1703.] REVOLT IN THE CÉVENNES. 265 serious revolt of the persecuted Protestants broke out in the Cévennes, a mountainous district of Languedoc. The poor mountaineers, who held their religious meetings in solitary places, were again to be converted by the "booted missionaries" of the Roman Catholic Church. Their dangers called forth a spirit of fanaticism, such as had characterized the Cameronians of Scotland. They had prophets amongst them. They looked for miracles to be wrought in their favour. There was a ruthless bigot in the Cévennes, the Arch-priest Du Chaila, who had been the persecutor of the Protestants there from the time of the Revocation of the Edict of Nantes. In 1702 this detestable fanatic was endeavouring to tread out the fanaticism of his victims by unheard-of cruelties. He subjected his prisoners to frightful tortures. He flogged and mutilated young children, to obtain information of the concealment of preachers. His atrocities at length received their reward. He had imprisoned in his château-a strong place, capable of resisting any ordinary attack-a number of Protestants, whom he intended to put to death, as he had put to death a young girl six months before. The peasantry surrounded the château; forced the gates with a rude battering-ram; set the building on fire; and murdered the Arch-priest as he attempted to escape. The insurrection now became general. Leaders sprang up, who organized the embittered mountaineers. The contest seriously distracted the attention of the French government, and was so far favourable to the Allies. Marlborough desired to render assistance to the insurgents. Nottingham, and the other Tory ministers, would not sanction any rebellion against a legitimate king. The civil war in the Cévennes, when it first broke out, was looked upon as an effort of despair, which would quickly end in massacres and executions. It was at its height in 1703, when the Camisards, as the insurgents were denominated, were opposed, under the leadership of a young man named Cavalier, to a Marshal of France, with twelve thousand veteran troops under his command. Cavalier, who as a boy had tended sheep on his native hills, had fled from the persecution which threatened his home, and had apprenticed himself to a baker at Geneva. He was in his twentieth year when he suddenly appeared again in his birth-place, and became the head of the most daring band of insurgents. There is no romance more interesting than the adventures of this baker's boy, who displayed a courage, a sagacity, and a military genius, which compelled Marshal de Montrevel to give up in despair his system of terror and wholesale destruction by fire and sword. He was recalled, and Marshal Villars was substituted, who adopted milder measures. Cavalier concluded a negotiation with Villars in 1704. The allies could render him no assistance, such as he had expected. The revolt had, in some degree, worn itself out. Villars promised amnesty, with free egress to those who chose to emigrate, and a toleration of religion. The youth on whom the marshal of France looked with wonder, that he should have succeeded so long in defying the armies of the great monarch, trusted to French diplomacy without receiving any guarantees for the performance of the conditions which he required. They were partially adhered to; but the promise to the Protestants of the free exercise of their religion was soon broken. Cavalier's own comrades were indignant with him for making terms at all. Another chief, Roland, continued the war. Roland was killed in 1704. The fire in the Cévennes was covered up rather than extinguished," 266 MARLBOROUGH'S SECOND CAMPAIGN. [1703. says Burnet. Cavalier afterwards served in Spain; subsequently entered the English service; and died at a very advanced age as governor of Jersey, with the rank of a major-general.* The campaign of 1703 was as barren of any signal advantages to the arms of the Allies as to the arms of France. The Parliament had voted an augmentation of troops, and there was no want of decision on the part of Marlborough, to employ the forces of which he had the command in the manner most likely to be productive of a great result. "Our affairs go very ill in Germany," he wrote to Nottingham on the 26th of March. The elector of Bavaria had now proclaimed his adhesion to France; had surprised the strong fortress of Ulm; and by effecting a communication with the French on the Upper Rhine, had opened a way for the armies of Louis to the centre of Germany. The French forces under Boufflers in the Netherlands threatened Holland; and Marlborough was desirous of attacking them, whilst the stronger French armies were otherwise engaged. The States-General pressed upon him the desirableness of securing Bonn, which capitulated after a short siege. Three months later Huy was surrendered to the Allies. But these successes were of comparatively small import. Marlborough had been in anxious correspondence with Coehorn on a matter which he repeatedly terms "le grand dessein," and "la grande affaire." Marlborough and Coehorn had matured a plan for attacking Antwerp, and carrying the war into Flanders. The failure is attributed by Marlborough to "M. de Coehorn's stubbornness, and the dissensions amongst the generals." He, therefore, had to return towards the Maese; and having taken Huy, to propose some other plan that would have terminated the year with an energetic operation that promised success. The duke proposed, in a council of war, on the 20th of August, to attack the French lines between Mehaigne and Leuwe. This plan was agreed to by the generals in command of the forces of Denmark, Luneburg, and Hesse, as well as by the English generals. The French carefully avoided a battle, and were safe beyond their lines, which Marlborough desired to force. The plan was submitted to the StatesGeneral, and was by them rejected. They wanted another fortress, Limbourg, to be taken, which Marlborough said could be accomplished by a detachment of the army. The great general was naturally irritated by this interference with his plans; but he submitted. Marlborough wrote to their High Mightinesses that, from the undoubted information he had received of the situation of the enemy, the design was not only practicable, but almost sure of success. "The opportunity is lost, and I wish from my heart that there will be no cause for repentance when it is too attacked Limbourg, which surrendered after a short siege. campaign, Marlborough laid his plans with such secresy, and out with such promptitude, that the States-General had scarcely time to find fault with the independence of his movements before they heard of their complete success. late." § He In the next carried them On the 9th of November, the queen opened the second Session of her * Cavalier wrote an account of the Wars in the Cévennes. There is an excellent notice of this remarkable man by Mr. Kemble, "State Papers," p. 384 to 431. Ibid., pp. 113, 118. § Ibid., p. 173. 1703.] THE METHUEN TREATY WITH PORTUGAL. 267 first Parliament. The foreign policy which she announced assumed larger proportions than the object which had been originally defined for the war. Its object was no longer simply "to resist the great power of France," but "for recovering the monarchy of Spain from the House of Bourbon, and restoring it to the House of Austria." The queen announced that she had made a treaty for this object with the king of Portugal; and that subsidies would be required for the duke of Savoy, who had declared his intention to join the Alliance. The principles of the agreement with Portugal were laid down in what is known as the Methuen Treaty,-called after the name of the ambassador who negotiated it,-and that treaty, and its effect upon the commerce of England and the habits of her people, lasted through five generations even to the present time. The wines of Portugal were to be admitted upon the payment of a duty 33 per cent. less than the duty paid upon French wines; and the woollen cloths of England, which had been prohibited in Portugal for twenty years, were to be admitted upon terms of proportionate advantage. Up to that time the Claret of France had been. the beverage of the wine-drinkers of England. From 1703 Port established itself as what Defoe calls "our general draught." In all commercial negotiations with France the Methuen Treaty stood in the way; for the preferential duty was continued till 1831. France invariably pursued a system of retaliation. It was a point of patriotism for the Englishman to hold firm to his Port. The habit was established; and even now, when the vinegrowers of France, and the iron-masters of England, are equally desirous that commercial restrictions should be removed, it is in vain to say, as Hume said more than a century ago, " We lost the French markets for our woollen manufactures, and transferred the commerce of wine to Spain and Portugal, where we buy worse liquor at a higher price." * king Charles of The arch-duke Charles of Austria was now hailed as Spain. He came to England on the 26th of December. On the 29th he was entertained for two days by the queen at Windsor. Her majesty, according to the official account in the London Gazette, received at their first meeting the compliment of the king of Spain, "acknowledging his great obligations to her for her generous protection and assistance." He was all courtesy and humility. He would scarcely take the right hand of the queen at table; and "after supper he would not be satisfied till after great compliments he had prevailed with the duchess of Marlborough to give him the napkin, which he held to her majesty when she washed." Had the new king, without a kingdom, stayed long enough in England to observe the temper of the Parliament and the people, he might have felt that her majesty's "generous protection and assistance" was not the only thing to be considered in our insular politics. At this time, the famous Leibnitz, whose acquirements as a philosopher did not interfere with his keen calculations upon political affairs, wrote from Berlin, "the great animosity that prevails between the Whigs and the Tories gives many people a bad opinion of the affairs of England."+ How could the people of the continent understand these affairs? Here was England engaged in the greatest war, and committed to the most * "Essay on the Balance of Trade." 268 OCCASIONAL CONFORMITY BILL AGAIN REJECTED. [1708. complicated alliances, of any period of her history, and her government was making the most strenuous efforts to disturb the internal tranquillity which had long subsisted under a system of toleration, and revive the bitter hatreds in matters of religion which appeared to have died out, except amongst the extreme bigots of either party. A fortnight had scarcely elapsed since the opening of the session, when a new Bill against Occasional Conformity was brought in, and the Commons renewed the work of the previous session with redoubled fury. They passed the Bill very quickly by a majority of two hundred and twenty-three to a hundred and forty. The Lords rejected it by a majority of twelve. To analyse the dreary debates would have little interest now. The excitement out of doors has been described by one of the greatest of humourists: "I wish you had been here for ten days during the highest and warmest reign of party and faction that I ever knew or read of, upon the Bill against Occasional Conformity, which, two days ago, was, upon the first reading, rejected by the Lords. It was so universal that I observed the dogs in the streets much more contumelious and quarrelsome than usual; and, the very night before the Bill went up, a committee of Whig and Tory cats had a very warm and loud debate upon the roof of our house. But why should we wonder at that, when the very ladies are split asunder into high-church and low, and, out of zeal for religion, have hardly time to say their prayers." Marlborough, perhaps very little to his taste, was dragged in by the Tories to whom he yet pretended allegiance, to vote for the Bill. He wrote, during the heat of the discussions, to count Wratislaw, to show how this controversy interfered with the real business of Parliament. "If it had not been for the Bill against Occasional Conformity, we had reason to flatter ourselves that the Session would have terminated with more of unanimity, and that a greater dispatch would have been given to public affairs than we had seen for many years." + There were other parliamentary turmoils in this session which involved the most serious disputes between the Lords and Commons. One of these was the controversy about privilege in the matter known as the Scottish plot, which we shall refer to a Chapter on Scotland. The other was the constitutional question connected with the famous case of an Aylesbury Election. Ashby, a burgess of Aylesbury, sued the Returning Officer for maliciously refusing his vote. Three judges of the King's Bench decided, against the opinion of Chief Justice Holt, that the verdict which a jury had given in favour of Ashby must be set aside, as the action was not maintainable. The plaintiff went to the House of Lords upon a writ of error, and there the judgment was reversed by a large majority of Peers. The Lower House maintained that "the qualification of an elector is not cognizable elsewhere than before the Commons of England;" that Ashby was guilty of a breach of privilege; and that all persons who should in future commence such an action, and all attorneys and counsel conducting the same, are also guilty of a high breach of privilege. The Lords, led by Somers, then came to counter-resolutions, of which the most important is, "that the assertion that a person wrongfully hindered from giving his vote for the election of Swift, Letter to Rev. Dr. Tisdall, December 16, 1703. 1703.] AYLESBURY ELECTION CASE.-THE GREAT STORM. 269 members of Parliament, by the officer who ought to take it, is without remedy by the ordinary source of the law, is destructive of the property of the subject, is against the freedom of elections, and manifestly tends to encourage corruption and partiality." The prorogation of Parliament put an end to the quarrel in that Session; but in the next it was renewed with increased violence. The judgment against the Returning officer was followed up by Ashby levying his damages. Other Aylesbury men brought new actions. The Commons imprisoned the Aylesbury electors. The Lords took strong measures that affected, or appeared to affect, the privileges of the Commons. The queen finally stopped the contest by a prorogation; and the quarrel expired when the Parliament expired under the Triennial Act. Lord Somers "established the doctrine which has been acted on ever since, that an action lies against a Returning Officer for maliciously refusing the vote of an elector." * About the time when these violent political tempests commenced, the nation was terrified by that wonderful war of the elements, known as the Great Storm of 1703. On the night of the 27th of November a mighty wind arose in the western and southern districts of England, and in part of the eastern, which toppled down steeples, unroofed houses, drove great ships from their anchorage, and swept away the watch-towers of the coasts. The shores of the Channel were strewn with wrecks. The Thames and the Severn were crowded with dismasted merchantmen, and hulls whose crews had been swept into the raging sea. Fourteen or fifteen men-of-war were cast away, and fifteen hundred seamen perished with them. The Parliament went up with an Address to the queen, beseeching her to build new ships, which cost they would effectually defray. Marlborough, in his communications with foreign courts, spoke of the storm as a grievous national calamity, but one which he hoped would not interfere with the dispatch of troops for his Catholic majesty.† A general fast on the 19th of January was observed with unusual devotion, "the terror which the tempest had left on the people's minds," says an historian of the time "contributing much to their affectionate discharge of that religious duty." Sermons of exhortation to hearken to God's judgments-one of which was called 'A warning from the winds'were preached throughout the land. Defoe wrote a circumstantial account of the unprecedented calamity. But this visitation was soon forgotten in the excitement of war. Marlborough's wonderful campaign of 1704 caused the passing terror of 1703 to be soon forgotten. Addison,-it may be somewhat profanely-compared Marlborough in the storm of battle to the angel "who rides in the whirlwind;" "Such as of late o'er pale Britannia past." This famous simile of "The Campaign," was pronounced to be wonderfully fine and true. The moralist was soon neglected who said, "I cannot but have so much charity for the worst of my fellow-creatures, that I believe no man was so hardened against his Maker, but he felt some shocks to his wicked confidence from the convulsions of nature." ‡ The commotions of party, in the first and second years of the reign of Anne, were so extreme, that men who had higher aims than the possession of * Lord Campbell's "Lives of the Chancellors." Life of Somers. + "Dispatches," vol. i. p. 214. Defoe. "The Storm," 1704. |