU : a proclamation was immediately issued against tbe Prince of Orange, denouncing bim as an unchristian and unnatural invader, wbo came witb an army of foreigners and rebels ; denied the birth of the Prince of Wales, in order to usurp the crown ; already comraanded the at^ tendance of the lords spiritual and temporal in the royal style ; and affected to demand a free parliament, to whicb bis own pre sence was tbe only obstacle. It concluded witb repeating and confirming all the King's promises of redress, and appeaUng to tbe loyalty and zeal of his subjects.' The manifestos of tbe Prince of Orange could no longer be sup pressed. His declaration was accordingly publisbed by tbe King, with a preface, a running commentary on the text, and a subjoined reply, entUled " Animadversions." The Prince's declaration, as it • See Cunningham's Hist, of Eng. vol. i. p. 88., and note in Bur. vo]. iii. p. 328, MS. Mem. cited in Life, etc. vol. ii. 209. 204 INVASION OF ENGLAND. carae frora the hands of Fagel, is described by Bishop Burnet as long and dull. In passing through the bands of the Bishop, it may, as he says, bave been reduced in length, but it seeras to have preserved its dulness. The King's advocates, especiaUy the author of the " Animadversions," supposed tobe Stuart, have tbe superiority in arguraent. The Prince eraployed pretences as well as tbe King. Arabition could, no raore than tyranny, dispense with the raask. There was a rejoinder on tbe part of the Prince. To give the spirit of this paper war would deraand space far exceeding its present iraportance. One sentence frora the last pleading on behalf of William may be worth reference and re raerabrance. The defender of the Prince treats the iraputation of his aspiring to tbe crown as a grievous calurany. The King appeared to rally his energies. Finding that the Prince bad reached Torbay, he ordered the chief strength of tbe garrison of Portsraouth fp prpceed tp Salisbury. He selected Salisbury Plain as his chief place of rendezvous. Lord Feversbara cora raanded in chief here until the King should arrive to lead his array in person. Colonels Fenwick and Lanier occupied Marlborough and Warrainster witb eacb a body of cavalry. Jaraes's design was to raarch still further westward, for the purpose of preventing risings in favour of the Prince of Orange, untU the troops on their way frora the North ; tbe Scotch cavalry, not yet arrived ; the Irish dragoons just arrived, but so fatigued as to demand rest ; and the train of artillery ; should have corae up;* Measures were taken fo prevent the troops on their raarch from committing any wrong upon the people. It was publicly notified by beat of drura, in every town wbere they halted, tbat tbey were to pay for what they were supplied with ; and that, upon coraplaint made by the civU autho rity, due satisfaction would be given by the coraraanding officer. There appears, in Jaraes's preparatory raeasures, no want of pru dence or resolution. His confidence was sucb, that upon some suggestion of negoclating with tbe Prince, he declared in council that he sbould regard as bis eneray any one who advised him to treat witb the invader of his kingdora.* He proclairaed in the Gazette a detaUed stateraent of the invading force, both naval and raUitary. It has been charged upon hira, that be endeavoured to delude the people and hiraself, by representing the army of the " Ms. Mem, cited in Life, etc. vol. ii. 209. ' Kennet. INVASION OF ENGLAND. 205 Prince of Orange as contemptible.* But his representation agrees fairly enough with tbe vote of tbe States ;* and contemptible it cer tainly would he, against a man of courage and capacity v^bo pos sessed tbe throne, the capital, — the whole kingdom^ except an undefended town near the coast, which might be occupied mo mentarily by a pirate — and a regular army of 32,000 men. MeanwhUe the progress of the Prince of Orange was far from encouraging. He landed with facUity, but his march of only twenty mUes from Torbay to Exeter took two days of hardship and pri vation. Burnet, whose account of the expedition is tbe great staple of most succeeding narratives, says nothing of this. He seems to have thought only of the " immediate hand of Heaven," wbicb bad conducted tbem from Helvoetsluys to Torbay, and tbe Doctor doubtless enjoyed his comforts on tbe march. But Rapin, one of the Huguenot officers who accorapanied the Prince, describes what he suffered : the drenching rain, the roads ankle deep, the officers without a change of clothes, without horses, without bread, without beds, except the bare earth in heavy November rains, the men scarcely recovered from tbe effects of the sea, carrying tbree days' provision and their tents. The Prince did all be could to supply the wants of bis troops, by laying the surrounding country under contribution for horses, carriages, and provisions. It would appear that he levied very unscrupulously, and in some instances carried away what arms he could find." He was coldly received. The people stood aloof, and tbe authorities, both temporal and spiritual, either made a show of resistance, or fled from the perilous conta gion. An officer named Hicks, whom he had sent forward to Exeter, with a commission to announce his arrival, "svas apprehended by a warrant from tbe mayor. Lord Mordaunt and Doctor Burnet came next, with a few troops of horse. The gates were closed against them on tbeir approach, but opened upon Lord Mordaunt's sum mons on pain of death. It was an open town, and had not a single soldier. The mayor would neither acknowledge nor bold commu nication with the Prince of Orange. This took place on the third day after the landing. The Prince himself made bis entry next morning, and was no better received than bis representatives. The Bishop and Dean, says Burnet, " ran away;" and the- clergy, ac cording to tbe same historian, had been so long preaching passive : Rapin. ' Secret Delib. of tbe Slates-General, MS. Coll. Stat Papers, etc. H, INVASION OF ENGLAND, to seize the persons of those suspected, even after the news of the landing of the Prince." The defection now began in a fatal quarter — the King's army. The example was set by Lord Colchester, eldest son of Lord Rivers, and a heutenant in Lord Dover's troop of lifi^ards. He could seduce but four privates ofhis regiment, but was accompanied by Colonel Godfrey, Mr. How, who had gone over to Holland upon a secret mission to tbe Prince,* and about sixty other horse men. 3Ir. Wharton, son of Lord Wharton, 5Ir. Russel, brother of tbe sacrificed lord, and Lord Abington, joined the Prince at the same time. But tbe dcfectipn which mpst deeply wpimded James was that of Lord Cornbury, son of the Eari of Clarendon, and nephew of the first Duchess of York. Lord Cornbury, finding himself tbe senior officer at Salisbury, in the absence of Lanier, ordered out his own regiment of dragoons, the King's, and St. .\lban's, the two latter coramanded respectively by Lieutenant- Colonels Compton and Langston, — and marched them by Bland ford and Dorchester towards Honiton. The rapidity and distance of his raarch excited the suspicion of his officers. His own major (Cliffprd) demanded a sight pf his prders. He said he was ccm- manded f p attack an enemy's ppst : and, pn arriving at .Axminster, prdered put sixty dragppns, under pretence of faUing upon the eneray at Honiton. 3Iajor Littieton, and other officers, now suspected and questioned hira so closely, that he fled with several officers and only the sixty troopers. Lord Cornbury is ssud to have lost bis presence of raind at the critical raoment," and to have been a person of raean understanding.^ The officers who suspected him must have also wanted promptitude, or they would have secured hira, at such a crisis, aUve or dead. Langston, who was in fhe secret, foflowed with his regiraent to Honiton. He was met here by Colonel Tolmacbe, whom the Prince of Orange had sent forward with three regiraents of foot. Langston now told the regiment. ihat he brought thera not to fight the Dutch, but to serve the Prince, The major (Nortpn) and several subalterns refused pbedience : they were dismpunted, disarraed, plundered, and, adds the King, " ^^ith much adp gpt Uberty tq return on foof to fbe array." The two other regiments, which had not yet corae up, seeing themselves , betrayed, fled back in great disorder. Most of fhe troppers, even ' Bar. auRol,Dal. Aj.p, >• Dal. .4pp. ¦ Bnmet State of Enrope, cited in Ralph, INVASION OF ENGLAND. 211 ofLangston's regiment, "returned," says the King, "as they found opportunUy ; which showed " greater honour and fidelity in the coraraon men than in the generality of the officers, who usually value tbemselves so mucb for these qualifications." * Lord Cla rendon was in despair at the conduct of bis son, and ran " to throw himself at the King's feet." James received bim with kindness, said be pitied him, and was soon deserted hy the father more meanly tban by tbe son. This desertion was in itself of trifling moment. Some advantage might even he drawn from it, as a proof of the fidelity of most of the officers, and all the privates. Yet was it, by the King's own account, almost decisive ofhis fate. It broke, he says, his measures, disheartened tbe other troops, created jealousies, made each man distrust bis neighbour, sent the country gentlemen to the camp of tbe Prince of Orange, and neutralised the capture of Lord Love lace.* This nobleman, advancing witb about seventy horsemen, to join tbe Prince, was attacked at Cirencester by the militia, and made prisoner, with thirteen of his companions. Lord Lovelace had beaten his footman, who, in consequence, took out a warrant against hira. He refused to obey it, on the ground of its being signed by a popish justice, and figured as an aggrieved peer in the declaration of the Prince of Orange. His mishap gave great sa tisfaction at court ; its importance was exaggerated, and the coun terpoise of tbe desertion of Lord Cornbury was tbe more felt. The arrival of Lord Feversham at Salisbury, and his incapacity, aggra vated or completed this disaster. He took up without enquiry the first loose rumour that reached him of tbe desertion of three regiments to a man ; imagined the Prince of Orange ready to fall upon his outposts ; commanded his advanced guards to fall back upon Salisbury from Warminster and Marlborough ; and ordered tbe infantry whicb were on tbeir march towards his head-quarters to halt about Windsor and Staines. Tbese orders could not fail to dispirit the troops. Jaraes should have been by this time with his army at its ad vanced posts. He was still at court, surrounded hy trembling priests, and servants who were either treacherous or incapable. The news filled the court with surprise and consternatibn ; exag gerated, as the desertion must have been, by Lord Feversham. In " Life of James, vol. ii. p. 207. ' IJ, Ibid 14* 212 INVASION OF ENGLAND. all the accounts antecedent to the recentiy pubUshed Life of King Jaraes, it is stated, that the infantry, the artillery, and tbe King's baggage, then on the way to Salisbury, were halted by an order frora the court. It appears frora the King's' Manuscript Memoirs, cited in tbe Life, that tbe order was issued by Lord Feversham. But the cpnsternatipn at cpurt was such, tbat the King,'wbp was just going fp dine, called fpr a piece pf bread and a glass of wine, and prpceeded tp hold a council. The result was, tbat the King should not risk bis person with the array for two or three days.* Sucb, in substance; is tbe account cited by the corapUer frorathe King's Manuscript Meraoirs. That of BarUlon is raore particular; Father Petre, who, be says, was now consulted in every thing. Opposed the King's leaving London ; reminded Jaraes that his father had lost his crown and bis head by not reraaining in the capital ; and advised hira to send his son to France, not only for his safetyj but to raenace parties' and the nation with the prosjpect ofa long war.* Jaraes was, at the sarae tirae, haunted with the terrors of treachery and desertion about his person ; and not without reason, if credit may be given to the compiler of the Life. Whilst, says fhe latter, the King was inconsultatipn uppn his desperate cir cumstances, Lprds Sunderland, ChurchiU, and Gedplphin were seen walking hand in hand; along tbe gallery; in a transpprt pf jpy." He npw prpfessed tp Barillpn that his views were changed respecting the effect of a French alliance upon his fortunes. French aid in troops and raoney would, be said, now serve bim in pubhc opinion. Barillon replied that this was too vague. Jaraes said that Lord Melfort should confer with hira on the extent to whicb he would act in concert with Louis against the States General. The French ambassador ascribes the King's slowness to the change of his mi nisters on the removal of Sunderland, and to his distrust of Go- dplphin, whp advised a cpmprpraise with the Prince pf Orange, and whp was trusted with the secret ef the French pensicn pnly because it could not be kept from one who was at the head of the treasury.'' Frora a despatch, dated only three days later, it may be inferred that the hesitation of James really proceeded from his still clinging dread of coraraitting himself ppenly and impUcitiy wilh Lcuis XIV. Barillpn infprras bis raaster that be had many con- " MS. Mem. cited in Life, etc. 219. ' Bar. au~Roi, 25 Nov. 168S. Fox MSS. '^ Life, etc. vol. ii. 218. I '• Bar. au Roi, 22 Nov, 1688. Fox MSS. INVASION OF ENGLAND. 213 ferences with the King and Lord Melfort ; that the King desired a close union against the StatesTGeneral and the Prince, but not reduced to writing, so as to admit of bis still denying tbe existence of a^treaty ; tbat be was anxious not to appear the aggressor, but to let tbe Dutch be the first to commence hostilities ; that he desired tbe aid of tbe French troops, and, above all, a junction of the French and British fleets; that be should bold himself indebted to Louis for keeping his crown ; and that he should regard as a traitor any one who proposed a compromise with tbe Prince of Orange. This last declaration was made by him publicly at court, in the hearing of the Spanish ambassador; but Barillon adds, tbat cir cumstances might make him change his raind,. and listen to the worst counsels.** The King, on next day, after holding the above-raentioned councU, summoned all tbe general officers and colonels that re mained in town, and addressed to tbem a remarkable speech, of wbicb the substance is recorded by himself He told them, that he would call a parliaraent as soon as peace was restored ; that he would secure their liberties, privileges, and religion, and grant any thing more they required of him ; that, if any araongst fhem were not free and willing to serve bim, he gave them leave to surrender their comraissions, and go wbere tbey pleased ; that he beUeved them men of too mucb honour to imitate Lord Cornbury ; but was wiUing to spare tbem, if tbey desired it, the discredit of so base a desertion. " They aU," continues the King, " seemed to he moved at the discourse, and vowed they would serve him to the last drop of their blood. The Duke of Grafton and ray Lord ChurchiU were tbe first tbat made their attestation ;" — " and the first," adds the corapiler, " who, to their eternal infamy, broke it afterwards, as weU as Kirke and Trelawney, who were no less lavish of their proraises." * The emotion and assurances of those superior officers, and news frora the bead-quarters that Lord Cornbury bad carried over but a small number, restored the confidence of the King. He resolved once raore to place himself at the head of the army ; ordered the infantry and artillery to resume their march westward ; sent the infant Prince of Wales to Portsmouth, for the purpose of being conveyed to France ; recoramended the city to fhe care of the Lord ¦ Bar, au Roi, 25 Nov. 1688. Fox M.SS. ' Life, etc. vol. ii. 218. 214 INVASION OF ENGLAND. Mayor; and appointed as a council tbe ChanceUor (Jeffreys), Lcrd Bellasis, Lprd Arundel, and Lprd Gpdplphin, preparatpry tp his d eparture fpr the array next day, the 1 7tb pf Npveraber. Meanwhile Father Petre, having been remeved from tbe King's council,* made his escape fp France in the suite pf Lprd Waldegrave, whp went pver as arabassadpr in the rppra pf Skeltpn ; and a petition to the King for a parliaraent was prepared by certain lords spiritual and teraporal. This petition originated with Lord Clarendon and several pre lates asserabled at Larabeth Palace. It proposed two raeasures ; the caUing a free pariiaraent, and using raeans to prevent the effusion of Christian blood ; in other words, treating with the Prince of Orange. The version of what preceded and foUowed the pre sentation ofit, extracted frora the King's Meraoirs, differs essentially frora tbat hitherto before tbe world.* According to tbe latter, the Duke of Norfolk, and Lords Halifax, Oxford, Nottinghara, and Carbery, proposed, that those peers who had joined the Prince of Orange sbould be allowed to sit in fhe proposed parliaraent ; and upon tbe rejection of this suggestion by a large raajority, withdrew their naraes. The King merely says, that " the night before he went down to Salisbury, they (fhe bishops) waited on hira again with further proposals, about asserabUng a parliaraent, and treating with tbe Prince of Orange ; and had got sprae terappral lprds tp jpin with thera, as the Dukes pf Graftpn and Orrapnd ; but the M. pf Halifax, E. pf Npttinghara, and several pthers, ppsitively refused." It was presented by the Archbishpps pf Canterbury and Yprk, and Bishpps pf Rpchester and Ely, pn the evening pf the 1 6th acccrding tp the King, pn the raprning pf the 1 7th acccrding to others." Both the petition and tbe King's answer were iraraediately published, and debated with all the fury of religious party spirit. The petitioners were called by the King's friends traitors in disguise ; the King's proraise of a parliament when the Prince of Orange should bave quitted tbe realra was spurned on the other side as a popish vow, which would not be kept with heretics.'' The petition contains but the two points already raentioned, and deraands no further reference. But the King's answer, as given " Lett, of Van. Citt. 16 Nov. O.S. '' Derived originally from " Tbe History of the Desertion." State Tracts, vol. i, - Life of Sancroft, vol, 1, p, 384, ' "Some Reflections on the humble Petition," etc, "Modest Vindication," etc, Ralph, vol. i, p, 1041—1043, INVASION OF ENGLAND. 215 by himself,* differs remarkably in tone and temper from the pre viously known version. Both are short, and should, perhaps, be placed side by side. In the one the King is made to say, " My Lords, what you ask of me I most passionately desire; and I protnise you, upon tbe word of a King, tbat I will have a pariiament, and such an one as you ask for, as soon as ever the Prince of Orange has quitted the realm. For bow is it possible a parliament sbould be free in all its circumstances, as you petition for, whUst an enemy is in tbe kingdom, and can make a return of near one hundred voices?" Such is the answer made public at the time. Tbe following is cited by tbe compiler from the King's Memoirs: — " AU the King could say to it (the petition) was, tbat it was too late, being then ten at night, and be to set out next morning to Salisbury, and therefore could not give them an answer in writ ing ; that it was not a time fit to call a parliament when armies were in tbe field, nor proper for hira to treat with tbe Prince of Orange, wbo had invaded him without any provocation, against all tbe laws of God and man, and against tbe duty he owed to him as a nephew and son-in-law; and that it would much better become thera; who were bishops of the Church of England, to perform their obligation by instructing tbe people in their duty to God and fhe King, tban to be presenting petitions and giving rules for go^ vernment, and fomenting tbat rebellious temper tbey had already begot in the nation, instead of declaring against the invasion, which he found they could not be prevaUed upon to do." This variance may be accounted for by supposing that tbe King afterwards found it expedient to give "an answer in writing." From such a diplomatic piece as tbe latter, nothing, not even the pu'pose of evasion, can be distinctly inferred. Tbe verbal answer, on the otber band, is conclusive of his thoughts and temper. Tbe stern despotism of his rebuke proves that his confidence was re stored, and that be would never caU any parliament but sucb as be could mould to his purposes. The extent of those purposes is another question. But granting bim the benefit of his own de clarations, that he designed not the restoration of tbe Church of Rorae to its ancient and exclusive sway, but the universal eman cipation of religious conscience, it is clear that, even in conferring liberty, he would stUl be a tyrant. • MS. Mem. cited in Life, etc. 216 INVASION OF ENGLAND. The King left Lpndpn, accorapanied by BariUon, on the 1 7th, and reached the bead-quarters of his array, at Salisbury, on fhe 19th of November. He took up his residence in the Bishop's palace. As a measure of concUiation, he brought with him Mr. Chetwood, a Protestant chaplain. Chetwood appears to bave been a raan of sense, teraper, firmness, and spirit. He found the King's priests in possession of the Bishop's chapel, and had the courage to request their removal. Tbe King coraplied without apparent reluctance or displeasure ; and naraed the chaplain soon after Bishop of Bristol.* It is stated by raost historians of the Revolution, that tbe of ficers " devoted to the King"* waited upon hira pn the evening ef his arrival, fp express their abhorrence of the treachery of Lord Cornbury. This incident is not raentioned by James,— -at least, not cited by tbe corapiler, who drav.'s freely, at this period, upon the raanuscript Meraoirs. It was now judged too late fo execute the first intention of push ing forward strong detachraents of cavalry, in order to intimidate the cpuntry gentleraen, and enclpse the Prince of Orange in the peninsula between the Bristol and English Channels. The Prince was advanced to Axminster. A sraaU party ofthe Prince's cavalry encountered, and, according to Burnet, and all tbose who have fol lowed hira, routed, double the nuraber of the King's troops at Wincanton. The coraraanding officer of the King's party, on the other band, clairas a decided success in an official account addressed to Lord Churchill." This paltry skirraish would not deserve raen tion if the carapaign were not so utterly inglorious. The artUlery, a partof tbe infantry, and the Scotch and Irish dragoons, were not yet corae up. Such was the state in whicb the King found his array, and the eneray. To encourage bis troops, he announced that he should visit next morning bis advanced post at Warminster. It was cpraraanded in chief by Kirke, whp bad under hira Trelawney and Maine. On the preceding nigbt be was seized witb a bleeding at tbe upse, which cpnfined him for tbree days. This incident bas derived impprtance frpra its effects pn the fortunes pfthe King, and its involving the reputation of Lord ChurchiU, and the raeraory of the Duke pf Marlbprpugh. The testirapny rapst deserving pf re spect is assuredly tbat pf tbe King. He begins by saying that he " Chetwood bad tbe rare moderation to decline a mitre. ''JRapin, ' Col, Maine's relation of a Skirmish, etc. MS. Preston Papers. INVASION OF ENGLAND. 217 was not naturally subject to bleeding at tbe nose, and that it hap pened in this instance to bim " very providentially." Anxiety of mind and fatigue of body would sufficiently account for this unusual bleeding to a man of stronger mind and better-governed imagina tion. He proceeds to give bis reason for believing it providential. It was, he says, " generally believed afterwards," that Lord Churchill, Kirke, Trelawney, and some others, had formed a de sign to seize bis person on his way to or from Warminster, and place bim in tbe hands of the Prince of Orange. Barillon merely says, that the suspicions entertained of Churchill were general and strong.* Father Orleans makes tbe charge more confidently. That Jesuit wrote under the eye of the King. Some coincidences of expression would make it appear that he drew from Jaraes's Me raoirs. Sir John Reresby mentions tbe plot as generally believed, and suggests tbe flight of Lord ChurchiU on its failure as circura- stantial proof Rapin, on the other side, rejects it as inconsistent with Lord CburcbUl's " respectful letter" fo the King ; whilst tbe biographer of the Duke of Marlborough treats it wifh disdain. The siraplicity of Rapin in this instance is unusual to him ; but the cha racter and intrigues of Marlborough were not yet disclosed, and the French refugee was carried away by his reUgious and party sym pathies with the commander of the allies against Louis XIV. Archdeacon Coxe, with recent and better inforraation, should have remerabered that his hero was tbe last person in whose case a charge of perfidy and raeanness could be treated with conterapt. The King, sinking both in body and mind (the loss of blood co operating with his disappointment), a prey to two passions which take away all force of soul and faculty — distrust and fear — called round him a cPuncU of general officers, and asked them what was to be dpne. Lord Feversham, his brother tbe Count de Roye, and Lord Dunbarton, advised a retreat towards London. Lord Churchill urged tbe King's maintaining his post at SaUsbury. Jaraes having, be says, now more confidence in the former, adopted tbeir advice. It was too late, be observes, to pursue his first design of advancing upon tbe enemy. This circumstance is so frequently mentioned hy him, tbat his fatal delays in joining the army must, even after a considerable lapse of time, wben he wrote this portion of the meraoirs, have weighed upon his raind. » Bar. au Roi, 9 Dec. 1688, Fox MSS. 218 INVASION OF ENGLAND. It is stated in alraost aU the accounts of the Revolution, that the efficers, including those wbo abhorred the desertion of Lord Corn bury but a day or two before, and offered Jaraes the last drop of their blood, now Waited on Lord Feversham, to say they could not in conscience fight against a Prince whose only purpose was to secure tbe Protestant religion by a free Parliament ; though bis Majesty might stiU, as before, coraraand tbeir lives. This circura stance is not stated, or even reraotely alluded to, either in the ex tracts frora the King's Memoirs or by the corapiler ; and neither tbe corapiler nor the King could have any raotive for suppressing it. The absence of any reference goes a great way in negativing its truth. The various writers wbo have raentioned it raay have raerely echoed "the History of tbe Desertion," and each otber. Barillon, wbo could scarcely have faUed to know and coraraunicate so iraportant an incident had it reaUy occurred, raerely says that the teraper of the troops did not inspire confidence ; tbat ChurchiU, Grafton, and Kirke, raade no secret of their disaffection ; tbat tbe privates knew the disinclination of the superior officers, but that Jaraes was still glad of having joined the array, because he would bave been iraportuned to call a parUaraent had he reraained in London. The King at the same time suspected, without distinction, the chief officers of bis army. His distrusts were soon realised. Kirke, who coraraanded the advanced posts, disobeyed an order to fall back upon Devizes, raade a frivolous excuse, was placed in arrest, and frOra James's lenity, as be asserts,* but more probably frora his want of resolution, was soon released. Trelawney, the next in comraand, deserted frora Warrainster with Colonel Charles ChurchiU, Colonel Lewson, a captain, and a few subalterns. Lord ChurchiU, on fhe night of the day on which he had sat and advised the King in a council of war, deserted with the Duke of Grafton, Colonel Berkely, and sorae officers of his own regiraent of dra goons. It has been said repeatedly for Lord ChurchiU that be betrayed no post, and seduced no person to desert. To betray a post was not in bis power ; tbe eneray was too distant. But his advice in tbe council of war, considering that he had long before placed bis honour, as he expressed it, in tbe bands of the Prince of Orange, raust bave been perfidious; and the inference is irresistible, ' jMS. Mem. cited in Life, etc. vol. ii. p. 224, INVASION OF ENGLAND. 219 that he urged the King's remaining at Salisbury, with the hope of being able to betray his post, the army, and his sovereign. The second aUegation in his favour is against fact : he carried over the officers of his regiment, and, witb stifl deeper treachery, the coun sels ofhis trusting master. Lord ChurchiU left hehind him bis well- known letter to King James, — a flimsy pleading, yet so far above his known vocabulary and style, that no doubt can remain of its having been written for him. It begins by asserting, with' remark able hardihood, that he acted contrary to bis interests ; and the same pretence was revived several years after tbe Revolution by his wife.* Was it a sacrifice of interest to desert from a prince on the brink of ruin to his successful enemy, wbo aspired to bis crown? Lord Churchill confesses bis obUgations to James, but pleads " a higher principle" — bis religion. Witb this higher principle, he should bave been long since in the court or carap of the Prince of Orange, not of King James. It would be rash to assume that cqja- science was a mask worn by such men as Lord Churchill, or even tbe atrocious Kirke. At this period, as Burnet expressed it, a man might be a bad Englishman, a worse Christian, and yet a good Protestant.* Religion in 1688 was not a rational conviction, or a sentiment of benevolence and charity ; but one of the raalignant passions and a cause of quarrel. Even in the next age, Congreve makes a lying sharper, in one of his plays, talk seriously of figbting for bis religion. This is spoken, it is true, by a fictitious person age; but tbe dramatist calculated upon its being echoed bythe best and worst among the audience, from the gallery to tbe side boxes. Lord ChurchiU is said to bave been received at the quarters ofthe Prince of Orange witb a compliment more appropriate tban probable ; — " My Lord ChurchiU," said Marshal Schomberg, " is ths first lieutenant-general I have ever heard of tbat deserted bis colours."" The historians of the Revolution have propagated as a fact, tlirough two centuries, tbat the treachery of this base favourite and great captain overwhelmed James, and precipitated "what bas been called his fatal abandonment of his army. Motives of action and states of raind are araong tbe raost tempting and fallacious matters of history. The King's consternation appears to bave been e.Kaggerated, and the circumstances of bis retreat misrepresented. ' Conductof the Duchess of Marlborough, etc. ' Burnet, vol. iii, Oxf. ,ed. Life of K, Jaraes. from his MS, Mem, 220 INVASION OF ENGLAND. He was warned of the treachery of Lord Churchill, and advised to send him and the Duke of Grafton prisoners to Portsraouth. * His adviser, not named by hiraself, is stated by others fo bave been Lord Feversbara. Rarillon, tbe best autbority, names Lord Mel fort, and adds that James never took a resolution until if was too late to be of service to him. * This counsel, though the King, as he says, upon further consideration, thought not fit to act upon it, " took away bis confidence in Lord ChurchiU;"* whose desertion, therefore, did not take him by surprise. It could not bave caused the retreat of the array or of tbe King, whicb was previously re solved in a councU of war. " Lord Peterborough told Lord Halifax, that it was proposed afterwards to tbe King to take fhe lives ofthe Duke of Grafton, Lord ChurchiU, and Kirke, " but that he could not resolve it."' But did King Jaraes really desert bis array, according to the voice of coramon farae ? His own testiraony, in the extracts from his Meraoirs, has the best titie to confidence in this and most other instances, on the grounds of personal veracity, opportunity, and infernal evidence. H^ appears to narrate without any idea of re futation or defence. - According to him, the retreat was advised by Lord Feversbara, the Count de Roye, and Lord Durabarton. s The raotives whicb be assigns are, that it was now too late to ex ecute the first design of occupying tbe posts beyond Blandford, and closing upon tbe Prince of Orange ; that the suspected treach ery or actual defection of so many of the chief officers rendered it iraprudent to await or approach the eneray and hazard an engage ment ; that he accordingly adopted the course of retiring behind tbc: Thames, and taking the river for bis line of operations. Other conspiring causes have been assigned by varipus writers :* araeng these are, a false alarra pf the approach of Marshal Schora- berg ; the risings in favour ofthe Prince ofOrange, headed by Lord Delaraere in Cheshire ; by Lprd Luraley and Lord Danby in the North; bythe Earl of Devonshire at Derby; the declaration in favour of the Prince of Orange and a free parliaraent at Notting hara ; a letter frora the Queen, conveyed her earnest advice, in concert witb tbe chief Catholics, tbat he sbould iraraediately return MS. Memoirs, cited in Life, etc, *¦ Bar. au Roi, Dec. 1. Fox MSS, MS. Mem. cited in Life, etc, " Id, Ibid, • Id. Ibid. Halifax MS. ." MS. Mem. cited inLife,etc. Hist, of Deser. Burnet, Rapin, Ecbard, Kennet, Ralph, INVASION OF ENGLAND. 221 to the capital, and retire to France. The kingdora, according to this alleged letter, would be in sucb confusion, that he might expect to be soonjrecalled by the nation on his own terms. Tbe operation of a false alarm is not only not mentioned by the King, but incompatible with the circumstances ofhis retreat. The local insurrections, for the most part distant, could not have affected his mUitary counsels at Salisbury, and were really unimportant in themselves. A victory over the Prince of Orange, — even a vigorous check, — with the proclamation of a general pardon, and perhaps without it, would soon have left the tardy courage of those lords without foUowers. It is observed by one of themselves,* that they discreetly limited their demands to a free parliament; that at York, where Lord Danby was tbe leader, tbe Prince of Orange was not named; and tbus, be adds, they left it in the King's power to oblige them to put up tbeir swords as soon as he pleased. Lord Danby even declared tbat he was " for the King and a free parliament."* No letter from the Queen or the Catholics is mentioned by tbe King ; but the fact of his sending the Prince of Wales to Ports mouth shows that, before he had yet joined the army, he contem plated the possibility of his own flight to France. It was the con stant advice and object of Louis XIV. tbat be should come to no terras witb the Prince of Orange ; above all, that he should submit to no partition or diminution ofthe royal authority;" and this counsel was urged in London by BariUon. Tbe compiler frora the King's Memoirs describes tbe afflictions and anxieties of tbe Queen, left unprotected and alone, in tbe raidst of a mutinous cify; her infant son sent away, as she supposed, to a foreign country; her husband gone upon a dangerous expedition, not knowing whom to trust. — " It is not," says he, " to be wondered, if she begged the King to be cautious what steps he made in such suspected com pany ; not knowing but tbe ground on which be thought to stand with most security might sink from under his feet.""* In sucb a state of mind, tbe Queen raost probably urged his return. This advice would naturally be suppressed by the compiler and the King. The Queen was reproached, hy the unfortunate foUowers of Jaraes, witb having induced him to withdraw hiraself from the kingdora;" and the husband may be excused for withholding sucb a fact, in tenderness to one wbo, whatever her faults as a queen, deserved ¦ Lord Delamere's Letter, etc. ; State Tracts. '' Reresby's Mem. J Bar. Corres, Fox MSS, passim. '' Life, etc. ,» Id. 222 INVASION OF ENGLAND. all his affection as a woraan. There appear no grounds for sup posing that she was joined by the leading Catholics; there is even evidence ofthe contrary. BarUlon, writing on the I Sth of Deceraber, states that sorae CathoUc lords were araong tbose who advised the King to concede the required securities to the Protestants. * Father Petre, it raay be added, had before this tirae withdrawn hiraself The retreat of King Jaraes before tbe Prince of Orange, to be fairly judged, would require a rainute and perhaps raUitary view of the resources, raaterial and moral, whicb be stUl possessed. • It is a startUng fact, at the very threshold, in its justification, tbat Kirke and ChurchiU were opposed to it. Lord ChurchiU, in his endea vour to keep the King at Salisbury, could have consulted only the interests ofthe Prince of Orange. The Prince, on the other band, approached the King with a slow and timid step. Upon the news of the King's arrival at Sahsbury, he advanced pnly tp Axminster ; a shprt march frora Exeter, along the coasf, in sight of bis ships. Instead of advancing from Axminster, by tbe plains of Dorsetshire and WUtshire, to raeet or attack tbe King, he raoved upon Sher borne to secure Bristol. The King had lost of his 32,000 raen a large proportion of officers, but only a few hundred privates. The Prince had received no efficient accession. The three regiments, for the levy of which be had given coramissions, araounted to nothing worthy of the name.* He evidently regarded the King as an enemy in superior force. Marshal Schomberg, upon being told that tbe King was advancing to give battie, coolly replied, " If we think proper.""^ " I have been well inforraed," says Speaker Onslow, "fhat had he (Jaraes) shown any courage and spirit on the occasion, his array would have fought the Prince of Orange." '' Had James raa nifested tbe requisite energy, activity, and resolution, to overawe the false and inspire the faithful, bis array would, doubtless, have fought and conquered. But to do this, be raust have changed his nature and becorae another raan. The fatal and unpardonable error pf James, and the mpst deeply felt by hiraself, appears fp bave been cpmraitted in a preceding stage. He raight, and therefore should, bave joined the troops before fhe desertions began. His presence in tbe carap would have prevented the desertion of Lord Cornbury. ' Had he even placed hiraself at the head of the troops » Bar. au Roi, 13 Dec, Fox MSS, " R'dpln. • Ibid. ' Note in Eur. vol. iii. p. 333. INV^ASION OF ENGLAND, 223 iramediately upon tbat event, his presence might have maintained or restored the tone of the army. But after three days' delay in London, and three days more of inaction and faintness frora anxiety of -mind and loss of blood in the carap, his fortunes, to a raan of bis- capacity and temper, were perbaps irretrievable. The chief wrong which the memory of James has suffered from ungenerous enemies, disappointed friends, and the voice of history, is tbe imputation of having abandoned his array witb dastardly baste. He did not abandon it: be retired witb tbe infantry, leaving the cavalry behind bim under the command of Lord Feversham.* His first day's march was only from Salisbury to Andover. This negatives precipitation, and, above all, tbe charge of having se parated himself from bis troops. In tbe morning after the first night's halt at Andover, the King was informed tbat Prince George of Denraark bad deserted in tbe nigbt. " He was shocked," says tbe compUer, " by tbe unnatu- ralness of tbe action," but observed, that tbe loss of a good trooper had been of greater consequence;* and, instead of showing the least resentment, ordered his servants and equipage to follow the Prince."" According to others, he treated tbe flight and character of his son-in-law with contemptuous pleasantry. The Prince, upon every new instance of defection, exclairaed, with feigned or foolisii wonder, "Est-U possible?" "So," sa.ii the King,'-- Est-il pos sible is gone too." Prince George left behind hira a letter to the King, bearing so close a resemblance to tbat of Lord Churchill, tbat both are presumed to have come from tbe same pen.'' These pieces of flimsy rhetoric and transparent hypocrisy are undeserving of no tice, and too well known to be cited even as curious. It may be reraarked, in passing, tbat Prince George says he is forced to tear hiraself from his benefactor and father-in-law; first by bis con science, and next by the King's being leagued with tbe cruel zeal and prevaihng power of Louis XIV. against all the Prptestant princes pf Christendom. He forgot, or did not know, that Den mark was at the time the ally of France. This prince affords one of the many proofs of the fact, that the meanest faculties suffice to practise knavery with success. He and the Princess Anne, bis wife, entirely governed by Lord and Lady ' MS. Mem. cited in Life, etc, ' Life, vol, li. p, 225. ¦ MS Mem. cited. Ibid. ¦^ See letters in Kennet. 224 INVASION , OF ENGLAND. ChurchiU, were engaged tp favPur the designs pf fhe Prince of Orange before the expedition left Holland." Fagel, wbo died during the crisis of the Revolution, declared on his death-bed that the Prince of Orange, had obtained the sanction of the Prince and Princess of Denraark before he resolved upon the enterprise.* " The Prince," says the Princess Anne, writing tp tbe Prince pf Orange, " went yesterday with tbe King fpwards SaUsbury, in tending tp gp frpra thence te ypu as spon as bis friends thought it proper."" Thus it appears that he accorapanied the King frora Lpndpn with the intentipn tp desert hira, and, thpugh so weak- rainded as fp require and submit to the tutelage pf Lprd Churchill, he yet had enpugh pf cunning fp live unsuspected at tbe King's table up to tbe last mpment pf supping with hira at Andpver.'' He was accprapanied in bis flight by the Duke pf Orraond, Lord Drum lanrig, Sir George Hewet, and sorae others of meaner rank, but not of raeaner principles. The young Duke of Orraond was one of tbe noblemen who figured in the Gazette as volunteering their services, and accepting coraraissions to raise troops against the in vader. He was, at the sarae time, deep in the intrigues of the Prince of Orange, for corrupting the faith, not only of the army, but the fleet." Lord Drumlanrig, son of the Duke of Queensberry, was also a young raan. It is not easy to reconcile "with the frank ness of youth the treachery with which tbese noblemen abused up to the last meraent the favpur, confidence, and hcspitality pf the unfprtunate king. But the vigpur and virtue ef the English natipn and character bad dwindled frcm the restpratipn pf the Stuarts : a degenerate race succeeded the men pf the Coraraonwealth. The aristocracy seera to bave been born without that sense which is supposed to be their peculiar distinction, — tbe sense of honour. " Mem. of Lord Bale. Som. Tr. vol. xi. " Lett, of D'Albyville to Lord Preston, 16tb Dec. 1688. Preston Papers. " Princess Anne to Prince of Orange, 18tb Nov. Dal. App. ¦¦ Rer. Mem, " Byng's Mem. in Dal, App, 225 CHAPTER XVI. Desertion of the Princess Anne. — Progress of Insurrection. — The King treats with fbe Prince. — Intrigue of Lord Halifax. — The Prince of Wales sent to Portsmouth. — Negociation with William. — Terror of James.— The Queen and Prince of Wales sent to France. — First Flight of the King. — Disorders In London. — Irish Alarm. — Assembly of Peers in tbe City. — Progress ofthe Prince. The King left Andover on the morning of the 25th, repassed tbe Thames with tbe greater part of tbe infantry, distributed the troops between Maidenhead, Windsor, Staines, Egbara, Chertsey, Coln brook, and otber parts within the river, and arrived on the 26th in London. The first news tbat met bira was tbe flight of bis daughter, the Princess Anne. It was now that, as a sovereign and father, he appears to have been overwhelmed. He burst into tears, and cried, "God help me! my own cbildren have for saken me." According to the compUer of bis life, he compared his situation to that of King David, and exclaimed, with him, "Oh, if mine enemies only had cursed me, I could have borne it!" Tbe Princess, like Prince George and Lord ChurchUl, ber con federate predecessors in desertion, left a letter. It was addressed to the Queen. In this letter, truth and nature are thrown aside. " Madam," she says to tbe Queen, wbom she hated, " I beg your pardon, if I am so deeply affected with the surprising news of the Prince's being gone, as not to be able to see you, but to leave this paper, to express my humble duty to the King and yourself, and to let you know that I am gone to absent myself, to avoid tbe King's displeasure, which I am not able to bear to the Prince or myself Never was any one in so unhappy a condition, so divided between duty and affection to a father and a husband." This dutiful and affectionate daughter and wife was already in correspondence with her father's enemy, was a party to her husband's desertion, was long resolved upon, her own, and fled to the Prince of Orange. The Princess Anne, like her elder sister, was brought up by II. 15 2iiS DESERTION OF Protestant divines of raean capacity" and intolerant zeal. She was taught to look upon the Church as grievously Ul used in being deprived of fhe pleasure of crushing or worrying Papists and Dissenters., "It is," says she, witb tbe characteristic vul garity of her language and understanding, " a raelancholy prospect that all we of the Church of England have. AU the sectaries may now do what they please. Every one has the free exercise of tbeir reUgion, on purpose, no doubt, to ruin us, which I think to aU irapartial judges is very plain."* She was, no doubt, a sincerely devout person; but ber devotion consisted raainly in abhorring the religion of her father. " I abhor," says she, " the principles of the Church of Rorae as rauch as it is possible for any one to do. And certainly, there is the greatest reason in the world tP dp SP ; for the dpctrine ef the Church pf Rprae is wicked and dangerpus, and directly cpntrary fp the Scriptures; and their cere- rapuies, rapst pf thera, plain dpwnrigbt idplatry."" Idplatry! — fatal wprd, which has edged mere swerds, lighted rapre fires, and inbumanised raere hearts, than the whple vpcabulary pf the pas sipns besides. Such was the cpnfessipn pf faith of tbe Princess Anne. She was taught, raerepver, fp identify the principles of tbe Church of Rome in tbpir most pdipus cplours with ber own father, — to believe tbat be bad iraposed between her and the throne a sup posititious papist heir.'' The only question reraaining is, whether her abhorrence went only to his religion, and did not extend to his person. Yet never had daughter a raore kind and indulgent father. Witb aU his bigotry, he rarely spoke to ber on the subject of religion. One occasion was, that of her talking to the person next ber, pr Ippking anpther way, whUe a priest said grace at the King's table. TMs splitary interference, which appears fp have been mild, and the putrage tP cprarapn decprura, as well as filial respect, whicb prpvpked it, are recprded by herself." The letter oi the Princess Anne, said tP have been left by ber en her toilet, was not delivered. The consequences might bave proved fatal to the Queen. The servants of tbe Princess, alarmed by her not appearing two hours later tban her usual tirae in the morning, " Burnet, vol. ill. Conduct of tbe Duchess of Marlborough. ' Dal.App. 30-2. " The Princess Anne to the Princess ofOrange, April 20, 1688. Dal. .4pp. ' ShefEeld, Duke of Bucllngbam. Account of the Revolution. ' • Her Letter to the Princess of Orange, Dec. 22. 1686. Dal. App. THE PRINCESS ANNE. 227 went into her bed-room, found her bed einpty, ran, screaming, to Lord Dartmouth's, and told Lady Dartmouth their mistress was murdered by the priests. They next went to the Queen, and asked her what she had done with the Princess. The Queen answered, very gravely, that she supposed their mistress was where she liked to he, assured them she knew nothing of her, and said she had no doubt tbey would soon hear of her. * " Her nurse and my Lady Clarendon," says the King, " ran about like people out of their senses, crying out the Papists had murdered her ; and, when tbey met any of tbe Queen's servants, asked them what they had done 'witb tbe Princess ; which, considering the ferment the people were in, and how susceptible tbey were of any Ul impres sion against the Queen, might have made ber be torn in pieces by the rabble." * The common version of the appearance of the letter is, that it was publisbed by tbe Court in its own defence, " for fear," says one historian, " the Papists should be cut to pieces in revenge, even bythe King's own guards."" Tbe Queen, had she possessed tbe letter, would doubtless have produced it in tbe first instance, and the King says expressly it was never delivered.'' The suggestion of the compiler of the Life of James, that it was kept back in order to favour the rumour tbat tbe Princess was madcj away with, is unwarranted." It appears, however, that the flight and safety of the Princess were already known before tbe letter appeared. Tbe manner of ber flight is described circumstantially by the Duchess of Marlborough, tbe contriver and companion of her escape.' The Duchess asserts tbat it was unpremeditated. The main facts stated by herself prove the contrary. The sudden news, she says, of the desertion of Prince George and return of tbe King so frightened tbe Princess, tbat she said, " rather tban see ber father, she would jump out of tbe window." A note bad been sent very opportunely, a little before, to Lady ChurchUl, mentioning where tbe Bishop of London might be found, "if tbe Princess wanted a friend." The Bishop, wbo, according to tbe Duchess of Marlborough, " had absconded at this critical moment," was commanded to attend at a given time and place. The Prin- I* Lord Dartmouth, note in Bur. vol. Hi. p. 335. "¦ MS. Mem. cited in Life, vol. ii. 22. ' Ralph, 1048. '' Ubi supra. " Conduct of the Duch. of Marlb. pp. 17, 18. ' Letter of Lord Devonshire to the Prince of Orange, Dal. App. 15'* 228 DESERTION OF cess went fo bed as usual, to prevent suspicion ; soon rose ; escaped by a back staircase, witb Lady Churchill and Mrs. Berkeley into fhe street ; and was borne off by the Bishop in a hackney coach, at raidnight, — first, to his own house, in Aldersgate ; then to Lord Dorset's, at CopthaU; next to Northarapton, where he took the coramand of an arraed escort of volunteer cavalry; and thence to Nottingham. Here fhe Earl of Devonshire appears to have su perseded the gaUant Bishop in the coramand," and conducted the Princess to the Prince, her husband, at Oxford, on her way to join the Prince of Orange. Her flight was dpublless caused, in one sense, by the news of her husband's desertion. It was the signal fpr which she waited. But her preparatipus were raade. .She bad absented herself some time, under the pretence of bad health and pregnancy, from the apartraents of the King and Queen;* and she caused the very stairs by whicb she escaped to be raade for the purpose, under pretence of having raore easy access to the apartments of Lady ChurchiU.* Itis stated fhat Mulgrave, the lord charaberlain, had orders to apprehend Lady Churchill and Lady Fitzharding ; that tbe Princess induced hira to defer the execution of his orders until she should have spoken' to the Queen next day ; and that in fhe raeantime she and her two attendant ladies fled." This version is incprrect. Sheffield, Duke pf ¦ Buckinghara, - fhen Earl Mulgrave , says, in bis Mempir pf the Revolution, that the King, upon the de sertion of Lord ChurchiU, sent immediate orders to seize his papers at WhitehaU, without having first secured either his lady or the Princess ; " which," he adds,' " was only frightening the one and disobliging the other."^ It is thus clear that no such orders were sent to the charaberlain. Warrants of arrest and seizure were, however, really sent np by the King. Lord Middleton, who ac companied James, despatched from Andpver, en the raprning pf the 25fh, tp Lprd Prestpu, secretary pf state, an prder tp seize tiie gppds and furniture of Lord ChurchUl ; and arrest the clerk of his troop, as a security for the military chest in his hands." Inthe evening of tbe same day. Lord Middleton sent Lord Preston, from HartieyRow, the King's order to confine Lady ChurchiU to the ¦ MS. Mem. cited in Life, etc. , "¦ Ledlard's Life of Marlborougb. ' Id. ibid. " Works, vol. ii. p. 76. ' Lett, of Lord Middleton to Lord Preston. Andover, 25tb Nov. Preston Papers. THE PRINCESS ANNE. 22» apartments of her sister,. Lady TyrconneU; and Mrs. Berkeley, wife ofthe fugitive Colonel, to her father's bouse.* The resolutions of James were generally, his measures always, taken too late. If the flight of his daughter wounded the heart of James, as a father, other calamities encompassed and pressed upon bim more fatally as a sovereign. Insurrections multiplied and spread. Tbe Prince of Orange was advancing, unopposed. Lord Bath, the governor of Plymouth, declared for him. This lord had been sorae time waiting to, ascertain tbe stronger side, and added another example of intrigue and ingratitude.* Lord Shrewsbury took un disputed possession of Bristol. The University of Oxford, tbat citadel of divine right and passive obedience, sent in its adhesion to the Prince of Orange. Doctor Finch, warden of All Souls, on tbe part of certain beads of houses, invited tbe Prince to Oxford, and offered him tbeir plate. The midland and nortbern counties, from Northampton to Newcastle, were in the occupation of lords and gentlemen armed for the Prince of Orange and a free parlia ment. Hull was seized, in the name of tbe Prince, by the Lieu tenant-Governor Copley, who disarmed tbe Catholic soldiers, and arrested the Catholic governor. Lord Langdale, in bed. York was seized by Lord Danby, who confined the governor. Sir John Reresby, on his parole, to his own bouse. This governor was utterly destitute of means of defence. " James, by a rare exception, notices, with some bitterness, tbe conduct of Lord Devonshire, He had, he says, remitted tbe fine of 30,000/. to which that noble man was condemned for having struck Colonel Culpepper in the King's apartment. But Ralph states a fact communicated to him personally by one of the Cavendish family, which detracts from the grace of this remission by the King. The eari's mother, after long absence from court, appeared at the drawing-room, and, kneeling to tbe King, presented to him a written acknowledgment of debt to that amount by the king, bis father, to the father ofthe earl. These rustic levies, at tbe heels of their landlords, would have been of little account against a handful of disciplined troops under competent and faithful officers.* James had troops, but his officers were Incompetent or unfaithful. ' Lett of Lord Middleton to Lord Preston, Hartley Row, 2otb Nov.; seven in tbe evening. Preston Papers. '' MS. Mem. cited InLife, vol. ii, p, 230. ' See bisMemoirs. " Letter of Lord Dev. to the P. of Orange, corded his fears for his life. In one passage of his Meraoirs he says, that, well reraerabering bow his father and several of his predecessors had been used, he saw no security where he was ;* in another, that if he did not go out ofthe kingdom, the Prince of Orange " would probably find other raeans to send hira out of it, and the world, too, by another way."" King Jaraes raentions the answer of the Prince as one of the deterinining causes of his sending away the Queen and Prince of Wales. , It would appear from the dates, that the answer — at least the written answer — could npt yet have reached hira. Itwas placed in the hands pf the cpraraissipuers at Littlecpt, pn the 9th of Deceniber, and fhe Queen went pff pn the night pf that day. But the letter pf Lprd Halifax raay have been received ; and the delays, evasions, and continued advance of the Prince of Orjmge were as good evidence of his intentions as the answer itself Tbe account ofthe Queen's departure by Father Orieans was, up to tbe recent publication of the Life of James IL, the only cir cumstantial one : that of the compiler from the King's Memoirs raainly agrees with it. Both, probably, are derived from the same source. Lauzun, noted for his araour or marriage with Made- raoiselle d'Orleans, and the whirasical irapertinence with which he was accustoraed to treat the first princess bf fhe house of Bour- bpu, carae ever tp England, and pffered his raUitary services to King Jaraes. He is represented by sorae as a special envoy of Lpuis XIV. : that prince knew how tP chpose his envpys better. Lau zun, a frivplpus ccurtier, spught pnly an escape frpra, court dis grace and ennui. Jaraes, having no longer occasion for his mili tary services,'' selected him to conduct the escape of the Queen. Disguised as an Italian lady returning to her country, she crossed tbe river from Whitehall to Lambeth, in an open boat, on^a dark Deceraber nigbt, in a storm of wind and rain, with ber infant son, his nurse, Lauzun, and two persons more ; stood shivering near an old cburcb wall for an hour, until a hackney coach come up ; " Rer. Mem. : ¦ ' MS. Mem. cited in Life, vol. ii, 249. ' Ibid, 268, ¦ , : - Life, vol. ii, 244. SENT TO FRANCE. - 248 was fortunate enougb to reacb Gravesend undiscovered ; and there went on board a yacht, whicb conveyed her in safety, with a fair wind, to France. The sufferings of the Queen, in ber escape from Whitehall to Gravesend, bave been arrayed in the rhetorical graces of pathos and tbe picturesque. Her circumstances might well ex cite pity and meditation ; but the notion, tbat physical sufferings and privations are keenly felt in a great and sudden reverse, is vulgar and unfounded. When thought of at all by tbose wbo have fallen from the utmost heights, they are felt only as the ac cessaries and signs of a reverse of fortune, not as evils in them selves. The King promised to foUow his wife and son in twenty-fou r hours — not, it has been said, on behalf of the Queen, because she advised, or desired bis leaving the kingdom, but because she made it a condition that ^he sbould follow her, unless he allowed her to reraain and share his fortunes." Frora tbe moment of his receiving the answer of the Prince of Orange, be appears to have been im patient fo quit the field, leaving behind him tbe sceptre of three kingdoms^ to be taken up by one still more impatient to grasp it. Other circumstances added to bis anxieties and fears. From trea chery or oversight, a Suspension of arms appears not fo have been proposed or thought of by the King's commissioners. The Prince of Orange continued liis march direct upon the capital. The King's troops, upon a false alarm of the advance of the Dutch, were ordered to fall back from Reading upon Maidenhead. The error being discovered, they were ordered to resume their posts next day. MeanwhUe the inhabitants of Reading sent notice to the Prince's advanced posts, witb the request that a detachment should he ordered forward to occupy their town. Tbe King's troops ar rived first. Colonel Lanier posted a party of Irish dragoons to defend tbe bridge against tbe Dutch, who were advancing, and or dered a Scotch regiment of horse to draw up in the market-place : he at tb.'S sarae time sent to Lord Feversham for a reinforcement. The Irisb dragoons, having once discharged their carbines, wheeled round and fled ; the Scotch foUowed their example. The Irish said, in their justification, that while they defended the bridge against the Dutch, they were fired upon hy the inhabitants from the houses. This again was denied by the inhabitants. But they" " Life, etc. vol. li. 245. 16 • 244 FIRST FLIGHT OF JAMES. who invited the King's eneraies would not scruple to fire upon the King's troops frora undercover. The Scotch and Irisb, in their flight, were raet by tbe General-in-cbief, Lord Feversham, coraing up with a reinforceraent. Instead of rallying tbem, he covered their retreat to Maidenhead. The conduct of the King's troops, if ihett enemies have written truth of tbem, was here stiUmore ignominious than at Reading. Tbe inhabitants, it is said, beat a Dutch march during the nigbt as an artifice to get rid of them, and the experiment was so successful that bis Majesty's forces fled wilhout their can non. It is difficult to reconcile this ridiculous incident witb the most ordinary military precautions in what may be called a hostile post, and in raoraentary expectation of tbe eneray. The desertion of Douglas's regiraent of Scotch cavalry disappointed and grieved the King. It was one of the regiraents upon whose fidelity he particu larly relied. A raan of more shrewdness and sagacity than James would have been deceived by tbe sarae perfidious arts ; firmer nerves than his would bave given way under his disappointments. He was no sooner informed, by a French raessenger frora Lauzun, that his wife and sen were under saU, with a fair wind, than he prepared with tbe utraost secrecy for his pwn flight. It is stated that pn the IOth he sumraoBed a council of the peers upon whose advice he had treated with the Prince of Orange ; and, addressing himself to the old Eari of Bedford, said, '" My lord* you are a good man, and bave great influence : you ean do much for rae at this time." The Earl is said to have replied, " I am an old raan, and can do but liftle ;" and to have added, with a sigh, " I bad once a son that could now be very serviceable to your Majesty." * Tbe King is represented as struck dumb and pale by this bitter reminiscence, and the situation in which he stood. There are few scenes in history or fiction so moralydra- raatic. The answer assigned fo tbe father of Lord Russel would seera the retribution of heaven in its justice upon a tyrant wbo bad shed patriot blood. But, unfortunately, there is no good evidence tbat a counril was held on that day ; and the Eari of Bedford, sink ing under bis years and sorrows, bad retired frora public affairs. The statement, that, to divert suspicion from his intended de parture, on the nigbt of the IOth the King sumraoned an extraor- " Bar. an Roi. Dal. App, ' It is scarcely necessary to say that tbe son alluded to is supposed to have been sacrificed in the preceding reign to the vengeance ofjames Duke of York, PIRST FLIGHT OF JAMES. 245 dinary council, to meet on the mormng of the 1 1th, is more pro bable, and better attested." Itis said that, with thesame view, he declared publicly his intention to return to the head of his army, and that his guards had orders to meet him at Uxbridge.* The in trigue of Lord Halifax bad put bim in such fear for his Ufe, that be concealed,, with tbe utmost jealousy, the very movement whicb bis enemies most desired he sbould make. All can be wise and brave after the event. The fears of James for his personal safety sbould be estimated with a reference to his actual position. His life may be imagined in peril from two quar ters : those who had invited or adhered to the Princc of Orange, and that Prince himself If it became a question witb the former whether tbey sbould be prosecuted in the King's name under tbe 25th of Edward 111., or tbe King should be prosecuted in the name of the nation, according to the precedent made in the case of his father, it can hardly be supposed that even the Bishop of London would not bave found reasons for preferring tbe alternative. If the existence of James presented itself as a bar to the ambition of the Prince of Orange, can it be supposed for a moment that the most aspiring of politicians and most phlegmatic of Dutcbraen would have seen, in his wife's father, any thing but a political unit of human life ? The Princess of Orange, indeed, is said to have ob tained from her husband, wben setting out upon bis expedition, a promise thathe would respect the life of her father. This promise might easUy be evaded, — it may even never have been given or asked ; and the daughter of James, in writing to her husband re specting the fate of her unfortunate father, after the battle of the Boyne, could find no kinder or more fiUal designation for him tban that of " the late king." " A man in James's position, who was both prudent and brave, would, like him, have seen his danger ; but, un like him, would have faced it. It is mentioned, as a proof of the violence of his distrusts and fears, that he concealed bis purpose from Lord Dover, a Catbolic ; ^ but Lord Dover, by his want of success or of fidelity in the affair of carrying the Prince of Wales to France, had lost his confidence. Lord Mulgrave eame into the King's apartment just as he was stepping into bed. The King, who, according to the chamberlain, would not trust so sound a Protestant, whispered him that " he had a very hopeful account • Reresby's Memoirs. . '' Life of King William. ' Letter of tke Queen to King William, Dal. App. ^ Life of King William. 2.)6 FIEST FLIGHT OF JAMES. cf some good accpmrapdatipn with the Prince'pf Orange." Lprd Mulgrave asked, in reply, whether the Prince's array halted pr ad vanced. The King owned tbey stiU raarched on : upon which fhe chamberlain, by his own account, shook his head with a dejected countenance. " All this raay be true ; but the courtiers were now as eager to repudiate, as they had hitherto been to obtain,, the con fidence of the King. On the mprning ofthe 1 1th, the King's antecharaber was crowded with lords and gentlemen, waiting to attend his levee. The Duke of Northuraberland, lord in waiting, opened the door at the usual hour, and the company rushed in. To tbeir astonishment and consternation, 'the King's chamber was empty. He had gone away, by a private passage, at one o'clock in the raorning, leaving orders with tbe Duke not to open his door before the usual tirae. The Duke pf Northumberiand was more a Protestant than fhe lord charaberlain ;* and his brother, the Duke of Grafton, had deserted ; yet James trusted him. It is the only instance in whicb his cpnfi dence was npt betrayed by his own kindred. His orders were obeyed, and his secret kept. It can hardly be charged upon the Duke of Northumberland as desertion that, in the course pf that very day, he tendered his services tp the Prince pf Orange. The King, to embarrass bis enemy, while he abandpned fhe field, cancelled the patents fpr the new sheriffs," with the writs issued fpr calling a parliaraent, and topk away the great seal. He vainly ima gined that there was some inherent power, not only in his person, but in the mere symbol of his wUl. Kings seldom reflect that their great seals are but so mucb wax, and their persons but ciphers, when no longer supported by the will of a nation or by hireUng force. He addressed, at the same time, a letter to Lord Fevers ham, announcing his departure from the kingdom ; declaring tbat, if he could bave relied on his troops, he would have had " at least one blow for it;" rerainding that lord that he and the other general officers had told hira it was nowise advisable that he sbould ven ture himself at the head of the array ; thanking all thpse whp had remained faithful tp him; informing them that he np Ipnger ex pected they shpuld expose themselves by resisting a foreign army and poispned natipn ; and expressing his hppe tbat, tUl better times, ' Sheffield, Duke of Buckingham. Account ofthe Rev. ¦' Mulgrave pretended to be a secret convert to the King's religion. He openly professes deism inhis works. • Luft. Diary. DISORDERS IN LONDON, 247 they would persevere in their fideUty. The letter was read at the bead of about 4000 men, wbom Lord Feversham had under his comraand at Uxbridge, and is said to have been heard by them with tears. Two courses were open to Lord Feversham, — to .disband tbe King's troops, or bring them over to the Prince of Orange. Having submitted the King's letter to a councU of war, he adopted the former, and provoked tbe displeasure of the Prince by so rare and mischievous an example of military honour. ¦ He addressed a letter to the Prince of Orange, stating bis having disbanded tbe troops by the King's command. Tbe Prince took no other notice of this Wter than observing to those about him that be was not to be so dealt with. . It may be said that Lord Feversham sbould have disarmed as well as disbanded tbem; and this is the only offence with which he is chargeable. He may have thought to serve King James, and embarrass the Prince of Orange; or be may have thought it^ as it would have been, inhuman to dismiss, not only without means to sustain, but without arms foJ defend, tbeir Uves, men who were odious, — some for their religion, others for -their country, and all for their fidelity, — in what may be caUed an enemy's country. Again, is it likely that tbe officers and men would surrender tbeir arms, and for the use of the Prince of Orange ? The troops might complain of being dismissed, without pay or provision for tbeir subsistence, — tbe people of having armed, destitute, and ungover- ned men let loose upon them; but the Prince had as yet no right to command obedience, and threaten the penal justice of the realm. It is true, the nation allowed itself to be disposed of by a handful of foreigners; but even conquest did not give him the right to punish Lord Feversham for obeying tbe orders of one who was still bis sovereign by tbe laws. The report of the King's flight was no sooner spread througb London, tban tbe rabble attacked and plundered Catbolic chapels, the houses of Catholics, and tbe residences of Catbolic ambassadors. That of the Florentine envoy was sacked and burned. Even tbe residence of the Spanish minister, RonquUlo, a known friend of the Prince ofOrange, was not spared. He, however, received an honourable reparation. Lord Mulgrave, though the King his mas ter was gone, and his staff of chamberlain laid aside, thought it for. tbe honour of the nation to order the ambassador apartments and a table at Whitehall, with great pomp of attendance, and was 2i8 DISORDERS IN LONDON. thanked for this bold exercise of discretion 'by both tbe Prince of Orange and tbe King.* The Prince, after bis accession, obtained tbe Spaniard a grant of 17,000/. to reimburse his losses, or as a gratification for bis sbare in obtaining the recognition of King WilUara by tbe whole house of Austria.* The chief sufferers were the raore opulent CathoUeS : they bad placed their valuable effects for safety under the protection of the foreign ministers. The resi dence of the Spanish rainister would have been respected, if it were not known to tbe raob that the piate of tbe royal chapel was depo sited there." Van Citters, in his correspondence with the States, alleges another motive. Don Pedro RonquUlo, he says, was ob^ noxious to the populace from bis being in debt to every body and paying nobody.* The French and Venetian ministers were, pro tected by a raUitary guard. No blood appears to bave been shed, though tbe rioters proT^ fessed to be actuated by religious zeal. The reason may be, that tbey were really instigated by fhe raUder love of plunder. Several persons, variously obnoxious for their virtues, their reUgion, their subserviency to the court, or their crimes, were seized by the popu lace and dragged before raagistrates. Araong thera were WiUiara Penn, Judge Jenner, Grahara and Burton, court lawyers, the Ca^ thoUc bishops Leyburn and Gifford, fhe Jesuit Fulton, and the convert Doctor Obadiah Walker. Lord Melford, as well as Father Petre, had already reached France, and Lord Sunderland was seized at Botterdara, disguised in woraan's clothes. Of those obnoxious for their crimes, Jeffreys alone feU into the hands of the rabble. The rest bad either concealed theraselves, or atoned, like Kirk, for their guilty services to Jaraes, by betraying and deserting him. Tbe inhuman Jeffreys was seized in the disguise of a saUor, with bis eyebrows shaved, at Wapping. A scrivener, whora he bad once raade feel tbe terrors of his power and his visage, recog nised bim in bis disguise whilst looking out of a window, according , to some, whilst drinking in a public house, according to others. Jeffreys cried piteously for mercy ; aind though frightened and mal treated, obtained more mercy frora the rabble than be bad ever shown to the innocent from the bench. He was first dragged before tbe lord mayor, wbo is said fo bave died of tbe shock of beholding bim ; and then comraitted to tbe Tower, wbere be soon ¦ Sheffield, D. of Buck. Account of tbe Rev. ¦¦ Id. ibid. ' MS. Mem. cited in Life, etc. '' Lett, of Van Cit. Dee. 7, IRISH ALARM,, 24!) closed hifi horrid hfe by drunkenness, or through a chronic disease. Lords Peterborough and Salisbury, converts to the church of Rorae, were seized and committed to the Tower. BUls of indictment were found against the latter for tbe crime of high treason in turning papist. The papal nuncio was discovered at Gravesend, escaping in disguise behind the carriage of the minister of Sarvoy. Lord Wincbelsea^ with his authorUy of lord lieutenant of tbe county, could not rescue him from the mob, and sent notice of bis perU to tbe Spanish ambassador. Tbat minister sent an express to tbe Prince of Orange, who, being roused from his sleep at midnight, sent back such a passport as enabled tbe nuncio to depart in the train of the minister of the Duke of Savoy, One of the most awful and most groundless instances of panic terror on record now took momentary possession of men's imagina tions. A cry was raised that tbe disbanded Irish soldiers were destroying afl before tbem by fire and sword. Drums were beat through the streets of London and Westminster to give notice ofthe coming enemy. Lights were placed in the windows, the better to descry thera ;- tbe people in each quarter imagined the next in flames or streaming with blood. The ringing of bells carried tbe news with telegraphic rapidity to the furthest comers of Great Britain. The inhabitants of each town or viUage imagined tbe Irish burn ing the houses and cutting the throats of tbeir next neighbours. Pregnant women were frightened to premature chUdbirth ; aged and infirm persons died of terror ; tbe Protestants every where stood armed upon their guard, and resolved upon the first sign of attack or danger to destroy aU Papists and Irisb within tbeir reach. Happily no accidental or imaginary circumstance suggested the idea of immediate attack, and tbe nation escaped a crime which would rank in atrocity, if not in maUee, witb the massacre of Paris on St. Bartholomew's eve. It is doubtful even to this day whether the alarm was accidental Or contrived; where it began, and on what day it was spread in London. The dales of the llth, tbe P2th, andthe 13tb of De cember are variously assigned.* A MS. private letter of the time assigns the night of the 12th.* Its source is equally mysterious : the most coramon account is, tbat it began af Westminster with some peasants, who had just come in from the country. The " By Oldmixon, Ecbard, Life of King William, Hist, of Deser., and Kennet. ' Sawyer's News letters, etc. 250 ASSEMBLY OF PEERS accidental liring of a cottage by half a dozen starving Irish soldiers in a fray with sorae country people is mentioned as its origin. According tp pthers, it priginated in the cabinet pf the Prince of Orange; and the peasants wbo brought it to Westminster were sent by Marshal Schomberg, with the purppse of exciting, au alarra of danger, rendering Jaraes, his rehgion, and bis adherents stUl more odious, and thus preparing for the more popular recep tion pf the Prince.* Finally, the npfpripus Speke, whp apprp- priated tbe spuripus declaratipn in the name pf the Prince of Orange, had the hardihppd tp claim, alsp, fhe. nefarious authorship of this rumour.* The claira raade by Speke proves nothing raore than his own infamy. Politieal rancour and zeal for the unfor tunate king naturaUy charged an odious contrivance upon 'the Prince of Orange, and contemporary calurany has been echoed without scruple by Jacobites in succeeding tiraes. There appears not the slightest ground fOr this particular iraputation upon the Marshal and the Prince; and;4he probability is that the rumour was purely accidental. Two circumstances have been relied on as proofs that it was preraeditated ; the inadequacy of the accidental cause assigned, — that is, the burning of a cottage, — and the astonishing rapidity with which it travelled over the island. But the lightest cause wUl agitate masses of men where their minds are predisposed and their passions excited, and fbe popular iraagi nation would circulate its chiraeras witb a velocity far exceeding, all systematic contrivance. This crisis of the Revolution is instructive wben contemplated^ from the present day. There cannot be a better standard of tbe advance of popular intelligence and independence. There was then, even in the capital, no public spirit, no deraocracy, no people, no raagistracy, worthy or conscious of its ^ missipn. All ppwer was divided between the aristpcracy and tbe rabble. When uppn the King's flight tbe pppulace began the werk of plunder and devastation, tbe citizens and tbeir raagistrates were alike supine. No association was formed, no meeting was held, no individual, either in a private or magisterial capacity, stood forward to rally the industrious and orderly classes for self- protection, upon the sudden dissolution of tbe government and of society itself It is easy to iuiagine what would now take, " Sheffield, D. of Buck,, Account of the Revolution. "¦ 'See Hist, of Rev. in Som. Tr. vol, xi. IN THE CITV OF LONDON. 251 place in London upon a similar emergency. A municipal government would start up in perfect vigour before an hour's lapse. It was not so in 1 688. The city might have been fired and pillaged, if the lords spiritual and temporal had not stepped into the breach and restored order. Tbey met at GuUdhall , with tbe intention of consuUing witb the lord mayor and otber magis trates. Finding tbese unequal to the emergency and to their sta tion, this extraordinary council commanded instead of consulting them. Ry a still more resolute assumption of power it sent off orders to tbe army and to tbe fleet, and its commands in every instance produced submission ahd peace.* Tbe Tower was in possession of Skelton, appointed governor by the king. He was invited to attend at GuUdhaU, and upon bis compliance with this artful manoeuvre was deprived of his command. The lieutenancy was given to Lord Lucas, who happened to be quartered there with his cprapany. Tp rerapve tbe fears and cpraplefe tbe security pf the citizens, the cpuncil tPok the further precaution of dis arming all Papists, and issuing Avarranfs to apprehend all popish priests and Jesuits within tbe limits of London and Westminster. But tbe most important and meraorable act of this self-constituted government was a declaration, by which, without verifying or inquiring into facts or raotives, it virtually renounced King James, and applied fo the Prince of Orange. In this declaration the lords and bishops impute the King's departure to popish counsels, and unanimously resolve to resort to the Prince ; who, they say, " out of pure kindness incurred vast expense and much hazard to bis person, in order to rescue them from popery and slavery." It wil be remembered, tbat Lords Godolphin and HaUfax, and not tbe Papists, were the chief authors of the King's flight. The Prince, it raay be added, took care to reimburse his vast expense by the payraent of principal and interest to the Dutch ; and tbc crown of three kingdoms was well worth the personal hazards of one of tbe most contemptible of campaigns. Tbe declaration, though unaniraous, was not carried without warm debates.* Archbishop Sancroft was present, and signed it, but absented him self from aft tbe subsequent meetings which were held at Wbite ball. The Prince meanwhUe was at Heniey, receiving addresses, and * Sheffield, D. of Buck., Account ofthe Rev. *¦ D'Oyley's Life of Sancroft. ¦^S2 PROGRESS OF THE PRINCE. issuing his decrees. No doubt was entertained that the King was by this time withdrawn beyond the realm. " In the Prince of Orange's army," says Sheffield, Duke of Buckingham, " the nation was looked on as tbeir own." Tbe Prince hiraself assuraed the tone and powers of the supreme chief of fhe state. The declaration of the councU of peers at GuildhaU was forwarded to him by a deputation pf four pf its raerabers, Eari Pembroke, Viscount Wey- raputh. Lord Culpepper, and the Bishop of Ely. This was fol- Ipwed by a fulsprae address frpra thecity cf Lpndpn, returning the deepest thanks pf the citizens to the Divine Majesty for his mira- eulous success, and hurably beseeching hira fo vouchsafe to repair to their capital city. The adhesions of courtiers, mUitary officers, and eountry gentieraen crowded upon him. The highways were thronged wifh persons coraing to tender their services and solicit his comraands. On the 13th of December, before tbe raanifesto of fbe councU of peers at GuUdhaU had yet reached hira, he issued the following sovereign order " frora his court at Henley," under thc name and disguise of a declaration : — "Whereas we are informed, that divers regiments, troops, and companies havc been encouraged to disperse theraselves in an unusual and unwarrantable raanner, whereby the public peace is very much disturbed ; we have thought fit hereby to require all colonels and commanders-in-chief of sucb regiments, troops, and companies, by beat of drum, or other'wise, to call together the several officers and soldiers belonging to tbeir respective regiraents, troops, and compatiies, in such places as tbey shall find most convenient for their rendezvous, and there to keep them in good order and discipline. And we do likewise' direct and require all sucb officers and soldiers forthwith to repair to such places as sball be ap pointed for that purpose by the respective colonels and. com- manders-fn-ebief, whereof special notice is to be given unto us for pur further orders." , Tbe Prince , it will be observed, by describing the disbanded troops as " encpuraged to disperse themselves," etc. disputes the authprity of tbe King's orders. It is said that be took umbrage because tbe lords at GuildhaU did not directly invite bim fo assume the powers of governraent, instead of proposing as they did to support and co-operate with him. He, however, chose to under- SEIZURE OF THE KING. 253 stand it in the former sense ; and Bishop Burnet, to justify him, had the boldness to call it " an invitation to him to come and take the government of tbe nation into his hands." On tlie Mth the Prince of Orange moved his court from Henley to Windsor. James , like all tyrants and most kings, considered the nation as made for his use; he, therefore, did not scrupule to leave his people in a state of anarchy, with tbe selfish purpose of embarrassing his rival, and deriving advantage from public confusion. There were now two self-constituted provisional governments; the lords at WhitehaU, and the Prince of Orange, with bis conclave of lords and gentlemen, at Windsor. Tbey acted wUhout subordination, concert, or coUision. An unexpected incident soon interfered witb their functions, and gave a new turn to their proceedings. News came that tbe King was still in England, a prisoii^r in the hands of tbe rabble of a smaU fishing town within a short distance of his capital. CHAPTER XVII. The King seized at Feversham.— His Return lo Wbiteball. — Tbe Dutch Troops march upon the Capital. — Second and final Departure of the King. — Entry ofthe Prince of Orange Into London. — Tbe Peers summoned by him, — Reception and Conduclof James II, in France. There are -various narratives, by professed eye-witnesses and others, of tbe first flight of James IL, his detention at Feversham, and his return to Whitehall in momentary triumph. His own account of bis adventures, from bis first flight to his final escape, is circumstantial, and may be regarded as authentic* It exists in MS. in the French archives, as given with his own hand to the community of nuns founded at ChaUlot, near Paris, by Queen Henrietta, his mother.* There is in bis narrative little bitterness, * See Appendix. '' It appears to be an extract from tbe King's MS. Memoirs, translated into French for tbe use of tbe nuns. There is a copy among the papers of tbe late Sir J. Mackintosh. Nearly the whole ofthe same passage Is cited by tbe compiler of the Life of James II. 254 SEIZURE OF THE KING and no apparent exaggeration. He rather imderstates, as compared witb other accounts, the outrages offered to him, and negatives by implication the theatric recognitions of bis person, the sudden transitions from gross ribaldry to genuflexions and tears, andthe royal raunificence with which be has been represented to have aUowed the plunderers to retain 400 guineas of wbicb they had robbed hira, demanding only tbe restitution of bis jewels. Tbe King chose Sir Edward Hales for the companion of his flight. They left Whitehall at one in the raorning of Tuesday, the llth of Deceraber (0'. S.), and crossed in a small boat from Privy Gardens tp VauxhaUj as tbe Queen had dpne. The King, whilst crpssing pver, threw the great seal intp the Tharaes. " Sheldpn, pne of fbe King's equerries, having previded relays pf hprses, they reached Feversham abput ten in the raprning, and erabarked in a custoni- hpuse bpy, which Sir Edward Hales had hired fp take them to France. The King, Hales, and Sheldpn, went pn bpard ; the wind was fair, but it blew so strong a gale that the raaster of the vessel would not venture to sea without more ballast. The King, hiraself a good seaman, agreed with the raaster, and they ran ashore, for the purpose of taking in ballast, at the western end of Sheppy, in tending to get under weigh at half flood. The coraraander of the hoy all this tirae knew not wbom be had on board. About eleven at nigbt the vessel 'wns afloat once more and about to sail away, wben a band of between fifty and sixty arraed freebooters ap proached tbem in tbree Feversham fishing-boats. All Protestants were licensed to chase priests and Papists as their proper prey by sea and land. It was taken up as a sort of trade, especiaUy by the fishermen on tbe river, and in the pprts ppppsUe tp France. A Feversbara party pf this descriptipn bparded the King's hoy; their captain, named Ames, juraped into the cabin and seized the King, witb bis two corapanions, as suspected Papists. Sir Edward Hales put fifty guineas into his band, and whispered him' that he should have a hundred more if he procured thera an opportunity to escape. He took the raoney, proraised to do what was required of him, said he sbould go ashore for the purpose ; and, when leaving the vessel,, advised thera to give hira their raoney and other valuable effects, as bis comrades were persons very capable of rifling them whUst he was away. They accordingly gave him their raoney and ¦ It was found by a waterman soon after the Revolution. AT FEVERSHAM. 2.% watches. He faUed to come back, and his comrades justified his opinion of tbem. A party of them rushed into tbe cabin, said that their prisoners bad not given aU to the captain, insisted on searching, and did search them, especially, according to tbe account of an eye witness, the unfortunate King, witb tbe utmost rudeness and ribaldry,* • One caUed hira " a hatchet-faced Jesuit," and another said be knew bim by his lank jaws to be Father Petre. The King had concealed ahout his person tbe Queen's diamond bodkin and bis coronation ring. This valuable prize escaped them. With all their insolence and rapacity tbey made but a careless search, and were so ignorant that tbey returned tbe King a pair of diamond buckles, supposing them to be-glass. The captain did not return until broad daylight on the morning of the I3tb, and then not to contrive their escape, but to take them before a magistrate. Sir Edward Hales was now recognised for tbe first time, but the King was still unknown. A hackney-coach having been brought to the wafer-side, they were conveyed in it to an inn. The King states that, finding he was known, notwith standing his plain coat and black wig, soon after he arrived at the inn, he took no further trouble to conceal himself But his state of raind may be presumed to have been such, as to render him in capable of recording, or remembering with exactness, bis own de meanour, or what was passing around bira. According to the let ter before cited, he tried every art to conceal himself : he caUed for tbe commonest refreshments, to give tbe idea of bis being but a common man; but he soon found that he was known, and was terrified to distraction by the rude clamour ofthe populace. Hav ing obtained pen, ink, and paper, he wrote, tore, wrote again ; and at last addressed a note to Lord Winchelsea, the lord-lieutenant of the county. The writer of the letter professes to have had a con versation with him on his arrival at the inn. According to him tbe King complained of groundless fears and jealousies, and of " tbe ill offices done him by the black coats ;" insisted on the honesty of his intentions, the purity of his conscience, his readiness to suffer and die ; declared that he read and found comfort in the Scriptures ; tbat be never meant to oppress conscience or destroy the subject's hberty ; and asked tbe person whom he addressed, what errors he had committed — what he bad dOne to bring bim to bis actual situa- ' Private letter in Tindall's continuation of Rapin. 256 SEIZURE OF THE KING, tkra. He next charged tbe Prince of Orange with seeking not only his crown but bis life, and entreated "every churchman and layman in the room" to get bira a boat and let him escape, or " bis blood would be upon their beads." The populace becarae stiU more Out rageous, from the fear of his prevailing witb those about bim to procure bis escape. He then tried fo obtain bis Uberty from the rabble themselves, by addressing them at one raoment in a tone of abject entreaty, tbe next moraent in the language of reproach and authority as their King. During tbree hours, he went through a raelancholy round of reraonstrating, threatening, promising, and iraploring, in all the infirmity of distress and fear, and was at last treated by tbe very populace witb such familiar scorn, that some of the raore respectable persons present requested Sir Edward Hales to divert bim from a course of language and demeanour wbicb ex posed him to conterapt. Lord Winchelsea carae in haste, and had sorae difficulty to prevaU on the raultUude tp perrait the King's re moval frora the inn to a private house. He was conducted, or dragged pu foot, through the dirty streets of Feversham, witb the rabble shouting in his ears and pressing upon his person. On his arrival, heat one raoraent wept ; the next he was cheerful;- be talked of tbe virtues of St. Winifred's WeU, and ofhis having lost a pieee ofthe wood ofthe true cross, which had bdonged to Edward the Confessor. His mind was evidentiy broken down." Next morning, two captains of militia, named Dixwell and, Ox- (siiidon, came with tbeir respective corapanies, not to release bira frora the hands of the populace, but to recoraraend tbemselves to tbe Prince of Orange by securing his person. The fishermen, who constituted tbe greater part of his rabble guard, confined him with stifl more rigour, and made bis apartraent their guard room. None approached bira but witb their permission, and un armed. After an unaccountaWe lapse of tirae, the news ofhis situiation reached tbe two provisional governraents. The raUitia captains sent a law7er, named Nappleton, to acquaint the Prince of Orange with tbe service whicb tbey were rendering hira, and to receive his coraraands. He was referred to Dr. Burnet, on bis arrival at ' " She (a great court lady) further imparled to me, that tbe King was so ter ribly possessed of bis danger, and so deeply affected wben tbe Princess Anne went away, tbat it disordered him in his understanding, but tbat be recovered pretty v?ell on his return." Reresby's Memoirs. HIS LETTER TO THE COUNCIL. J&7 Windsor, late in the night. " Why," said the Doctor, with much displeasure, "did yon not let him go?" Nappleton ; replied^ " Would you have him torn in pieces by the mob ? " The Prince was in bedw Bentinck awoke him; " and Zuylistein," says Bishop Burnet, " was ordered by the Prince to go immediately to Fe-'- versham, and to see the King safe and at full liberty to go whi thersoever he pleased." It wiU presently appear that Zuylistein was not sent, as stated by the Bishop; and that tbe Prince of Orange was disturbed in his sleep to no purpose. The King, at the same time, coatrived to send the news of his distress to London. His messenger, a poor countryman, came to Whitehall, and waited long at the council-chamber door before any person would attend to him. * Halifax was president ofthe council of peers whieh sat there. Upon learning the arrival of a letter from the King, announcing his detention, tbat lord is accused of instantly adjourning the meeting.* But Mulgrave being also secretly informed, implored the lords to resume tbeir seats for a moment, and bear a communication ofthe last iraportance, admitting of no delay. The want of time to concert an evasion, joined witb a sense of shame, made tbem hear what be bad to say, and call in the mes senger. Tbe poor countryman deUvered a letter, without address, which James charged him to give to any persons who would come forward to save him, and described, witb tears, the wretched situa tion of tbe King. The letter merely acquainted the reader with his captivity in tbe hands of an insolent rabble at Feversham. Mul grave impressed upon the lords the barbarity of conniving at the rabble's tearing in pieces one who, witb all his popery, was still tbeir sovereign. Tbey ordered Lord Feversham, with 200 of the guards, to rescue him and to protect bis retreat, if he persisted in his resolution. Sucb is, in substance, the version of what passed at the council given by Lord Mulgrave, who was himself a chief actor in tbe scene. According to other accounts, tbe council deputed Lords Feversham, Aylesbury, Yarmouth, and Middleton, to invite him back." " It was," says Burnet, "left to his (the King's) general, the Earl of Feversham, to do what he thought best, so be went for him with his coaches and guards." The compiler from tbe King's MS. Memoirs says expressly, that "they (the lords sitting at White- • Sheffield, D. of Buck., Accountof the Revolutioir. ' Id. ibid' ' Hist, of Deser. Life of K,. William. Echard, Kennet, Reresby. u. 17 258 JAMES RETURNS TO LONDON. hall) thought fit to request his Majesty to return." * The King, in bis account, is less explicit. , Tbe ruraour of bis detention, be says, brought to Feversbara several of his iraraediate servants, and of the raUitary officers who remained faithful to bira. Sorae ofthe latter brought bira word tbat Lord Feversbara was coraing with a detach raent of the guards and horse grenadiers, to rescue hira frora the populace and escort hira to London, " whither," says the King, " his Majesty's friends desired tbat he should corae." On Saturday morning, the 15th of Deceraber, iLord Feversbara arrived", and inforraed the King that he had left his detachment af Sittingbourne. The troops reraained behind to prevent a collision with tbe armed mob of fishermen, who had sworn vengeance against the guards. Lord Feversbara, and other persons whom tbey disliked, if they should present themselves.* It is stated by the corapiler frora tbe Meraoirs, that Lord Middleton joined tbe King upon the news of bis captivity. The most probable inference from both tbe variances and coincidences in these several versions seems to be, tbat the coimcil at Whitehall sent Lord Feversbara and his detachraent to rescue the King, and protect him, in the exercise of bis own discretion, to depart or return; and that the other lords went not as deputies, but as individual volunteers, to advise bis coming back. Lord Winchelsea, it is said, had already convinced him of the prudence of returning to London, calling round hira his friends, and negociating with tbe Prince of Orange,'' Tbe King, however advised or influenced, left Feversbara for London on the raorning of the 15th. The Kentish gentlemen, wbo thought to make their base court to tbe Prince of Orange by secur ing bim, now trembled at the vengeance of tbeir sovereign."* They escaped punishment, but were disappointed of their expected re- ¦ward. Even Nappleton, their raessenger, who appears, by tbe way, to bave executed his raission in a spirit of generous huraanity, was ever after regarded with an evil eye for bis share in the erabarrass raent produced to the actual ruler and future king by the momen tary re-appearance of King Jaraes." "The great object of tbe freebooters of Feversbara, next to plunder, appears to, have been tbat the King should not leave England. Tbey thought their own Uves compromised if they al- Llfe, etc. vol. ii. 260- '' Letter- before cited. " Ralph, vol. ii. 10B8: French MS. account by K. James. See App, ' Kennet, HIS RECEPTION THERE. 259 lowed bis escape after they had once seized him.* Being assured on this point, they consented to yield him up to the two captains of mUitia, who in their turn were relieved at Sittingbourne by the detachment of guards. The King, having arrived at Rochester, sent forward Lord Feversham with a credential letter to the Prince ofOrange, proposing an interview in London on the following Monday, to settle, as he expressed it, the distractions of the nation, and inviting his Highness to occupy the Palace of St. James's. Lord Feversham had orders to execute bis commission so expe ditiously as to meet the King at Whitehall on the following day. The King next morning continued his journey to town, passed through the city, and, to bis surprise, was received with every demonstration of popular enthusiasm. Crowds of people and acclamations of joy, it has been said, attended upon him to his very bedchamber at Whitehall. That he was received with popular shouts is proved hy many concurrent testimonies. There is nothing extraordinary in tbe fact. It may have been a compassionate re action in favour of a criminal but iU-fated faUen king. Tbe popular humour is variable to a proverb ; and tbe rabble, — a monster with many heads, — bas also many voices. WhitehaU was never more crowded than on tbe return of James. His household officers and domestics resumed tbeir badges of service and their duties; his apartments were filled with courtiers impatient to do him homage. " Even the Papists," says Bishop Burnet, " crept out of their lurking holes, and appeared at court witb much assurance."* The palace, according to others, was crowded with priests, Jesuits, and Irishmen." It was, doubtless, a very criminal assurance in these proscribed castes to think they might breathe tbe air of tbe court and of freedom, and very pre sumptuous in the disbanded Irish officers to tender tbeir service and their swords once more to their lawful sovereign. But tbe assertion seems exaggerated, if not groundless. A priest indeed is said to bave imperiously required the chamberlain, Lord Mulgrave, to refit his apartments in tbe palace.^ Neither this assertion, nor tbe general allegation, which it is meant to iUustrate, receive the sUghtest countenance from tbe chamberlain himself;^ and no one priest. Papist, or Irishman, is named. The unhappy spirit ¦ Letter in Tindall. ' Bur. vol. lii. p. 353, ' Hist, of Deser. ^ Hist, of Deser. Echard, Oldmixon, etc. ' Sheffield, D. of Buck., Account ofthe Revoluti.on. 17* 260 MESSAGE FROM THE PRINCE of Protestant bigotry, conturaely, and calurany, with which tbe Catholics are treated in the conteraporary and subsequent histories ofthe Revolution, can hardly be perused by liberal Protestants at the present day without a c'orapound feeling of pity and disgust. It was raade a crirae in the King hiraself that " he began to take heart.'" His discharging frora Newgate and frora the warrant of the rabble the popish Bishop Leyburn, whose only crirae was bis popery and priesthood, bas been urged as decisive proof of his inveterate purpose to force popery upon the consciences of his Protestant subjects. It seeras, however, that the shouts of the populace, and the homage of the courtiers, both equaUy treacherous, raised tbe spirits of the King, and raade hira rebuke those of bis friends wbo had sat in the WhUehall council of government. But bis courage and his hopes soon vanished. He was not long at Whitehall, when, instead of being met as he expected by Lord Feversbara, Count ZuyUstein carae to him witb a letter from the Prince of Orange. The Prince acknowledged tbe receipt of the King's letter brought by Lord Feversbara ; said the contents and the verbal propositions brought by tbat lord were of too rauch consequence fo be then replied to ; and expressed bis desire that fbe King should reraain at Rochester. The King answered, witb all huraUity, that if he had received the Prince's raessage at Bochester, he would have reraained there; but, as it had happened otherwise^ be hoped tbe Prince would corae next day to St. Jaraes's, in order thaf they might -confer together on the subject of his coraraunication through Lord Feversbara. Zuylistein replied, that he was well assured the Prince would not ccine tp Lpndpn until the King's trppps were all withdrawn ; and the King " seeing," says tbe ccrapiler pf the life, " tbat the Prince's raessages new assumed the air of cora mands, not of requests," placed his answer to tbe Prince's letter in tbe bands of Zuylistein. But Zuylistein had no sooner left tbe King's presence tban tbe Count de Roye carae in to say, tbat Lord Feversbara, upon presenting the King's : letter, was iraprisoned at Windsor Castle by fhe Prince Of Orange. Tbe King imme diately ordered Zuylistein to be caUed back ; expressed to bim fhe surprise with whicb he learned that Lord Feversham, a public envpy, had been imprisened, in vielatipn of the law and practice ¦ Bur. vol. iii. p, 353, '' Sheffield, D,,of Buck,, Account of tbe Revolution. TO TIIE KING. 261 of nations ; and said he hoped the Prince, out of consideration for him, as well as respect for public faith, would release his minister. The Prince of Orange neither released Lord Feversham, nor took any other notice of the letter of the King. It should be observed here, that no step was really taken by the Prince of Orange upon the communication made hy Nappleton of the King's detention at Feversham and the perU of his Ufe; that Count Zuylistein was not sent until Lord Feversham had arrived with the King's letter at Windsor ; and that the transaction seriously compromises the credit of Bishop Burnet and the humanity of William III. According to all the historians of the Revolution,. Zuylistein lost his way, and thus missed tbe King. One account states that he overtook the King at Somerset House.* But it seems much more probable, that Zuylistein, instead of losing his way, bad come direct from Windsor, wben he met the King in the Strand. Lord Feversham must bave travelled all Saturday night to reach Windsor from Rochester on Sunday morning. Zuylistein, therefore, who did not leave Windsor until tbe King's letter and Lord Feversham had arrived there, intead of losing his way in Kent, had barely time to meet the King on his arrival on Sunday in the capital. As to the imprisonment of Lord Feversham, his coming without a pass is a weak pretence. He was accredited by tbe King : his real crime was his obeying the King's order, by dis banding the army without asking leave of the Prince of Orange, and his share in the embarrassing return of bis unfortunate master. This imprisonment was not a simple exercise of the right of con quest : it was tyrannical. The scene at Whitehall soon began to shift : the King dates the change from the arrival of Zuylistein. * Confiding in the applause which had greeted him on his passage through the city, he sent a message to two aldermen, Sir T. Stamps and Sir S. Lewis, offering to place himself in the hands of the aldermen and common councU, untU he should bave given satisfaction and security to his people for their religion and liberties in a free parliament, upon tbeir guaran teeing on tbeir part the safety of his person. His proposal was rejected through the influence of Alderman Clayton, on the ground " "Gr, Br. Just Complaint," by Sir J. Montgomery. ' " Mais le Roi n'y fut pas long-temps sans voir changer la scene; car inconti nent apres son arrivee M, de Zuylistein lui apporf'ii une lettre du Prinre d'Orange," See App. 362 THE PRINCE'S INCERTITUDE. that the city could not give the guarantee required. » The King sumraoned a privy councU in the evening : only eight raerabers at tended it; tbese were tbe Duke of HamUton, Lords Craven, Berke ley, Middleton, Preston, and Godolphin, Trevor (Master of tbe Rolls), and Titus. The only result was a proclamation for sup pressing tumultuary outrages. It appeared in the Gazette, and was King Jaraes's last act of sovereignty in England. Thus, it has been said, the last breath of Jaraes's expiring power was given to popery and papists. It sbould be added that he protected tbem only from violence and plunder. But bis protection was vain : his authority began to be despised. Tbe officers of tbe exchequer would not hpnour his draughts unless cpunfersigned by the Prince pf Orange. Lprd Bellasis, as already stated, refused tp lend hira a thousand ppunds, * and he was reduced tp tbe buraUiatipn of bprrpwing a hundred guineas pf Lord Godolphin, for araong other purposes that of touching for tbe King's evU!" It may be said, tbat tbe raan who would eraploy time and raoney for so foolish a purpose was unfit to rule a nation. But reigning princes are not selected for their wisdora of tbeir virtues, or selected at all. James II. was really one of tbe less despicable princes of his lime, and the raass of the people in all countries were as low in tbe scale of reason and knowledge as their sovereigns. , Windsor Castle, raeanwhUe, was tbe scene of fear and ferraent. The shouts of joy and show of welcome which attended tbe King startled his enemies.,'' Tbe Prince of Orange, astonished by tbe sudden change, and alarraed by the inconstant genius ofthe English people," desired the advice of tbe principal persons around him.' Harsh and violent raeasures were proposed. One proposition was to send the King a prisoner to Breda. Lord Clarendon is accused \ of having strongly urged his being confined there as a hostage for the safety of tbe Irish "Protestants and subraission of Tyrconnel. According to others, that Jacobite lord advised sending King James to the Tower;^ and " hinted at soraething further."* The Prince of Orange, according to Burnet, allowed that those counsels raight be "good and wise," but rejected thera from deference to the Princess his wife ; and also, because they raight bave a bad »" Gr. Br. Just Complaint." Life of K.James, vol.ii. 27L " Hal. MS. ¦ State Tracts, vol. 1. Reign Will. HI. " Sheffield, D. of Buck., Account of tbe Rev. ° • Life of K. James. ' Sheffield, D. of Buck. Bur. vol. lii. p. 354. « Conduct of tbe Ducbess of Marl. i" Sheffield, D. of Buck. ADVANCE OP THE DUTCH TROOPS. 263 effect upon the parliament. Tbe spirit of party and of religion must surely have made Rapin beUe his knowledge of the character of WUliam, when he says that Prince rejected them with indig nation. Tbe Prince of Orange preferred holding the King to his avowed purpose of withdrawing from the realm. Burnet's words are so frankly or unwittingly charaGteristic of a transac tion which proved one of tbe great hinges of the Revolution, that they should be cited : — "It was thought necessary," says he, " to stick to the point of the King's deserting his people, and not to give up that by entering upon any treaty with him ; " in other words, it was determined to drive the King by artful menace, and the display of force, into a desertion of his people, and de throne him for that forced desertion, as for his voluntary act, inspired by the popery of his counsellors and bis own. James II., by assuming a power above the laws, assuredly incurred the pe nalty of forfeiture of the throne, but he sbould have been unhinged by an ingenuous, just, and national proceeding, upon principles worthy of a nation exercising the most sacred of its rights, and not upon false pretences and by perfidious paltry arts. Tyrants, like otber criminals, sbould be heard hefore tbey are judged. Tbe news of the King's arrival in the capital no sooner reached Windsor than Count Solms was commanded to advance upon London, witb tbe Prince's Dutch guards. His first orders are said to have been to take post tbat night at Chelsea and Kensing ton. The result of the deliberations at Windsor was, tbat he received fresh orders to strike a more decisive and reckless blow at the crown and heart of King James. Towards night the King was informed that Solms was coming to take the posts at White hall with the Dutch guards of the Prince of Orange. No previous intimation of this extreme proceeding had been given by the Prince to the unfortunate King. To act upon tbe King's fears and his imagination was part of tbe system of tactics settled at Windsor. The King said he could not believe it. He supposed the Dutch troops were come to occupy the posts at St. James's, in pursuance of his invitation to the Prince. Towards eleven at night, when the King was going to bed, Lord Craven, tbe com manding officer on duty, came to tell bim tbat the Dutch horse and foot were marching through the Park, in order of hattie, to take possession of Whitehall. " The stout Earl of Craven," says the Duke of Buckingham, "resolved to be cut in pieces rather 264 SECOND AND FINAL than resign his posts at Whitehall to the Prince's guards, but fbe King prevented that unnecessary bloodshed with a great deal of care and kindness." He sent for Count Solras, told bira there raust be sorae raistake, and suggested that bis orders applied only to St. Jaraes's fialace. The Count reraoved all doubt, by producing bis written orders. Thp King coraraanded Lord Craven to with draw his men, bade Count Solras " do his office," and went to bed inhis palace, in the heart of his kingdora, tbe prisoner of a handful of Dutcbraen. This was but the prelude to a scene of darker bue and raore profound contrivance. Lord Middletpn, whp acted as the lord in waiting upon the King, soon entered his bedcharaber. He found Jaraes so fast asleep, tbat drawing the curtain did not awake hira.* It was necessary to speak loud in bis ear, upon wbicb be started, but recovering hiraself, asked Lord Middleton, who was kneeling at his bed-side, what was the matter. That Lord told bim that Lords Shrewsbury, Delamere, and Halifax were come witb a raessage frora fhe Prince of Orange, which they insisted upon coramunicating iraraediately, even at that unseasonable hour. Tbe King desired that they sbould be called in : upon being introduced, tbey presented to him the foUowing warrant : — "We desire you, the lord Marquis of Halifax, the Earl of Shrewsbury, and the lord Delaraere, to tell fbe King, that it is thought convenient, for the greater quiet of tbe city, and the greater safety of his person, tbat be do reraove to Hara, wbere he shall be attended by bis guards, wbo will be ready to preserve bim frora any disturbance. f Given at Windsor, the 1 7th of Deceraber, 1688." " W. Prince of Orange." Lord Halifax added, that the Prince designed to enfer London at noon next day, that tbe King raust be ready to set out at nine in the raorning ; that he raight take his own servants ; but tbat the Prince of Orange would provide hira with a guard. Tbe King being, he says, absolutely in tbeir power, and without remedy, bowed with subraission to this iraperious raandate. He raerely fcquested that Hara raight be changed for Rochester, tbe place ' Life, etc. p. 265. DEPARTURE OF THE KING. 265 named already by the Prince, objecting to tbe bouse at Ham as Ul furnished for a winter residence. It is not improbable that he also thought it too near the Tower. The commissioners under took to transmit his request, and left him in a state to make not only the King, but tbe tyrant pitied. Tbe Prince of Orange bad by this time come to Sion House. He readily acceded to a request which forwarded his designs, and his consent was communicated at eight in the morning to tbe three lords by Rentinck. Lords HaUfax, Shrewsbury, and Dela mere were punctual to their appointment, at nine, with the King. His arrangements were already made, without yet knowing what should be his destination. Upon being informed by tbem that he might proceed under a Dutch guard to Rochester, he re quested — for he could no longer command — that bis carriages, his horses, and the Dutch guards, might go over London Rridge and meet him at Gravesend, whither he should proceed hy water in his barge. Lord Halifax objected that tbe passage of the King's train and guards through the city might move compassion and excite discorder, and preferred their crossing the river by Lambeth ferry. Tbe King replied, that tbe wind was high, and much time would he lost. " My lord Halifax," says he, " was very unreason able in his arguing, not to give it a worse name ; but my lord Shrewsbury was fair and civU, and agreed to what his Majesty said."* Eventually it was arranged, tbat the King's train should pass by the bridge, and that the King should go down the river in his barge, witb the Dutch guards in small boats as his escort. From the King's account in the MSS^ of Chaillot, and in the printed extracts from his Memoirs, the hardships of his de parture appear to have been exaggerated, and tbe distress and pathos of the scene heightened. He states in bis Memoirs, that the foreign ministers, and several lords and gentlemen who came to lake leave of bim at the water-side, could not refrain from shed ding tears.* In the MSS. of Chaillot this is omitted. Among those who attended him in the barge he names lords Arran, Dunbarton, Litchfield, and Aylesbury, Sir John Fenwick, Sir J ohn Talbot, and Colonels Southville and Sutherland, who bad thrown up their commissions in the army. A party of the foot guards of the Prince of Orange went in boats before and behind the ¦ MS, Mem, cited in Li/e, etc. '¦ Ibid. -^67, 266 ENTRY OF THE PRINCE King's barge. So mucb tirae bad been lost about the Dutch escort that the tide was lost, and it was seven in the evening before they reached Gravesend. The King slept there that night, strictly guarded, and proceeded to Rochester next raorning. The two politic exp.eriraenfs tbus successfully hazarded upon the King deraand a raoraent's pause. First, a foreign and hostUe force is raarched by surprise, witb guns charged and raatches lighted, to dispossess his guards of tbeir posts, and hold hira prisoner in bis palace. Next, and before his nerves bad re covered the first shock, his fears are refreshed, and his ima gination scared by a warrant brought at nudnight whUe he slept, to remove bim frora his horae and hearth. The chief odiura of this black transaction should not fall on the Prince of Orange. " The King stood in tbe way of the Prince, and WiUiam would doubtless have thought it a puerile weakness, or still more puerile morality, to let the ties of kindred interfere witb a ruling passion and great designs. There is less excuse, or rather no excuse, for tbe three English nobleraen who descended to becorae bis instruraents. They should bave left a foreign' raandate fo be delivered to a king of England in bad French by sorae Dutch rainion of tbe Prince of Orange. Jaraes, with all his popery, as tbe Duke of Buckinghara justly observed, was still their King, and he is no true patriot wbo does not feel tbat tbe independence, and honour, and liberty of his country are wounded in tbe person of its sovereign. The conduct of Lord Halifax was indescribably base. He went to tbe Prince of Orange as tbe coranussioner of the King, secretly betrayed his trust, and adding open sharae to bidden perfidy, now carae back fo tbe King as a coraraissioner, or soraething worse, frora the Prince. It is stated tbat WiUiam could not help smiling — he wbo sraUed so rarely— -at fhe wilUngness witb wbicb Lord HaUfax consented to play so raean a part.* He was norainated, it appears, by the Prince, as " an easy trial"* ofhis new faith, and as an expiation of bis refusal to join those who invited the dehverer. Perbaps WiUiara had already resolved to eraploy bira, and thought the dishonoured peer would be so ranch the raore useful rainister. Tbe King bad not yet left WhitehaU, when preparations began * Sheffield Duke of Buckingham. Account of the Revolution. '¦ Id, Ibid. OF ORANGE INTO LONDON. 267 for the entry of the Prince into London. They seemed the pre cautions of a victorious invader entering a conquered capital. The Tower was occupied by a regiment of his guards, and the rest of the Dutch army was quartered in and near London upon the inhabitants.* This was not aU. The EngUsh guards, and other native soldiers, were ordered away from London to distances not less than twenty miles.* Tilbury Fort,' which commanded the river, had been occupied for him two days before, upon the first flight of the Kmg. The Duke of Grafton was appointed to execute this service. He had orders to dislodge as party of Irish stationed there for King James. But the Irish had already evacuated the Jort upon the King's flight, not, as it is generally stated, without orders, but in pursuance of orders from tbe lords at GuUdhall." Finding themselves abandoned by tbeir sovereign, and placed out of the pale of society and humanity,'' tbey seized a merchant vessel in tbe river, endeavoured to escape by it, ran it aground at Gravesend, were attacked from the shore, and, after the loss of some lives on both sides, were disarmed and sent pri soners to the Isle of Wight. The life of tbe Duke of Grafton, meanwhile, is stated to bave been attempted as he rode at the head of his regiment through tbe Strand— ^by an Irisb trooper, accord ing to some — by an Irish officer, according to others — and this attempt at assassination was put forward as the chief reason for turning King James and bis guards out of Wbiteball and the capital. How much more likely, it was said, that some of the King's soldiers would attempt the life of tbe Prince, if both the King and his soldiers were not sent away before the Prince made his entry." Was the life of the Duke of Grafton reaUy attempted ? It is so transmitted in the annals of the Revolution, without a suggestion of doubt; although the flagrant improbabUity alone might have suggested distrust. Why should an assassin choose one of those moments in which his escape was impossible ? Why single out a common-place victim whose death could neither gratify vengeance nor serve a cause ? Rut this attempted assassination, thus con fidently handed down as an undisputed fact, was not only question able hut questioned at the time. According to private and con- • Reresby, Mem. >¦ Ibid. " Lutt. Diary. '' Tanquam aqua et igni interdicti, are the words of Van Citters, in a dispatch, to the States General. " Rapin. 208 ENTRY OF THE PRINCE fidential letters of the day written from London by persons evi dently weU- inforraed, sorae asserted that tbe Duke's life was at terapted, but others said that the trooper's horse having become restive brought hira into contact witb the Duke's soldiers; fhat withput airaing at any person in particular, he drew bis pistol upon receiving several blows ; tbat either his pistol missed fire, or he did not even try to discbarge it, and that bofh he and his horse were instantiy kiUed by the soldiers of the Duke.* If the un fortunate trooper was innocent ofthe intention to assassinate, he was also innocent ofthe crime of being an Irishman. The latter was raerely presuraed frora the former ; and continuing the fallacy in what logicians call a vicious circle, his being an Irishman was gi'^en back as proof of his being an assassin. To give the double crirae of Irishry and assassination an air of iraportance, some his torians have proraoted the trooper to an officer. This incident merits notice only as an instance of the want of care or conscience with which imputation is handed down for fact, and obloquy for truth, wben it serves a purpose or flatters a prejudice. The Prince of Orange having taken possession of London by bis troops, entered it in person with a numerous and splendid train of friends and followers, about two o'clock, in an open carriage, witb only Marshal Schoraberg, a fereign spldier pf fortune, bis lieutenant-general, seated by his side.* Theraeb, pr, as deupmi- nated by mPst writers, the rabble, played its prpper part, crpwding and sbputing rpund bira as rpund King Jaraes." St. James's Palace, in whicb he tppk up his residence, was threnged te dp him hpmage, as Wbiteball had been fp dp hpmage fp King James the day be fore. He rather avoided tban courted fhe shouts and cheers of the populace, disgusted, perbaps, with their versafiUfy. But he had equal reason to be disgusted with the mob of the court. Upon tbe departure of tbe King, Whitehall became a desert. Those who bad flocked to hira on his re-appearance rushed to St. Jaraes's to raake their eager court. It sbould instruct not surprise tbe student of tbe Revolution of 1 688, to find among thera a man of tbe reputation of Evelyn. He went to see the King dine in public on the 17th, saw hira take barge, under a Dutch guard, for Rochester, on the 18th, proceeded directly frora this "sad sight," as be calls if, to St. Jaraes's, where he saw the Prince and his ' Sawyer's News Letters, last six months, 1688. ' Lutt. Diary, ¦ Sheffield, Duke of Bukingbam, Reres. Mem. ' OF ORANGE INTO LONDON. 269 " greate court," and has himself ingenuously recorded all this in his Diary.* This trait should he viewed as characterising the Revolution and the age, not as degrading Evelyn. The Archbishop of Canterbury, and several bishops, had waUed upon the King immediately on his return to WhitehaU.* All the bishops in or near London, with the single exception of the Arch bishop, waited on tbe Prince ofOrange at St. James's the day after be arrived." On the next day but one, the Bishop of London, witb the clergy of his diocese, and a heterodox mixture of some dissenting ministers, waited in a body on the Prince. ^ The pre sence of the dissenting ministers must have been somewhat unseasonable, if the Bishop, as it is stated, addressed the Prince of Orange on behalf of tbe Church, and besought for it his Highness's special protection." This must have been understood as mean ing tbe maintenance of the tests. Those of the nonconformist ministers who had not appeared in the train of the Bishop came, after a few days, in a body, about ninety in number, with their congratulations, and met with a gracious reception. ^ But the public body most early and most eager in its congratulations was the city of London ; reraerabering, and justiy, the lawless abrogation of its charter by King Jaraes. The alderraen and sheriffs went out on horseback to meet the Prince on his way to tbe capital, and next day the alderraen, deputies, and com- mon-councilmen, carae to congratulate hira at St. James's. The Lord Mayor, Sir John Chapman, was at tbe moment on bis death-bed, from the shock of beholding the Lord Chancellor Jef freys, in a sailor's jacket, with his eye-brows shaved, brought be fore him as a criminal in the hands of the populace. Sir George Treby, wbo bad been sworn recorder shortly before,^ headed the cavalcade, and addressed tbe Prince of Orange in a speech worth reference only as a curiosity. Speaking of tbe Prince's ancestors, be says, " They have long enjoyed a title singular and transcendant, viz. tobe the champions of Almighty God, sent forth in several ages," &c. Then coming to the Prince himself, he continues, " To this divine commission our nobles, our gentry, and, among them, our brave English soldiers, rendered themselves and tbeir arms ¦ Vol. i. pp. 619, 620. ' Life of Sancroft, 386. " Ibid. 409. Burnet. '* "Some Account of the Application of the pious and noble Prelate, Henry, Bishop ofLondon," etc. 6th Coll. State Papers. ' Lutt. Diary. ' Ralph, 1073. ^ Lutt. Diary. 270 PUBLIC CEREMONIAL. upon your appearing. Great Sir, wben we look back to the last raonth, and conteraplate the swiftness and fulness of our present deliverance, astonished, we think it miraculous. Your Highness, led by the hand of Heaven," &c. ; but enougb of this fiistian, which would be profane, if it were not too fooUsh. The lawyers came headed by old Sqrgeant Maynard, wbo was then near ninety, and said, according to Bishop Burnet, the Uveliest thing which the occa sion produced. WUUara, witb bis accustoraed want of wit and grace, could iraagine no better corapliment to the old sergeant than that ofhis having outUved aU the lawyers ofhis time; to whicb be replied, that he would have survived tbe law itself but for tbe arrival of bis Highness. In this, as in other epigraras, there was raore wit than truth. The laconic and characteristic reraark of Swift upon it is, " He was an old rogue for all that." * Passing over tbe character of Sergeant Maynard, it might be suggested in rejoinder, tbat tbe chief destroyers, of tbe law were tbe lawyers, its own offspring, by their iniquitous judgments; their corrupt plead ings, and their sycophant petitions. The 18tb (from the Prince's arrival at two o'clock),* the 19fh, and the 20th, having been passed in public ceremonials, and the more iraportant business of secret management with persons wbo had to stipulate terms for the future, and recorapense for tbc past," the Prince of Orange suraraoned tbe lords spiritual and teraporal, to consider the actual state of tbe nation and tbe governraent, on the 21st of Deceraber. There was in this proceeding an air of good faith and magnaniraity. He was in tbe position of a con queror, with the nation at bis feet. It bas heen observed, that tbe seven lords and gentleraen who signed the invUation stipulated no conditions for tbeir country. The lords who, forraed theraselves into a provisional governraent at GuildhaU, without forraaUy dis solving theraselves, raet nO' more after be entered tbe capital. Undi vided and discretionary power was tbus unequivocally abandoned to bim. Further, the lawyers, especially tbe Whig PoUexfen,"" advised that be sbould declare himself king, after the precedent of Henry VH- I* wiH be matter of regret to find that Holt concurred witb hira." Tbe Prince rejected their counsel, under tbe better advice of others, his own good sense, and the apprehension that a " Note in Burnet, vol. lii. 361. '' Lutt. Diary. ° Shetneld, Duke of Bukingbam. Account ofthe Revolution. '' Speaker Onslow, note in Burnet, vol. iii. 361. " Hal. MS. MEETING OF THE LORDS. 271 direct exercise of the right of conquest would not be without danger. Tbe lords spiritual and temporal having assembled accordingly at St. James's, were met by the Prince of Orange, and addressed by him in the following speech: — " My Lords, — I have desired you to meet here, to advise the best manner how to pursue the ends of my declaration in calling a free parliament, for the preservation of the Protestant religion, tbe restoring the rights and liberties of tbe kingdom, and settiing the same, that they may not be in danger of being again subverted." Having delivered this speech, the Prince immediately withdrew, leaving the peers to deliberate. Tbey are stated to have been in number between sixty and seventy. Five eminent lawyers — Maynard, Atkins, Holt, Pollexfen, and Bradbury* — were appointed to advise tbeir lordships in matters of law. The appointment of those lawyers is ascribed to tbe absence of the proper guides in such matters, — the Judges ; but the character of many of the latter is more likely to have produced it. By way of preliminary, the lords ordered tbe reading of the Prince's first declaration, which was followed by a vote of thanks to him for coming over to deliver the three kingdoms. A more trying proposition was next made, — that all present should put tbeir names to the Exeter engagement or association ; by wbicb the subscribers bound tbemselves, beft)re God and man, to each other and to tbe Prince of Orange. Four temporal peers, and all the prelates present, except the Bishop of London, refused their signatures. Tbe recusant lords temporal were tbe Duke of Somerset, and Lord Pembroke, Nottingham, and Wharton. The Exeter associators, who bad heen so tardy in joining the Prince, and whom he suspected and accused of trea chery, folly, and cowardice, " engaged to Almighty god and to his Highness," among other things, "tbat whereas bis person was exposed to the desperate and cursed designs of Papists and other bloody raen," they would pursue all such, tbeir adherents, and all whom they found in arms against his Highness, " with the utraost severity of just revenge, to their ruin and destruction." The bishops are stated to have objected to tbe word "revenge," as unchristian; but to have signed it upon the substitution ofthe word "punishment."* This, it is to he hoped, is an error. The sentiment or the deed -' In most accounts Atkins and Bradbury are called Atkinson and Bradford. '¦ Echard. 272 JAMES'S ARRIVAL AT ROCHESTER. would Still reraain tbe sarae ; and raen whose consciences capitu lated upon such easy terms as the raere choice of a word, would have no right to reproach Jesuits witb equivocation or duplicity. Lords Nottinghara and Perabroke are said to have refused, because Finch, the son of tbe forraer, and Sir Robert Sawyer, the father- in-law of the latter, were not appointed as counsel to advjse fhe lords. Lord Warton is stated to haVe declared, fhat having signed so many associations whicb carae to nothing, he was resolved to sign no more.* It is certainly more charitable, and may possibly be raore just, to suppose that all the peers. Spiritual and teraporal, who withheld their signatures^ were revolted by a denunciation which went to refuse quarter in the field, and hold all Papists res ponsible for tbe crirae of any single one. Compton, . Bishop of London, appears to bave been a thorough-going partisan, ready to say or do any thing required of bira by his party, bis arabition, or bis safety. He signed, tbe invitation to the Prince of Orange ; and, in tbe presence of King Jaraes, forswore; in tbe worst forra — tbat of an equivoeation — bis knowledge and his deed. He was ready to sign any thing, Uke tbe libertine, and swear any thing, like the Jew, in the dramatic chef-d'oeuvre of Sheridan ; and for these raerits, together witb his sbare in the Princess Anne's desertion of her father, be was naraed, by way of pre-erainence in bis day, "the Protestant Bishop." Finally, the lords carae to tbe resolution of raeeting next day in their bouse at Westrainster. It is now tirae to return to King Jaraes, and disraiss bim from the scene. He arrived at Rochester on tbe raorning of the 19th, and lingered until the night of fhe 22d or morning of the 23d of December, distracted between his proraise to tbe Queen and bis own fears on the, one side, tbe advice of his friends, the intelli- gence which reached hira, and sorae poor reraains of, reason and resolution on the otber. Jaraes bad resistless evidence, that his withdrawing himself out of tbe kingdora was the very thing raost desired by tbe Prince of Orange. Arrived at Rochester, be fpund hiraself negligently guarded.* His friends in Lpndpn, and among them sorae of the bishops, , tried to dissuade hira frora leaving the kingdora. Dr. Brady, one of his physicians, came to bira witb a raeraorial, containing reasons against bis departure." Lord Mid dleton, wbo accompanied and adhered to bim, strongly urged his " Oldmixon. ' Chaillot MS. See App. ¦ Ibid. JAMES'S HOPE FROM THE BISHOPS, 273 remaining. Lord Dartmouth, though he had already received and submitted to the commands of the lords at GuUdhall, and written to tbe Prince of Orange, yet ventured to assure King Jame's, upon tbe news ofhis first flight, that " his fleet would have unanimously defended his sacred person from unhallowed hands." The fact, obvious to himself and admitted by him,* that by deserting bis king dom, be was playing tbe garae of his enemy, would alone have fixed the resolution of another man : it only made Jaraes hesitate. There was in London a re-action in his favour, after the first excitement had subsided, and men began to reflect. Both reason and hu manity seemed to take tbeir turn. Bells rang, and bonfires were lighted, on tbe nigbt of tbe arrival ofthe Prince; but thinking men in tbe city, says Sir John Reresby, considered tbe King hardly treated. Even Burnet says it was called unnatural, that tbe King sbould be roused from his sleep, ordered to leave bis palace^ and made a prisoner at a moment wben he submitted at discretion to the nation and to the Prince. It was remembered as the saying of his father, ihat the prisons of kings were not far from tbeir graves, and the enterprise of the Prince of Orange was looked On as a disguised and designed usurpation.* The aspect of Londpn could hardly fail to strike and shock Englishmen, worthy of the narae. The Englisb guards wbo adorned the royal palaces by the gallantry of tbeir persons and equipments, bad given way to tbe slovenly and grotesque blue Dutch guards ofthe Prince ofOrange. " The streets swarmed," says Sir John Reresby, " witb ill-favoured and ill-accoutred Dutchmen, and other foreigners of the Prince's army:" the national uniform and standard had disappeared, and the inhabitants soon began to feel it an inconvenience, that their deliverers sbould be quartered upon tbeir houses." But the chief hope of James was from tbe bishops, and especiaUy from some of tbose wbom be bad sent to tbe Tower. It appears tbat several prelates were strongly possessed, as tbeir adversaries expressed it, witb an unsafe project of accoraraodation between the King and the Prince. They contemplated reducing James, by act of Parliament, and witb bis previous consent, to the state of a duke of Venice,'' the prerogatives of peace and war, and the ap pointment to all offices, civil and ecclesiastical, being vested in tbe Prince of Orange. The bishops, on the other hand, who adhered ¦ Chaillot MS. * Burnel, vol, iii, 359, ¦ lutt. Diary. '' Letter of Lloyd, Bishop of St, Asaph, Dal, App. . H 16 274 ESCAPE OF JAMES to the Prince, were as strongly possessed with the project of con struing the flight of James into a cession of the crown. Lloyd, Bishop of Sti Asaph; gives, in a private letter found in King Wil liam's cabinet, a curious and disreputable account ofthe failure of his secret mission to sound Turner, Bishop of Ely; obliquely and as frora hiraself. The letter appears to have been addressed to Ben tinck, afterwards Eari of Portland, or sorae other person in the es pecial confidence of the Prince of Orange;* Reasons may easily be iraagined for the disinclination of those prelates to set aside King Jaraes. The Prince of Orange, on his arrival, is said to have startled the clergy of the Church of England, by the favour which be raanifested ' to the Protestant nonconforraists.* He soon dis cpvered his raistake, and sided with fbe strpnger party. On Sun day, the SOtb of December, having heard Dr. Burnet read prayers, and the above naraed Bishop of St. Asaph preach, he received the sacrament from the hands of the Bishop of London." It would be ungracious to scrutinise the secret consciences; and it would be tedious to go over tbe party relations between the three divines and the politician, thus grouped in this sacred rite and solemn scene. Next, tbe bishops abandoned so much only of fhe doctrine of pas sive obedience as was necessary to raaintain the supremacy of the Church, and would naturally strive to preserve the indefeasible title and succession tO' the crown. Thirdly, they may have conscien tiously believed active resistance and the deprivation of a legitimate king contrary to the creed and principles-of the Church of England. Tbey, however, wanted ppwer pr resplutipn, pr were tpp rauch afraid' of the inveterate popery, of James, to act upon theip prin ciples, and openly defendhis right. The King^ whilst he still lin gered on the verge of his kingdora, sent a raessage to the Archbishop of panterbury and Bishop of Winchester, offering fo place himself in their hands, if they undertook for his personal- safety. Accord ing to one account, " they neither accepted the motion nor re jected iJ;;'' ;* but other authorities, including the King himself, state, that theyideclared they could not undertake to protect hira against the ambitious designs and- foreign troops of the Prince of Orange." He even proposed going to tbe North, and throwing hiraself into the arras of Lord Danby. That Lord offered to protect- him with his • Dal. App. '' Reresby, 301. ,' Lutt. Diary. ¦' Rer'esby, 312, " Chaillot MS. "Great Britain's Ihst Complaint," &c. FROM ROCHESTER. 275 life, " if he came with a considerable party, and left his Papists behind him." * The King " would not part with bis Romans,' * and did not come. Rut to fulfil tbe condhion proposed by Lord Danby was no longer in the King's power : he could bring no con siderable party, nor indeed any accession whatever fo the raw and few levies of the Earl of Danby. James finally made up his mind to depart; determined, according to Bishop Burnet, by a vehement and imperious letter from the Queen. " This letter," says be, " was intercepted : I had an account of it from one that read it. The Priuce ordered it to be conveyed to tbe King, and that deter mined him." There was, at least, as mucb of fhe barbarian as of the politician in breaking ihat most sacred seal, and forwarding the letter to the King. According to the narrative of James hiraself, he was decided by the meeting of the Lords at Westminster, on the 22d of December. Tbe rear of the bouse occupied by the King at Rochester was left designedly Unguarded : sentinels were placed at tbe frontdoor, rather as a guard of honour than for safe keeping. The Dutch soldiers, for the most part Catholics, went devoutly to the Kind's mass, and treated him with more respect than his own guards. Tbe reply of one of those soldiers, according to Bishop Burnet, greatly pleased King James. Tbe King asked him bow he, a Ca tholic, could take part in an expedition for the destruction of his religion : be replied, that his soul belonged to God, and his sword to tbe Prince of Orange. This partition of duties might suit a tyrant, but seems to have been regarded witb unsuitable compla cency by tbe divine. The King sent frora Rochester to the treasury for 1500/., and received only 300.'.," of which he allotted 100/. to the captain, 50/. fo the lieutenant, and the residue to tbe non-com missioned officers and privates of his Dutch escort. He drew up a short but elaborate and affecting statement of his reasons for with drawing himself a second time. It will be presently introduced. Having made these arrangemeats, he withdrew secretly between twelve and one o'clock in the morning of the 23d of December, witb bis natural son the Duke of Berwick ; was conducted on bodrd a smack hy two captains of the navy,' — Macdonald, an Irishman, and Trevanion, an Englishman ; suffered some ordinary hardships and delays, but met not a single ship uuder saU ; escaped the ships • Reresby, 325, and Halifax MS. '' Reresby Mem, " Lutt. Diary. 18 » 276 RECEPTION OF THE KING lying in fhe Downs ; and on tbe morning of tbe 25tb, landedin France, at Ambleteuse. The Queen, after waiting twenty-four hours at Calais for the King, bad gone to Boulogne ; heard there of tbe King's captivity and danger ; resolved to send forward the Prince of Wales to the court of France, and return herself to share ber husband's fate; was dissuaded by those about her, and by raore favourable accpunts frpra England ; and pn the King's arrival in France, was already installed at St. Gerraains. Lpuis XIV. received Queen Mary pf Este and James II. in their distress, npt pnly with that gprgeous magnificence, which is called grandeur in tyrants, but witb a certain elevatipn of sentiment. Upon hearing that the Queen of England was in France, he sent his carriages and an escort to conduct her to his court. Prepara tions were made for her reception at every stage. Men were em ployed to clear her route of the snow, which had fallen to a great depth. The French King hiraself advanced a league frora St. Ger mains to give her welcome. He topk the infant Prince pf Wales in his arms, and promised him protection and succour in a formal harangue." His first words to the Queen were, — " I render you. Madam, a sad service ; but I hope to render you soon a greater and raore fortunate." * Arrived at St. Gerraains, she found herself served with all tbe state and splendour of a Queen of France. Presents in silver, gold, rich wardrobes, and jewels, awaited ber acceptance; and she found a purse containing 10,000 louis on her toilet. It raust have been a lively satisfaction to Jaraes, wbo had both doraestic virtues and kind affections, to find his wife and child sur rounded with raagnificence and respect. Louis XIV. received hira witb the utmost corapassion and generosity ; but he was an object of derision to the French courtiers, including the prelates of tbe Church of France. " There,'' said the Archbishop of Bbeims, brother of Louvois, to the courtiers, in Jaraes's own antecharaber at St. Gerraains, " there is a good soul, wbo bas given up three kingdoras for a raass."" Frora Rorae they sent hira indulgences and pasquinades.'' His life, 'With the exception of his unhappy ex- - Life of K. James, vol. ii. 248. ¦¦ Volt. Siecle de Louis XIV. Lett, de Mad. Sevlg. Mem. de Mad. dela Fayette. ' Voila un boc homme, qui a quitte trois royaumes pour une messe. " Siecle de Louis XiV. AND QUEEN BV LOUIS XIV. ' 277 pedition to Ireland, — if that exception sbould be made, — was passed in such a manner as to justify these contemptuous plea santries. He visited the Jesuits in their monastery at Paris, and disclosed to them the curious fact, that whUst Duke of York, he was made a brother of their order. He visited, and had spiritual communings of some days together, with the monks of La Trappe. He touched for the King's evil at tbe convent of Chaillot ; * passed many hours of his life in edifying discourse upon grace, faith, heresy, and salvation, with the nuns, and bequeathed to them his penitentiary discipline and girdle of iron. The grateful nuns pre served not only the manuscript already cited, but some relics, pre cious in their eyes, of his life, death, and conversation. One fact stated"by them is of some importance to history : — King James, they say, when placing in their hands the narrative of his flight from England, declared " that he was taken by surprise ; that if the thing were to be done over again, he would act differently ; and that even overwhelmed and surprised as he was, if he had bad time to collect himself, he would bave taken other measures." Tbe paper containing bis motives for withdrawing hiraself, whicb he left behind him at Rochester in the charge of Lord Middleton, fo be printed in London, though somewhat trite, should yet, in justice to him, and for its brevity, be given in the text ; and it will, perhaps, be most suitably introduced here. " The world cannot wonder at my withdrawing myself now this second time. I might have expected somewhat better usage after what I writ to the Prince of Orange by my Lord Feversham, and the instructions I gave him ; but, instead of an answer such as I might have hoped for, what was I to expect, after tbe usage I re ceived, by making the said Earl a prisoner against the practice and law of nations ; the sending his own guards at eleven at night to take possession of the posts at Wbiteball, without advertising me in the least manner of it ; the sending to me at one o'clock, after midnight, wben I was in bed, a kind of an order, by three Lords, to be gone out of my own palace before twelve that same morning ? After all this, bow could I hope to be safe, so long as I was in the power of one who had not only done this to me, and invaded my kingdoms without auy just occasion given bim for it ; but that did, by his first, declaration, lay fhe greatest aspci'siou upon me that ' MS. of Chaillot. 278 DECLARATION OF JAMES. raaUce could invent, in that clause of it whicb concerns my son ? I appeal to all that kupw rae, nay, even fp himself, that, in their cpn- sciences, neither he npr they can believe me in the least capable of so unnatural a vUlany, nor of so little common sense, as to be im posed on in a thing of such a nature as that. What had I, Aen, to expect frora one who, by all arts, hath taken sucb pains to raake rae appear as black as hell to my own people, as weU as fo all tbe worid besides ? What effect that hath had at borae, all raankind have seen by so general a defection in ray array, as well as in the nation, amongst all sorts of people. I was born free, and desire to continue so ; and though 1 have ventured ray life very frankly on several occasions, for the good and honour of ray country, and ara as free to do it again (and which I hope I yet shaU do, as old as I am, to redeem it from the slavery it is like to faU under), yet I fhink it not convenient to expose rayself to be so secured, as not tP be at liberty tP effect it ; and for that reaspn dp withdraw, but so as to be within caU whenever the nation's eyes shall be opened, so as to see how they have been abused and iraposed upon by the specious pretences of religion and property. I hope it will please God to touch fheir hearts, out of his infinite mercy, and to raake them sensible of the ill condition they are in, and bring thera to such a teraper, that a legal parliament raay be called ; and that, amongst other things which raay be necessary to be done, tbey will agree to liberty of conscience to all Prptestant Dissenters ; and that these pf my pwn persuasion raay be sp far epnsidered, and have sucb a sbare ef it, as they raay live peaceably and quietly, as all Englishraen and Christians ought to do, and not be obliged to transplant theraselves, which would be very grievous, especially to sucb as live in their own country; and I appeal to all men, who are considering raen, and have had experience, whether any thing can raake this nation so great and flourishing as Uberty of con science ? Sorae of our neighbours dread it. I could add rauch raore to confirra what 1 have said, but now is not the proper tirae." 279 CHAPTER XVIII. Proceedings of the Peers. — Meeting of Commoners. — Addresses to the Prince.-^ William invested with the Executive Government.— State of Parties. The Lords spiritual and temporal, pursuant to tbeir resolution, met on tbe 22d in tbe House of Lords at Westrainster. Removing from St. James's Palace gave an air of independence, and meeting in their O'wn bouse»an air of autbority to their deUberations. Their first act was to appoint Lord Halifax speaker. He owed this honour to one who bore him little kindness, Sheffield, Duke of Ruckingbam, then Lord Mulgrave.* The Archbishop of Canter bury, who presided, as bead of tbe peerage, over the assembly pf the peers at Guildhall, absented himself frpm their subsequent cpu- sultatipns at Whitehall. Dr. Lamplugh, raised suddenly by King James tP the archbishppric pf York, as a reward for the panic or prudent fear witb which he fled from Exeter to court on tbe ap proach of the Prince of Orange, wanted dignity and experience to preside over such an assembly. On the motion of Lord Mulgrave, Lord Halifax was appointed. His having filled the chair at White hall led to his being chosen to occupy the woolsack at Westminster, and, according to Lord Mulgrave, was the cause of all his subse quent favour witb King WUliam. But Lord Halifax had other and more persuasive recommendations, in his mean services and su perior talents. Mr. Gwynne, also re-appointed, was authorised, as clerk or secretary, to sign tbeir Lordships' orders. Their first order was, that all Papists should remove to a distance not less than ten miles from London, witb the exception of housekeepers of three years' standing, the servants of the Queen Dowager, the foreign servants of foreign ambassadors, and foreign merchants.* This appears to have been tbe chief, if not sole, business transacted on tbe 22d ; tbey adjourned over Sunday, to Monday, tbe 24fh of December. ' Sheffield, Duke of Buckingham, Account of the Revolution. '" Lutt. Diary. 280 PROCEEDINGS OF THE PEERS. On fhe 22d, the Lords had deliberated, and made orders, with out reference fo the authority or existence of the King, who was still within the realm. They were inforraed, on fhe raorning of the 24th, tbat he had deserted bis crown and kingdom, leaving behind bira a paper containing the reasons of bis flight. Some of the persons who bad been the King's servants, but whose names have not ccme dewn, rapved that bis paper pf reaspus shpuld be read. The rapfion was negatived ; and this decisipn put an end tp any hppes which Jaraes raay have entertained frcni fhe Lprds.* It has been remarked as a raatter pf wpuder hardly credible fp future ages, that an asserably pf Peers, abput ninety in nuraber, and cpm- prising raany pf tbe pld court and council, sbould so readUy set aside tbeir King, without even reading bis letter, " wbicb raight be reckoned the last words of a dying sovereign." * The conduct of the pld courtiers sbould not add to the surprise. That courtiers should be ungrateful, is nothing strange or uncommon. The Lords, moreover, appear to have exercised a sound discretion, in rejecting the letter of tbe King. His removal once resolved, there were two modes of proceeding to effect it, — either a fair and full trial, or a sentence against bira upon the notoriety of his acts. If is a dan gerous precedent to conderan even a tyrant unheard ; but for the former mode there was not enough of exalted justice and superior reason in tbe realra ; and the latter process alone reraaining, the King's letter could only produce barren or raischievous coraraisera tion. The Kingj too, had the benefit of his letter by publicity in print. Burnet replied to it by autbority. That acconarapdating divine, under the narae pf Chaplain tp the Prince pf Orange, appears fp have reserabled the mediasthms pf a Bpraan hpusehpld ; he was al'ways ¦within caU, tp be emplpyed in raisceUanepus and inferipr services, whether pf the antechamber pr the clpset. James, in bis letter, made put up case as between him and the natipn ; but as against the Prince pf Orange, his case was unanswerable. Burnet, acccrdingly, failed fp answer it, and charged his failure uppn the excess and delicacy pf his respect for the King's name; Np respect fer the King's raisfortune, fpr Christian charity, pr for truth, cpuld yet restrain the Bisbpp, in his histpry, frpra insinuating that the King's flight was the effect of his secret consciousness of some black crime (raeaning the iraposition ofa spuricas heir), and ' Sheffield, Duke of Buckingham, Account of tbe Revolution. ° Id. ibid. PROCEEDINGS OF THE PEERS. -281 assertmg thatyhis withdrawing himself out of tbe kingdom was an unforced and voluntary act. The next was Christmas-day. The Lords thought it right to transact business in so urgent a public crisis. They passed two most important resolutions : the iBrst, tbat tbe Prince of Orange sbould be requested to take upon him the administration of public affairs, civil and nulitary, and the disposal of the public revenue, for the preservation of their religion, rights, laws, hberties, and properties for the peace of tbe nation, and for the security of Ire land, untU the following 22d of January. Tbe reference to Ireland was reluctantly acquiesced in by tbe friends of the Prince of Orange.* An address to the same effect, respecting Ireland, had been presented to him tbree days before by lords and gentlemen having Irish estates ; * and the neglect, real or supposed, of the state of Ireland, afterwards subjected King WiUiam to suspicion and unpopularity. Tbe second resolution of the Lords was, tbat the Prince should be requested to issue letters" of suraraons for electing members, as for parliament, to assemble as a convention, on fhe 22d of January, in order to consider and settle the state of the nation. Addresses, founded respectively on both resolutions, and signed by all the Lords spiritual and teraporal present," were presented to the Prince of Orange on the same day. This offer of a temporary dictatorship is stated to have embarrassed the Prince ; and credit is given to his advisers for having extricated bim with adroitness.'' His embarrassment is described as lying between tbe peril of dallying with so tempting an offer on tbe one side, and accepting it from tbe Lords only, without consulting the Commons, on the otber. The expedient said to have been sug gested to him, was to postpone his answer, and summon, in the meantime, sucb persons then in town as bad served in any of tbe parliaments ofCharles II., with tbe aldermen," and fifty common- councUmen of London. It seems incredible that the Prince of Orange, having by his side two such expert advisers as Lords Ha lifax and Danby, should he unprepared for the resolution of the Lords ; and the question is set at rest by the dates. Tbe Commons, or tbose whom he was pleased to treat witb as sucb, did not, it is true, meet bim at St. Jaraes's Palace until tbe 26tb ; but his suraraons ¦ Sheffield, Duke of Buckingham. ' LuU. Diary. • Kennet. '' Sheffield, Duke of Buckingham, Account of tbe Rev. " Tbe Lord Mayor was still on bis deatb-hed. 282 MEETINGS OF COMMONERS. requiring their attendance is dated the 23d,* and the Lords voted their address on the 25tb of Deceraber. The exclusion of fhose who had served only in the parliaraent of James was neither just nor politic It was a weak presumption to stigraatise indirectly all that had been done by hira as Ulegal or unconstitutional. The persons norainated within the above li mitations by tbe Prince of Orange to represent tbe commons of England, waited on hira at St. Jaraes's on the 26tb. The Prince, in a short speech, said he had suraraoned thera to advise on the best raode of carrying into effect the ends of his declaration in calling a free pariiament for the preservation of the Protestant religion, and of their laws and liberties, and for tbe settiement of tbe nation. Thpse spuripus and raptley representatives ef the English pepple tpok possession ofthe House of Coraraons with rauch less warrant than the Lords had taken possession of their accus toraed place of raeeting ; but whether on the 26tb or on the follow ing day seems d'oubtful. According to Narcissus Luttrell's MS. diary, " they went to the House of Comraons, and debated tbe raatters (referred to thera by the Prince) two or three daies ; then they agreed on an address to the Prince as the Lords had done." To adrait even of two sittings tbey raust have deliberated on tbe 26tb, as their address was presented on the 27tb. Tbe printed record of tbeir debates is scanty. Their first act was to vote Mr. Powle into the chair. He was one of tbe Whig pensioners of Louis XIV. in the latter years of tbe preceding reign.* The first question, and very naturally, was by what authority they were assembled. It was resolved, that the suraraons of the Prince of Orange was a sufficient warrant. The next question was tbat of disposing of the powers of governraent. No doubt seeras to have arisen as to tbe person. Sir Robert Southwell" said he could not conceive how it was possible for the Prince of Orange to take upon him tbe administration without sorae distinguishing narae or title. Sergeant Maynard replied, that they should wait long and lose much time if they waited fill Sir Robert conceived how that was possible. There was some reason in this sarcasm. It would have been vain to look for regularity in a sudden and unprecedented crisis, when all was irregular. Having determined that tbe ad ministration should be vested in the Prince, they next debated fhe ¦ London Gazette. '' See list in Dal. App. " Some accounts assign this observation to Sir Robert Sawyer. ADDRESS OF THE COMMONS. 283 duration of the trust. A proposition was made tbat the period sbould be a year. This was over-ruled, as a matter to be decided by the intended convention. It was proposed that those present should, like tbe Lords, sign tbe Exeter engagement. This propo sition was negatived ; but a copy was laid on the fable, to be signed or not at their individual pleasure. The only difference between tbeir address and tbat of tbe Lords was, tbat it opened witb their thanks to the Prince for coming over with such great hazard to his person, for tbe purpose of rescuing thera from popery and slavery. He had already been thanked for this favour upon another occasion by the peers. The address of the Commons was presented to the Prince of Orange througb tbeir speaker, Mr. Powle, on tbe 27th. He told them tbeir request was a matter of weight, whicb required consi deration, and be would let tbem know his decision next day. The Prince had not yet given bis answer to tbe address of the Lords. On the morning of the 28th, he informed their Lordships, that he had considered tbeir advice, accepted their charge, and would act accordingly. In the evening be gave an answer, nearly in tbe same terms, to the Coramons. The Prince of Orange thus affected to confer an obligation, by taking upon him a laborious trust, when be was invested witb sovereign power over the Englisb nation, the first object ofhis ambition and his life. Religious party spirit blinds raen strangely to the real character of their idol, yet it is scarcely possible that this affectation could bave imposed even on tbe com- mon-councilraen. It was unworthy of the character and under standing of an able politician and great prince. He did not himself personally interfere to produce this result, but the expedition and unanimity of both Lords and Commons were ascribed not only to influence, but to force and fear. " Roth Houses," says tbe Duke of Buckingham, "raight well concur in all, since influenced, I might bave said enforced, by the same causes, which last expression I make use of, both on account ofthe Prince's army here, commanded by a famous general, the Mareschal de Schomberg, and also of a murmur which went about, that tbe city apprentices were coming down to Westminster, in a violent rage against all who voted against the Prince of Orange's interest." There appears no ground to suppose, tbat fhe Prince directly suspended over their delibera tions tbe terrors of his array or of tbe populace. But it is far from equally probable that these terrors were not felt on'that,'and em- 2S4 WILLUM INVESTED WITH ployed on other subsequent occasions. The fury of the rabble was soon regarded as a famiUar engine of policy to promote tbe objects or interests ofthe Prince. It was associated with tbe policy of Wil liam both in HoUand and in England by an odious byrword, so well understood as to be employed in a document signed by five pre lates." Referring to tbe author of a libel upon them, they say " he (tbe author) barbarously endeavours to raise in tbe Enghsh nation such a fury as raay end in Dewitting us ; a bloody word (they add), but too well understood." It is generally asserted or iraplied, that tbe Prince of Orange did not take upon bira the executive functions of the state until they were vested in bim by unaniraous resolutions of tbe Lords and Commons ; and that he tolerated tbe intrigues of BarUlon after tbe King's flight, until bis new charge authorised him to send that rainister out of tbe kingdora. But it is raanifest that even whilst the King was still 'within the realra, the Prince assuraed and exercised sovereign power ; and the very instance given ofhis forbearance is, in point of fact, an instance of the contrary, BarUlon was ordered by tbe Prince to depart in forty-eight hours, according to some ; in twenty-four hours, according f o others. He reqiiested further tirae ; was pereraptorUy refused, and left London on the 24th,* four days before tbe Prince formally assumed the administration. Tbe French arabassador was escorted by a party of the Prince's Dutch guards, under the command of a French refugee. This turn of fortune was one ofthe most extraordinary, and is said to have produced between them on their route tbe following question and reply : — " Would you have believed it, sir, had you been told, a year ago, that a French refugee would be charged to escort you out of England?" — " Cross over with me to Calais, sir," said the ambassador ; " and I wUl give you an answer." This reply is ambiguous : if Barillon spoke as a Frenchman, be doubtless raeant that he would answer witb bis sword ; if as the representative of Louis XIV., he raust have hinted at tbe revocation of the edict of Nantes. On Saturday the 29th of Deceraber the Prince of Orange issued his letters of sumraons for the meraorable convention; on Sunday the 30fb be received the sacraraent, as already stated, according to the rites of tbe Church of England ; on Monday fbe 3 1 st he made " The Archbishop of Canterbury, and tbe Bishops of Norwich, Ely, Peterborongb, and Bath and Wells. D'Oyley's Life of Sancroft, vol, 11. p. 455. ' Lntt Diary, Sawyer's News Letters. THE EXECUTIVE GO'VERNMENT. 285 a visit to the widow of Charles II. at Somerset House, and granted to her tbe liberty of ber chamberlain. Lord Feversham. According fo some she solicited this favour ; * others state tbat she obtained it indirectly by an ingenious reply to one ofthe dull common-places which made up tbe conversation of this famous prince. He asked her bow she passed her time, and whether she played at basset. The Queen Dowager replied, that she had not played at that game since she was deprived of her charaberlain, wbo kept the bank. He took the hint, and on the 2d of January the chamberlain resumed his service. Such a proceeding might be called gaUantry at Paris and Versailles ; it was despotism at Somerset House. The impri sonment of Lord Feversham was the act, and his release the cour tesy, of a tyrant, not of a prince who was the first magistrate of a republic, and aspired to the constitutional throne of a nation jealous of its liberty and laws. The Prince, to secure the freedom of election, issued an order on the 2d January, for tbe removal of the military from tbe places in which the elections should be held ; and leaving bis interest in the returns to be managed by bis partisans, appli'ed himself to inte rests and intrigues more immediately within tbe range of bis execu tive trust. He was not yet invested with the administration of Scotland. The Privy CouncU of tbat kingdom, early in December, despatched Lord Balcarras with a letter to tbe King, setting forth the state of affairs, and requesting his further orders. On the ar rival of tbeir envoy, the King had just withdrawn himself for the first time from WhUehall. Lord Balcarras had also a letter to the Duke of Hamilton, and in the absence of tbe King thought it ad visable to consult witb tbe Duke and otber Scotch privy councillors then in London. Among them was Lord Dundee. A copy of the letter to the King was given to the Duke of Hamilton. He insisted upon being intrusted with tbe original ; and upon tbe refusal of Lord Balcarras, discovered, in the fury of his passion, that his object was to lay it as matter of accusation before the provisional council of lords then sitting at Whitehall. The King unexpectedly returned from Feversham ; and the Duke of Hamilton, mean now as he was insolent before, made abject excuses to Balcarras, Dundee, and the otber privy councUlors, offered them at another meeting his friend ship and services, was among the most eager to do homage to the ¦ Lutt. Diary. 286 WILLIAM INVESTED WITH Kingpn his return, sat in King Jaraes's last privy ceuncU at White hall, and upon tbe King's final departure was araong thefirst to wait on the Prince of Orange at St. Jaraes's. The Marquis of AthoU and the populace had already produced at Edinburgh a revolution in favour of tbe Presbytery and the Prince. Protestant episcopacy and popery were alike odious to the Scotch. The forraer sbould, in reason, have been tbe more pdiPus pf tbe twp ; but verbal dpgraas and disputes in matters pf religipn prpduce as virulent anirapsities as oppressipu and persecu- tipn. Athpll carae frpra Scctiand tp Lpndpn to obtain the reward of his services from the Prince, or prevent his being supplanted by the Duke pf Harailtpn. The Scptch party pf the Prince pf Orange in Lpndpn becarae divided. The Duke, hpwever, pbtained the ascendant and the confidence of the Prince, by superior address, or because Lord AthoU had given offence by prematurely leaving his post. The second flight of fhe King placed tbe Scotch lords and gentlemen in London at the disposition of the Prince of Orange. So dexterous waS the raanageraent of the Prince and the Duke of Harailtpn, that abtfut thirty peers pf Scptiand, including Dundee and Balcarras, bpth strenuous Jacpbites, waited en the Prince at St. James's, pn the 8th pf January. The Prince of Orange addressed to them a few words, substantially the sarae as those addressed by him to the English Lo,rds and Comrapns, and they adjpurned tp deliberate in the ceuncil-chamber at Whitehall. The Duke pf Ha railtpn was unanirapu,sly apppinted tp preside. They debated and adjourned withput CPraing to any resolution, and assembled again next day. A resolution, vesting in the Prince of Orange the adrai- nistratioa of the governraent and disposal of the revenue pf tbe kingdora pf Scctiand, was drawn up, and abcut to be agreed to, when Lord Arran, son ofthe Duke of HamUton, astonished aU pre sent by pronouncing frora a. written paper the foUowing short and stirring speech: — "My Lords, I have aU the honour and deference for the Prince of Orange iiuaginablei t think bira a brave, prince, and, that we owe him great obhgations, in contributing so, miich, for our delivery frora popery; but, while Ipay bira those praises, I cannot violate my duty to ray master. 1 must distinguisli between bis popery and his person. I disUke the one, but have sworn and do owe aUegiance to the otber, which raakes it impossible for me to sign THE EXECUTIVE GOVERNMENT, 287 away that which I cannot forbear believing is the King my master's right ; for his present absence from us, by being in France, can no more affect our duty than his longer absence from •Scotiand has done all this wbile. " My Lords, tbe Prince in his paper desires our advice : mine is, that we should move his Highness to desire his Majesty to return and call a free parliament, for the securing our religion and property, according to the known laws of that kingdom, which in ray bumble opinion will ait last be found the best way to beal our breaches." The Duke in the chair frowned upon his son : the proposition of Lord Arran was not seconded ; and the raeeting abruptly separated. A third raeeting took place the next day. Sir Patrick Hume declared the proposition of Lord Arran "inimicous" to the declaration of the Prince of Orange and the Protestant religion ; asked whether any one present was prepared to second it ; received no answer ; and moved that it should be stigmatised as " adverse and inimicous, &c.," by the assembly. This motion, seconded by Lord Cardross, was withdrawn at the suggestion of the Duke of HaraUton ; and tbe Prince of Orange was charged- with the go vernment of Scotland untU the Slates of that kingdom should be assembled pursuant to the Prince's letters, in Edinburgh, on the 1 4th of tbe following March. The opposition between the Duke of Hamilton and his son has been variously accounted for. Lord Arran was one of tbose wbo attended King Jaraes to Rochester : bis regiment was in con sequence taken from hira to be given to Lord Oxford ; and hence, it has been stated, his zeal for the King. By others it is supposed, that the father and son took opposite sides, in order that whatever party succeeded, the family estates sbould not become forfeit. Tbe address of tbe Scotch was a bolder proceeding than that of the English. King Jaines left England without a government, but in Scotland tbe regency and whole machinery of administration re mained. Xhe English supplied the want ; but the, Scotch set aside the authority of an executive government. i The administration of Great Britain was now in the hands of the Prince of Orange. Edinburgh Castle was stiU held by the Duke of Gordon, a Catholic, for King James. But that Duke's religion could only secure his fidelity ; U could not make up for his •288 STATE OF PARTIES. want ef capacity and cbdracter. He occupied an important for tress for sorae months with little raolestation and no credit, and surrendered stiU raore ingloriously, at a critical moraent, on tte first deraonstration ofa serious attack. Ireland proved the strong hold of King Jaraes. The Protestants there were a rainority; and Tyrconnel, the chief governor, devoted fo tbe King, to popery, and to bis country, bad put himself in a forraidable posture of defence. He disarraed Protestants, and raised an array of 40,000 men, chiefly Catholics. Tbose lords and gentiemen who were connected witb tbat kingdora frequentiy called the attention of the Prince to the perilous state of the Protestant interest and fheir estates in Ireland. The Prince gave thera general assurances, and did nothing. His extraordinary supineness bas been ascribed to various causes. Tyrcpnnel sent several messages tp the Prince of Orange, offering to deliver up Ireland if sucb a force were sent over as would give him a decent pretence for surrendering ; and fhe Prince, it has been stated, acting upon tbe advice of Lord Halifax, disregarded his offers. Lord Halifax suggested to bim, that if Ireland subraitted there would be no pretext for raaintaining an array ; and sp changeable was the genius pf fbe Enghsh pepple, that, withput the suppprt pf a strpng raiUtary fprce, he wpuld be turned put as easily as be bad been brpught in. * By others, it was supppsed that the Prince neglected Ireland under the influence and advice of per sons vvho expected to prpfit by new cpnfiscaticns in tbat devPted land. The character pf Tyrcpnnel and his subsequent cpnduct leave np dpubt that bis pffered subraissien was but an artifice fp gain tirae. Few men were better fprraed fpr deceptipn and intrigue. His reckless language, aniraal vivacity, strung irapulses, and reli gipus zeal, raasked bis falsebppd, adrpitness, hyppcrisy, and finesse. He duped the Prince of Orange, Lord Mountjoy, and tbe veteran intriguers of the French court. But his fidelity to an unfortunate master is a redeeming and transcendent virtue at a period when more decorous poUticians intrigued and betrayed with as little scruple, and frora the base motives of personal safety and self- interest. It is now notorious from various publications, that the rainisters raost confided in by King Jaraes, frora Godplpbin to ' Burnet, vol. iii, 369, 370. Dart. ... ibid. STATE OF PARTIES. 289 Sunderland, betrayed his counsels to the Prince of Orange, and tbat King WUIiam's chief ministers and servants, Halifax, Godol phin, Shrewsbury, and Marlborough, secured tbemselves, in case of a counter-revolution, by secret intrigues, and a traitorous cor respondence with James II. Others, again, have accounted for the Prince's neglect of Ireland by bis distrust of tbe English sol diery, his' entire dependence in England upon his Dutch troops, and the impossibUity of reinforcements from Holland, already at war with Louis XIV.* The only step taken by bira favours this last supposition. He determined, upon the advice of his councU, to make a formal call upon Tyrconnel to submit, with an offer that the Irisb Catholics sbould be secured in the condition in which they stood at tbe period of 1684. Sarsfield, themost distinguished of tbe Irish officers, wbo had been brought over to England on the eve of tbe invasion, was requested to be tbe bearer of tbe Prince's summons to Tyrconnel. He had the virtue to reply tbat he was ready to serve tbe Prince against tbe King of France, but that he would not be instrumental in depriving his lawful sovereign of one of his kingdoms. Hamilton, another Irisb officer, recommended, it has been stated, by the son of Sir WiUiam Temple, was less delicate, though, it would appear, not less fahhful to James. He accepted tbe service, and undertook to overcome, by his influence, any reluctance on tbe part of Tyrconnel. Arrived in Dublin, he is represented to bave combated, instead of encouraging, anydis- position of Tyrconnel to subrait, and did not return to give an account of bis raission. It seems, however, mucb more probable that if influence or persuasion took place on either side, it pro ceeded from the Lord Deputy. Tyrconnel had already executed his dexterous manoeuvre of an erabassy to King James. In his overtures to the Prince of Orange and in his coramunications witb tbe leading Irish Protestants, he affected to think himself hound in honour to ask the sanction of the King hefore he submitted. Lord Mountjoy was the person most trusted by the Protestants. His influence was unbounded in the north of Ireland, wbere the ma jority were Presbyterians devoted to the Prince of Orange. Tyrconnel sumraoned bim to Dublin, under pretence of consulta tion in so delicate a crisis. Mountjoy came, and earnestly recom mended submission : Tyrconnel affected to be convinced hy his • Life of K. Jame.'. n. 1.J 290 STATE OF PARTIES. reasons, but said he eould not in honour subrait without first communicating to King Jaraes the raorai impossibility of defending Ireland, and added a suggestion that Mountjoy hiraself should proceed for this purpose to France. Mountjoy made objections. Tbe Protestants warned him against tbe mission as an artifice of the Lord Deputy to be relieved frora bis presence. Tyrconnel, on the other hand, says Archbishop King, swore soleranly that he was in earnest ; that be knew tbe court of France would oppose hira witb its power, for that court rainded nothing but its own interest, and would not care if Ireland were sunk to tbe pit of heU,* so it gave tbe Prince of Orange three raonths' diversion ; that if the King consented fo ruin Ireland raerely to oblige France, he would look upon such consent as dictated by the French court, and act accordingly. Mountjoy believed a man wbo protested and swore with so much veheraence, and who argued for fhe purpose of deceit with perfect truth. One objection of Mountjoy appears by iraplication to have been, tbat the report of a Protestant might be distrusted by the King.* Tyrconnel overcame the objection, and corapleted his own raa chinery by associating with Mountjoy Chief Baron Rice, who had James's entire confidence. The two envpys left Ireland abeut the 10th pf January. Rice had his separate and secret instructicns. Immediately pn their arrival, he informed the King, that their embassy was a device pf the Ipyal lord deputy to rid himself of Mountjoy, whora he recommended to a lodging in the BastUle, and to let the King know be had put Ireland in such a posture of defence as to hold out until succours should arrive from France. Mountjoy, before his departure, bad obtained frora Tyrconnel the following pledges fpr the security pf the Prptestants : — that no mpre soldiers should be raised ; that no more troops sbould be sent into the norlh; tbat no person sbould be questioned for past con duct; that soldiers sbould not be quartered upen private hpuses. The unlucky envpy uppn reaching Paris was shut up in the Bastille; and he had np sppnier left Ireland than Tyrcpnnel, dexterously and by degrees puUing off tbe raask, violated so rauoh of his engage ments as he found expedient; disarraed tbe Protestants of Dublin under pretence of - maintaining tranquiUity, added to the military force, and stiH made show ofa disposition to Submit, salvo honore. • Tyrconnel's very words. ' Life of K. James. STATE OF PARTIES. 291 It is stated by Archbishop King, that Mountjoy went to France without tbe privity of the Prince of Orange, and that this was urged by him as a reason why his leaving Ireland could not compromise the safety of the Protestants. The Prince, who was no party to it, would, he said, be at liberty to act as he chose at any moment for their protection. But it appears from the circular letter of Mount joy himself to the Protestants, that his mission was known in Eng land, and so much relied on that no forces were or would be sent over to Ireland. It may be suspected, if not inferred from this variance, that the Prince of Orange had that sort of privity whicb he might acknowledge or disavow as it suUed bis convenience. Such were tbe proceedings of Tyrconnel, whilst it was generally supposed in England, and believed by many in Ireland, that he wanted nothing but a decent pretence, a sufficient bribe, and the influence of HamUton, to make him deliver up his sword. When some of tbe Irisb privy-counsellors pressed him to surrender, he is said to have asked thera in a tone of pleasantry and derision, whe ther tbey would have him throw the sword of state over the castle walls, when there was nobody to take it up. His conduct appears to have been upon tbe whole a master-piece of its kind. It seems more likely that Hamilton was gained over by him than he by HamUton; but the most probable supposition is, tbat neither re quired the other's persuasion or influence. Hamilton bad little , reason to be grateful for bis own treatment, or that of tbe Irish whom he commanded, by tbe Englisb nation and the Prince of Orange. The Prince, says Bishop Burnet, kept Hamilton as " a sort of prisoner of war;" and, after having confined the Irish sol diers for some time in the Isle of Wight, " gave them to the Em peror." Tbese donative Irish defeated the liberality of tbe Prince to his aUy by deserting from Germany into France. Meanwhile, and pending the elections for the approaching con vention, the Prince of Orange was actively employed in the admi nistration. His first want was that of money. He applied for a loan of 200,000/. by letter to tbe alderraen and common-council, stating the necessity of an immediate supply to,meet the charges of the navy, pay off part of the army, and secure tbe Protestant in terest in Ireland. Subscription to the loan was regarded as a test of feeUng towards tbe new order of things. One citizen. Sir Tho mas Dashwood, suscribed 60,000/. ; and the whole 200,000/, was collected by a deputation of four aldermen and eight commOn- 19* 292 STATE OF PARTIES. councilraen in four days.* The sura thus raised was not applied in the manner, at least not in the proportions, conteraplated by the lenders. The charge of HaraUton's inauspicious comraission was all tbat went to the Protestant interest in Ireland. Lord Dartraouth, upon tbe flight of the King, submitted himself and tbe fleet; first, by acknowledging the orders ofthe lords assem bled at GuUdhall; next, by a letter to the Prince of Orange.* Nar cissus Luttrell states, that " tbe English fleet regulated themselves, and turned out all Papists frora araong thera." But Lord Dartmouth inforras the King, tbat tbe Roraan Catbolic officers were reraoved in pursuance of the orders above raentioned." The fleet, par titioned by Lord Dartraouth between Sir John Berry and himself, was stationed, one division in tbe Downs, tbe other at Spithead, in an unserviceable condition. Lord Dartmoutb intimates that it was in a bad state on the King's first flight ;'' and an order issued by the Prince of Orange on the 16th of January, proved tbat the crews were afterwards thinned by desertion." The Prince in bis proclaraation sets forth, that certain ground less reports, touching the uncertainty of the wages of the searaen, had produced discontents and disorders in the fleet ; that raany had, in consequence^ left their' ships without leave; tbat all wages and arrears sbould be paid, even to the absentees, if tbey returned to their duty within fifteen days; but if they did not return, they would hot only forfeit their claims, but be proceeded against as deserters with tbe utraost rigour of the laws of the sea. This proclamation was censured. It was regarded as a, hardship that the wages of past service to their lawful sovereign should be made dependent upon the continuance of the men in the service of another raaster. But there is no record of any punishraent or deprivation ; and to render the na'vy efficient, was,' at the tirae, not only one of the first interests of the Prince ofOrange, as chief of tbe league of Augsburg, but one ofhis first obligations as adrainistrator pfthe three kingdems. The fleets pf Lpuis XIV. were beginning tp be as fprraidable as his arraies. His absplute authprity and vast respurces; the skill and valpur pf his Adrairals, d'Estrees, Chateau-Benaud and TpurviUe; tbe activity and genius pf bis Minister pf Marine, Seignelai, enabled him sppn after, tp wrest fpr a moment, frpra tbe English and Dutch, the erapire pfthe sea. * Lut. Diary. '' See bis letter to King James on bis flight in Dal. App. • Id. ubi supra. ' Idem, ubi supra. ' Gazette, 16 Jan. 1688-9. j STATE OF PARTIES. 293 The English people have never shown jealousy of the naval force as dangerous to tbeir freedom. The sums employed by the Prince, in equipping and increasing tbe navy, produced no raurmur. His conduct, with reference to the mUitary force, was differently judged. An order issued by bim to tbe array was condemned for the tone in which he, a provisional adrainistrator for a period only of three weeks, anticipated tbe sovereignty to which he aspired ; and it was made a ground of charge against him, both by the Tories,* and the Whigs,* tbat he new-modeUed instead of paying off the army of King James. The censure of his proclamation appears to have been just. He proposed rewards, threatened punishments, and as sumed the regal style of " our service," as if the sovereign power were already vested in him. There was, perbaps, in this tone, more of policy than usurpation. Having raade up his raind to be nothing less than king, be was apprehensive of associating with his person, in tbe public mind, tbe idea ofhis governing otherwise than in his own right, at a moment when the question of bis being ap pointed regent, in the narae and during the life of King James, was already agitated. The whole army was brought together and reviewed for the sup posed purpose of being paid off and discharged to a large extent. The Prince merely dismissed some officers of doubtful fidelity, drafted tbe privates into other corps, appointed his favourites and followers to the vacant coraraissions, and bestowed regiments upon the general officers who bad accompanied him from Holland, or joined hira before the flight of tbe King. Tbe Scotch regiment of Lord Dunbarton, 1500 strong, given, much against its inclination to Marshal Schomberg, mutinied some time after upon being or dered to Holland. Roth the sons of the Duke of Harailton, not withstanding the services pf their father, were deprived of their regiraents. Lord Arran's, it has been observed, was given to Lord Oxford; and Lord Selkirk's was bestowed on Colonel Godfrey, the brother-in-law of Lord ChurchiU. That lord's brofher. Colonel ChurchiU, received the regiment of Oglethorpe, whom the Prince tried in vain to attach to bis service." Tbe JacobUes charged the Prince with one of the very grievances which he bad, in bis declaration, urged against the King,^-raain- ' Ralph, vol. li. p. 10, '¦ Anon, letter lo K. William, ascribed to Whaxton. Dal, Ajjp. ¦ Life of King William. 204 STATE OF PARTIES. taining a standing array, without consent of parUaraent, in tirae of peace. The Whigs conderaned, ranch more sincerely, tbe course pursued by bim, because the creation cf a new army wpuld have enlarged the field of railitary patronage. But the new raodelling, rather Ihan disbanding of the troops, appears to have been a measure of prudence and good intention, with reference not only to foreign war but to the defence of the country. The French fleet had already begun to capture English merchant ships, and Louis XIV. raade no secret of bis design to attempt the restpratipn pf King James by an invasion of tbe British dorainions. The new organisation, ho-wever, failed. Tbe array of King Jaraes, wben the Prince landed, was 32,000 strong, exclusive of officers.* In January itwas reduced to 15,000; in February, after the Prince became king, fo 10,000 by desertion,* and the officers appear to have been no less dissatisfied than the privates." Other objects of more immediate interest, and more secret raa-- nagement, occupied the prince. Tbe convention, whicb would disappoint or crown the ambition of his soul, was about to meet. The elections had taken, or rather received, such a direction as proraised him a majority of the Commons ;'* but he was threatened witb a forraidable opposition from the Lords. Various parties had sprung up. The Princess ofOrange, the Princess Anne, fhe Prince of Wales, the forlprn King, and still mpre fprlprn republic, had their respective pretensions and partisans. All places of pubUc resort and conversation echoed, and the press teeraed, witb speculative scheraes of government, and practical settlements of the nation. The more uncoraproraising high churchmen and Tories would have the King invited back, upon conditions which sbould secure the Protestant Establishment." Adda, who accorapanied Jaraes as nuncio to St. Gerraains, writes to his court on tbe 31st cf January, that acccrding tc letters frpra England brpught tp tbe King by a page pf Lprd Arran, this party cpmprised the bisheps, or, as tbe nuncio calls fhem, " pretended bishops,'" the men of note of the church party, and some great lords, among whom were tbe Duke of Somerset and Lords Nottingham and Perabroke.^ The recall of the King would, of course, establish the succession ofthe Prince pf Wales; Others would appoint the Prince of Orange regent in ¦ Pres'ion MS, See App. '• Lutt. Diary. • Prince's Proclamation. •¦ ShefBeld, Duke of Buckingham. Adda. Evelyn. ' Pseudo-vescovi. ' See App. STATE OF PARTIES. 295 the name, and during the life, of tbe King. A third party would crown the Princess of Orange as next heir, to the exclusion of " the pretended Prince of Wales." Others, again, would place tbe Prince and Princess of Orange conjointly on tbe throne. A fourth party would place the crown on the head of the Prince. Tbe republicans would have a commonwealth, with tbe Prince of Orange its first magistrate, invested with powers similar to tbose exercised by hira as stadtholder in Holland.* The two extreme parties, of whicb one would recall the King, the otber establish a republic, appear to have been unrepresented in the convention. Their sole organ was the press, and tbey made active, if not efficient, use of it.* Few of those ephemeral, and for the most part anonymous, pamphlets, are worth citation or notice at the present day. The science of government and the popular inteUigence have outgrown tbe notions of 1688. Tbose principles of liberty, which were then launched as bold truths, would now he received as common-places. The monarchical principles then de fended as essential and sacred, have become exploded absurdities. There was indeed mucb sophistry, and subtlety, and self-interest;' but these are of every age. Sherlock, dean of St. Paul's, was, for bis hour, the Coryphaeus of tbose who would recall the King. His " Letter to a Member of the Convention" was a sort of manifesto of tbe party. Burnet received orders to reply to it, and pubUshed his " Enquiry," as usual by authority. Tbe high-church doctor af terwards took tbe oaths to Kmg WilUam, and was galled and stung with a general discbarge of pasquinades and pamphlets for his apos tasy. A single and short passage in his " Letter" is historically of some importance. It shows that tbe clergy were now ready to brand as an imposture what tbey had before received and re peated as a proved fact — tbe existence ofa treaty between Louis XIV . and James for the destruction of the Protestants : — " There is, ' says he, " one thing more I would beg ofyou, that tbe story of a French league to cut Protestants' throats in England may be well examin ed ; for this did more to drive the King out of tbe nation than the Prince's army. And if it should prove a sham, as some who pre tend to know say it is, it seems at least to be half an argument to invite the King hack again." • Adda. Evelyn. ' The curious in such matters will find a mass of pamphlets to which tbe con troversy gave rise, in " Somers' Tracts," and the State Tracts, temp. James II. and William III. 296 STATE OF PARTIES. ' The most effectual weapons against an adversary are his own words. These were eraployed wifh skill and effect against the Prince of Orange. The Pensionary's letter to Stuart on the sub ject of the tests abounded with expressions of affection, gratitude, and duty on the part of the Prince and Princess to the King. They declared through Fagel, that they were resolved to conf inne in the same sentiments of affection and duty to His Majesty, or to increase thera if possible. The passages expressing these unalterable or in creasing sentiments of love and duty were selected and reprinted, witb comraentaries insidiously respectful, and the foUowing raerao randura appended by way of note : — " These singular expressions of affection and duty to the King their father were sent after those irregular and offensive raeasures of quo-warranting charters, the dispensing power, closeting, the ecclesiastical coraraission, and Mag dalen College were practised." It is scarcely ne'cessary to add that these were the leading grievances urged by tbe Prince in justifica tion of his enterprise. The Prince of Orange had his full propor tion of parapbleteers in the field, and he was personaUy a sort of idol whom none dared f o attack,— fo whora all parties offered ho raage, frora inclination, interest, or fear. Yet the Prince and his Whig advisers, who had printed in HoUand and circulated in Eng land the mosl scandalous libels upon the King, issued a search-war rant, worthy of James II., the Charleses, and the Star-Charaber, after authors, printers, and sellers of unauthorised bopks and paraphlets.* But the prppfs are numberless and the fact indubitable, tbat the raen pf tbe Revplutipn pf 1688 were as littie disposed as their adversaries, whether Tories or Papists, to concede fhe free exercise of either huraan reason or religious conscience. Tbe general tenor of Sherlock's, pamphlet shows, that a breach occurred very eariy between the Bishops and the Prince ofOrange. No specific cause is , assigned, and none probably existed. The * Whereas there are divers false, scandalous, and seditious books, papers of news, and pamphlets, daily printed and dispersed, containing idle and mistaken relations of what passes, with malicious reflections upon persons, lo the disturbance of the public peace, which are publisbed without any autbority, contrary to the laws in tbat case provided ; His Highness tbe Prince of Orange has thought fit lo order and require tbe Master and Warden of the Cpmpany of Stationers, and Robert Stephens, late messenger of the press, to make diligent search in all print ing-bouses, and otber places, and to apprehend all such authors, printers, book- eellers, hawkers, and others, as sball be found to print or disperse tbe same, and to bave them before tbe next justice of peace, to tbe Intent tbat tbey may be pro ceeded against according to law, for tbe due execution whereof all mayors, justices of tbe peace, and pther ofiicers, are required to be aiding>^and assisting tbero.'^ ^.ondon Gazette. STATE OF PARTIES, 297 clergy and church party had the simplicity to expect that the Prince really came over to crush Popery, and deliver up the King, bound hand and foot, lo the church, and, having thus accomplished his mission, to go back to Holland. They soon discovered tbeir mistake. Sancroft is said to have perceived for tbe first time, when he attend ed the meeting of peers at GuildhaU, the existence of a project to set aside King James.* That prelate in consequence absented him self from their subsequent meetings, waited on the King wben he returned from Feversham to WhUehall, made the feeble effort al ready stated to prevent the King's withdrawing himself from tbe realm, and held private consultations with other prelates, leading divines, and Tory lords and gentlemen. The idea of bringing back James was soon abandoned. An assemblage of bishops, lay lords, and gentiemen at Lambeth, on tbe 1 6th of January, unanimously determined upon a regency in the King's name.* Lloyd, bishop of St. Asaph, merely insinuated his favourite word " cession,"" which Lord Clarendon, who was pre sent at the meeting, ascribes to the influence exercised over hira by Burnet; But it has been shown that Lloyd was much earlier a secret agent of the Prince of Orange, and attempted in that capa city to sound and tamper with the Bishop of Ely. This prelate was now a false brother in the councUs of tbe bishops. He ap pears moreover to have been a man of sagacity and talent far above Burnet, and restrained by as few scruples. Conversing on public affairs with Wharton, chaplain to tbe Archbishop of Canterbury, in June, 1688, he predicted tbat popery would not survive the year in England, that a great catastrophe was at hand, that the com mon people, in tbeir indignation, would probably rise in arras, drive all Papists out of England, and get rid of tbe King hiraself by banishment or by taking his life. Wharton, recording the con versation in his Latin Diary,"* throws in a parenthesis, " quod fac tum nolumus," with reference to the King. But the deprecatory present tense must apply to the time of writing, not to that at which the conversation was held ; and he makes the Bishop begin bis pro phecy with the prospect of unclouded good fortune in the past tense, — " Is fausta omnia sperare jussit." The bishops contem plated laying before the convention a paper containing their reasons against setting aside King James or interfering with the succession. ' D'Oyley's Life of Arcbb. Sane. '' Evelyn's Diary. Clar. Diary. '¦ Clar. Diary. •¦ D'Oyley's Life of Sancroft, App. lai. 298 STATE OF PARTIES. Sancroft, a man of much industry and erudition, was charged with preparing it. Frora, perbaps, his constitutional timidity and neutral conduct, it was not presented. The bishops and clergy, and high Tories, it has been observed, adopted a regency, in the King's narae, as preferable to bis recaU. Some, probably, supported the appointraent of a regent not only as more congenial to the doctrines of the Tories and the Church, but as affording the only hope pf ultiraately re-estabUshing tbe King. This design was iraputed tp them expressly in the cpnventipn; and Burnet gpes fhe length pf asserting that the scruples pf tbe mere ccnscientipus were satisfied by secret crders frpra King Jaines to pro ceed in this manner.* The republicans, despairing of their cause, jpined these whp would vest the royal authority, to aU intents, in the Prince of Orange. By apporating or electing a king out pf tbe line pf successipn, they cpnceived tbat they made a breach in fhe dpctrine pf hereditary indefeasible right, and a step in advance tpwards fhe severeignty pf the pepple. They alsp expected thaf, having a crPwn tp besfpw in pne hand, and the terms pn which it shpuld be given in the pther, they might lirait and mpdify the regal ppwer, and extend and strengthen the frpntiers pfpppular liberty.* But fhey were deceived and pverppwered by their Whig allies, the Dutch favcurites pf tbe Prince ci Orange, and tbat Prince hiraself. There stUl reraained tbree parties fp dispute and deterraine tbe settleraent pf the gpvernment in the cpnventipn. These are speci fied with SP rauch precisipn and authprity by Arcbbisbpp Sancrpft, that it may be advisable fp cite his wprds. The foUpwing three ways were, he says, prpppsed fpr legally and securely settling the gpvernraent : — " 1 . Tp declare the cpraraander pf tbe fpreign force king, and so leranly fp crpwn hira. " 2. Tp set up tbe next beir pf the crpwn, after tbe King's death, and crpwn her ; whp, being the wife pf tbe said cemraander, be will hereby have an interest in the cpnduct pf the gpvernraent in ber right. " 3. To declare the King, by reason of such his principles, and his resolutions to act accordingly, incapable of the government, ' Bur. vol. lii. p. 383. " Malice." Swift, note, ibid. ' Pamphlet cited in Ralph, STATE OF PARTIES. 239 with which such principles and resolutions are inconsistent and incompatible ; and to declare the commander custos regni, who shall carry on tbe government in tbe King's right and name." The Prince of Wales and his rights were thus repudiated or passed over in these projected settlements. The republicans dis carded him for his very claim of succession. The respective par tisans of the Prince and Princess of Orange, who saw in him a dangerous competitor, branded the helpless infant in his cradle, not only witb the disqualification of Popery at the age of six months, but with that of spurious blood. The imposture of a false heir figured prominently in the declaration of the Prince of Orange, and he pledged himself to prove it in a free parliament. Tbe pur pose of redeeming this pledge was entertained. Burnet was in structed to collect evidence in support of what may be called the case against the pretended prince.* That accommodating divine undertook and executed one of the most unbecoming acts in the wide range of his miscellaneous services. The unfortunate King, conscious of his innocence, offered to assist tbe investigation by sending over tbose witnesses of tbe birth of the child who had ac companied him to France.* It was thought prudent to abandon tbe enquiry, either from the conclusive force of tbe evidence already put on record by tbe King, or from the insufficiency of the case got up by Burnet. The Bishop says it was abandoned because a faUure in the proof would have produced tbe worst consequences." It was opposed, he adds, by the repubUcans for a different reason. They affected to treat tbe succession with contemptuous indiffer ence, and thought fbe existence of a pretender would keep the reigning princes upon their good behaviour to the people* The Bishop, to turn his labour to some account, introduced as a his torian the evidence on one side thus raked together by -him as a purveying advocate. To express astonishment at this would, per baps, argue a want of due acquaintance with human nature and with Burnet ; but it is inconceivable bow he came to make the avowal." The High Church and Tory party, wbo contended for a regency, left the claims of the Prince of Wales dormant. • Bur. vol. Hi. p. 387. '' Life of K. James. ' Bur. vol. iii. p. 388. •I Burnet, vol. lii. p. 389. • Ibid. 390. SCO CHAPTER XIX. Meetings and Proceedings ofthe Convention. — Settlement of tbe Crown. The convention of Lords and Coraraons raet on the 22d of January, the day fixed for its asserabling. Mr. Powle was re elected to fill the chair of tbe Comraons without opposition. The Lords elected Lord Halifax, in preference to Lord Danby. This was a good oraen for the Prince. His very courtiers were divided as fo the settieraent of fhe crown. One party, chiefly coraposed of his Dutch followers, the English republicans, and those Whigs who either accompanied him from Holland or calculated upon his favour, sought fo place hira upon the throne. It is stated that tbe English companions of the Prince, before they left Holland, bound tbemselves by a secret oath not to lay down tbeir arras untU they bad made hira king.* The other, consisting of those Whigs who either were raore scrupulous abput the successipn, pr calculated that the Princess would putlive a husband pf infirra health, exppsed fp the hardships and hazards pf war, spught fp vest tbe rpyal au thprity in the Princess as queen regnant, whilst the Prince shpuld be but a titular king. The forraer, pr Prince's party, was led by Lcrd Halifax ; the latter by Lord Danby. The convention being thus duly constituted in both bouses, a letter in duphcate was placed in the hands of the respective speakers. It proved to be a letter addressed by King Jaraes from St. Gerraains, to the lords and others of his privy council in Eng land. The exiled King repealed the compulsory raotives of his flight, complained of fraud, cruelty, and calumny on the part ofthe Prince of Orange, renewed his promises of satisfaction fo bis peo ple and to the Church, and only provoked a result whicb seeraed to cut hira pff frpm all hppe. His letter was rejected, uuppened, by bpth hpuses. " Letter of Albyville to Lord Preston. Prest. Papers. MEETING OF THE CONVENTION. SOI The Prince opened tbe session with a letter to the Lords and Commons, equivalent to a King's speech from tbe throne. He had endeavoured, he told them, to execute bis trust to the best of his power, and it now depended on themselves to secure their re ligion, liberties, and laws. He recommended a spirit of peace and union, and warned them against delay in their consultations, at a moment of great urgency at bome and abroad, when the Protest ants in Ireland needed immediate succeur, and the States pf HpI- land might require Englisb aid and tbe return ef their Pwn trppps tp defend tbem against France. The twc hpuses, immediately and unanimously, voted an address thanking him for his services, and requesting bim to continue the adrainistration. It will be remem bered, that the Prince's authority expired witb tbe meeting of the convention. The address was voted not only with unanimity, but with enthusiasm, by the Commons. Mr. Powle harangued them from the chair upon the everlasting topic of the Protestant interest in Ireland, the insatiable ambition and Popish animosity of Louis XIV., the necessity of subduing him, tbe glorious project of making the conquest of France, a second time, by English valour, — at least of recovering Normandy and Aquitaine, the rightful inheritance of English kings.* The rhetoric of the speaker was designed to serve the Prince of Orange, without naming him, for tbose visions of glory could be accomplished only by the Prince as their King, The assembly was transported, and the bouse rang witb applause. Tbe Lords were more tranquil, from a sense of dignity, or from secret disinclination. Both houses having voted, with the same unanimity, a day of thanksgiving fo Almighty God, who had made his Highness tbe glorious instrument of their deliverance from popery and slavery, adjourned, and presented, the same day, in a body, tbe following joint address : " We, the Lords spiritual and temporal, and Commons, assem bled at Westminster, being highly sensible of the great deliverance of this kingdom from popery and arbitrary power, and that our preservation is (next under God) owing to your Highness, do re turn our most humble thanks and acknowledgments to your High ness, as the glorious instrument of so great a blessing to us. We do further acknowledge the great care your Highness has heen pleased to take in the administration of the public affairs of tbe ' Ralph, vol. ii. p. 27. 302 MEETING AND PROCEEDINGS kingdom to this time : and we do most hurably desire your High ness, that you wUl take upon you the adrainistration of public affairs, both civil and railitary, and the disposal of tbe public re venues for tbe preservation of our religion, rights, laws, liberties, and properties, and of tbe peace of the nation ; and that your Highness will take intp ypur particular care the present condition of Ireland, and endeavour, by the raost speedy and effectual means, to prevent the dangers threatening that kingdpm : all which we make pur request tp ypur Highness fp undertake and exercise tiU further applicatipn shaU be made by us, which shaU be expedited with all cpnvenient speed, and sball alsp use pur utmpst endeavours to give despatch fp tbe raatters recpraraended tp us by ypur High ness's letter." The representatives pf tbe Cprampus, and tbe Lprds spiritual and temppral pfthe realm, thus sanctified, by their unanimeus vpfe, the enterprise pf the Prince pf Orange, and reinvested hira with tbe executive gpvernment by a rapre forraal titie than be yet possessed. He delayed answering thera untU the next day, and his answer then was laconic and ungracious. " My Lords and Gentiemen," said he, " I am glad that what I bave done hath pleased you ; and as you desire me to continue the administration of affairs, I am wiUing to accept it. I must recoraraend tp ypu the censidei-atien •of affairs abroad, which raaketh it fit for you to expedite your busi ness, not only for making a settieraent at hprae uppn a gppd fpund- atipn, but for the safety of Europe." The tone of indifference with wbicb he spoke on this and other occasions, previous and subsequent, could not have been sincere, and was scarcely politic. His arabition, his genius, bis whele life, the notoriety of bis vast designs, raust bave raade his affectation pal pable. The moroseness of his temper, however, raay have bad its influence, and he is said to have been disgusted not only with the opposUion of tbe churchraen and Tories, but with those of his own party wbo supported the rights ofthe Princess bis wife.* The two houses, upon receiving the report of this answer, adjourned over to tbe 26th, and again, without entering upon public business, frora the 26th tp tbe 28th. The pnly raptiOn pf any interest in the House of Coraraons, on the ferraer day, was that their votes should be printed. The rejection of if is a distinctive trait in the • Sbefiield, Duke of Buckingham, Account of the Revolution. OF THE CONVENTION. 303 character of this popular assembly, and of the Revolution. A lively sensation is said to have heen created for a moment, this day, in the House of Lords. Pemberton, Sawyer, and Finch were pro posed among the lawyers wbo should be appointed to advise in matters of law. Lords Mordaunt and Delamere declared, with great warmth and vehemence, tbat " tbey would bave none of those who had been instruments in the late reign : upon which, " says the narrator,* " a damp seized all tbe lords, as if tbey had heen attacked, in flank and rear, with cannons and mortars, or with the thunder of Mount Sinai." The lawyers appointed were. Chief Baron Montague, Sir Robert Atkins, Sir WUliam Dolben, Sir Cres well Leving, Sir John Holt, Sir Edward NevUle, Messieurs Whit lock, Bradbury, and Petit. This inaction of six days in the convention, notwithstanding tbe suggestion of tbe Prince and the real urgency of public affairs, could have proceeded from no slight cause. The most probable supposition is, that parties and tbeir chiefs had not yet come to an understanding with the Prince or with each other. Extraordinary activity and exciteraent prevailed in tbe interval. It seemed to be known or felt that the settlement of the government was still an open question. The press was put in requisition witb new industry and zeal. Tbe repubUcans appealed in tbe last resort to tbe Prince of Orange by the memory and example of Andrew Doria, and bis own Ulustrious ancestor. Tbey sbould bave recoUected that he came over, not to play the part of Doria, but to prevent his being disinherited either by popery or by a republic. The succession of the Princess was strenuously maintained as essential to the mo narchy. Those who defended tbe interests of the exiled king told the Prince, his honour lay in the strict redemption of the pledges in bis first declaration ; and that by acting tbe part of a disinterested generous deliverer he would show himself great without ambition, — a hero inspired wilh the Roman genius, which prized liberty above empire. Tbe advocates of his own claims proclaimed, tbat the divine designation of a ruler of the people by a signal deliver ance, was never more manifest in the theocracy of the Jews. Such were tbe flying sheets and half-sheets whicb issued from the press, like ephemera, to flutter for tbeir hour, full of life and activity, and in every variety of hue. The extent to which measures were con- • Ralph, vol. ii. p. 28. note. 304 MEETING AND PROCEEDINGS certed and party arrangements raade, wiU be best cpUected from the proceedings of the convention. Hitherto the Lords had taken the lead. It was now taken by the Coramons, or given to thera by the Prince. He was naturally anxious to coraraence operations wherethe had tbe raost strength. The Coramons, on the 28th of January, entered upon the momen tous question of tbe state of the nation, in a comraittee ofthe whole house. The sphere of discussion was thus vastly extended, for fhe merabers in a comraittee were not liraited as fo the number of their speeches. Mr. Hampden, grandson of the celebrated patriot of that narae, was placed in the chair. Mr. Dolben, son of fhe late Archbishop of York, struck fbe first direct blow at the autho rity of King Jaraes. " I tell you freely my opinion," said he, " that the King is demised, and that James If. is no longer king of Eng land." He argued that the King's withdrawing both hiraself and the great seal was a deraise pf the crpwn ; and rapved a resolution to that effect. It was a bold step, but did not satisfy the majority of the Coraraons. Either the Princess of Orange, or the Prince of Wales, upen a deraise, wpuld succeed as next heir. It was neces sary tp render the thrpne vacant before it could be occupied by the Prince. Sir Richard Temple, brother of Sir William, recounted the raisdeeds of King James, and maintained that they created a vacancy of the. throne. Sir Richard Musgrave, a leading Tory, asked the lawyers, whether by the law of England the King could be deposed. He was followed, not answered, by Wharton ; and made a second appeal to the long robe, which called up Sergeant Maynard. This Nestor of the lawyers answered, that fhe question at issue was not whether they could depose King Jaraes, but whe ther King Jaraes had not deposed hiraself; and threw in inflara- matory and irrelevant topics against the King, with the ignorance or bad faith of the raeanest pettifogger. " The King," he said, " was a tyrant : he gave up Ireland fo Irisb hands (aUuding doubt less to Tyrconnel). Was this to be endured? The, late rebellion in Ireland was the work of Jesuits and priests, and 200,000 Pro testants were raassacred in it! This would happen in England if tbe King were recalled. There was not a popish prince in Europe who would not destroy all Protestants; and the gallant Prince, Don Carlos, because he inclined to Protestantisra, was destroyed by fhe Inquisition and his own father, in Spain!" It would be superfluous Ip exppse these mensfrnus falsifications. A raember very perti- OF THE CONVENTION. 305 nently reminded him,, that he was not pleading at Nisi Prius. Somers, since called the great Lord Somers, cited as a precedent the case of Sigismund, King of Sweden; and concluded, that James II., by violating the original compact between king and people, and placing himself in the hand of a foreign and hostile power, absolved the people from their allegiance. Finch, son of Lord Nottingham, denied the possibUity of a vacancy of the throne, without first supposing a state of nature, suggested the appointment ofa regent, and disclaimed any desire to call back the King. " I have heard," says Sir Robert Howard, " that the King has his crown by divine right: we, the, people, have a divine right too." He con cluded with the opinion, that King James, by violating the laws, bad abdicated tbe government, and the throne was vacant. Sir Robert Seymour, a Tory, but one of tbe first men of influence who joined the Prince at Exeter, argued with great warmth against the King's alleged abdication, and the vacancy of the throne. After a vain effort by the Tories to adjourn the debate, the com mittee came .to the following memorable resolution : — " That King James tbe Second, having endeavoured to subvert the con stitution of tbe kingdom, by breaking the original contract between king and, people, and, by -the advice of Jesuits and other wicked persons, having violated the fundamental laws, and having with drawn himself out of this kingdom, has abdicated the government, and that the throne is thereby become vacant." This resolution having been reported to the house, and agreed to, was placed in the hands of Mr. Hampden, chairman ofthe committee, to he by bim carried up to tbe Lords. Next day tbe state of the nation was resumed in a committee of tbe whole house, and the following resolution was agreed to — " That it hath been found by experience to be inconsistent with the safety and welfare of this Protestant kingdom to be governed by a popish prince." King James and his son were now disposed of by the Commons. Warton, the same whose character as Lord Lieutenant of Ireland was afterwards drawn with a pen of iron by Swift, threw out a suggestion ofthe happy prospects ofthe nation witb the Prince and Princess of Orange raised to the throne. " It concerns us, " says Lord Falkland in reply, " to take care that, as tbe Prince ofOrange has secured us from popery, we may secure ourselves from arbi trary power. Before we consider whom we shall set upon the 20 306 MEETING AND PROCEEDINGS throne, I \vould consider what powers we ought to give the crown." Sergeant Maynard deprecated the loss of tirae, was apprehensive of their undertaking fpp much, " pf pverleading their herses," and talked sneeringly ef a new Magna Charta. Pellexfen said their first duty was tp fill fhe throne : the proposed resolution to secure thei'T liberties would biit prepare for the return of King Jaraes ; those who proposed it were their worst eneraies ; and if the noise of their binding the Prince were to go beyOnd sea, it would create confusion. " Will yOu," said Sir R. Seyrapur, in reply fp the twp Whig lawyers, " establish the crpwn and npf secure ycurselves ? What care I' fpr what is dpne abrpad, if we must be slaves in Eng lant tP this pr that raan's pPwer ? If pepple are drunk and rude belpw', as was ccmplained pf, must tbat stpp proceedings in ParUa raent ? " This last question appears to have been an allusion to the turbulent raoveraents of tbe populace in support of the Prince of Orange. The scantiness and uncertainty of the parliamentary his tory at this period is a mafter of regret. The Whigs and Tories would now appfear to have changed places. The former becarae of a sudden strEingely insensible to the iraportance of securing the rights and privUeges of the subjcfct. They were satisfied wifh de posing Jaraes and enthroning WUliam, and would irapose the triumph of their party artd tbeir idol as the triumph of the people. The Tories took the higher gt-ound of securing the nation in its liberties, and to them belongs the chief raerit pf the Subsequent declaraticn of rights. MeanwhUe the resolution sent up by tbe Coraraons was taken into consideration by tbe Lords. They, too, , resolved Jherasel ves into a coraraittee ofthe whole house, with Lord Danby in the chair. Lord Nottinghara appeared as leader pf the ppppsitiOh. The system adppted by bim and his party was indirect a'nd curipuS. Tbey denied the vacancy pf the thrpne, but supppsed it Vacant for the purpose of. deciding whether the executive power sbould be vested in a regent or a king. This was the great question. If it were deter- miried in favour of a regent, the vacancy would be either imma terial or negatived. The only record of the debate is that left by Burnet ; it is merely a general view of the arguments on both sides, without the names of the speakers. The negligent hardihood of his assertipns and vpcabulary render him a dpubtful guide. The chief suppprters pf Lord Nottingham were the brothers Clarendon and Rochester. Ithas been observed with what un- OF THE CONVENTION. 307 generous zeal Lord Clarendon joined and counselled tbe Prince of Orange against the falling or fallen King. He was now as stre nuously opposed to the Prince. Conscience, however mistaken, should he an object of respect ; but this merit was denied to Lord Clarendon. His relapse was ascribed to his being disappointed in the hope of returning to the government of Ireland. Tyrcon nel, in his feigned overtures of surrender, made it a condition that he should not be succeeded by bis enemy whom he had displaced. The Prince was, in consequence, deaf to Lord Clarendon's sug gestions and hopes. Those lords and tbeir party maintained, that if upon any pretence the nation might depose Us king, the crown would become elective and precarious ; tbe right of judging the king would he acknowledged in tbe people, and the government would ultimately become republican. Lord Nottingham is said to have nearly carried with him a majority of the house by citing and arguing on the recent appointment of a regency in Portugal, This is scarcely credible. It was the case of a raere court revolution produced hy court intrigue in a despotic monarchy. A precedent for the settlement of the British government might as well have bean taken from Moscow or Constantinople. The queen of Por tugal, a French princess, was disgusted with the brutalities of her husband. King Alphonso, loved his brother, Don Pedro, con ceived tbe bold project of divorcing and dethroning the one, and making tbe otber her husband, and regent of the kingdom ; and succeeded by means of a dispensation from the pope, and her own dexterous and daring arts. Lords Halifax and Danby were the chief speakers on the other side. Differing in their ultimate views, they had a common interest in resisting the appointment of a regent. They maintained that a regency, wbicb implied tbe right to de prive tbc King of all power, and on the admitted ground of his misgovernment, involved that of appointing another king in his place ; that the government of a regent in tbe name of King James would perplex the mind and compromise the tranquillity of the nation, by presenting to it the anomaly of two kings ; one with the right without the exercise, the other with tbe exercise without the right. The question was decided in favour of a king and against a regent on a division of fifty-one against forty-nine. This was a close and alarming minority. The scale was turned by the absence of three peers. Lords Churchill, Huntingdon, and Mulgrave. Indisposition was the cause publicly assigned for the 20* ;103 MEETING AND PROCEEDINGS absence of Lord ChurchUl : others accounted for it in a different raanner. The Prince of Orange, according fo the Duke of Buck ingham, had come to an understanding with the Princess Anne, by a good bribe fo tbe husband of Lady Churchill, ber favourite, and an engageraent to procure the settleraent of a large pension by parliaraent upon herself ' The Duchess of Marlborough, how ever, in the vindication of her life, which she published several years later, declares tbat, after having, for a tirae, counselled the Princess Anne to maintain against the Prince of Orange ber place in tbe succession, she saw tbat opposition would be vain, advised the Princess to accept the pension, and took this step in the most disinterested spirit, with the sanction of Lady Russel and Doctor TiUotson. Sheffield Duke of Buckinghara cast irapufations upon his acquaintance and conteraporaries wifh litfle scruple, and the Duchess had sorae credit for veracity; but avarice and venality were the vices of fbe Duke of Marlborough. Of the (prelates, those of London and Bristol only voted in the majority. The general opposition of the spiritual peers bas been ascribed by Kennet and Echard to their horror of the doctrine of deposing kings as " an art and part of popery," and this rash asser tion is echoed by churchraen even at the present day. * The popes, it is true, clairaed a deposing power, — but as their spiritual and ex clusive privilege; and' both the Pope and Church of Rorae would regard a rival pretension on the part of the lay people, witb as much devout horror and prudent fear as the bishops and clergy of 'the Church Of England. The atterapt to identify two prin ciples opposite as the poles, only shows that theologians will break througb all restraints of good faith and discretion in their eagerness , to defame a rival creed. The Lords, with more raethod and perspicuity, resolved the encurabered resolutipn pf the Cpranipns intp several distinct prp- positions. On the SOtb of January they put tbe question, whether there was an original contract between king and people, and de cided in tiie affirraative by a raajority of fifty-three to forty-six. The number present upon this division was thus less than on the former by three ; and the raajority gained an accession of six, among whora are reckoned fhe Dukes of Orraond, Southarapton, Grafton, and Northuraberland. It was next voted that the original " sbefiield, Duke of Buckingham, Account of tbe Revolution. ' See D'Oyley's Life of Sancroft, OF THE CONVENTION, 309 contract had been violated by King James, and apparently without a division. The question on both resolutions, but particularly on tbe former, was the beaten, one between the divine right of kings and the natural right of the pe.ople. The next day, January 3lst, ^was that appointed for a solemn thanksgiving. Lloyd, Rishop of St. Asaph, had been appointed to preach before the Lords, and Burnet, as chaplain to the Prince, before the Commons. The Bishop excused himself on tbe pre tence, it is called, of indisposition, and tbe honour was so littie desired, that it came down to Dr. Gee, another of the Prince's chaplains. According to Sir, John Reresby,, the demonstrations of joy were languid. Other contemporaries state that tbe day was strictly kept, that sermons were preached in all the churches, and that there were bonfires and ringing of bells in the evening.* The Lords,. after the service of thanksgiving, immediately resumed their deliberations, and voted two most important amendments to the resolution ofthe Commons : the first,, the substitution of the word " deserted" top the word " abdicated ; " the second, that the words, " and that the throne is thereby become vacant," should he left out. These amendments were not carried without vehement debate, no traces of which remain beyond tbe loose and general terms of Bishop Burnet. The majority was eleven. Tbe King having been tbus declared to have deserted the throne, and the throne declared not vacant, either the Prince of Whales or the Princess of Orange must of necessity have succeeded as next heir. A motion was made — by whom does not appear — for an enquiry into the birth of the pretended Prince Of Wales, and rejected with indignation.* It was next moved that tbe Prince and Princess of Orange should be declared king and queen : this motion was also negatived by a majority of five. The court party, as that of tbe Prince of Orange was now calledi looked upon their cause — or what was either, the same thing, or touched them more nearly — otheir interests and their safety, in fearful hazard. A petition, palpably designed to intimidate the House of Lords, was got up in the city by threats and violence. It was carried from house to house, presented to persons in the streets and otber pubUc places for signature, and borne or escorted by a mob to the very doors of the convention. The prayer, or admonition rather, ¦ Lutt. Diauy. " Rurnet, vol. iii. 388. 310 MEETING Kiili PROCEEDINGS of the petitioners was, in substance, tbat the Protestant interest was in extreme peril, and could be secured only by the imraediate elevation of the Prince and Princess of Orange to, the throne. Notwithstanding the raeans taken to obtain signatures, the petition was presented to the Lords unsigned, and on tbat ground only rejected by thera as informal. The Coraraons raore frankly rejected it, as a violation of tbe freedora Of tbeir deliberations. The Prince and his friends were suspected and accused of having contrived this turbulent raoveraent of tbe populace to overawe the Lords.* They vindicated theraselves by tbe lord mayor's prohibition, issued in pursuance of orders frora the Prince. This defence was in sufficient : the petition was carried up on the 31st of January, and the lord raayor's proclaraation, dated tbe 4th of February*, begins with stating, that the Prince's pleasure had been signified to him fhat day. A tardy prohibition, which allowed tbe terror of being " dewitted" to operate, during five days, upon the iraaginations of tbe refractory lords and almost all the bishops, either favours the charge pr prpves nothing. But there is no direct evidence to implicate the Prince or those about him, and raoveraents ofthe raibble are easUy and raost frequently produced by their own passions. .i raotion was made, on the 1st of February, that tbe araend- ments should he sent down to the Comraons. This prpduced a secpnd vehement debate, and the di-visien pf tbe preceding day in tbe affirmative. Ferty peers, at the head pf whpra were the rival ppliticians, Halifax and Danby, recerded their prptests. The vpfe pf the Cpramons, declaring pcpery a disqualificaticn fpr the thrpne, was at tbe sarae tirae agreed fp unanirapusly ; and it was prdered, witb the sarae unaniraify, that the anniversary pf the accession of King Jaraes, on the 6tb of February, sbould not be observed. Tbe two last motions neither propitiated the Cora mons, nor screened the raajority of tbe Lords frora the suspicion and exjiress charge of secretly designing to bring back the King." On the 2d of February tbe araendments of the Lords were brought down to tbe Coramons. After a short discussion, they were sever ally rejected, and a comraittee appointed fo prepare reasons for this vote, to be subraitted in a conference with the upper house. The Coramons then adjourned over frora Saturday tbe 2d to Monday ' Reresby, 310. '' Lutt Diary. ' Pari. Hist. vol. v. Interreg, OF THE CONVENTION, 311 the 4tb of February. Mr. Hampden, chairman of tbe committee, reported the following reasons, which are inserted because they embody, in the most compact and authentic form, an abstract of the arguments of the Commons. " To tbe first amendment proposed by the Lords to be made to the vote of the Commons of the 28th of January, instead of tbe word ' abdicated,' to insert the word ' deserted,' the Commons do not agree; because the word ' deserted' doth not fuUy express the _ conclusion necess'arily inferred, from the premises to wbicb your Lordships have agreed ; for your Lordships have agreed that King James II.. hath endeavoured to subvert tbe constitution of tbe. king dom, by breaking tbe original contract between king and people, and hath violated the fundamental laws, and withdrawn himself out of the kingdom. Now the word ' deserted' respects only the withdrawing, but the ^ord, 'abdicated' respects the whole; for which purpose the Commons made choice of it. The Commons do not agree to.the second amendment, to Jeave out the words, 'And that the throne is thereby vacant.' 1 . .Because they con ceive that as they may well infer from so much of their own vote as your Lordships bave agreed unto, that jKing James II. has ab dicated the government, and that the, throne is thereby vacant; so that if they should admit your Lordships' amendment, that he hath only deserted the government, yet even thence it ^ould> follow that the throne is vacant as to King James II. ; deserting the ,go- vernmentfbeJng, in true construction,, deserting the throne. S.The ¦Commons congeive ,they need not prove unto your Lordships, that as to any otber person tbe throne is also vacant ; your ;Lord- ships (as tjbey conceive) have already, Emitted it by your address ing to the -Prince of Orange the 25th of ;December last, ito take upon him the administration of public affairs, both civil ;a»d mi- , litary ; and to take into bis care the- kingdom of Ireland, tiU tbcmeet- jing of this convention. In pursuance of suchjetters, andsfey your rLordships renewing the same address to.his Highness (as. to pubUc affairs and, tbeikingdom of Ireland) since you met, .and iby. ad- ipoifltipig days of , public,; thanksgivings to be . observed throughfi,ut tbeiwhole kingdom, ,.aU which the, Commons cpnceive.do; imply, :thatit was your I Lordships' opinion that the throne was vacant, and to isignify so much .to the p.ejople of , this kingdora. S. It is from those who, are, upon (he throne x)f lEngland (when there me any'Such) from whomthe people of England, ought to. receive Slii MEETING AND PROCEEDINGS protection ; and to whora, for that cause, they owe fhe alle giance of subjects ; but there being none now frora whom they expect regal protection, and to whora, for tbat cause, they owe the aUegiance of subjects, the Coraraons conceive the throne is vacant." A conference having been proposed and accepted', tbe merabers of the sarae coraraittee were appointed to manage it. Mr. Hamp den, next day, reported to the house, that the conference had taken place, tbat the Lords persisted in their araendraents, and tbat Lord Nottraghara stated their reasons to the following effect : — " Tbat tbe Lords did insist upon tbe first araendraent of tbe vote of tbe House of Coraraons, of the 28tb of January last, instead of the word 'abdicated' to bave the word 'deserted.' 1. Because the Lords do not find that the word ' abdicated ' is a word known to the coraraon law of England ; and the Lords Jbope tbe Coramons wUl agree to make use of such wprds pnly whereof the raeaning raay be understood according to law, and not of sucb as will be liable to doubtful interpretations. 2. Because in tbe raost coraraon acceptation of the civil law, abdication is a voluntary express act of renunciation, whicb is not in this case, and doth not follow frora the preraises, that King Jaraes II. by having withdrawn hiraself, after having endeavoured to subvert the constitution of the governraent, by breaking the original contract between king and people, and having violated the fundaraental laws, raay be raore properly said to have abdicated than deserted." He said, fbe Lords did insist on tbe second araendraent to leave out the words, " and that fhe throne is vacant," for this reason : " for that although the Lords bave agreed tbat tbe King bas deserted the governraent, and there fore bave raade application to the Prince of Orange to take upon hira the adrainistration of tbe governraent, and thereby to provide for the peace and safety pf the kingdpra, yet there can be np other inference drawn frpra thence, but pnly that the exercise pf tbe gpvernraent by King Jaraes II. is ceased, sp as tbe Lerds were and are wUling fp secure the natipn against tbe return pf fhe said king intp this kingdpra ; but npf fhat there was either such an abdicaticn by hira, pr sucb a vacancy in the thrpne, as tbat tbe crpwn was thereby becprae elective, tp whicb they cannct agree : 1. Because, by the constitutipn of the government, fbe monarchy is hereditary and not elective. 2. Because no act of the king alone can bar or destroy the right of his heirs to the crown ; and. OF THE CONVENTION. ' 313 therefore, in answer to the third reason alleged by the Commons, if tbe throne be vacant of King James II., allegiance is due to sucb person as the right of succession doth belong to." The Commons again put the question upon tbe Lord's amend ments, and rejected the first, substituting desertion for abdication, without a division ; the second, denying the vacancy of the throne, by a majority of 282 to 151. The dissentient Tories, in the House of Commons, had allowed the amendments to be rejected without dividing, when sent down on the preceding Saturday. It may be presumed tbat tbey employed the Sunday's recess in concerting their operations and_ rallying their force, and the result was the above respectable if not formidable minority. The Commons now desired a free conference with tbe Lords, on tbe subject matter of thp last conference, and appointed managers. The Lords acceded, and appointed managers on their behalf No conference on record has involved, before or since, matters of such moment. A direct rupture between the two great orders of tbe state and tbe community, an executive power irregular or usurped, civil war, with tbe aggravation of foreign troops already lodged in the bosom of the country — these were among the consequences to be apprehended from its failure. Both Houses selected from their respective majorities tbe members most dexterous in debate, or who had most weight of character. Many of them were persons eminent in their day; but there are few names truly historic. The chief speakers were, on behalf of tbe Commons, Hampden, Somers, Holt, Maynard, Pollexfen, Temple (Sir Richard), Howard (Sir Robert), Treby (Sir George), Sacheverell; on the side of the Lords, Nottingham, Clarendon, Rochester, Turner Bishop of Ely, Pembroke. Tbe discussion was opened by Hampden. He maintained tbe propriety of using the term " abdicated," as more comprehensive than " deserted," and called upon the Lords to admit the vacancy of the throne, or declare who filled it. Somers, who came next, confined himself to the word " abdicated." He cited jurists and lexicographers, Grotius, Brisonius, Budeus, Spigelius, and the code, to prove that desertion was an abandonment, admitting the right to return and resume — abdication, an absolute, irrevocable re nunciation ; and therefore the more proper word : first, as a con sequence from the King's violation of the original contract, which the Lords had voted ; next, as effectually shutting out King James, 314 MEETING AND PROCEEDINGS which object the Lords professed. Holt took the sarae views, with less of verbal criticism, and upon broader principles. He denied that to abdicate implied an express voluntary act of renunciation, and maintained that botsh by the coramon law of England, and the civil law, there may be a renunciation by acts done, without any express voluntary deed or docuraent. The government and tbe magistracy were,, be said,, a trust, and to act in a manner incon sistent with, or subversive of that trust, was the raost decisive disclairaer of it. Both these erainent lawyers raaintained, that tbe non-use of tbe terra " abdication " in the law books was no ob jection, for it was a word of:known signification, used by tbe best authors, and neither was tbe word " desertion" known to the cora raon law. Lord Nottinghara interposing, narrowed tbe discussion, and brought it to its true bearing. The raain objection, he said, of the Lords to fhe term " abdicated," lay in fhe consequende which the Coramons appeared to draw from it, that the throne was thereby vacant. "Whether," said he, "do you mean that the throne is so vacant as fo nuU the succession in the 'hereditary line, which we say will raake the crown elective?" Sergeant Maynard, instead of raeeting the question, indulged in vague coraraon-places, and the analogies of vulgar advocacy at the bar. " Supplying a present defect in the governraent would ,not," be said, " make" the crown elective. The Comraons apprehended there was such a defect, and a present necessity to supply it. If," said be, "the. atterapting tbe utter destruction of the subject and subversion of the constitution be not as ranch an abdication as tbe atterapting of a father to cut his son's throat, I know not what is." It may be remarked, m passing, that the Lords admitted aU this ; and, according to bis own analogy, proposed to appoint a regent in the one case, as a guardian would have been appointed in tbe other. He urged, in conclusion, tbat " tbe Coraraons did not raean to say the crown of England was always and perpetuaUy elective;" and tbus left it to be understood, by iraplication, that tbe Coraraons did raean thecrown of England to be elective for that. tirae. Turner, Bishop of Ely, in reference to what bad fallen frora Soraers, adraitted that, according to Grotius, there raight be an abdication by mere overt acts ;: but said that' Grotius interposed this caution, — .prpvided there be np .yielding tp the tiraes; np for saking merely for the present, with the purpose of returning; nothing of force or jusfTfear. " Lspeak not," said be," ofnial- OF THE CONVENTION. 315 administration now : of that hereafter." The Bishop referred to Somers by name. It would be expected that the latter should have risen to vindicate his own arguraent; but tbe point was taken up by Maynard, wbo threw aside the argument and autho rities of bis junior colleague, with a presumption which may excite a smile, at this day, upon a retrospect of the two men. " We have, indeed," said he, " for your Lordships' satisfaction, shown its meaning in foreign authors ; but we are not, I bope, going to learn EngUsh from foreign authors. It is an English word, and we can, without their aid, tell the meaning of our own tongue." Then returning to the expressly excepted question of mal-administration, he illustrates it once more hy a pettifogging anablogy: — "If two of us," said he, " make an agreement to help and defend each other from any one that should assault us in a journey, and he that is with me turns uppn me and breaks my head, he has undoubtedly abdicated my assistance and revoked tbe said agreement." The Bishop resumed, and discussed the question upon broad principles, in a tone of good faith which contrasted very perceptibly and favourably with the manner of the Commons. He cited and adopted the distinction of Grotius, between a right, and the exercise of it : admitted that the exercise of the right may be vacated in two ways ; tbe one, natural inca pacity, sucb as lunacy, infancy, doting old age, or disease whicb excluded human intercourse, — the other moral, such as " a full and irremovable persuasion in a false religion, contrary to the doctrines of Christianity." It may be asked in passing, how this incapacity of " a false religion" is to be determined and agreed on? Popery is a false religion, and contrary to Christianity, in tbe conviction of Protestants ; Protestantism the same, inthe conviction of Catholics; and 'Episcopacy, whether popish or protestant, is, or then was, Anti- Christ to the Presbyterians. But the Bishop afterwards meets the objection in some measure, by using tbe phrase " contrariety of religion," — meaning contrariety to that of the great mass of the nation. He contended, that in a hereditary monarchy, the vacant exercise of the government resulting from either of those incapa cities, moral or physical, should be supplied, by vesting the exercise and tbat only, in another person, and leaving the line of succession, and the right itself, inviolate. " If, however," said the Bishop in conclusion, "it be declared that this ' abdication ' of James II. 316 MEETING AND PROCEEDINGS reaches no further than himself, and the right line of succession shall be continued, that, I hope, wiU make all of one raind in this iraportant affair." To appreciate this last suggestion ofthe Bishop, it should be re raerabered thaf the two daughters of Jaraes were bred up in the belief that the word " Church" erabraced not only the established religion, but the State and ConstUution, and even aU the public virtue in the realra. The Princess Anne designated tbe High Church or High Tory by tbe narae of the honest party. Tbe Tories, bow- ever, it should in justice be allowed, had at least an equal sbare of public honesty and independence. The Bishops and High Church party would have wiUingly capitulated with the Comraons, if the succession were declared in tbe Princesses of Orange and Denraark, to the exclusion of the Calvinist or conforming Prince of Orange ; but this did not suit tbe views of the Comraons, and the overture of the Bishop of Ely was not even noticed in the conference. Lord Clarendon raaintained tbat no act of tbe King alone could bar or destroy the right of bis beir : and observed, in reply to Ser jeant Maynard, tbat if they broke through tbe line of succession then, others coraing after them might take the sarae liberty, with tbe further justification of an express precedent. Lord Nottingham proposed that the question of abdication should be postponed, and that of vacancy disposed of first. It was urged by Sir George Treby, that this would be passing over the preraise, to discuss the conclusion, Lord Nottinghara rejoined, tbat he understood the "abdication" to be itself a conclusion, drawn frora the first propo sition, that tbe King bad violated the original contract, and fhat the vacancy ofthe throne was raerely joined with ft by a copulative, as a second conclusion frora the sarae .preraises. He suggested that sorae third terra, whicb would lirait tbe vacation of tbe throne to King Jaraes, raight be found, and thus tbe two Houses might agree on the supposition whicb he raade; and the Commons, be supposed, would admit tbat it was not their intention to break the bne of de scent. The Coraraons were deaf to this overture ; and Sir George Treby, whilst he contended for the wprd " abdicated," was pbliged tp adrait fp Lord Nottinghara, " that it was in tbe nature of," as be expressed ft, " a double conclusion." This dispute arose from the confused and illogical language of the resolution. Sir George Treby, having referred to the abdication of Charles V., was infer- OF TIIE CONVENTION, 317 rupted by Lord Pembroke with the remark, that the abdication of that Prince was an express and solemn act. This is all that is as signed here to Lord Pembroke by the Parliamentary History ; but it appears from another authority, thathe compared the King's flight to that of a man who ran out of a house because it was on fire, or that of a merchant who threw bis goods overboard in a storm fo save bis life ; neither of whicb could be construed an absolute re nunciation.* Lord Nottingham urged the maxim, so called, of the constitution, that the King ean do no wrong, — a pernicious ambi guity, calculated to delude kings ; and Lord Clarendon said, that the expression of breaking the original contract was new in that place, and not to be found in their law books or records. The Commons admitted that the King's ministers and officers, not himself, were responsible, but only where the instances of misgovernment were slight and few; and reminded Lord Clarendon, with something near sarcastic triumph, that he was concluded by tbe vote of the Lords, aflirmingthe existence and the breach of the original contract. Lord Rochester repeated the suggestion, that if the Commons declared their meaning to be tbat King James had abdicated only for him self, both sides might concur. A pause followed ; and Hampden proposed that they should proceed to the second amendment. No peer objected, and the Commons acted upon this as a tacit assent. A long and laboured discussion now followed upon the vacancy of the throne. The same arguments Were repeated and reiterated with a fatiguing monotony. Sacheverel said, tbat if King Jame.^ had merely lost the exercise, and continued in the office, and was still King, aU the acts hitherto done by the convention in both Houses were unwarrantable, and the nation could not relieve itseif. Pollexfen, in an argument at once subtle and perplexed, contended that the power and tbe exercise of the power were the same ; tbat to deprive King James of the exercise of his power, was to deprive him of his kingship, which the Lords therefore had already done by vest ing the administration in the Prince of Orange. Lord Clarendon asked whether the throne in their sense was vacant as to King Jame.s only, or also as to him, his heirs and successors ? Pollexfen, instead of answering, put another question, — Whether, as they denied the vacancy of the throne, they would be pleased to state who filled * Burnet, vol. iii. 386. Note of Lord Dartmouth. 318 MEETING AND PROCEEDINGS it ? Lord Pembroke raade a good reply, — that admitting the ex istence of an heir, the throne was not the less full, because they eould not, at the raoraent, narae that heir between two or raore per sons. Serjeant Maynard answered this by urging the raaxim of law, that no man bas an heir while he lives, — thus applying rigo rously a legal maxira, having reference rather to other descents than those of the crown, and in an unforeseen and unprecedented emer gency, for which tbe law, by his own adraission, did not provide. The Lords urged, with raore soundness and fairness, that their business was to adhere to the spirit of the law where the letter was wanting, and to regard the King's desertion of the government as a civil death, by wbicb, as by his natural death, the crown should descend to the next heir. The case of Richard II., in whicb tbe throne was declared. vacant, as appeared on the face of the record, was cited by Somers. Rochester and Clarendon repUed, that Richard II. had resigned the crpwn by a formal instrument. Nei ther side could gain rauch by this precedent. Fraud and violence silenced right and law in almost every part of the transaction. Sir Robert Howard found in it a precedent of election : for the Earl of March, he said, not Henry IV., was next heir ; cited the raaxim, salus populi suprema lex esto ;" asked those who were so scru pulous about the Uneal succession, whether they had not already broken it by excluding a Popish heir ; and whether they should not resort to- election, if no Protestant heir reraained. Tbe Earl of Nottinghara recapitulated tbe case of the Lords : — " Ypu seem," said he to the Commons, " to understand your own words to mean less than they really import. You would not raake the kingdora elective, and yet you talk of supplying fhe vacancy by the Lords and Comraons. You do not say that the King has abdicated the crown for hiraself and his heirs, yet you speak of a vacancy, and say no thing of a succession. You do not tell us what you raean. If you raean by abdication and vacancy, only that tbe King has left the gp vernraent, and if is devplved pn the next beir, we raay agree. Any governraent is better than none. I desire earnestly we may enjoy our ancient cpnstitutipn." Teraple, Fpley and Eyre sppke on be half pfthe Cpramons, and the discussion terrainated. The subject-raatter and debates in this meraorable conference have been declared pedantic and puerile by Bishop Burnet, and other writers of raore unbiassed teraper ; and the Bishop further OF THE CONVENTION. 319 says, that, according to the sense of the whole nation, the Commons had tbe advantage. The comparative merits should not be judged from the above glimpse of the arguments ; but those who read tbe full debate careful and impartially will hardly agree with either opinion. There was much of verbal criticism in the discussion, hut the subject-matter consisted of the two antagonist principles of passive obedience and indefeasible succession on fhe one side ; the natural right of the community to resist, control, modify, or elect its government, on the other. Both parties bad their re servations, and placed themselves in what is somewhat affectedly but very intelligibly called a false position. The High Cburcb and Tory Lords abandoned more than they avowed of their pro fessed doctrines. The Whigs acted to a muoh greater extent than tbey avowed, upon the principle since called the sovereignty of tbe people. But the Lords were, of the two, the raore ingenious and consistent in their principles and arguments. The resolution of the Coramons was so deficient in perspicuity and logic, that one of their managers, after, it has been observed, calling the abdication a premise, adraitted it to be a conclusion, and then sought refuge in the solecism of a double conclu sion. Tbe substance of it in a logical form may stand thua: — The King, by violating the original contract, abdicated; and by abdicating, vacated the throne. It was a sort of sorites, in which the abdication was intended to be a conclusion as to what goes immediately hefore, and a premise as to what immediately follows. But, in point of fact or logic, it was neither the one nor the other. It is of tbe essence of abdication, that it should be free. Every abdication recorded by Livy, from the first dictatorship down to the abdication of Sylla, is voluntary. Grotius says it must be voluntary and free, whether done by inconsistent overt-act or by express renunciation. The Commons said that King James had, evea in this sense of the term, abdicated, because he, of his free wUI, committed those violations of the original contract, of which his abdication, so called, was tbe consequence. Now, if this be admitted, and King James voluntarUy deposed hiraself, it wiU follow that the judicial execution of a criminal is a suicide; for tbe criminal voluntarily committed tbe crime by which his life became forfeit. Here the language of the law and of tbe community suggests the proper word " forfeiture," whicb sbould have been applied to James II. Forfeiture, not abdication, is the true 3-iO MEETING AND PROCEEDINGS conclusion, from the violation of tbe original contract as a preraise. To take abdication as a premise : — Did King James, by abdicating (supposing for a moment that he did abdicate), thereby vacate the throne? Grotius, in the very citation of Somers, says, '¦'¦Jure naturali quisque suum potest abdicare." But a life right only,- not a perpetuity, was vested in King Jaraes, who therefore could abdicate only the life right, and not the inheritance. Abdication, therefore, was not a preraise frora which the vacancy of the throne would follow as a consequence. Let the word forfeiture be substituted, and the vacancy wUl follow as a resistless conclusion. It is true, Sergeant Maynard tried to prop up the false consequence deduced by the Coraraons witb the raaxira. Nemo est hares viventis; but the raen of raore enlarged sense and principles on his side disdained to take it up. The Whigs of 1 688 took a narrow view of the national eraer genoy, and tbeir own raission. . They should have adhieved the Revolution as a great original transaction, and sought precedents fo justify it, araong sirailar transactions in the annals of raankind. Grotius, whose autbority was often quoted, and implicitly respected on both sides, would have supplied a historic precedent of more weight tban bis abstractions. Philippo ob violatas leges imperium abrogatum, says be, speaking of tbe Dutch revolution. It appears that the Republicans in the interest of the Prince of Orange pro posed that a formal sentence of forfeiture sbould be pronounced against James II., and tbat the Prince sbould be as formally elected king.* Rut this, says Burnet, was over-ruled in the beginning.* The word " forfeiture" was thrown out in the debate, but by whora does not appear " The Whigs of 1688 were secretly as jealous as the Tories of admitting, whilst for fheir purposes they acted upon, the natural inherent and inalienable right of the community over its governraent. Hence tbeir adoption of the poor quibble, that James II. bad deposed himself Bishop Burnet, the historian of the party, said they meanly used the ambiguous word -" abdication" for its very arabiguity."* It would appear 'that Burnet hiraself — at least in verbal discussion — maintained tbe forfeiture. "Dr.. Burnet is to maintain his notion of a forfeiture,'' says Turner, Bishop of " Burnet, vol. iii. 397 '' Barnet, vol. iii. p. 397. ' Pari, Hist. vol. v. p. 61. '' Burnet, vol. lii, p, 38i>. 2d Oxf. ed. The passage is printed for the first time among tbe additions in tbe second Oxford edition. T'he word "abdicate," he says, " had a meanness in it, because of tbe dubious sense of it, and as it was used for tbat reason.'' OF THE CONVENTION. 321 Ely, writing to Archbishop Sancroft respecting an expected meet ing at Ely House.* The Commons, upon tbe termination of the conference, adjourned to tbe next day, leaving the Lords to debate once more whether tbey should abandon or persevere in tbeir amendments! It is ne cessary meanwhUe to cast a retrospective glance over the pro ceedings without doors. The Prince of Orange, whUst fhe pending settlement of tbe crown was disputed with heat, strife, and dubious success, lived in se clusion at St. James's, seeking no popularity, courting no party, difficult of access, hearing what was said by those wbom he ad raitted, and never opening his mind.* This conduct was great if he was sincere, wise even if he was not, according to a high authority." Personal teja^per and particular disgusts probably bad their share in it. Two persons only are said to have possessed his entire confi dence, and hut one of them his affection. Tbese were, Bentinck, afterwards Lord Portland, his countryman ; and Colonel Sidney, afterwards Lord Romney, his chief agent in the affairs and intrigues of England before the Revolution. Sidney, though abandoned to adventures of gaUantry and dissipation in the licentious court of Charles II., had some portion of his brother's love of liberty, with out being, like him, a Republican ; obtained tbe political confidence of the Prince of Orange ; and repented his sbare in raising bim to tbe throne.'* Bentinck, of more accordant temper and character, bad hoth his confidence and friendship. Lords Danby, Shrewsbury, Devonshire, Mordaunt, and Delamere, partook tbe hazards of his enterprise; and Lord Halifax atoned for bis eariier backwardness, by his influence as a party leader, his adroitness and services as an intriguer, and the minor merit of his talents. AU these shared, at this critical moment, the counsels of tbe Prince, with httle of per sonal liking or public trust on either side. Upon the prolongation of tbe debates, the Prince's ambition be came impatient, or he was alarmed for the result. He summoned Lords Halifax, Danby, Shrewsbury, and some others of tbe above list, who are not named," informed them that he had been hitherto • Letter, dated Jan. II. 1688-89. D'Oyley's Life of Sancroft, p. 424. '' Burnet, vol. iii. 394. " Speaker Onslow, note. Burnet, ibid. '' Sidney told me, he repented a hundred times embarking in tbe Revolution. Hal. MS, ' Burnet, vol. lii. 395. 11, 21 322 MEETING AND PROCEEDINGS silent, lest he should interfere wifh the deliberations of the two Houses ; tbat as to the appointraent of a regency, be had no ob jection, but they must look out for some other regent than himself; tbat as to placing the Princess on the throne, and raaking bira king by courtesy as ber husband, he esteeraed ber exceedingly, but would not bold by her apron strings ; tbat if he was to be king, it raust be for his own life, not for hers only ; that he would, however, yield precedence in the succession fo the issue of tiie Princess of Denmark over bis own by another raarriage ; that if fhey thought it for their interest to make a different settleraent, he should go contentedly back to Holland ; — in fine, that whatever others might suppose, he set httle value on a crown.* The Prince OfOrange bad real grandeur of character. Whilst first magistrate of a siraple, frugal, and free Republic, be found himself the chosen leader of a great confederacy of sovereign prinCes, to check and humble fhe most powerful raonarch of Europe. He raay therefore bave really looked down with indifference upon the mfere title of a king, and seen in a crown nothing raore than a bauble. But be was arabitious, and could not therefore have been indifferent to power : he had great designs, and could not have been indifferent to fhe crown of England, without whicb he could not achieve them; and he well knew that the HoUanders would be grievously disappointed if he went back. The raore jealous re publicans would have preferred his ruin to his return. The es tablishraent of his ascendency in England to the exclusion of a CathoUc successor on fhe one side, and of a republic on the other, was fhe great object of comraon and deep interest to the States 'General and to himself, which he held out to tbe States as a motive for "placing at bis disposal their army, their fleet, and their funds. His expressed willingness to leave the English to settle their own affairs has been justiy regarded as a covert menace.* If is stated that he even directly threatened that he would depart with his ai my, and leave his friends to the justice of King Jaraes." This threat, though tbe raost effective that could be eraployed by bim, bad not an imraediate br entire success. He insisted that his wife should be a raere queen-cpnsprt. This was cpnveyed threugh Bentinck. Sprae pf his friends were indignant pn finding his love , " Burnet, vol. iii. 395, 396, ' Sheffield, Duke of Buckingham, Account of tbe Rev, ' Life of K.James, vol ii, '305. OP THE CONVENTION. 323 of power SO jealous and insatiable.* Lord Halifax alolie went the whole length with him. The rival leader^ Lord Danby, insisted on the rights of the Princess as next hfeir; In the course of a warm dispute between them on the subject during a party consultation at the house of Lord Devonshire, Fagel was called upon to declare the sentiments of the Prince. He, with some reluctance in seem ing, gave it merely as his own notion, tbat the Prince of Orange would not like to be his wife's gentleman usher. Lord Danby said he hoped they all knew enough now ; for his part be knew too rauch, and the consultation ended.* Herbert, brother of the adrairal, described as an interested courtier, upon bearing tbat the Prince refused all participation in the throne to the Princess other wise than as queen-consort, rose out of bed in a severe fit of goutj and declared, witb vehemence, that if he had expected this he never would have drawn his sword for tbe Prince of Orange." The murmurs ofhis party made tbe Prince somewhat less exact ing. Those who supported the interests of the Princess were at the same time not only not encouraged, but sharply rebuked by her. Lord Danby had sent over a messenger with a letter, in forming her of tbe proceedings in tbe convention, and offering to obtain her, if she chose, the undivided sovereignty; She replied that she was the Prince's wife, and would be nothing more ; fhat she should not regard as her friend any person wbo would create division between tbem, and proved that tbese were not idle words, by sending Lord Danby's letter to her husband. It is added by Burnet, the Prince, with his usual phlegm, used not the slightest expostulation with Lord Danby, continued to employ and trust him, and made him successively a marquis and a duke. '' The Prince of Orange, who viewed men without confidence, and huraan nature without respect, was doubtless too much of a politician to quarrel with Lord Danby at the crisis of bis fortunes; and King WiUiam employed and advanced him and others, whom he disliked and distrusted, and used as mere instruments of his policy and government. The result of aU this was a compromise. Bentinck brought a conciliatory message" from the Prince. He conceded that the * Sheffield, Duke of Buckingham. Account of the Rev. '¦ Burnet, vol. ill. 394, note of Lord Dartmoutb —also in Dal. .4pp. ' Sheffield, Duke of Buckingham. Account of tbe Rev. ' Burnet, vol. ill. 394. • Sheffield, Duke of Buckingham. Account ofthe Rev. 21 " 3.24 MEETING AND PROCEEDINGS Princess should be named witb bira in all acts of government and administration ; and the supporters of the Princess agreed that the prerogatives of the crown and the adrainistration of public affairs should be vested selely in him. Burnet perfprmed pne pf his accustcraed services. It will be remerabered that, by his accpunt, he sounded the Princess on the subject of the Prince's situation, if she succeeded to the crown, or rather, that he settled with her, of his own authority, the contingent succession and exercise of the executive power. That conversa tion was not to be disclosed without leave of the Princess. The Bishop states, that having consulted the Prince, and being left by bim to bis own discretion, he ventured, under the circurastances, to disclose it in violation of his pledge ; that the disclosure araazed? but fully satisfied, many people, wbo said the Princess was either a very good or very weak woman, and tbat she on her arrival fully approved his conduct. The Prince thus pbtained the substance, cenceded but a shadpw, and might have retained the shadew too were it worth disputing. The nation was at his raercy in every sense. There was nothing to oppose him if be spoke the language of command. The mass of the nation, witb its fanatical intolerance of popery and fears for pro testantisra, would have supported in any usurpation one who could appeal to them as Protestants, with the suprerae power of the state inhis hands, and a foreign array at bis back. If, again, he re tired with his Dutch troOps to Holland, there was no known leader endowed witb the requisite superiority of genius, virtue, or arabi tion, to take bis, place, and, either as a patriot or usurper, protect parties and the nation against the restoration, tyranny, and ven geance of tbe King. Lord Halifax, whose accoraplishraents and sa gacity forra SP huraUiating a ccntrast with his raean intrigues, tpld bira rapst truly, pn bis arrival at St. Jaraes's, that be might be what be pleased, fpr npbpdy knew what fp dp with him pr without bira.* Arrangeraents,. it has been stated, were raade with the Princess Anne for the ceding of her place in the line of succession. Her friends coraplained and raurraured, but Bishop Burnet states that she disavowed them. * According to others, she was disappointed and perplexed. " But the Prince had tbe game completely in his hands ; and all opposition, even that of the Lords, gave way. • Burnet, vol. ill, £95, note of Lord Dartmouth.] " Burnet. ^ Sir John Reresby. Clar. Diary. OF THE CONVENTION. 3-25 The managers of the Lords having made their report, the abdi cation and vacancy were discussed with renewed ardour on both sides. Lords Halifax and Danby joined in recommending tbe simple adoption of the resolution of the Commons. Tbe amend ments were abandoned, and the resolution agreed to hy a majority of only two orthree, according to some,* of four, according toothers.* It is a distinctive trait in the conduct of parties and individuals in the Revolution to atone for defeated or unprofitable virtue by sudden and servUe transitions to compliance. The Lords, having voted the throne vacant, took the initiative in filling it. They voted by a majority of sixty-five to forty-five, tbat tbe Prince and Princess ofOrange should be declared king and queen of England and all tbe dominions thereunto belonging, and framed and voted a new oath of allegiance. These resolutions were passed on the 6th of February. Next day it was moved, that the concurrence of the Lords with the Commons, tbe fiUing tbe throne, and tbe form of the oath, all voted by tbe Lords, should be sent down to tbe lower House. The motion was carried; but the minority, that is, the uncompromising residue of theformer majority, entered a pro test. It would appear that they did hot sign their protest on the journals, but their names have been preserved in the coUection of Lord Somers. " The lords wbo went over to the Prince ofOrange, or designedly absented themselves, in order to leave him a majo rity, were influenced by various motives. The Prince's proclaimed determination to return to HoUand rather than accept a regency or titular kingship had its effect. '' Almost all had cause to fear the return of the King. A tyrant jealous of his power, however he dissembled for a day, would not forgive the rejection of his letters unopened, and the unanimous votes vesting the administration in the Prince [of Orange. The great majority of eacb House had compromised their fortunes and lives. Others shrank from the contemplation of a civil war. " Some console themselves with tbe bope that the Princess would survive the Prince. ' There were some also who changed sides from motives more selfish and mer cenary.^ Among them was the court-serving Bishop of Durham. He made his peace by voting for the new settlement, at a moment • Burnet, vol. iii. 398. ' Lord Montague's Letter to King William. Dal. App, " Vol. xi. ' Buriipt, vol. iii. 396. ° Burnet, vol. iii. 406, note of Lord Dartmouth, ' Ibid, SOfl, nule. * Sheffield, Duke of Buckingham. 326 SETTLEMENT OF THE CROWN. when be was negociating the resignation ofhis bishopric in favour of Burnet for a life-annuity to support hira in exile. * ' Tbe votes of tbe Lords were, on the 7th, sent down to fhe Coramons. The latter did not iraraediately proceed to consider thera. So eager and precipitate was the house of Peers in its new zeal, that it voted the throne to tbe Prince and Princess of Orange, without defining tbeir respective shares in the sovereignty, or settUng the succession, or proposing any security for the rights and liberties of the nation.' The Commons began witb reviving tbeir comraittee, to prepare securities for the public rights and hberties. This was opposed by sorae Whigs, — especially the Whig lawyers,* — frora avidity to reach tbe eraoluraenfs of court favour and preferraent under the King elect." They urged the consuraption of three weeks already in debate; tbe impossibility pf drawing up a declaratipn uppn raatters sp impprtant and de licate at the mpment; the prudence pf first filling the thrpne and then enacting securities.'' The Teries were fererapst in exppsing these flirasy pretences, and urging that the first pbject in the prder of tirae, of importance, and of public duty, was to guard the public liberties, whoever should be king. " It is charged upon the Prince that he raurraured against the liraitation of his power, and sent two confidential agents to the leading lords and coraraoners, threatening, that if they insisted on restrictions of the prerogative, he would leave thera to their fafe and to King James's raercy. This rests only upon tbe authority of declared partisans of tbe King.'' There are sorae scanty re- ccrds pf the debate pn this subject, when the cpraraiftee was ap ppinted pn the 29fb of January, but npne pf the rapre interesting discussipn pn tbe 7th pf February. The repprt brpught up by Sir Geprge Treby, and divided intp twp branches, — tbe pne de- claratpry pf ancient rights, the pther intrpducing new securities, ^ — was agreed tp. It was further veted, tbat tbe crpwn shpuld npf descend tp any perspn whp was pr had been a Papist. The vote of the peers for filling the throne was next taken into consider ation ; and, after a conflict of opinions, was disposed of by an ad- jpurnraent fp the next day. ^¦'Burnet, vol. iii. 299, note of Lord Dartmouth. ¦¦ See Pari. Hist. Jan, 9, 1688-9. ' Sheffield Duke of Buckingham, ", Burnet, vol. Hi, -^98. • Pari. Hist. ' Montgomery's " Great Britain's Jasi Complaint," &c. « Ralph, vol. ii. p, 52. SETTLEMENT OF THE CROWN. 3-i7 On the Sth the subject was resumed. During the intervening adjournment, from the 7tb to the 8th, a great change came over tbe counsels of tbe Commons. They voted the omission of that part of tbe declaration which proposed the enactment of new securities, and retained only the part declaratory of ancient rights. Whether this was the result of menace and impatience on tbe part of the Prince, or of influence and intrigue employed with the Co.-nmons, seems a matter which it would he vain to examine. The sove reignty and succession were next disposed of The vote of the Lords was adopted, with this addition, that all acts of government should be done in the joint names of the Prince and Princess ; hut that the ejfercise of tbe regal power and prerogative should be vested solely in him ; that be sbould be king for bis life, but with precedence to the issue of the Princess Anne over bis issue by another Hjiarriage ; — in short, tbe settlement was arranged ac7 pording to tbe demands already stated to have heen made by the Prince. The form of the oath of aUegiance to the intended king and ,queen was the subject of much discussion. It was reduced to the ancient simplicity of bearing "true allegiance to their Majesties King William and Queen Mary," omitting the words " rightful and Jawful sovereigns." The oath was worded, and very wisely, in this simple and comprehensive form, to leave an opening for real, or an excuse for capitulating, scruples of conscience. It gave rise to the distinction of a king de facto and a king de jure, wbicb troubled the succeeding reign ; and if Bishop Burnet may be believed, it in- troducel'pcude si gran bene, b gran male, contro il parere di qualch' uno, che dice- 346 ESTRATTI DELLE LETTERE va che quando final'" il Parlamento non facendo il suo dovere si havesse i sciogliere, il Rfe restarebbe ne' termini ne' quali si trova present" e potrebbe pren dere altri partiti, in che non conveniva Milord, mentre hora essendosi alienato intier'" il partito AngUcano, si fondano tutte le speranze sopra quello de Noncon formisti, de' quali si deve comporre il Parlamento, onde se questo si venisse una volta i disgustare, tutto il regno sarebbe unite in oppositione dell' autoriti regia, ne li Cattolici essere di forze sufficiente i poter fare un valevole contrapeso, con chiudendo, che sia necessario di rimettere la detta convocatione, ad un tempo, cbe tutte le dispositione previe siano poste in opera, come 1' importanza del negotio lo richiede. Questo e la sostenza di un longo discorso, che mi tfenne hieri lo stesso Milord, che si fe risserbato i parteoiparme lo stato interiore ed individuale delle cose, che risguardano lo stesso Parlamento. L'' altra sera S. M. dopo haver cenato mi chiamb in disparte e mi disse, che tem po fil che m' haveva motivato di una lega di religione, che si tramava in Olanda promossa dal Principe d' Oranges, della quale bora ne haveva ricevuti riscontri piii accertati, che il Principe era quello che sosteneva 11 Burnet, che il medesimo impe- diva bori ritorno delle sue truppe con 1' intentione di servirsene contro S. M., che il di lui dettame era d' inasprir la in modo con i replicati dispiaceri, di obligarja ad intrare in una guerra, ma come gii mi haveva detto, non si lasciarebbe indurre dalla passione, 6 dalle vogUe altrui i far quello, che non gli convenisse, e voleva imitare s. s" nella sofferenza, che in fine veniva assicurata da buona parte, che tutte le misure del Principe fossero per una guerra di religione, ed havere in prin cipal mira 1' Inghilterra. Io risposi, che essendo le cose in questo stato, che S. M. mi diceva, bisognava haverne una gran parte dell' oblige alia Francia, che ne feli- citarebbe il modo con i presenti suoi comportamenti. S. M. disse, che non ne dubi- tava, e che il Principe godeva di questi impegni, ma volerne parlare al Amb'" di Francia, venendo solo di ricevere la confermatione delle sud, cose. Fii un poco pensativa la M. S., ed poi disse, se 11 SpagnoU volessero far del bene, sarebbe il tempo di poterlo render grande alia Christianiti, e vi aggionse un ma, e poi con chiuse, che haveva un progetto da fare, e con piii commodo di tempo voleva oom- municarmele, e si ritirb con la Regina. 26 Marzo, 1688. ' . . . E venuta d' Olanda la seconda risposta con la negativa alia repUcata instanza fatta alii Stati con una memoria del Mnro di S. M. all' Haya per conseguire il ritorno delli soldati di questa natione che si trovano in quel ser vitio. La detta risposta fe stata data in scritto, con un longo discorso fondato sii principij falsi e stravaganti, ch' ogni huomo nasca con tal Uberti, che possa servirsi della medesima i sno beneplacito per sogettarsi a qual Principe, b state, ch' egU torna piii in piacere, e sotrasi i misura d' ogni debito verso del suo sig" natur". Subito gionta S. M. me ne fece una tal succinta relatione, e poi 1' altro hiersera la M. S. mi disse, che questo Arab" d' Olanda le haveva detto in un audienza havuta il giorno di presentarsi alia M. S. per dilucidare con la spiegat" la risposta delli Stall, e che S. M. si fosse espressa in peche parole che se havesse i far dar alcuna risposta, ne darebbe tal ordin' al Marchese di Albeville all' Haya, che giudicasse piii convenire al suo ¦servitio : disse poi suav'" ch' haveva ordinate di pubUcarsi una proclamatiene, ch' fe uscita hieri, in cui si ingionge i tutti U suoi sudditi, che ser- vono aUi Olandesi, di doverlo lasciare, e riternarsen' in Inghi" ; esser gii venuti piii di sessanta officiali, tra quali la meti in circa sono Cattolici, in cbe si eraingan- nato il Principe d' Oranges lusingandosi che li soli Cattolici si valerebbero della permissione data aUi officiali delU sei regimenti di rilornare Similraente cen le ultime lettere d' Olanda si fe inteso 1' arrivo cola del dispaccio regio, che portava il capitolo espresso del trattato riferito con le passate, e segnato in nome delli Stati dal Principe d' Oranges, e che gii U sentm" fosse di dover considerarlo per non valevol' perche non sia stato ratificato, quando per altro non si fe mai rivocate in dubbio il valore del detto trattato nell' attual osservanza di altri articoli, il che suplirebbe ad ogni ratification, la qual in questo caso nen era giudicata necessaria per non essersi mai praticato in simil sorte di capitolaf' particolari, onde si vede, chiart'" che 11 Principe d' Oranges che vien riputato il motore di tutte queste stravaganze, fa ogni studio non solo di opporsi dirrettamente in quanto puot' alii giusti dissegni di S. M., ma insieme pretende vaniti di farlo conoscere a tutto il mondo, e pensa di tirare il vantaggio ch' si fe^ DE MOSIGNOR D' ADDA. 347 proposta da un tal condotta, di assicurarsi piii stabUmente il fondamento delle sue vane pperanze. 2 Aprile, 1688. Ho ricevuti in questa settimana due benignis' spacci di V. E. in data d' 28 de Feb'" e 6 de Marzo con una lettera, ed una cifra in ciascheduno di essi, ed havendo significati i Milord Sunderland li sensi benignis' del gradim'" di V. Sig' per il zelo da lui dimostrato, e ch' sempre piii dimostra nelle corrente emergenze a favore della S" S., mi ha risposte con le espressioni del piii vivo ed humil' riconoscim'", e di non haver mai meritate in alcun conto tali gratie pontifie, bensr che'. precurarebbe con ogni studio di far apparire in tulte le occasioni il suo osseguio, e 1' ardente de siderie ch' hi di segnalarsi nel servitio della S'" S. Questo Ministro mi ha tenuto un longo discorso sopra lo stato, in cui si trovano present'" le cose si vanno avanzando per il buon successo del med". Diceva dunque che si prossiega nell' opera incomminciata di mutare tutte le corpororat"' e magis- trali del regno, ch' erano nelle mani degli Anglicani, e si mettono in quelle' de' Nonconformisti, dal qual partito si spera di conseguire 1' assistenza, e concorso necessario per far eleggere tali Parlamentarij, ehe siano del gusto, ed approvati" deUa M. S., di tal mutati"" che richiede lenghezza di tempo, se n' fe fatta una buona parte ed hora si va prosseguendo queUa che rimane da farsi, ed fe la principal ragione, per la quale non si possa cosi in breve, come si credeva, e si desiderava da S. M., e da tutti li buoni, convocare il med" Parlamento, essendosi in questo mentre, procurato daUi mail intenlionati di seminare tra il popolo, che li dissegni di S. M. fossero per rissultare alia fine pregiuditiale alia Uberti, e loro privilegij ; quando arrivasse i conseguire quello, ch' hora pretendeva, ed in sostenza, che le dimos tralioni, che hora si fanno dal governo, per autenticare le buon' intentioni, che si sono sempre havute con la direltien' al maggior bene fe tranquiUiti del regno nen siano sincere, ma allettam" per ingannarli e poi opprimerli. Percib si fe giudicato espediente i poter levare tali gelosie, die cen faciliti si impriraono negl' animi di questa gente, di dar' ordin', come si fe fatto con instruttioni particolari del modo di governarsi alii dodeci giudici del regno, che vanne in giro in tutte le provincie ad essercitarvi la giudicatura, d' infermare non solo le persone della precisa volenti del Rfe in ordin' i levare il Testo, e le leggi penali, ma insieme far comprendere ad ogni une il ben' che ne sari per rissultare con la pace e concordia di tutti, al che aspirano li sensi di S. M. : di piii si mandano ne' luoghi principali delle med" pre vincie altre persone fedeli, e di credito, le quali studiaranno di dare le med" impres sioni e togliere le contrarie, con speranza che habbino i riuscire di gran profitto : fatto questo che si suppone dover essere tutto esseguito verso la fine del presente mese, 6 al principio del venture, S. M. fari publicare una seconda proclamatione di Uberti di conscienza, in cui sara inserita litteralm'" la medesima deU' anno pas sato cen aggiongervi un preambolo, ed alia fin alcune dichiarationi particolari delli sensi Regij, per far intendere che sono uniformi ed ello stesso tenore di prima, senza che tutti gli accidenti sepravenuti habbino potuto alterarli, con la rifflessione ancora di fare che il popolo conosca, che hoggi si vuol' lo stesso, che si voleva un anno fii, i beneficio publico, e nen habbino luogo di dubitare che si intenda di pro cedere con allre misure, che gl' ingelosiscano maggiormente ; si verra in apresso senza differir piii i dichiarare il terapo che S. M. vuol convocare il Parlamento, ehe fe rissolnto verso la fin di 8'"" b principio di 9'"', doppo di che si procedera all' elelti"' de' sogetti che dovranno comporle. Mi ha detto di piii, che alcuni di questi capi principali della rehgion Anglicana, e fra essi il vescovo di Londra, hanne fatte li giorni passati molte conventicoP assierae' e cominciando a persuasersi, che il negotio sia per riuscire secondo 1' intentione del Rfe, habbino essaminata fra di loro di far qualche proposit'''.i S. M. di unirvi il loro consenso i qualche condit", con la mira, b di ingelosire li Non conformisti, e ritirali dal partito regio con apparenza del loro accommendamento, b per proprio interesse di non perdersi intieramente, quando S, M. venga senza di essi i conseguire I' intento. . . 9 Aprile, 1688. La morte seguita li giorni passati del vescovo di Oxford hi dato luogo di mettere in essecutione il pensiere proposto da Milord Sunderland, di appoggiare alia diret- tione di uno delli nuovi prelati il colleggio della Madalena di Oxford, per poter ivi 3 IS ESTRATTI DELLE LETTERE stabilire con autoriti un luogo dove si habbi ad insegnare publicamente la vera dottrina, e di la poi diffundersi conseculiva'* nell' altre parte del regno : i questo ufficio S. M. ha destlnato il sig' Ciffore detto e zelante, che sari per far fruttificare con ogni studie maggiore un applicatione cosi iitile, i beneficio della reUgione Cat tolica. Mi ha detto la M. S. 1' eletf", che ha fatta con la compiacenza di conside- rarvi, che I'apertura sia tanto propria per introdurre, e fondare in un universiti cosi celebre in queste parti quegli insegnam" , che da cosi longe lempo ne sono stati sbanditi, e che il sogetto sia commendabile per tirarne tutto il possibli vantaggio, il qual' vien proposto grandis" anco nell'' educatione di molti alcuni, che per essere ricco il coUegio, potranno ivi alimentarsi in numero competente. S. M. mi disse i nsieme, che il dette vescovo di Oxford era morto senza alcuna religione, come son' neUa maggior parte questi principali, e che fanno piii strepito aU' hor che si tralia di qualsisia minime vantaggio i favore de' CattoUci, di questi vescovi molti son riconosciuti da ogn' une per Prebiteriani di professione . . . Mi hi dette la M'i S. di ridersi delle illusioni ch' hanne li malintenzio- nati, che quando si venisse ad una aperta rottura con gli Olandesi, benche le forze di qui siano grandi, la flotta numerosa di vascelU e di militi, nondimeno, ne questo, ne li marinari sarebbero per far da dovero contro di essi in tal congiontura ; che li considerano come unili nell' interesse della reUgione, se ben divisi in ogn' altro, che risguarda il vantaggio di questa natione, che questa saii il motivo per non haver ad impegnarsi in una simil guerra, ma si bene quello di considerare, che le aplicationi di S. M'*, dentro il regno, i slabilir vi li suoi s" dissegni, e le divisioni interni che da queste nascono 1' obligano ad evitare qual si voglio altro impegno, che si sia di guerra, anzi di procurare che la pace si conservi .ancora fra gli altri Principi per non esservi tirate in conseguenza dalla necessiti, ed haver in fine luogo di comporre le cose demestiche senza esser distraite in altra parte cen pericolo di peggiorarne la condif". E stata portata al sig' M" di Albeville, ministro di S. M. all' Haya, una lettera cieca piena di minaccie contro della sua persona, e famiglla, se non desistesse dal fervente operare nelle correnti emergenze, onde egli hi creduto aproposito di darne parte al presidente deUe Stati, e similm'" lo hi communicate a diversi mi nistri de' Principi, il che qui non vien aprovato. facendosi strepito di un fatto se creto, di cui non si conosce 1' autore, e non puot rissultar bene alcuno da simili dogliaoze, che dovranno restore inutili, e senza effetto, sin che non sia rinvenute la Irama dell' attentate 23 Aprile, 1688, . . . Milord Sunderland mi ha communicate confidamente' un pensiere che tiene S.M. di far qualche mutatione nel consiglio del Gabinetto, anzi di due consi - glii particolari separate, che hora vi sono, formar ne uno solo nel qual' enlrino li Cattolici consiglieri, e Protestanti, per levare tutte le gelosie fra li ministri, e che debbono coucorrere senza diffidenza al maggior ben publico, ed al servisio della S. M. con un profittevol' incentivo alU stessi Protestanti, li quali per la stessa ragione vorrannodistinguersinel secondare li giusti dissegnidellaM.S. Nel questo consiglio si dovranno agitare tutte le occorrenze delli tre regni, perche le deUberationi siano piii uniformi, e con 1' armenia necessaria al buen' ordine, mentre essendosi in tal qual mode governare sin hora i parte le materie concernenti la Scotia, e 1' Irlanda, si fe riconosciuto il vantaggio, che risultari dall' essere trattate e discusse nel med" consiglio,dal qual nondimeno S. M, si servira sempre di alcuni pochi per confe- rire li negotij piii importanti, e massim' forastieri che richiedono piu risserva, e non si estenda la communicatione in molti 30 Aprile, 1688, '. . . . Havendo il vescovo di Bath e Wels li giorni passati predicato avanti la Principessa, e gran' parle deUa Corte, con una Uberti prodigiosa contro li Cattoli ci, deplorando lo state presente del regno col portare un testo del Profeta Michea del abbattimento i rissorgere di Gerusalemme, ed havendone io havuta notitia qualche giorno doppo hb creduto mio obbligo di parlarn' a S. M,, e rappresentar gli le perniciose conseguenze che derivaranno dal lolerare un arditezza si pregiu- ditiale neUa casa propria del Rfe, che rende necessaria la sofferenza di ogni simil discorso seditiose neUa citti, ed in tutto il regno, ed fe V unico modo per eccitare le Ungue de predicanti i sfogare il loro mal talento, che era principalm'" diretto contro la sua real persona e stato, S, M, hi havuto la bonti di gradire quelche gli DE MOSIGNOR D' ADDA. 349 dissi, e mostrb rissol"" di volervi por rimedio, voile in apresso raccontarmi le qualili del detto vescovo, che diceva haver una relig i parte, ed esser riputato tri questi heretici per un santone. Mi disse poi la M. S. che in Olanda havevano pnblicate alcun' impressioni contro della sua real persona, che veniva supposta autore dell' incendio di Londra, delle morte del Co. di Essex, che si taglio la gela in prison', e di avelenato il fii Rfe suo fratello ; rai nonostante andava tolerande : con che queste due potenze per hora si conterrano in passar doglianze vicendevoli, senza venirsi i rottura aperta, abbenchfe si ricerchi con ogni studio dal Principe d' Oranges coll' irritare sempre piii la regia sofferenza. Alcune persone ben infermale sono persuase che l' intention' degli Olandesi nell' havere accresciute il loro arraamento raaritirae fosse di farle passare sopra le coste di questo regne per dar colore aUi fattiosi sopra U credito, che si dovesse tenere il Parlamento nel prossiraa maggio, comfe qui ne correva per certa la voce. 14 Maggio, 1688, . . . Mi do 1' honore di rimettere i V. E. acclusa la copia deUa nuova di chiaratione tradotta in Italiano, sopra della qual gia si sentono uscite molte osser- vationi malitiose de' spiriti maligni, e hiersera Milord Sunderland me le fece veder in scritto tratte daUe inleUigenze che egli tien' nel partito contrario, mi perche non possono Irovar i ridire al fatte in se stesso si sforzane di accreditare le intenzioni di S. M. per non sincere, e siano artificij per giongere al governe assoluto ed arbi- trario, notando principalm'" quelche si dice nella dichiaratione delle annate, cen asserirle apanto per il peso piu inseffribile, ed inusitate, e contro la Uberti deUa natione, e dove si paria deUa mutatione d' ufficiali vien glosato che sia per togliere la stessa Uberti, e sforsare un Parlamento i distruggere le leggi principali del regno, con altri simili riflessi sopra ciascheduna espressione della detta dichiara tione, con dire di piu, che essendo rimessa la convocatione del Parlamento i 9'"", faceva chiaramente vedere, che le cose non fossero nelle stale che il Rfe desiderava , ed in conseguenza essersi da sperare, che non lo sarebbero per quel tempe. Diceva Milord di haverle fatte vedere al Rfe, disse ancora nominando alcuni di questi capi principali come Milord Halifax, ed altri della corte med" , 11 qnali dice- vane che S. M. nen riuscirebbe mai ne suoi dissegni, e non vi essere che tener fermo, mentre aUa fine ne seguirebbe una rottura col partito de' Nonconformisti, e che air hora S. M. sarebbe obligala daUa necessiti di voltarsi i lore, eio fe gli An glicani, e le cose andaranno i loro modo. Milord aggiungeva di non dubitare cbe restarebhero ingannatti ne lore perversi sentimenti, e le stesse risentirsi che face vano essere un segno che 1' applicatione de' remedij oportuni operasse felicimente. 30 .Maggio, 1688, Mi do I'honore di rimettere i V.E. il duplicate dello scritto Venerdi passate per la posta di Fiandra, alche aggiongero riverent" la notitia di quello ch' fe successe di assai considerabile in questi tre giorni. Parendo molto duro a questi vescovi Pro testanti che la dichiaratione della Uberti di conscienza fosse letta ne loro tempij al popolo secondo l' ordino regib, che n' era uscite, sei de raed' vescovi, tra quali 1' Ar- civ" di Cantorberi, si sono unili in deliberatione di presentare una petitione i S.M., come hanno fatto, per dispensarsi dal' adempimento del d° ordine; S.M. rispose loro con ardenza, e con sense, conchiudendo, ehe attendeva di essere obbedita. Con tutto cib hieri Domenica, ch' era uno deUi giorni destinati alia soprad" let tura, non si essegui, ehe in pochis' luoghi, onde resta impegnata rauteriti regia daUa contumacia di questi disubidienti. Ma qudle ch' e peggio, e degno di gran rifles sione si fe che nella soprad" rimostranza vi sono inseriti sensi pernisiesissimi, die tendono i metter in contingenza la medesima autoriti, come V. E. si degflara di vedere dall' accluso foglio, ch' fe un voto sopri del quale si fe in buona parte fondata la sud" petitione. Milord Sunderland fe di opinione, che S. M. sia per ritrarne da queste successo gran vantaggio aUe stabilimento di suoi santi dissegni, e S. M. me desima hieri sera si fe espressa meco ne medesimi sensi, persuasa che siano pochi li conspiratori in questo dissegno perverso, e che debba rissultarne una divisione tra gli heretici favorevol' al ben publico, ed alle misure che sari per prendere in quest' affare ; ni neminb alcuni principali Protestanti, che detestavane una simile condotta, II caso pare gravissimo e forse il piii critico, che sia ancor arrivato nel 350 ESTRATTI DELLE LETTERE regno della M. S,, e potrebbe havere piii radici di quello che apparentemente hora si vede, percib con lasciai di ^netterlo nella prudente consideratiene deUa M, S,, come che necessiti di tutta 1' apUcatione immaginabile per cavarne apunto quel be neficio, che S.M. sperava, ed evitare le peniciose conseguenze, che possono influire li mal intenlionati nel prevalersi della congionture. S. M. fe and atahoggi alia caccia, e Milord Sunderland i Windsor per rilornare questa sera, di quello, che andari succedendo ne darb riverentemenle conto alia V.E. 4 GiugDO, 1688. F Hb ricevute U benignis" spaccio di V.E. in dati del p" del passate, con due lettere ed un dupl" di cifra, ed in data del detto stesso mese un altra lettera. L' affare delli vescovi fe hora, per cosi dire, ¥ unico che tiene non selo la corte, ma ogn' uno, in attentione deUe misure che si pigliaranno per darvi un uscita, e vedere si la auto riti regia sia per ritrarne credito, b discapito, ch' fe il ponto esseiitiale di cui si tratta, non conoscendosi alcun mezzo, bensi b di perder molto, b di guadagnare, ch' fe ii fine proposto si de M. S. e che le pare sicuro considerando 1' attione e contumacia deUi vescovi tante fuera d' ogni ordine che gli ne posse facilitar U modo, nondimeno la difficolti fe in scieglier le strade opportune nelle circonslanze presenti delle agi- tatieni demestiche, che siano le piu atte i conseguirlo. Li SS' CattoUci non fe dubio, che vorrebbero che si procedesse con estreme ri gore, e ripongone i buona congienmra quella che si offerisce di dar una specie di essemplare castigo nelle persone delli disubbidienti, il quale servirebbe d' insegna- mento ad ogn' une per dover procedere neU' avenire con le cautele del rispetto, e soummissiene dovuta, altrimenti credono che la moderatione e la clemenza habbino ad essere argomenti di debolezza nel governo, ed incentivi per passar avanti ne loro perversi dissegni con 1' impunita del primo passe. Milord Sunderland havendomene parlato la discorre in un altra maniera, e dice che I'unico pensiere del Rfe deve essere rivolte al Parlamento, e tutte le misure, che si prendono nella condotta del governe, devono riferirsi cen la mira fissa al buen sucesso del medesi" Parlamento, ch' fe r opera, i cui si travaglia di cosi longo tempe per lo stabilmenle de' santi dis segni di S. M. Peste questo egU diceva, che se hora si viene ad un procedere cri minale contro di tutti quelli, che lo sono nella causa, per farlo col rigor conveniente al caso mentre non bisognarebbe mettervi mano per poce, sari necessario di passar li termini deUe leggi ordinarie, onde per la moltitudine delli delinquenti, che fareb- bere strepito, essendovi inclusi tutti li ministri, a quali fe diretto il mandato, che non hanne obbedito, e per 1' irritatione che causarebbe nell' universale disposte in attri- buire gran parte del castigo ad un rigore arbitrario, che fe apunto queUo, che si teme da ogni sorte di gente, ne seguirebbe tal alienalione d' animo. in tutti. che non servirebbe piii di pensare i Parlamento, ma bensi riporre gl' ulteriori procedimenti nella forza, e nell' armata, il qual mezzo non si crede sin hora competente alia di- rettiene delle cose, anzi non devri scrivere, che ne gli estrerai, e quande vi si fosse portato da una strestis" necessiti, massim' ancora che si sarebbe molto che riflettere sopri la conditione della med"" armata, come si son dato I'honore di accenare i V.E. con le passate. Diceva dunque che dovendosi fabricare su tal fendam'" era di pa rere per mantenere il decere, e 1' autoriti regia, che si dovesse fare dal Rfe una dichiaratione in cui S.M. mostri il giusto e gran rissentimento, i cui 1' arditezza e disubidienza di vescovi lo haveva provocota, ma che voleva piii teste usare della sua clemenze, e sospenderlo per hora, ricerdandosi ancora della fedelti, che la chiesa Anglicana haveva sempre mostrata ne' tempi passati verse la corona, e simiU altri cohonestamenti, rimettendosi al vicino Parlamento per riconoscere dalli loro com portamenti, si fosserb pentiti del error commesso, e non si volessero abusare della presente sua real bonti accioche non sia obligate di adempire con maggior severiti quello, che hera sospende di fare per li sud' risguardi. Conchiudeva che in questo mode si renderebbo piii facUi le misure dello stesso Parlamento, e cadende 1' odio sopra gli Anghcani si unirebbero tante maggiormente li dissentisti i promovere lo stabilimento delli giusti dissegni di S.M. Aggiongeva Milord di haver commuiiicato alia M. S. queste consiglio del gabinetto, li quali vorebbere qualche dimestratione vigorosa, in cui credono riposta in gran parte la sicurezza del governo, ma egli cre deva assolut'" che lo stato presente delle cose ticercassse in tal congiontura il sud" modo di agire. ... . , . DE MOSIGNOR D' ADDA. 351 11 Giugno, 1688. '" L' affare de' vescovi sie debattulo nel consiglio secondo li diversi opinioni del rigore e daUa altra strada proposta da Milerd Sunderland, Finalraente S, M. ha presa come una risolutione di mezzo di far procedere contro di essi nella ferma le gale, e risservarsi di usar della sua clemenze si lo giudicara a propositio quando sia perfettionato loro il processo circa 1' essecutione della sentenza, credendo in questo modo di soddisfare alia parte della giustitia nel mostrare la sforza per servirsene ancora essendo opportune, e ritirarla quando il suo maggior servitio, lo richieda. Restano percio citati 11 sudd' vescovi avanti del consiglio regie per hoggi otto ove dovranni comparire, e di quelle che arrivara ne dare rivirent" conto a V.E. in tanto commiinque ne habbe ad essere il successo e da temersi molto che possa influire a render difficile quello del Parlamento per 1' interesse scoperte che prende in quest' affare quasi tutto il corpo ecclesiastico, e sin hera non compariscono segni di divisioni nel grosso degl' Anglicani, ma piuttosto questi speraho di tirare nel lore consenso parte delle Nonconformisti. In ogni modo se la divina misericordia con- cedera un maschio alia Regina, si ha da sperare che tante contradittioni e raachini degli inimici habbino a dileguarsi facilmente, abbenche dicano di voler all hora essere piii ostinati, ed accrescere lo studio, che hora impiegano, per conservare la Religiene Anglicano . Di Olanda scrivono, che si fossero molte raUegrati celi dell' in- dicente de' vescovi, sperando di ritrarne vantaggio nell' aumentarsi che fi la materia deUe alterationi domesticbe in queste regno, proijti i nudrirlo con tutti gli artificii, e perniciose ordilure, come hanno sempre fatte. . 22 Giugno, 1688. . Qua nondimeno si fe visto chiar" il dolore e la tristezza ne volti una gran parte alia felice nuova della nascita del Principe, oltre la liberti conturaace neUi discorsi, che non par credibile, arrivando sine al dirsi, che sia un parte sup poste, b non dal Rfe, la sera della Dominica stessa, in cui si fessero fuechi di allegrezza, pochis' se ne viddero nel corpo che fe propri" detto della citi. Per il contrario nell' accidente del male del Principe, ne fu sparsa la morte, e creduta per il desiderie de tristi con segni manifesti di contento, e di gioja ; nel che fe admirabile le grandezza d' anima del Re, il quale dovendo essere infermale di tutto cib, non si fa sogetto ad alcuna perturbatiene, ma con la piena confidenza che hi nel Signore, si mostra superiore, e piu forte ad ogni contrarieti, che alia fine dovranno cessere e dissiparsi. Non lasciare di riferire a V.E. che si pensa di non dar latte al principino, ma di farlo nutrire con altro alimento alia mano come sin' hera si va facendo, essendo li raedici persuasi con le M, M, sore medesime, che la perdita de gl' altri figli sia provenuta dal latte delle nutrici, che habbi loro causate le convultioni, ende ritro- vadesi qui frequenti essempii, che molti tutti siano aUevati, e creschino in buena constitutione senza latte, credono di dover' usare deUe stesso modo nella nutritione del Principe per assicurare maggiorm'" il di lui vivere. Pare nondimeno una cosa molto straordiniera, ed in questa parte, come in ogn' altra, si dovra tutto ad una specialissima assistenza del Signore. Questa matina he havuto V honore di vederle, mentre le davano 1' alimento, che prendeva di buono gusto, e mi fe parse sempre piii hen complesse, e ben fatto ; il dette alimento fe ohiamato Watter Gruell, ed fe composto di farina di avena, aqua,e zuccaro, aggiongendovisi alle volte qualche poco di una passa di Corinte. Questa matina hanno date principio le sessioni ,giuditiali, e seno stati condotti li vescovi priggioni dalla torre aUa gran sala di Westminster avanti il tribunale ehiamato Kings Bainch, clofe banco del Rfe ; havevano seco quattro de primi avocati, li quali hanno arringato in favore loro, apponende in p° luogo la nuUita del ordine con cnl sono stati mandati alia terre, per difette di alcune fermaliti necessarie, ed in secondo luogo hanno opposta 1' incompetenza dello stesso tribunale, li quali due ponti doppo lenghe contestationi, sono stati rissoluti contro de' vescovi, che in fine hanno data cautione di dover ceraparire hoggi quindeci il med" tribunale, accioche sia discuso l' affare principale per cui vengono chiamati in giuditio, il che fatto seno stati posti in liberti di andare aUe case loro. E stato da notarsi, che essendo concorsa un immensita di popolo per vedere la fentiene, nel portarsi U'vescovi dalla barcca alia detta sala, la maggior parte si metteva in ginocchio augurando loro feliciti, e benedittioni ; e 1' Arcivescovo di Canterburi andava mettendo la mano in 35-2 ESTRATTI DELLE LETTERE capo a quelli, che se 1' offerivano nel passaggio, con dire che stano fermi nelle fede, ^ridando ogh^uno ad alta voce di doversi inginocchiare, ed vedendoci in molte le la