The History of England from the Accession of James II, Vol. 4
by
Thomas Babington Macaulay
Part 14 out of 15
creates a right to the thing gained by it. The King by
withdrawing and disbanding his army yielded him the throne; and
if he had, without any more ceremony, ascended it, he had done no
more than all other princes do on the like occasions."
FN 382 Character of Edmund Bohun, 1692.
FN 383 Dryden, in his Life of Lucian, speaks in too high terms of
Blount's abilities. But Dryden's judgment was biassed; for
Blount's first work was a pamphlet in defence of the Conquest of
Granada.
FN 384 See his Appeal from the Country to the City for the
Preservation of His Majesty's Person, Liberty, Property, and the
Protestant Religion.
FN 385 See the article on Apollonius in Bayle's Dictionary. I say
that Blount made his translation from the Latin; for his works
contain abundant proofs that he was not competent to translate
from the Greek.
FN 386 See Gildon's edition of Blount's Works, 1695.
FN 387 Wood's Athenae Oxonienses under the name Henry Blount
(Charles Blount's father); Lestrange's Observator, No. 290.
FN 388 This piece was reprinted by Gildon in 1695 among Blount's
Works.
FN 389 That the plagiarism of Blount should have been detected by
few of his contemporaries is not wonderful. But it is wonderful
that in the Biographia Britannica his just Vindication should be
warmly extolled, without the slightest hint that every thing good
in it is stolen. The Areopagitica is not the only work which he
pillaged on this occasion. He took a noble passage from Bacon
without acknowledgment.
FN 390 I unhesitatingly attribute this pamphlet to Blount, though
it was not reprinted among his works by Gildon. If Blount did not
actually write it he must certainly have superintended the
writing. That two men of letters, acting without concert, should
bring out within a very short time two treatises, one made out of
one half of the Areopagitica and the other made out of the other
half, is incredible. Why Gildon did not choose to reprint the
second pamphlet will appear hereafter.
FN 391 Bohun's Autobiography.
FN 392 Bohun's Autobiography; Commons' Journals, Jan. 20. 1692/3.
FN 393 Ibid. Jan. 20, 21. 1692/3
FN 394 Oldmixon; Narcissus Luttrell's Diary, Nov. and Dec. 1692;
Burnet, ii. 334; Bohun's Autobiography.
FN 395 Grey's Debates; Commons' Journals Jan. 21. 23. 1692/3.;
Bohun's Autobiography; Kennet's Life and Reign of King William
and Queen Mary.
FN 396 "Most men pitying the Bishop."--Bohun's Autobiography.
FN 397 The vote of the Commons is mentioned, with much feeling in
the memoirs which Burnet wrote at the time. "It look'd," he says,
"somewhat extraordinary that I, who perhaps was the greatest
assertor of publick liberty, from my first setting out, of any
writer of the age, should be so severely treated as an enemy to
it. But the truth was the Toryes never liked me, and the Whiggs
hated me because I went not into their notions and passions. But
even this, and worse things that may happen to me shall not, I
hope, be able to make me depart from moderate principles and the
just asserting the liberty of mankind."--Burnet MS. Harl. 6584.
FN 398 Commons' Journals, Feb. 27. 1692/3; Lords' Journals, Mar.
4.
FN 399 Lords' Journals, March 8. 1692/3.
FN 400 In the article on Blount in the Biographia Britannica he
is extolled as having borne a principal share in the emancipation
of the press. But the writer was very imperfectly informed as to
the facts.
It is strange that the circumstances of Blount's death should be
so uncertain. That he died of a wound inflicted by his own hand,
and that he languished long, are undisputed facts. The common
story was that he shot himself; and Narcissus Luttrell at the
time, made an entry to this effect in his Diary. On the other
hand, Pope, who had the very best opportunities of obtaining
accurate information, asserts that Blount, "being in love with a
near kinswoman of his, and rejected, gave himself a stab in the
arm, as pretending to kill himself, of the consequence of which
he really died."--Note on the Epilogue to the Satires, Dialogue
I. Warburton, who had lived first with the heroes of the Dunciad,
and then with the most eminent men of letters of his time ought
to have known the truth; and Warburton, by his silence, confirms
Pope's assertion. Gildon's rhapsody about the death of his friend
will suit either story equally.
FN 401 The charges brought against Coningsby will be found in the
journals of the two Houses of the English Parliament. Those
charges were, after the lapse of a quarter of a century,
versified by Prior, whom Coningsby had treated with great
insolence and harshness. I will quote a few stanzas.
It will be seen that the poet condescended to imitate the style
of the street ballads.
"Of Nero tyrant, petty king,
Who heretofore did reign
In famed Hibernia, I will sing,
And in a ditty plain.
"The articles recorded stand
Against this peerless peer;
Search but the archives of the land,
You'll find them written there."
The story of Gaffney is then related. Coningsby's speculations
are described thus:
"Vast quantities of stores did he
Embezzle and purloin
Of the King's stores he kept a key,
Converting them to coin.
"The forfeited estates also,
Both real and personal,
Did with the stores together go.
Fierce Cerberas swallow'd all."
The last charge is the favour shown the Roman Catholics:
"Nero, without the least disguise,
The Papists at all times
Still favour'd, and their robberies
Look'd on as trivial crimes.
"The Protestants whom they did rob
During his government,
Were forced with patience, like good Job,
To rest themselves content.
"For he did basely them refuse
All legal remedy;
The Romans still he well did use,
Still screen'd their roguery."
FN 402 An Account of the Sessions of Parliament in Ireland, 1692,
London, 1693.
FN 403 The Poynings Act is 10 H. 7. c. 4. It was explained by
another Act, 3&4P.and M.c.4.
FN 404 The history of this session I have taken from the journals
of the Irish Lords and Commons, from the narratives laid in
writing before the English Lords and Commons by members of the
Parliament of Ireland and from a pamphlet entitled a Short
Account of the Sessions of Parliament in Ireland, 1692, London,
1693. Burnet seems to me to have taken a correct view of the
dispute, ii. 118. "The English in Ireland thought the government
favoured the Irish too much; some said this was the effect of
bribery, whereas others thought it was necessary to keep them
safe from the prosecutions of the English, who hated them, and
were much sharpened against them . . . . There were also great
complaints of an ill administration, chiefly in the revenue, in
the pay of the army, and in the embezzling of stores."
FN 405 As to Swift's extraction and early life, see the Anecdotes
written by himself.
FN 406 Journal to Stella, Letter liii.
FN 407 See Swift's Letter to Temple of Oct. 6. 1694.
FN 408 Journal to Stella, Letter xix.;
FN 409 Swift's Anecdotes.
FN 410 London Gazette, March 27. 1693.
FN 411 Burnet, ii. 108, and Speaker Onslow's Note; Sprat's True
Account of the Horrid Conspiracy; Letter to Trenchard, 1694.
FN 412 Burnett, ii. 107.
FN 413 These rumours are more than once mentioned in Narcissus
Luttrell's Diary.
FN 414 London Gazette, March 27. 1693; Narcissus Luttrell's
Diary:
FN 415 Burnett, ii, 123.; Carstairs Papers.
FN 416 Register of the Actings or Proceedings of the General
Assembly of the Church of Scotland held at Edinburgh, Jan. 15.
1692, collected and extracted from the Records by the Clerk
thereof. This interesting record was printed for the first time
in 1852.
FN 417 Act. Parl. Scot., June 12. 1693.
FN 418 Ibid. June 15. 1693.
FN 419 The editor of the Carstairs Papers was evidently very
desirous, from whatever motive, to disguise this most certain and
obvious truth. He has therefore prefixed to some of Johnstone's
letters descriptions which may possibly impose on careless
readers. For example Johnstone wrote to Carstairs on the 18th of
April, before it was known that the session would be a quiet one,
"All arts have been used and will be used to embroil matters."
The editor's account of the contents of this letter is as follows
"Arts used to embroil matters with reference to the affair of
Glencoe." Again, Johnstone, in a letter written some weeks later,
complained that the liberality and obsequiousness of the Estates
had not been duly appreciated. "Nothing," he says, "is to be done
to gratify the Parliament, I mean that they would have reckoned a
gratification." The editor's account of the contents of this
letter is as follows: "Complains that the Parliament is not to be
gratified by an inquiry into the massacre of Glencoe."
FN 420 Life of James, ii. 479.
FN 421 Hamilton's Zeneyde.
FN 422 A View of the Court of St. Germains from the Year 1690 to
1695, 1696; Ratio Ultima, 1697. In the Nairne Papers is a letter
in which the nonjuring bishops are ordered to send a Protestant
divine to Saint Germains. This letter was speedily followed by
another letter revoking the order. Both letters will he found in
Macpherson's collection. They both bear date Oct. 16. 1693. I
suppose that the first letter was dated according to the New
Style and the letter of revocation according to the Old Style.
FN 423 Ratio Ultima, 1697; History of the late Parliament, 1699.
FN 424 View of the Court of Saint Germains from 1690 to 1695.
That Dunfermline was grossly ill used is plain even from the
Memoirs of Dundee, 1714.
FN 425 So early as the year 1690, that conclave of the leading
Jacobites which gave Preston his instructions made a strong
representation to James on this subject. "He must overrule the
bigotry of Saint Germains; and dispose their minds to think of
those methods that are more likely to gain the nation. For there
is one silly thing or another daily done there, that comes to our
notice here which prolongs what they so passionately desire." See
also A Short and True Relation of Intrigues transacted both at
Home and Abroad to restore the late King James, 1694.
FN 426 View of the Court of Saint Germains. The account given in
this View is confirmed by a remarkable paper, which is among the
Nairne MSS. Some of the heads of the Jacobite party in England
made a representation to James, one article of which is as
follows: "They beg that Your Majesty would be pleased to admit of
the Chancellor of England into your Council; your enemies take
advantage of his not being in it." James's answer is evasive.
"The King will be, on all occasions, ready to express the just
value and esteem he has for his Lord Chancellor."
FN 427 A short and true Relation of Intrigues, 1694.
FN 428 See the paper headed "For my Son the Prince of Wales,
1692." It is printed at the end of the Life of James.
FN 429 Burnet, i. 683.
FN 430 As to this change of ministry at Saint Germains see the
very curious but very confused narrative in the Life of James,
ii. 498-575.; Burnet, ii. 219.; Memoires de Saint Simon; A French
Conquest neither desirable nor practicable, 1693; and the Letters
from the Nairne MSS. printed by Macpherson.
FN 431 Life of James, ii. 509. Bossuet's opinion will be found in
the Appendix to M. Mazure's history. The Bishop sums up his
arguments thus "Je dirai done volontiers aux Catholiques, s'il y
en a qui n'approuvent point la declaration dont il s'agit; Noli
esse justus multum; neque plus sapias quam necesse est, ne
obstupescas." In the Life of James it is asserted that the French
Doctors changed their opinion, and that Bossuet, though he held
out longer than the rest, saw at last that he had been in error,
but did not choose formally to retract. I think much too highly
of Bossuet's understanding to believe this.
FN 432 Life of James, ii. 505.
FN 433 "En fin celle cy--j'entends la declaration--n'est que pour
rentrer: et l'on peut beaucoup mieux disputer des affaires des
Catholiques a Whythall qu'a Saint Germain."--Mazure, Appendix.
FN 434 Baden to the States General, June 2/12 1693. Four thousand
copies, wet from the press, were found in this house.
FN 435 Baden's Letters to the States General of May and June
1693; An Answer to the Late King James's Declaration published at
Saint Germains, 1693.
FN 436 James, ii. 514. I am unwilling to believe that Ken was
among those who blamed the Declaration of 1693 as too merciful.
FN 437 Among the Nairne Papers is a letter sent on this occasion
by Middleton to Macarthy, who was then serving in Germany.
Middleton tries to soothe Macarthy and to induce Macarthy to
soothe others. Nothing more disingenuous was ever written by a
Minister of State. "The King," says the Secretary, "promises in
the foresaid Declaration to restore the Settlement, but at the
same time, declares that he will recompense all those who may
suffer by it by giving them equivalents." Now James did not
declare that he would recompense any body, but merely that he
would advise with his Parliament on the subject. He did not
declare that he would even advise with his Parliament about
recompensing all who might suffer, but merely about recompensing
such as had followed him to the last. Finally he said nothing
about equivalents. Indeed the notion of giving an equivalent to
every body who suffered by the Act of Settlement, in other words,
of giving an equivalent for the fee simple of half the soil of
Ireland, was obviously absurd. Middleton's letter will be found
in Macpherson's collection. I will give a sample of the language
held by the Whigs on this occasion. "The Roman Catholics of
Ireland," says one writer, "although in point of interest and
profession different from us yet, to do them right, have deserved
well from the late King, though ill from us; and for the late
King to leave them and exclude them in such an instance of
uncommon ingratitude that Protestants have no reason to stand by
a Prince that deserts his own party, and a people that have been
faithful to him and his interest to the very last."--A short and
true Relation of the Intrigues, &c., 1694.
FN 438 The edict of creation was registered by the Parliament of
Paris on the 10th of April 1693.
FN 439 The letter is dated the 19th of April 1693. It is among
the Nairne MSS., and was printed by Macpherson.
FN 440 "Il ne me plait nullement que M. Middleton est alle en
France. Ce n'est pas un homme qui voudroit faire un tel pas sans
quelque chose d'importance, et de bien concerte, sur quoy j'ay
fait beaucoup de reflections que je reserve a vous dire avostre
heureuse arrivee."--William to Portland from Loo. April 18/28
1693.
FN 441 The best account of William's labours and anxieties at
this time is contained in his letters to Heinsius--particularly
the letters of May 1. 9. and 30. 1693.
FN 442 He speaks very despondingly in his letter to Heinsius of
the 30th of May, Saint Simon says: "On a su depuis que le Prince
d'Orange ecrivit plusieurs fois au prince de Vaudmont son ami
intime, qu'il etait perdu et qu'il n'y avait que par un miracle
qu'il pût echapper."
FN 443 Saint Simon; Monthly Mercury, June 1693; Burnet, ii. 111.
FN 444 Memoires de Saint Simon; Burnet, i. 404.
FN 445 William to Heinsius, July. 1693.
FN 446 Saint Simon's words are remarkable. "Leur cavalerie," he
says, "y fit d'abord plier des troupes d'elite jusqu'alors
invincibles." He adds, "Les gardes du Prince d'Orange, ceux de M.
de Vaudemont, et deux regimens Anglais en eurent l'honneur."
FN 447 Berwick; Saint Simon; Burnet, i. 112, 113.; Feuquieres;
London Gazette, July 27. 31. Aug. 3. 1693; French Official
Relation; Relation sent by the King of Great Britain to their
High Mightinesses, Aug. 2. 1693; Extract of a Letter from the
Adjutant of the King of England's Dragoon Guards, Aug. 1.;
Dykvelt's Letter to the States General dated July 30. at noon.
The last four papers will be found in the Monthly Mercuries of
July and August 1693. See also the History of the Last Campaign
in the Spanish Netherlands by Edward D'Auvergne, dedicated to the
Duke of Ormond, 1693. The French did justice to William. "Le
Prince d'Orange," Racine wrote to Boileau, "pensa etre pris,
apres avoir fait des merveilles." See also the glowing
description of Sterne, who, no doubt, had many times heard the
battle fought over by old soldiers. It was on this occasion that
Corporal Trim was left wounded on the field, and was nursed by
the Beguine.
FN 448 Letter from Lord Perth to his sister, June 17. 1694.
FN 449 Saint Simon mentions the reflections thrown on the
Marshal. Feuquieres, a very good judge, tells us that Luxemburg
was unjustly blamed, and that the French army was really too much
crippled by its losses to improve the victory.
FN 450 This account of what would have taken place, if Luxemburg
had been able and willing to improve his victory, I have taken
from what seems to have been a very manly and sensible speech
made by Talmash in the House of Commons on the 11th of December
following. See Grey's Debates.
FN 451 William to Heinsius, July 20/30. 1693.
FN 452 William to Portland, July 21/31. 1693.
FN 453 London Gazette, April 24., May 15. 1693.
FN 454 Burchett's Memoirs of Transactions at Sea; Burnet, ii.
114, 115, 116.; the London Gazette, July 17. 1693; Monthly
Mercury of July; Letter from Cadiz, dated July 4.
FN 455 Narcissus Luttrell's Diary; Baden to the States General,
Jul 14/24, July 25/Aug 4. Among the Tanner MSS. in the Bodleian
Library are letters describing the agitation in the City. "I
wish," says one of Sancroft's Jacobite correspondents, "it may
open our eyes and change our minds. But by the accounts I have
seen, the Turkey Company went from the Queen and Council full of
satisfaction and good humour."
FN 456 London Gazette, August 21 1693; L'Hermitage to the States
General, July 28/Aug 7 As I shall, in this and the following
chapters, make large use of the despatches of L'Hermitage, it may
be proper to say something about him. He was a French refugee,
and resided in London as agent for the Waldenses. One of his
employments had been to send newsletters to Heinsius. Some
interesting extracts from those newsletters will be found in the
work of the Baron Sirtema de Grovestins. It was probably in
consequence of the Pensionary's recommendation that the States
General, by a resolution dated July 24/Aug 3 1693, desired
L'Hermitage to collect and transmit to them intelligence of what
was passing in England. His letters abound with curious and
valuable information which is nowhere else to be found. His
accounts of parliamentary proceedings are of peculiar value, and
seem to have been so considered by his employers.
Copies of the despatches of L'Hermitage, and, indeed of the
despatches of all the ministers and agents employed by the States
General in England from the time of Elizabeth downward, now are
or will soon be in the library of the British Museum. For this
valuable addition to the great national storehouse of knowledge,
the country is chiefly indebted to Lord Palmerston. But it would
be unjust not to add that his instructions were most zealously
carried into effect by the late Sir Edward Disbrowe, with the
cordial cooperation of the enlightened men who have charge of the
noble collection of Archives at the Hague.
FN 457 It is strange that the indictment should not have been
printed in Howell's State Trials. The copy which is before me was
made for Sir James Mackintosh.
FN 458 Most of the information which has come down to us about
Anderton's case will be found in Howell's State Trials.
FN 459 The Remarks are extant, and deserve to be read.
FN 460 Narcissus Luttrell's Diary.
FN 461 Narcissus Luttrell's Diary.
FN 462 There are still extant a handbill addressed to All
Gentlemen Seamen that are weary of their Lives; and a ballad
accusing the King and Queen of cruelty to the sailors.
"To robbers, thieves, and felons, they
Freely grant pardons every day.
Only poor seamen, who alone
Do keep them in their father's throne,
Must have at all no mercy shown."
Narcissus Luttrell gives an account of the scene at Whitehall.
FN 463 L'Hermitage, Sept. 5/15. 1693; Narcissus Luttrell's Diary.
FN 464 Narcissus Luttrell's Diary.
FN 465 Narcissus Luttrell's Diary. In a pamphlet published at
this time, and entitled A Dialogue between Whig and Tory, the
Whig alludes to "the public insolences at the Bath upon the late
defeat in Flanders." The Tory answers, "I know not what some
hotheaded drunken men may have said and done at the Bath or
elsewhere." In the folio Collection of State Tracts, this
Dialogue is erroneously said to have been printed about November
1692.
FN 466 The Paper to which I refer is among the Nairne MSS., and
will be found in Macpherson's collection. That excellent writer
Mr. Hallam has, on this subject, fallen into an error of a kind
very rare with him. He says that the name of Caermarthen is
perpetually mentioned among those whom James reckoned as his
friends. I believe that the evidence against Caermarthen will be
found to begin and to end with the letter of Melfort which I have
mentioned. There is indeed, among the Nairne MSS, which
Macpherson printed, an undated and anonymous letter in which
Caermarthen is reckoned among the friends of James. But this
letter is altogether undeserving of consideration. The writer was
evidently a silly hotheaded Jacobite, who knew nothing about the
situation or character of any of the public men whom he
mentioned. He blunders grossly about Marlborough, Godolphin,
Russell, Shrewsbury and the Beaufort family. Indeed the whole
composition is a tissue of absurdities.
It ought to be remarked that, in the Life of James compiled from
his own Papers, the assurances of support which he received from
Marlborough, Russell, Godolphin Shrewsbury, and other men of note
are mentioned with very copious details. But there is not a word
indicating that any such assurances were ever received from
Caermarthen.
FN 467 A Journal of several Remarkable Passages relating to the
East India Trade, 1693.
FN 468 See the Monthly Mercuries and London Gazettes of
September, October, November and December 1693; Dangeau, Sept. 5.
27., Oct. 21., Nov. 21.; the Price of the Abdication, 1693.
FN 469 Correspondence of William and Heinsius; Danish Note, dated
Dec 11/21 1693. The note delivered by Avaux to the Swedish
government at this time will be found in Lamberty's Collection
and in the Memoires et Negotiations de la Paix de Ryswick.
FN 470 "Sir John Lowther says, nobody can know one day what a
House of Commons would do the next; in which all agreed with
him." These remarkable words were written by Caermarthen on the
margin of a paper drawn up by Rochester in August 1692.
Dalrymple, Appendix to part ii. chap. 7.
FN 471 See Sunderland's celebrated Narrative which has often been
printed, and his wife's letters, which are among the Sidney
papers, published by the late Serjeant Blencowe.
FN 472 Van Citters, May 6/16. 1690.
FN 473 Evelyn, April 24. 1691.
FN 474 Lords' Journals, April 28. 1693.
FN 475 L'Hermitage, Sept. 19/29, Oct 2/12 1693.
FN 476 It is amusing to see how Johnson's Toryism breaks out
where we should hardly expect to find it. Hastings says, in the
Third Part of Henry the Sixth,
"Let us be back'd with God and with the seas
Which He hath given for fence impregnable,
And with their helps alone defend ourselves."
"This," says Johnson in a note, "has been the advice of every man
who, in any age, understood and favoured the interest of
England."
FN 477 Swift, in his Inquiry into the Behaviour of the Queen's
last Ministry, mentions Somers as a person of great abilities,
who used to talk in so frank a manner that he seemed to discover
the bottom of his heart. In the Memoirs relating to the Change in
the Queen's Ministry, Swift says that Somers had one and only one
unconversable fault, formality. It is not very easy to understand
how the same man can be the most unreserved of companions and yet
err on the side of formality. Yet there may be truth in both the
descriptions. It is well known that Swift loved to take rude
liberties with men of high rank and fancied that, by doing so, he
asserted his own independence. He has been justly blamed for this
fault by his two illustrious biographers, both of them men of
spirit at least as independent as his, Samuel Johnson and Walter
Scott. I suspect that he showed a disposition to behave with
offensive familiarity to Somers, and that Somers, not choosing to
submit to impertinence, and not wishing to be forced to resent
it, resorted, in selfdefence, to a ceremonious politeness which
he never would have practised towards Locke or Addison.
FN 478 The eulogies on Somers and the invectives against him are
innumerable. Perhaps the best way to come to a just judgment
would be to collect all that has been said about him by Swift and
by Addison. They were the two keenest observers of their time;
and they both knew him well. But it ought to be remarked that,
till Swift turned Tory, he always extolled Somers not only as the
most accomplished, but as the most virtuous of men. In the
dedication of the Tale of a Tub are these words, "There is no
virtue, either of a public or private life, which some
circumstances of your own have not often produced upon the stage
of the world;" and again, "I should be very loth the bright
example of your Lordship's virtues should be lost to other eyes,
both for their sake and your own." In the Discourse of the
Contests and Dissensions at Athens and Rome, Somers is the just
Aristides. After Swift had ratted he described Somers as a man
who "possessed all excellent qualifications except virtue."
FN 479 See Whiston's Autobiography.
FN 480 Swift's note on Mackay's Character of Wharton.
FN 481 This account of Montague and Wharton I have collected from
innumerable sources. I ought, however, to mention particularly
the very curious Life of Wharton published immediately after his
death.
FN 482 Much of my information about the Harleys I have derived
from unpublished memoirs written by Edward Harley, younger
brother of Robert. A copy of these memoirs is among the
Mackintosh MSS.
FN 483 The only writer who has praised Harley's oratory, as far
as I remember, is Mackay, who calls him eloquent. Swift scribbled
in the margin, "A great lie." And certainly Swift was inclined to
do more than justice to Harley. "That lord," said Pope, "talked
of business in so confused a manner that you did not know what he
was about; and every thing he went to tell you was in the epic
way; for he always began in the middle."--Spence's Anecdotes.
FN 484 "He used," said Pope, "to send trifling verses from Court
to the Scriblerus Club almost every day, and would come and talk
idly with them almost every night even when his all was at
stake." Some specimens of Harley's poetry are in print. The best,
I think, is a stanza which he made on his own fall in 1714; and
bad is the best.
"To serve with love,
And shed your blood,
Approved is above;
But here below
The examples show
'Tis fatal to be good."
FN 485 The character of Harley is to be collected from
innumerable panegyrics and lampoons; from the works and the
private correspondence of Swift, Pope, Arbuthnot, Prior and
Bolingbroke, and from multitudes of such works as Ox and Bull,
the High German Doctor, and The History of Robert Powell the
Puppet Showman.
FN 486 In a letter dated Sept. 12. 1709 a short time before he
was brought into power on the shoulders of the High Church mob,
he says: "My soul has been among Lyons, even the sons of men,
whose teeth are spears and arrows, and their tongues sharp
swords. But I learn how good it is to wait on the Lord, and to
possess one's soul in peace." The letter was to Carstairs. I
doubt whether Harley would have canted thus if he had been
writing to Atterbury.
FN 487 The anomalous position which Harley and Foley at this time
occupied is noticed in the Dialogue between a Whig and a Tory,
1693. "Your great P. Fo-y," says the Tory, "turns cadet and
carries arms under the General of the West Saxons. The two Har-
ys, father and son, are engineers under the late Lieutenant of
the Ordnance, and bomb any bill which he hath once resolv'd to
reduce to ashes." Seymour is the General of the West Saxons.
Musgrave had been Lieutenant of the Ordnance in the reign of
Charles the Second.
FN 488 Lords' and Commons' Journals, Nov. 7. 1693.
FN 489 Commons' Journals, Nov. 13. 1693; Grey's Debates.
FN 490 Commons' Journals, Nov. 17. 1693.
FN 491 Ibid. Nov. 22. 27. 1693; Grey's Debates.
FN 492 Commons' Journals, Nov. 29. Dec. 6. 1693; L'Hermitage,
Dec. 1/11 1693.
FN 493 L'Hermitage, Sept. 1/11. Nov. 7/17 1693.
FN 494 See the Journal to Stella, lii. liii. lix. lxi.; and Lady
Orkney's Letters to Swift.
FN 495 See the letters written at this time by Elizabeth
Villiers, Wharton, Russell and Shrewsbury, in the Shrewsbury
Correspondence.
FN 496 Commons' Journals, Jan. 6. 8. 1693/4.
FN 497 Ibid. Jan. 19. 1693/4
FN 498 Hamilton's New Account.
FN 499 The bill I found in the Archives of the Lords. Its history
I learned from the journals of the two Houses, from a passage in
the Diary of Narcissus Luttrell, and from two letters to the
States General, both dated on Feb 27/March 9 1694 the day after
the debate in the Lords. One of these letters is from Van
Citters; the other, which contains fuller information, is from
L'Hermitage.
FN 500 Commons' Journals, Nov. 28. 1693; Grey's Debates.
L'Hermitage expected that the bill would pas;, and that the
royal assent would not be withheld. On November. he wrote to the
States General, "Il paroist dans toute la chambre beaucoup de
passion a faire passer ce bil." On Nov 28/Dec 8 he says that the
division on the passing "n'a pas cause une petite surprise. Il
est difficile d'avoir un point fixe sur les idees qu'on peut se
former des emotions du parlement, car il paroist quelquefois de
grander chaleurs qui semblent devoir tout enflammer, et qui, peu
de tems apres, s'evaporent." That Seymour was the chief manager
of the opposition to the bill is asserted in the once celebrated
Hush Money pamphlet of that year.
FN 501 Commons' Journals; Grey's Debates. The engrossed copy of
this Bill went down to the House of Commons and is lost. The
original draught on paper is among the Archives of the Lords.
That Monmouth brought in the bill I learned from a letter of
L'Hermitage to the States General Dec. 13. 1693. As to the
numbers on the division, I have followed the journals. But in
Grey's Debates and in the letters of Van Citters and L'Hermitage,
the minority is said to have been 172.
502 The bill is in the Archives of the Lords. Its history I have
collected from the journals, from Grey's Debates, and from the
highly interesting letters of Van Citters and L'Hermitage. I
think it clear from Grey's Debates that a speech which
L'Hermitage attributes to a nameless "quelq'un" was made by Sir
Thomas Littleton.
FN 503 Narcissus Luttrell's Diary, September 1691.
FN 504 Commons' Journals, Jan. 4. 1693/4.
FN 505 Of the Naturalisation Bill no copy, I believe exists. The
history of that bill will be found in the Journals. From Van
Citters and L'Hermitage we learn less than might have been
expected on a subject which must have been interesting to Dutch
statesmen. Knight's speech will be found among the Somers Papers.
He is described by his brother Jacobite, Roger North, as "a
gentleman of as eminent integrity and loyalty as ever the city of
Bristol was honoured with."
FN 506 Commons' Journals, Dec 5. 1694.
FN 507 Commons' Journals, Dec. 20. and 22. 1693/4. The journals
did not then contain any notice of the divisions which took place
when the House was in committee. There was only one division on
the army estimates of this year, when the mace was on the table.
That division was on the question whether 60,000L. or 147,000L.
should be granted for hospitals and contingencies. The Whigs
carried the larger sum by 184 votes to 120. Wharton was a teller
for the majority, Foley for the minority.
FN 508 Commons' Journals, Nov. 25. 1694.
FN 509 Stat. 5 W. & M. c. I.
FN 510 Stat. 5 & 6 W.& M. c. 14.
FN 511 Stat. 5 & 6 W. & M. c. 21.; Narcissus Luttrell's Diary.
FN 512 Stat. 5 & 6 W. & M. c. 22.; Narcissus Luttrell's Diary.
FN 513 Stat. 5 W. & M. c. 7.; Evelyn's Diary, Oct. 5, Nov. 22.
1694; A Poem on Squire Neale's Projects; Malcolm's History of
London. Neale's functions are described in several editions of
Chamberlayne's State of England. His name frequently appears in
the London Gazette, as, for example, on July 28. 1684.
FN 514 See, for example, the Mystery of the Newfashioned
Goldsmiths or Brokers, 1676; Is not the Hand of Joab in all this?
1676; and an answer published in the same year. See also
England's Glory in the great Improvement by Banking and Trade,
1694.
FN 515 See the Life of Dudley North, by his brother Roger.
FN 516 See a pamphlet entitled Corporation Credit; or a Bank of
Credit, made Current by Common Consent in London, more Useful and
Safe than Money.
FN 517 A proposal by Dr. Hugh Chamberlayne, in Essex Street, for
a Bank, of Secure Current Credit to be founded upon Land, in
order to the General Good of Landed Men, to the great Increase in
the Value of Land, and the no less Benefit of Trade and Commerce,
1695; Proposals for the supplying their Majesties with Money on
Easy Terms, exempting the Nobility, Gentry, &c., from Taxes
enlarging their Yearly Estates, and enriching all the Subjects of
the Kingdom by a National Land Bank; by John Briscoe. "O
fortunatos nimium bona si sua norint Anglicanos." Third Edition,
1696. Briscoe seems to have been as much versed in Latin
literature as in political economy.
FN 518 In confirmation of what is said in the text, I extract a
single paragraph from Briscoe's proposals. "Admit a gentleman
hath barely 100L. per annum estate to live on, and hath a wife
and four children to provide for; this person, supposing no taxes
were upon his estates must be a great husband to be able to keep
his charge, but cannot think of laying up anything to place out
his children in the world; but according to this proposed method
he may give his children 500l. a piece and have 90l. per annum
left for himself and his wife to live upon, the which he may also
leave to such of his children as he pleases after his and his
wife's decease. For first having settled his estate of 100l. per
annum, as in proposals 1. 3., he may have bills of credit for
2000L. for his own proper use, for 10s per cent. per annum as in
proposal 22., which is but 10L. per annum for the 2000L., which
being deducted out of his estate of 100L. per annum, there
remains 90L. per annum clear to himself." It ought to be observed
that this nonsense reached a third edition.
FN 519 See Chamberlayne's Proposal, his Positions supported by
the Reasons explaining the Office of Land Credit, and his Bank
Dialogue. See also an excellent little tract on the other side
entitled "A Bank Dialogue between Dr. H. C. and a Country
Gentleman, 1696," and "Some Remarks upon a nameless and
scurrilous Libel entitled a Bank Dialogue between Dr. H. C. and a
Country Gentleman, in a Letter to a Person of Quality."
FN 520 Commons' Journals Dec. 7. 1693. I am afraid that I may be
suspected of exaggerating the absurdity of this scheme. I
therefore transcribe the most important part of the petition. "In
consideration of the freeholders bringing their lands into this
bank, for a fund of current credit, to be established by Act of
Parliament, it is now proposed that, for every 150L per annum,
secured for 150 years, for but one hundred yearly payments of
100L per annum, free from all manner of taxes and deductions
whatsoever, every such freeholder shall receive 4000L in the said
current credit, and shall have 2000L more put into the fishery
stock for his proper benefit; and there may be further 2000L
reserved at the Parliament's disposal towards the carrying on
this present war . . . . . The free holder is never to quit the
possession of his said estate unless the yearly rent happens to
be in arrear."
FN 521 Commons' Journals, Feb. 5. 1693/4.
FN 522 Account of the Intended Bank of England, 1694.
FN 523 See the Lords' Journals of April 23, 24, 25. 1694, and the
letter of L'Hermitage to the States General dated April 24/May 4
FN 524 Narcissus Luttrell's. Diary, June 1694.
FN 525 Heath's Account of the Worshipful Company of Grocers;
Francis's History of the Bank of England.
FN 526 Spectator, No. 3.
FN 527 Proceedings of the Wednesday Club in Friday Street.
FN 528 Lords' Journals, April 25. 1694; London Gazette, May 7.
1694.
FN 529 Life of James ii. 520.; Floyd's (Lloyd's) Account in the
Nairne Papers, under the date of May 1. 1694; London Gazette,
April 26. 30. 1694.
FN 530 London Gazette, May 3. 1694.
FN 531 London Gazette, April 30. May 7. 1694; Shrewsbury to
William, May 11/21; William to Shrewsbury, May 22? June 1;
L'Hermitage, April 27/Nay 7
FN 532 L'Hermitage, May 15/25. After mentioning the various
reports, he says, "De tous ces divers projets qu'on s'imagine
aucun n'est venu a la cognoissance du public." This is important;
for it has often been said, in excuse for Marlborough, that he
communicated to the Court of Saint Germains only what was the
talk of all the coffeehouses, and must have been known without
his instrumentality.
FN 533 London Gazette, June 14. 18. 1694; Paris Gazette June
16/July 3; Burchett; Journal of Lord Caermarthen; Baden, June
15/25; L'Hermitage, June 15/25. 19/29
FN 534 Shrewsbury to William, June 15/25. 1694. William to
Shrewsbury, July 1; Shrewsbury to William, June 22/July 2
FN 535 This account of Russell's expedition to the Mediterranean
I have taken chiefly from Burchett.
FN 536 Letter to Trenchard, 1694.
FN 537 Burnet, ii. 141, 142.; and Onslow's note; Kingston's True
History, 1697.
FN 538 See the Life of James, ii. 524.,
FN 539 Kingston; Burnet, ii. 142.
FN 540 Kingston. For the fact that a bribe was given to Taaffe,
Kingston cites the evidence taken on oath by the Lords.
FN 541 Narcissus Luttrell's Diary, Oct. 6. 1694.
FN 542 As to Dyer's newsletter, see Narcissus Luttrell's Diary
for June and August 1693, and September 1694.
FN 543 The Whig narrative is Kingston's; the Jacobite narrative,
by an anonymous author, has lately been printed by the Chetham
Society. See also a Letter out of Lancashire to a Friend in
London, giving some Account of the late Trials, 1694.
FN 544 Birch's Life of Tillotson; the Funeral Sermon preached by
Burnet; William to Heinsius, Nov 23/Dec 3 1694.
FN 545 See the Journals of the two Houses. The only account that
we have of the debates is in the letters of L'Hermitage.
FN 546 Commons' Journals, Feb. 20. 1693/4 As this bill never
reached the Lords, it is not to be found among their archives. I
have therefore no means of discovering whether it differed in any
respect from the bill of the preceding year.
FN 547 The history of this bill may be read in the Journals of
the Houses. The contest, not a very vehement one, lasted till the
20th of April.
FN 548 "The Commons," says Narcissus Luttrell, "gave a great
hum." "Le murmure qui est la marque d'applaudissement fut si
grand qu'on pent dire qu'il estoit universel. "--L'Hermitage,
Dec. 25/Jan. 4.
FN 549 L'Hermitage says this in his despatch of Nov. 20/30.
FN 550 Burnet, ii. 137.; Van Citters, Dec 25/Jan 4.
FN 551 Burnet, ii. 136. 138.; Narcissus Luttrell's Dairy; Van
Citters, Dec 28/Jan 7 1694/5; L'Hermitage, Dec 25/Jan 4, Dec
28/Jan 7 Jan. 1/11; Vernon to Lord Lexington, Dec. 21. 25. 28.,
Jan. 1.; Tenison's Funeral Sermon.
FN 552 Evelyn's Dairy; Narcissus Luttrell's Diary; Commons'
Journals, Dec. 28. 1694; Shrewsbury to Lexington, of the same
date; Van Citters of the same date; L'Hermitage, Jan. 1/11 1695.
Among the sermons on Mary's death, that of Sherlock, preached in
the Temple Church, and those of Howe and Bates, preached to great
Presbyterian congregations, deserve notice.
FN 553 Narcissus Luttrell's Diary.
FN 554 Remarks on some late Sermons, 1695; A Defence of the
Archbishop's Sermon, 1695.
FN 555 Narcissus Luttrell's Diary.
FN 556 L'Hermitage, March 1/11, 6/16 1695; London Gazette, March
7,; Tenison's Funeral Sermon; Evelyn's Diary.
FN 557 See Claude's Sermon on Mary's death.
FN 558 Prior to Lord and Lady Lexington, Jan. 14/24 1695. The
letter is among the Lexington papers, a valuable collection, and
well edited.
FN 559 Monthly Mercury for January 1695. An orator who pronounced
an eulogium on the Queen at Utrecht was so absurd as to say that
she spent her last breath in prayers for the prosperity of the
United Provinces:--"Valeant et Batavi;"--these are her last
words--"sint incolumes; sint florentes; sint beati; stet in
sternum, stet immota praeclarissima illorum civitas hospitium
aliquando mihi gratissimum, optime de me meritum." See also the
orations of Peter Francius of Amsterdam, and of John Ortwinius of
Delft.
FN 560 Journal de Dangeau; Memoires de Saint Simon.
FN 561 Saint Simon; Dangeau; Monthly Mercury for January 1695.
FN 562 L'Hermitage, Jan. 1/11. 1695; Vernon to Lord Lexington
Jan. I. 4.; Portland to Lord Lexington, Jan 15/25; William to
Heinsius, Jan 22/Feb 1
FN 563 See the Commons' Journals of Feb. 11, April 12. and April
27., and the Lords' Journals of April 8. and April is. 1695.
Unfortunately there is a hiatus in the Commons' Journal of the
12th of April, so that it is now impossible to discover whether
there was a division on the question to agree with the amendment
made by the Lords.
FN 564 L'Hermitage, April 10/20. 1695; Burnet, ii. 149.
FN 565 An Essay upon Taxes, calculated for the present Juncture
of Affairs, 1693.
FN 566 Commons' Journals, Jan. 12 Feb. 26. Mar. 6.; A Collection
of the Debates and Proceedings in Parliament in 1694 and 1695
upon the Inquiry into the late Briberies and Corrupt Practices,
1695; L'Hermitage to the States General, March 8/18; Van Citters,
Mar. 15/25; L'Hermitage says
"Si par cette recherche la chambre pouvoit remedier au desordre
qui regne, elle rendroit un service tres utile et tres agreable
au Roy."
FN 567 Commons' Journals, Feb. 16, 1695; Collection of the
Debates and Proceedings in Parliament in 1694 and 1695; Life of
Wharton; Burnet, ii. 144.
FN 568 Speaker Onslow's note on Burnet ii. 583.; Commons'
Journals, Mar 6, 7. 1695. The history of the terrible end of this
man will be found in the pamphlets of the South Sea year.
FN 569 Commons' Journals, March 8. 1695; Exact Collection of
Debates and Proceedings in Parliament in 1694 and 1695;
L'Hermitage, March 8/18
FN 570 Exact Collection of Debates.
FN 571 L'Hermitage, March 8/18. 1695. L'Hermitage's narrative is
confirmed by the journals, March 7. 1694/5. It appears that just
before the committee was appointed, the House resolved that
letters should not be delivered out to members during a sitting.
FN 572 L'Hermitage, March 19/29 1695.
FN 573 Birch's Life of Tillotson.
FN 574 Commons' Journals, March 12 13, 14 15, 16, 1694/5; Vernon
to Lexington, March 15.; L'Hermitage, March 15/25.
FN 575 On vit qu'il etoit impossible de le poursuivre en justice,
chacun toutefois demeurant convaincu que c'etoit un marche fait a
la main pour lui faire present de la somme de 10,000l et qu'il
avoit ete plus habile que les autres novices que n'avoient pas su
faire si finement leure affaires.-- L'Hermitage, March 29/April
8; Commons' Journals, March 12.; Vernon to Lexington, April 26.;
Burnet, ii. 145.
FN 576 In a poem called the Prophecy (1703), is the line
"when Seymour scorns saltpetre pence."
In another satire is the line
"Bribed Seymour bribes accuses."
FN 577 Commons' Journals from March 26. to April 8. 1695.
FN 578 L'Hermitage, April 10/20 1695.
FN 579 Exact Collection of Debates and Proceedings.
FN 580 L'Hermitage, April 30/May 10 1695; Portland to Lexington,
April 23/May 3
FN 581 L'Hermitage (April 30/May 10 1695) justly remarks, that
the way in which the money was sent back strengthened the case
against Leeds.
FN 582 There can, I think, be no doubt, that the member who is
called D in the Exact Collection was Wharton.
FN 583 As to the proceedings of this eventful day, April 27.
1695, see the Journals of the two Houses, and the Exact
Collection.
FN 584 Exact Collection; Lords' Journals, May 3. 1695; Commons'
Journals, May 2, 3.; L'Hermitage, May 3/13.; London Gazette, May
13.
FN 585 L'Hermitage, May 10/20. 1695; Vernon to Shrewsbury, June
22. 1697.
FN 586 London Gazette, May 6. 1695.
FN 587 Letter from Mrs. Burnet to the Duchess of Marlborough,
1704, quoted by Coxe; Shrewsbury to Russell, January 24. 1695;
Burnett, ii. 149.
FN 588 London Gazette April 8. 15. 29. 1695.
FN 589 Shrewsbury to Russell, January 24. 1695; Narcissus
Luttrell's Diary,
FN 590 De Thou, liii. xcvi.
FN 591 Life of James ii. 545., Orig. Mem. Of course James does
not use the word assassination. He talks of the seizing and
carrying away of the Prince of Orange.
FN 592 Every thing bad that was known or rumoured about Porter
came out on the State Trials of 1696.
FN 593 As to Goodman see the evidence on the trial of Peter Cook;
Cleverskirke, Feb 28/March 9 1696; L'Hermitage, April 10/20 1696;
and a pasquinade entitled the Duchess of Cleveland's Memorial.
FN 594 See the preamble to the Commission of 1695.
FN 595 The Commission will be found in the Minutes of the
Parliament.
FN 596 Act. Parl. Scot., May 21. 1695; London Gazette, May 30.
FN 597 Act. Parl. Scot. May 23. 1695.
FN 598 Ibid. June 14. 18. 20. 1695; London Gazette, June 27.
FN 599 Burnet, ii. 157.; Act. Parl., June 10 1695.
FN 600 Act. Parl., June 26. 1695; London Gazette, July 4.
FN 601 There is an excellent portrait of Villeroy in St. Simon's
Memoirs.
FN 602 Some curious traits of Trumball's character will be found
in Pepys's Tangier Diary.
FN 603 Postboy, June 13., July 9. 11., 1695; Intelligence
Domestic and Foreign, June 14.; Pacquet Boat from Holland and
Flanders, July 9.
FN 604 Vaudemont's Despatch and William's Answer are in the
Monthly Mercury for July 1695.
FN 605 See Saint Simon's Memoirs and his note upon Dangeau.
FN 606 London Gazette July 22. 1695; Monthly Mercury of August,
1695. Swift ten years later, wrote a lampoon on Cutts, so dull
and so nauseously scurrilous that Ward or Gildon would have been
ashamed of it, entitled the Description of a Salamander.
FN 607 London Gazette, July 29. 1695; Monthly Mercury for August
1695; Stepney to Lord Lexington, Aug. 16/26; Robert Fleming's
Character of King William, 1702. It was in the attack of July
17/27 that Captain Shandy received the memorable wound in his
groin.
FN 608 London Gazette, Aug. r. 5. 1695; Monthly Mercury of August
1695, containing the Letters of William and Dykvelt to the
States General.
FN 609 Monthly Mercury for August 1695; Stepney to Lord
Lexington, Aug. 16/26
FN 610 Monthly Mercury for August 1695; Letter from Paris, Aug
26/Sept 5 1695, among the Lexington Papers.
FN 611 L'Hermitage, Aug. 13/23 1695.
FN 612 London Gazette, Aug. 26. 1695; Monthly Mercury, Stepney to
Lexington, Aug. 20/30.
FN 613 Boyer's History of King William III, 1703; London Gazette,
Aug. 29. 1695; Stepney to Lexington, Aug. 20/30.; Blathwayt to
Lexington, Sept. 2.
FN 614 Postscript to the Monthly Mercury for August 1695; London
Gazette, Sept. 9.; Saint Simon; Dangeau.
FN 615 Boyer, History of King William III, 2703; Postscript to
the Monthly Mercury, Aug. 1695; London Gazette, Sept. 9. 12.;
Blathwayt to Lexington, Sept. 6.; Saint Simon; Dangeau.
FN 616 There is a noble, and I suppose, unique Collection of the
newspapers of William's reign in the British Museum. I have
turned over every page of that Collection. It is strange that
neither Luttrell nor Evelyn should have noticed the first
appearance of the new journals. The earliest mention of those
journals which I have found, is in a despatch of L'Hermitage,
dated July 12/22, 1695. I will transcribe his words:--"Depuis
quelque tems on imprime ici plusieurs feuilles volantes en forme
de gazette, qui sont remplies de toutes series de nouvelles.
Cette licence est venue de ce que le parlement n'a pas acheve le
bill ou projet d'acte qui avoit ete porte dans la Chambre des
Communes pour regler l'imprimerie et empecher que ces sortes de
choses n'arrivassent. Il n'y avoit ci-devant qu'un des commis des
Secretaires d'Etat qui eut le pouvoir de faire des gazettes: mais
aujourdhui il s'en fait plusieurs sons d'autres noms."
L'Hermitage mentions the paragraph reflecting on the Princess,
and the submission of the libeller.
FN 617 L'Hermitage, Oct. 15/25., Nov. 15/25. 1695.
FN 618 London Gazette, Oct. 24. 1695. See Evelyn's Account of
Newmarket in 1671, and Pepys, July 18. 1668. From Tallard's
despatches written after the Peace of Ryswick it appears that the
autumn meetings were not less numerous or splendid in the days of
William than in those of his uncles.
FN 619 I have taken this account of William's progress chiefly
from the London Gazettes, from the despatches of L'Hermitage,
from Narcissus Luttrell's Diary, and from the letters of Vernon,
Yard and Cartwright among the Lexington Papers.
FN 620 See the letter of Yard to Lexington, November 8. 1695, and
the note by the editor of the Lexington Papers.
FN 621 L'Hermitage, Nov. 15/25. 1695.
FN 622 L'Hermitage Oct 25/Nov 4 Oct 29/Nov 8 1695.
FN 623 Ibid. Nov. 5/15 1695.
FN 624 L'Hermitage, Nov. 15/25 1695; Sir James Forbes to Lady
Russell, Oct. 3. 1695; Lady Russell to Lord Edward Russell; The
Postman, Nov. 1695.
FN 625 There is a highly curious account of this contest in the
despatches of L'Hermitage.
FN 626 Postman, Dec. 15. 17. 1696; Vernon to Shrewsbury, Dec. 13.
15.; Narcissus Luttrell's Diary; Burnet, i. 647.; Saint
Evremond's Verses to Hampden.
FN 627 L'Hermitage, Nov. 13/23. 1695.
FN 628 I have derived much valuable information on this subject
from a MS. in the British Museum, Lansdowne Collection, No. 801.
It is entitled Brief Memoires relating to the Silver and Gold
Coins of England, with an Account of the Corruption of the
Hammered Money, and of the Reform by the late Grand Coinage at
the Tower and the Country Mints, by Hopton Haynes, Assay Master
of the Mint.
FN 629 Stat. 5 Eliz. c. ii., and 18 Eliz. c. 1
FN 630 Pepys's Diary, November 23. 1663.
FN 631 The first writer who noticed the fact that, where good
money and bad money are thown into circulation together, the bad
money drives out the good money, was Aristophanes. He seems to
have thought that the preference which his fellow citizens gave
to light coins was to be attributed to a depraved taste such as
led them to entrust men like Cleon and Hyperbolus with the
conduct of great affairs. But, though his political economy will
not bear examination, his verses are
excellent:--
pollakis g' emin edoksen e polis peponthenai
tauton es te ton politon tous kalous te kagathous
es te tarkhaion nomisma Kai to kainon khrusion.
oute gar toutoisin ousin ou kekibdeleumenios
alla kallistois apanton, us dokei, nomismaton,
kai monois orthos kopeisi, kai kekodonismenois
en te tois Ellisim kai tois barbarioisi pantahkou
khrometh' ouden, alla toutois tois ponerois khalkiois,
khthes te kai proen kopeisi to kakistu kommati.
ton politon th' ous men ismen eugeneis kai sophronas
andras ontas, kai dikaious, kai kalous te kagathous,
kai traphentas en palaistrais, kai khorois kai mousiki
prouseloumen tois de khalkois, kai ksenois, kai purriais,
kai ponerois kak poneron eis apanta khrometha.
FN 632 Narcissus Luttrell's Diary is filled with accounts of
these executions. "Le metier de rogneur de monnoye," says
L'Hermitage, "est si lucratif et paroit si facile que, quelque
chose qu'on fasse pour les detruire, il s'en trouve toujours
d'autres pour prendre leur place. Oct 1/11. 1695."
FN 633 As to the sympathy of the public with the clippers, see
the very curious sermon which Fleetwood afterwards Bishop of Ely,
preached before the Lord Mayor in December 1694. Fleetwood says
that "a soft pernicious tenderness slackened the care of
magistrates, kept back the under officers, corrupted the juries,
and withheld the evidence." He mentions the difficulty of
convincing the criminals themselves that they had done wrong. See
also a Sermon preached at York Castle by George Halley, a
clergyman of the Cathedral, to some clippers who were to be
hanged the next day. He mentions the impenitent ends which
clippers generally made, and does his best to awaken the
consciences of his bearers. He dwells on one aggravation of their
crime which I should not have thought of. "If," says he, "the
same question were to be put in this age, as of old, 'Whose is
this image and superscription?' we could not answer the whole. We
may guess at the image; but we cannot tell whose it is by the
superscription; for that is all gone." The testimony of these two
divines is confirmed by that of Tom Brown, who tells a facetious
story, which I do not venture to quote, about a conversation
between the ordinary of Newgate and a clipper.
FN 634 Lowndes's Essay for the Amendment of the Silver Coins,
1695.
FN 635 L'Hermitage, Nov 29/Dec 9 1695.
FN 636 The Memoirs of this Lancashire Quaker were printed a few
years ago in a most respectable newspaper, the Manchester
Guardian.
FN 637 Lowndes's Essay.
FN 638 L'Hermitage, Dec 24/Jan 3 1695.
FN 639 It ought always to be remembered, to Adam Smith's honour,
that he was entirely converted by Bentham's Defence of Usury, and
acknowledged, with candour worthy of a true philosopher, that the
doctrine laid down in the Wealth of Nations was erroneous.
FN 640 Lowndes's Essay for the Amendment of the Silver Coins;
Locke's Further Considerations concerning raising the Value of
Money; Locke to Molyneux, Nov. 20. 1695; Molyneux to Locke, Dec.
24. 1695.
FN 641 Burnet, ii. 147.
FN 642 Commons' Journals, Nov. 22, 23. 26. 1695; L'Hermitage, Nov
26/Dec 6
FN 643 Commons' Journals, Nov. 26, 27, 28, 29. 1695; L'Hermitage,
Nov 26./Dec 6 Nov. 29/Dec 9 Dec 3/13
FN 644 Commons' Journals, Nov. 28, 29. 1695; L'Hermitage, Dec.
3/13
FN 645 L'Hermitage, Nov 22/Dec 2, Dec 6/16 1695; An Abstract of
the Consultations and Debates between the French King and his
Council concerning the new Coin that is intended to be made in
England, privately sent by a Friend of the Confederates from the
French Court to his Brother at Brussels, Dec. 12. 1695; A
Discourse of the General Notions of Money, Trade and Exchanges,
by Mr. Clement of Bristol; A Letter from an English Merchant at
Amsterdam to his Friend in London; A Fund for preserving and
supplying our Coin; An Essay for regulating the Coin, by A. V.; A
Proposal for supplying His Majesty with 1,200,000L, by mending
the Coin, and yet preserving the ancient Standard of the Kingdom.
These are a few of the tracts which were distributed among
members of Parliament at this conjuncture.
FN 646 Commons' Journals, Dec. 10. 1695; L'Hermitage, Dec. 3/13
6/16 10/20
FN 647 Commons' Journals, Dec. 13. 1695.
FN 648 Stat. 7 Gul. 3.c.1.; Lords' and Commons' Journals;
L'Hermitage, Dec 31/Jan 10 Jan 7/17 10/20 14/24 1696. L'Hermitage
describes in strong language the extreme inconvenience caused by
the dispute between the Houses:--"La longueur qu'il y a dans
cette affaire est d'autant plus desagreable qu'il n'y a point (le
sujet sur lequel le peuple en general puisse souffrir plus
d'incommodite, puisqu'il n'y a personne qui, a tous moments,
n'aye occasion de l'esprouver.
FN 649 That Locke was not a party to the attempt to make gold
cheaper by penal laws, I infer from a passage in which he notices
Lowndes's complaints about the high price of guineas. "The only
remedy," says Locke, "for that mischief, as well as a great many
others, is the putting an end to the passing of clipp'd money by
tale." Locke's Further Considerations. That the penalty proved,
as might have been expected, inefficacious, appears from several
passages in the despatches of L'Hermitage, and even from Haynes's
Brief Memoires, though Haynes was a devoted adherent of Montague.
FN 650 L'Hermitage, Jan 14/24 1696.
FN 651 Commons' Journals, Jan. 14. 17. 23. 1696; L'Hermitage,
Jan. 14/24; Gloria Cambriae, or Speech of a Bold Briton against a
Dutch Prince of Wales 1702; Life of the late Honourable Robert
Price, &c. 1734. Price was the bold Briton whose speech--never, I
believe,
spoken--was printed in 1702. He would have better deserved to be
called bold, if he had published his impertinence while William
was living. The Life of Price is a miserable performance, full of
blunders and anachronisms.
FN 652 L'Hermitage mentions the unfavourable change in the temper
of the Commons; and William alludes to it repeatedly in his
letters to Heinsius, Jan 21/31 1696, Jan 28/Feb 7.
FN 653 The gaiety of the Jacobites is said by Van Cleverskirke to
have been noticed during some time; Feb 25/March 6 1696.
FN 654 Harris's deposition, March 28. 1696.
FN 655 Hunt's deposition.
FN 656 Fisher's and Harris's depositions.
FN 657 Barclay's narrative, in the Life of James, ii. 548.; Paper
by Charnock among the MSS. in the Bodleian Library.
FN 658 Harris's deposition.
FN 659 Ibid. Bernardi's autobiography is not at all to be
trusted.
FN 660 See his trial.
FN 661 Fisher's deposition; Knightley's deposition; Cranburne's
trial; De la Rue's deposition.
FN 662 See the trials and depositions.
FN 663 L'Hermitage, March 3/13
FN 664 See Berwick's Memoirs.
FN 665 Van Cleverskirke, Feb 25/March 6 1696. I am confident that
no sensible and impartial person, after attentively reading
Berwick's narrative of these transactions and comparing it with
the narrative in the Life of James (ii. 544.) which is taken,
word for word, from the Original Memoirs, can doubt that James
was accessory to the design of assassination.
FN 666 L'Hermitage, March Feb 25/March 6
FN 667 My account of these events is taken chiefly from the
trials and depositions. See also Burnet, ii. 165, 166, 167, and
Blackmore's True and Impartial History, compiled under the
direction of Shrewsbury and Somers, and Boyer's History of King
William III., 1703.
FN 668 Portland to Lexington, March 3/13. 1696; Van Cleverskirke,
Feb 25/Mar 6 L'Hermitage, same date.
FN 669 Commons' Journals, Feb. 24 1695.
FN 670 England's Enemies Exposed, 1701.
FN 671 Commons' Journals, Feb. 24. 1695/6.
FN 672 Ibid. Feb. 25. 1695/6; Van Cleverskirke, Feb 28/March 9;
L'Hermitage, of the same date.
FN 673 According to L'Hermitage, Feb 27/Mar 8,there were two of
these fortunate hackney coachmen. A shrewd and vigilant hackney
coachman indeed was from the nature of his calling, very likely
to be successful in this sort of chase. The newspapers abound
with proofs of the general enthusiasm.
FN 674 Postman March 5. 1695/6
FN 675 Ibid. Feb. 29., March 2., March 12., March 14. 1695/6.
FN 676 Postman, March 12. 1696; Vernon to Lexington, March 13;
Van Cleverskirke, March 13/23 The proceedings are fully reported
in the Collection of State Trials.
FN 677 Burnet, ii. 171.; The Present Disposition of England
considered; The answer entitled England's Enemies Exposed, 1701;
L'Hermitage, March 17/27. 1696. L'Hermitage says, "Charnock a
fait des grandes instances pour avoir sa grace, et a offert de
tout declarer: mais elle lui a este refusee."
FN 678 L'Hermitage, March 17/27
FN 679 This most curious paper is among the Nairne MSS. in the
Bodleian Library. A short, and not perfectly ingenuous abstract
of it will be found in the Life of James, ii. 555. Why
Macpherson, who has printed many less interesting documents did
not choose to print this document, it is easy to guess. I will
transcribe two or three important sentences. "It may reasonably
be presumed that what, in one juncture His Majesty had rejected
he might in another accept, when his own and the public good
necessarily required it. For I could not understand it in such a
manner as if he had given a general prohibition that at no time
the Prince of Orange should be touched. . . Nobody that believes
His Majesty to be lawful King of England can doubt but that in
virtue of his commission to levy war against the Prince of Orange
and his adherents, the setting upon his person is justifiable, as
well by the laws of the land duly interpreted and explained as by
the law of God."
FN 680 The trials of Friend and Parkyns will be found,
excellently reported, among the State Trials.
FN 681 L'Hermitage, April 3/13 1696.
FN 682 Commons' Journals, April 1, 2. 1696; L'Hermitage, April
3/13. 1696; Van Cleverskirke, of the same date.
FN 683 L'Hermitage, April 7/17. 1696. The Declaration of the
Bishops, Collier's Defence, and Further Defence, and a long legal
argument for Cook and Snatt will be found in the Collection of
State Trials.
FN 684 See the Manhunter, 1690.
FN 685 State Trials.
FN 686 The best, indeed the only good, account of these debates
is given by L'Hermitage, Feb 28/March 9 1696. He says, very
truly; "La difference n'est qu'une dispute de mots, le droit
qu'on a a une chose selon les loix estant aussy bon qu'il puisse
estre."
FN 687 See the London Gazettes during several weeks; L'Hermitage,
March 24/April 3 April 14/24. 1696; Postman, April 9 25 30
FN 688 Journals of the Commons and Lords; L'Hermitage, April 7/17
10/20 1696.
FN 689 See the Freeholder's Plea against Stockjobbing Elections
of Parliament Men, and the Considerations upon Corrupt Elections
of Members to serve in Parliament. Both these pamphlets were
published in 1701.
FN 690 The history of this bill will be found in the Journals of
the Commons, and in a very interesting despatch of L'Hermitage,
April 14/24 1696.
FN 691 The Act is 7 & 8 Will. 3. c. 31. Its history maybe traced
in the Journals.
FN 692 London Gazette, May 4. 1696
FN 693 Ibid. March 12. 16. 1696; Monthly Mercury for March, 1696.
FN 694 The Act provided that the clipped money must be brought in
before the fourth of May. As the third was a Sunday, the second
was practically the last day.
FN 695 L'Hermitage, May 5/15 1696; London Newsletter, May 4., May
6. In the Newsletter the fourth of May is mentioned as "the day
so much taken notice of for the universal concern people had in
it."
FN 696 London Newsletter, May 21. 1696; Old Postmaster, June 25.;
L'Hermitage, May 19/29.
FN 697 Haynes's Brief Memoirs, Lansdowne MSS. 801.
FN 698 See the petition from Birmingham in the Commons' Journals,
Nov. 12. 1696; and the petition from Leicester, Nov. 21
FN 699 "Money exceeding scarce, so that none was paid or
received; but all was on trust."--Evelyn, May 13. And again, on
June 11.: "Want of current money to carry on the smallest
concerns, even for daily provisions in the markets."
FN 700 L'Hermitage, May 22/June 1; See a Letter of Dryden to
Tonson, which Malone, with great probability, supposes to have
been written at this time.
FN 701 L'Hermitage to the States General May 8/18.; Paris
Gazette, June 2/12.; Trial and Condemnation of the Land Bank at
Exeter Change for murdering the Bank of England at Grocers' Hall,
1696. The Will and the Epitaph will be found in the Trial.
FN 702 L'Hermitage, June 12/22. 1696.
FN 703 On this subject see the Short History of the Last
Parliament, 1699; Narcissus Luttrell's Diary; the newspapers of
1696 passim, and the letters of L'Hermitage passim. See also the
petition of the Clothiers of Gloucester in the Commons' Journal,
Nov. 27. 1696. Oldmixon, who had been himself a sufferer, writes
on this subject with even more than his usual acrimony.
FN 704 See L'Hermitage, June 12/22, June 23/July, 3 June 30/July
10, Aug 1/11 Aug 28/Sept 7 1696. The Postman of August 15.
mentions the great benefit derived from the Exchequer Bills. The
Pegasus of Aug. 24. says: "The Exchequer Bills do more and more
obtain with the public; and 'tis no wonder." The Pegasus of Aug.
28. says: "They pass as money from hand to hand; 'tis observed
that such as cry them down are ill affected to the government."
"They are found by experience," says the Postman of the seventh
of May following, "to be of extraordinary use to the merchants
and traders of the City of London, and all other parts of the
kingdom." I will give one specimen of the unmetrical and almost
unintelligible doggrel which the Jacobite poets published on this
subject:--
"Pray, Sir, did you hear of the late proclamation,
Of sending paper for payment quite thro' the nation?
Yes, Sir, I have: they're your Montague's notes,
Tinctured and coloured by your Parliament votes.
But 'tis plain on the people to be but a toast,
They come by the carrier and go by the post."
FN 705 Commons' Journals, Nov. 25. 1696.
FN 706 L'Hermitage, June 2/12. 1696; Commons' Journals, Nov. 25.;
Post-man, May 5., June 4., July 2.
FN 707 L'Hermitage, July.3/13 10/20 1696; Commons' Journals, Nov.
25.; Paris Gazette, June 30., Aug. 25.; Old Postmaster, July 9.
FN 708 William to Heinsius, July 30. 1696; William to Shrewsbury,
July 23. 30. 31.
FN 709 Shrewsbury to William, July 28. 31., Aug. 4. 1696;
L'Hermitage, Aug. 1/11
FN 710 Shrewsbury to William, Aug 7. 1696; L'Hermitage, Aug
14/24.; London Gazette, Aug. 13.
FN 711 L'Hermitage, Aug.18/28. 1696. Among the records of the
Bank is a resolution of the Directors prescribing the very words
which Sir John Houblon was to use. William's sense of the service
done by the Bank on this occasion is expressed in his letter to
Shrewsbury, of Aug. 24/Sept 3. One of the Directors, in a letter
concerning the Bank, printed in 1697, says: "The Directors could
not have answered it to their members, had it been for any less
occasion than the preservation of the kingdom."
FN 712 Haynes's Brief Memoires; Lansdowne MSS. 801. Montague's
friendly letter to Newton, announcing the appointment, has been
repeatedly printed. It bears date March 19. 1695/6.
FN 713 I have very great pleasure in quoting the words of Haynes,
an able, experienced and practical man, who had been in the habit
of transacting business with Newton. They have never I believe,
been printed. "Mr. Isaac Newton, public Professor of the
Mathematicks in Cambridge, the greatest philosopher, and one of
the best men of this age, was, by a great and wise statesman,
recommended to the favour of the late King for Warden of the
King's Mint and Exchanges, for which he was peculiarly qualified,
because of his extraordinary skill in numbers, and his great
integrity, by the first of which he could judge correctly of the
Mint accounts and transactions as soon as he entered upon his
office; and by the latter--I mean his integrity--he set a
standard to the conduct and behaviour of every officer and clerk
in the Mint. Well had it been for the publick, had he acted a few
years sooner in that situation." It is interesting to compare
this testimony, borne by a man who thoroughly understood the
business of the Mint, with the childish talk of Pope. "Sir Isaac
Newton," said Pope, "though so deep in algebra and fluxions,
could not readily make up a common account; and, whilst he was
Master of the Mint, used to get somebody to make up the accounts
for him." Some of the statesmen with whom Pope lived might have
told him that it is not always from ignorance of arithmetic that
persons at the head of great departments leave to clerks the
business of casting up pounds, shillings and pence.
FN 714 "I do not love," he wrote to Flamsteed, "to be printed on
every occasion, much less to be dunned and teased by foreigners
about mathematical things, or to be thought by our own people to
be trifling away my time about them, when I am about the King's
business."
FN 715 Hopton Haynes's Brief Memoires; Lansdowne MSS. 801.; the
Old Postmaster, July 4. 1696; the Postman May 30., July 4 ,
September 12. 19., October 8,; L'Hermitage's despatches of this
summer and autumn, passim.
FN 716 Paris Gazette, Aug. 11. 1696.
FN 717 On the 7th of August L'Hermitage remarked for the first
time that money seemed to be more abundant.
FN 718 Compare Edmund Bohn's Letter to Carey of the 31st of July
1696 with the Paris Gazette of the same date. Bohn's description
of the state of Norfolk is coloured, no doubt, by his
constitutionally gloomy temper, and by the feeling with which he,
not unnaturally, regarded the House of Commons. His statistics
are not to be trusted; and his predictions were signally
falsified. But he may be believed as to plain facts which
happened in his immediate neighbourhood.
FN 719 As to Grascombe's character, and the opinion entertained
of him by the most estimable Jacobites, see the Life of
Kettlewell, part iii., section 55. Lee the compiler of the Life
of Kettlewell mentions with just censure some of Grascombe's
writings, but makes no allusion to the worst of them, the Account
of the Proceedings in the House of Commons in relation to the
Recoining of the Clipped Money, and falling the price of Guineas.
That Grascombe was the author, was proved before a Committee of
the House of Commons. See the Journals, Nov. 3o. 1696.
FN 720 L'Hermitage, June 12/22., July 7/17. 1696.
FN 721 See the Answer to Grascombe, entitled Reflections on a
Scandalous Libel.
FN 722 Paris Gazette, Sept. 15. 1696,
FN 723 L'Hermitage, Oct. 2/12 1696.
FN 724 L'Hermitage, July 20/30., Oct. 2/12 9/10 1696.
FN 725 The Monthly Mercuries; Correspondence between Shrewsbury
and Galway; William to Heinsius, July 23. 30. 1696; Memoir of the
Marquess of Leganes.
FN 726 William to Heinsius, Aug 27/Sept 6, Nov 15/25 Nov. 17/27
1696; Prior to Lexington, Nov. 17/27; Villiers to Shrewsbury,
Nov. 13/23
FN 727 My account of the attempt to corrupt Porter is taken from
his examination before the House of Commons on Nov. 16. 1696, and
from the following sources: Burnet, ii. 183.; L'Hermitage to the
States General, May 8/18. 12/22 1696; the Postboy, May 9.; the
Postman, May 9.; Narcissus Luttrell's Diary; London Gazette, Oct.
19. 1696.
FN 728 London Gazette; Narcissus Luttrell; L'Hermitage, June
12/22; Postman, June 11.
FN 729 Life of William III. 1703; Vernon's evidence given in his
place in the House of Commons, Nov. 16. 1696.
FN 730 William to Shrewsbury from Loo, Sept. 10. 1696.
FN 731 Shrewsbury to William, Sept. 18. 1696.
FN 732 William to Shrewsbury, Sept. 25. 1696.
FN 733 London Gazette, Oct. 8. 1696; Vernon to Shrewsbury,
October 8. Shrewsbury to Portland, Oct. 11.
FN 734 Vernon to Shrewsbury, Oct. 13. 1696; Somers to Shrewsbury,
Oct. 15.
FN 735 William to Shrewsbury, Oct. 9. 1696.
FN 736 Shrewsbury to William, Oct. 11. 1696.
FN 737 Somers to Shrewsbury, Oct. 19. 1696.
FN 738 William to Shrewsbury, Oct. 20. 1696.
FN 739 Vernon to Shrewsbury, Oct. 13. 15.; Portland to
Shrewsbury, Oct, 20, 1696.
FN 740 L'Hermitage, July 10/20 1696.
FN 741 Lansdowne MS. 801.
FN 742 I take my account of these proceedings from the Commons'
Journals, from the despatches of Van Cleverskirke and L'Hermitage
to the States General, and from Vernon's letter to Shrewsbury of
the 27th of October 1696. "I don't know," says Vernon "that the
House of Commons ever acted with greater concert than they do at
present."
FN 743 Vernon to Shrewsbury, Oct. 29. 1696; L'Hermitage, Oct
30/Nov 9 L'Hermitage calls Howe Jaques Haut. No doubt the
Frenchman had always heard Howe spoken of as Jack.
FN 744 Postman, October 24. 1696; L'Hermitage, Oct 23/Nov 2.
L'Hermitage says: "On commence deja a ressentir des effets
avantageux des promptes et favorables resolutions que la Chambre
des Communes prit Mardy. Le discomte des billets de banque, qui
estoit le jour auparavant a 18, est revenu a douze, et les
actions ont aussy augmente, aussy bien que les taillis."
FN 745 William to Heinsius, Nov. 13/23 1696.
FN 746 Actes et Memoires des Negociations de la Paix de Ryswick,
1707; Villiers to Shrewsbury Dec. 1.11. 4/14. 1696; Letter of
Heinsius quoted by M. Sirtema de Grovestins. Of this letter I
have not a copy.
FN 747 Vernon to Shrewsbury, Dec. 8. 1696.
FN 748 Wharton to Shrewsbury, Oct. 27. 1696.
FN 749 Somers to Shrewsbury, Oct. 27. 31. 1696; Vernon to
Shrewsbury, Oct. 31.; Wharton to Shrewsbury, Nov. 10. "I am apt
to think," says Wharton, "there never was more management than in
bringing that about."
FN 750 See for example a poem on the last Treasury day at
Kensington, March 1696/7.
FN 751 Somers to Shrewsbury, Oct 31. 1696; Wharton to Shrewsbury,
of the same date.
FN 752 Somers to Shrewsbury, Nov. 3. 1696. The King's
unwillingness to see Fenwick is mentioned in Somers's letter of
the 15th of October.
FN 753 Vernon to Shrewsbury, Nov. 3. 1696.
FN 754 The circumstances of Goodman's flight were ascertained
three years later by the Earl of Manchester, when Ambassador at
Paris, and by him communicated to Jersey in a letter dated Sept
25/Oct 5 1699.
FN 755 London Gazette Nov. 9. 1696; Vernon to Shrewsbury, Nov.
3.; Van Cleverskirke and L'Hermitage of the same date.
FN 756 The account of the events of this day I have taken from
the Commons' Journals; the valuable work entitled Proceedings in
Parliament against Sir John Fenwick, Bart. upon a Bill of
Attainder for High Treason, 1696; Vernon's Letter to Shrewsbury,
November 6. 1696, and Somers's Letter to Shrewsbury, November 7.
From both these letters it is plain that the Whig leaders had
much difficulty in obtaining the absolution of Godolphin.
FN 757 Commons' Journals, Nov. 9. 1696 - Vernon to Shrewsbury,
Nov. 10. The editor of the State Trials is mistaken in supposing
that the quotation from Caesar's speech was made in the debate of
the 13th.
FN 758 Commons' Journals, Nov. 13. 16, 17.; Proceedings against
Sir John Fenwick.
FN 759 A Letter to a Friend in Vindication of the Proceedings
against Sir John Fenwick, 1697.
FN 760 This incident is mentioned by L'Hermitage.
FN 761 L'Hermitage tells us that such things took place in these
debates.
FN 762 See the Lords' Journals, Nov. 14., Nov. 30., Dec. 1. 1696.
FN 763 Wharton to Shrewsbury, Dec. 1. 1696; L'Hermitage, of same
date.
FN 764 L'Hermitage, Dec. 4/14. 1696; Wharton to Shrewsbury, Dec.
1.
FN 765 Lords' Journals Dec. 8. 1696; L'Hermitage, of the same
date.
FN 766 L'Hermitage, Dec. 15/25 18/28 1696.
FN 767 Ibid. Dec. 18/28 1696.
FN 768 Lords' Journals, Dec. 15. 1696; L'Hermitage, Dec.18/28;
Vernon to Shrewsbury, Dec. 15. About the numbers there is a
slight difference between Vernon and L'Hermitage. I have followed
Vernon.
FN 769 Lords' Journals, Dec. 18. 1696; Vernon to Shrewsbury, Dec.
19.; L'Hermitage, Dec 22/Jan 1. I take the numbers from Vernon.
FN 770 Lords' Journals, Dec. 25 1696; L'Hermitage, Dec 26/Jan 4.
In the Vernon Correspondence there is a letter from Vernon to
Shrewsbury giving an account of the transactions of this day; but
it is erroneously dated Dec. 2., and is placed according to that
date. This is not the only blunder of the kind. A letter from
Vernon to Shrewsbury, evidently written on the 7th of November
1696, is dated and placed as a letter of the 7th of January 1697.
A letter of June 14. 1700 is dated and placed as a letter of June
15. 1698. The Vernon Correspondence is of great value; but it is
so ill edited that it cannot be safely used without much caution,
and constant reference to other authorities.
FN 771 Lords' Journals, Dec. 23. 1696; Vernon to Shrewsbury, Dec.
24; L'Hermitage, Dec 25/Jan 4.
FN 772 Vernon to Shrewsbury, Dec, 24 1696.
FN 773 Dohna, who knew Monmouth well, describes him thus: "Il
avoit de l'esprit infiniment, et meme du plus agreable; mais il y
avoir un peu trop de haut et de bas dans son fait. Il ne savoit
ce que c'etoit que de menager les gens; et il turlupinoit a
l'outrance ceux qui ne lui plaisoient pas."
FN 774 L'Hermitage, Jan. 12/22 1697.
FN 775 Lords' Journals, Jan. 9. 1696/7; Vernon to Shrewsbury, of
the same date; L'Hermitage, Jan. 12/22.
FN 776 Lords' Journals, Jan. 15. 1691; Vernon to Shrewsbury, of
the same date; L'Hermitage, of the same date.
FN 777 Postman, Dec. 29. 31. 1696.
FN 778 L'Hermitage, Jan. 12/22. 1697.
FN 779 Van Cleverskirke, Jan. 12/22. 1697; L'Hermitage, Jan.
15/25.
FN 780 L'Hermitage, Jan. 15/25. 1697.
FN 781 Lords' Journals, Jan. 22. 26. 1696/7; Vernon to
Shrewsbury, Jan. 26.
FN 782 Commons' Journals, Jan. 27. 169. The entry in the
journals, which might easily escape notice, is explained by a
letter of L'Hermitage, written Jan 29/Feb 8
FN 783 L'Hermitage, Jan 29/Feb 8; 1697; London Gazette, Feb. 1.;
Paris Gazette; Vernon to Shrewsbury; Jan. 28.; Burnet, ii. 193.
FN 784 Commons' Journals, December 19. 1696; Vernon to
Shrewsbury, Nov. 28. 1696.
FN 785 Lords' Journals, Jan. 23. 1696/7; Vernon to Shrewsbury,
Jan. 23.; L'Hermitage, Jan 26/Feb 5.
FN 786 Commons' Journals, Jan. 26. 1696/7; Vernon to Shrewsbury
and Van Cleverskirke to the States General of the same date. It
is curious that the King and the Lords should have made so
strenuous a fight against the Commons in defence of one of the
five points of the Peoples Charter.
FN 787 Commons' Journals, April 1. 3. 1697; Narcissus Luttrell's
Diary; L'Hermitage, April 2/12 As L'Hermitage says, "La plupart
des membres, lorsqu'ils sont a la campagne, estant bien aises
d'estre informez par plus d'un endroit de ce qui se passe, et
s'imaginant que la Gazette qui se fait sous la direction d'un des
Secretaires d'Etat, ne contiendroit pas autant de choses que fait
celle-cy, ne sont pas fichez que d'autres les instruisent." The
numbers on the division I take from L'Hermitage. They are not to
be found in the Journals. But the Journals were not then so
accurately kept as at present.
FN 788 Narcissus Luttrell's Diary, June 1691, May 1693.
FN 789 Commons' Journals, Dec 30. 1696; Postman, July 4. 1696.
FN 790 Postman April 22. 1696; Narcissus Luttrell's Diary.
FN 791 London Gazette, April 26. 29. 1697,
FN 792 London Gazette, April 29. 1697; L'Hermitage, April 23/May
3
FN 793 London Gazette, April 26. 29 1697 L'Hermitage, April
23/May 3
FN 794 What the opinion of the public was we learn from a letter
written by L'Hermitage immediately after Godolphin's resignation,
Nov 3/13. 1696, "Le public tourne plus la veue sur le Sieur
Montegu, qui a la seconde charge de la Tresorerie que sur aucun
autre." The strange silence of the London Gazette is explained by
a letter of Vernon to Shrewsbury, dated May 1. 1697.
FN 795 London Gazette, April 22. 26: 1697.
FN 796 Postman, Jan. 26; Mar. 7. 11. 1696/7; April 8. 1697.
FN 797 Ibid. Oct. 29. 1696.
FN 798 Howell's State Trials; Postman, Jan. 9/19 1696/7.
FN 799 See the Protocol of February 10 1697, in the Actes et
Memoires des Negociations de la Paix de Ryswick, 1707.
FN 800 William to Heinsius, Dec. 11/21 1696. There are similar
expressions in other letters written by the King about the same
time.
FN 801 See the papers drawn up at Vienna, and dated Sept. 16.
1696, and March 14 1697. See also the protocol drawn up at the
Hague, March 14. 1697. These documents will be found in the Actes
et Memoires des Negociations de la Paix de Ryswick, 1707.
FN 802 Characters of all the three French ministers are given by
Saint Simon.
FN 803 Actes et Memoires des Negociations de la Paix de Ryswick.
FN 804 An engraving and ground plan of the mansion will be found
in the Actes et Memoires.
FN 805 Whoever wishes to be fully informed as to the idle
controversies and mummeries in which the Congress wasted its
time, may consult the Actes et Memoires.
FN 806 Saint Simon was certainly as good a judge of men as any of
those English grumblers who called Portland a dunce and a boor;
Saint Simon too had every opportunity of forming a correct
judgment; for he saw Portland in a situation full of
difficulties; and Saint Simon says, in one place, "Benting,
discret, secret, poli aux autres, fidele a son maitre, adroit en
affaires, le servit tres utilement;" in another, "Portland parut
avec un eclat personnel, une politesse, un air de monde et de
cour, une galanterie et des graces qui surprirent; avec cela,
beaucoup de dignite, meme (le hauteur, mais avec discernement et
un jugement prompt sans rien de hasarde." Boufflers too extols
Portland's good breeding and tact. Boufflers to Lewis, July 9.
1697. This letter is in the archives of the French Foreign
Office. A translation will be found in the valuable collection
published by M. Grimblot.
FN 807 Boufflers to Lewis, June 21/July 1 1697; Lewis to
Boufflers, June 22/July 2; Boufflers to Lewis, June 25/July 5
FN 808 Boufflers to Lewis June 28/July 8, June 29/July 9 1697
FN 809 My account of this negotiation I have taken chiefly from
the despatches in the French Foreign Office. Translations of
those despatches have been published by M. Grimblot. See also
Burnet, ii. 200, 201.
It has been frequently asserted that William promised to pay Mary
of Modena fifty thousand pounds a year. Whoever takes the trouble
to read the Protocol of Sept. 10/20 1697, among the Acts of the
Peace of Ryswick, will see that my account is correct. Prior
evidently understood the protocol as I understand it. For he
says, in a letter to Lexington of Sept. 17. 1697, "No. 2. is the
thing to which the King consents as to Queen Marie's settlements.
It is fairly giving her what the law allows her. The mediator is
to dictate this paper to the French, and enter it into his
protocol; and so I think we shall come off a bon marche upon that
article."
It was rumoured at the time (see Boyer's History of King William
III. 1703) that Portland and Boufflers had agreed on a secret
article by which it was stipulated that, after the death of
William, the Prince of Wales should succeed to the English
throne. This fable has often been repeated, but was never
believed by men of sense, and can hardly, since the publication
of the letters which passed between Lewis and Boufflers, find
credit even with the weakest. Dalrymple and other writers
imagined that they had found in the Life of James (ii. 574, 575.)
proof that the story of the secret article was true. The passage
on which they relied was certainly not written by James, nor
under his direction; and the authority of those portions of the
Life which were not written by him, or under his direction, is
but small. Moreover, when we examine this passage, we shall find
that it not only does not bear out the story of the secret
article, but directly contradicts that story. The compiler of the
Life tells us that, after James had declared that he never would
consent to purchase the English throne for his posterity by
surrendering his own rights, nothing more was said on the
subject. Now it is quite certain that James in his Memorial
published in March 1697, a Memorial which will be found both in
the Life (ii. 566,) and in the Acts of the Peace of Ryswick,
declared to all Europe that he never would stoop to so low and
degenerate an action as to permit the Prince of Orange to reign
on condition that the Prince of Wales should succeed. It follows,
therefore, that nothing can have been said on this subject after
March 1697. Nothing therefore, can have been said on this subject
in the conferences between Boufflers and Portland, which did not
begin till late in June.
Was there then absolutely no foundation for the story? I believe
that there was a foundation; and I have already related the facts
on which this superstructure of fiction has been reared. It is
quite certain that Lewis, in 1693, intimated to the allies
through the government of Sweden, his hope that some expedient
might be devised which would reconcile the Princes who laid claim
to the English crown. The expedient at which be hinted was, no
doubt, that the Prince of Wales should succeed William and Mary.
It is possible that, as the compiler of the Life of James says,
William may have "show'd no great aversness" to this arrangement.
He had no reason, public or private, for preferring his sister in
law to his brother in law, if his brother in law were bred a
Protestant. But William could do nothing without the concurrence
of the Parliament; and it is in the highest degree improbable
that either he or the Parliament would ever have consented to
make the settlement of the English crown a matter of stipulation
with France. What he would or would not have done, however, we
cannot with certainty pronounce. For James proved impracticable.
Lewis consequently gave up all thoughts of effecting a compromise
and promised, as we have seen, to recognise William as King of
England "without any difficulty, restriction, condition, or
reserve." It seems certain that, after this promise, which was
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