opportunity to exclaim against the bank, and even attempted to shake the credit of it in parliament; but their endeavours proved abortive, the monied interest preponderated in both houses.

William arrived in Holland in the middle of May, and took the field on the 6th of June, at the head of an army much superior to that of the French, who, besides their inferiority in numbers, had lost the best of their generals by the death of the mareschal Luxembourg, who was succeeded by Villeroi in the command of the army. In order to conceal his real plan for the campaign, William amused the enemy by several feints and movements until his preparations were quite completed. When he had succeeded in making every necessary disposition for attacking Namur, for covering the siege, and forming an army to observe the motions of the enemy on the maritime side of Flanders, he caused the place to be invested by the elector of Bavaria, with his own troops, the forces of the German princes, and a body of cavalry; while, at the head of the main army, he took himself a strong position behind the Mehaigne, in a condition to pass that river, and, if necessary, to support the siege.

In the mean time, the king having thought fit to call a parliament in Scotland, to provide new subsidies for the war, the session was opened by the marquis of Tweedale, his majesty's commissioner. To soften the opposition to the crown, a commission was issued under the great seal, to examine witnesses upon the horrible massacre perpetrated at Glenco in 1692, as the memory of it still inflamed the passions of the whole nation. The principal circumstances of that act of barbarity are as follows:

The king had, by a proclamation, offered an indemnity to all the highlanders who had been in arms against him, upon their coming in to take the oaths, with a positive threatening of proceeding to

military execution against such as should not submit by the last day of December. On that day Macdonald of Glenco went to colonel Hill, governor of Fort William, at Inverlochie, and offered to take the oaths. But the colonel, being only a military man, could not or would not tender them, and Macdonald was forced to seek for some of the legal magistrates; but the snow was then fallen so high, that five or six days elapsed before he could come to a magistrate, and on the 6th of January, 1692, he took the oaths before sir Collin Campbell, sheriff deputy of Argyle, Sir John Dalrymple, afterwards earl of Stair, who attended king William as secretary of state for Scotland, took advantage of Macdonald's neglecting to take the oaths within the time prescribed, and induced the king to sign a warrant of military execution against him and his whole tribe. Campbell, a captain and two subalterns, with 120 men, were ordered to repair to Glenco, on the 1st of February, and in pursuance of Dalrymple's letters, they were urged to execute the warrant with the utmost rigour. Campbell being uncle to young Macdonald's wife, was friendly received by the father, and the men were treated in the houses of his tenants with free quarters and kind entertaininent, and lived in good humour and familiarity with them during nearly two weeks. The officers, on the very night of the massacre, played at cards all the evening in Macdonald's house. In the night lieutenant Lindsey, with a party of soldiers, called in a friendly manner at his door, and was instantly admitted. Macdonald, as he was rising from his bed to receive his guest, was shot dead with two bullets. His wife had already put on her clothes, but she was stript naked by the soldiers; the slaughter now became general, neither age nor infirmity were spared, and nearly forty persons were massacred by the troops. Several who

fled to the mountains, perished by famine, and the inclemency of the season, which, however, secured the safety of the rest of the unfortunate tribe, as lieutenant-colonel Hamilton, who had the charge of the execution from Dalrymple, was on his march with 400 men, to occupy all the passes which led from the valley of Glenco, and was obliged to stop by the severity of the weather. He entered the valley the next day, laid all the houses in ashes, and carried away all the cattle and spoil, which were divided among the officers and soldiers.

A motion was now made, that the commissioners appointed to investigate the circumstances of these odious transactions, should exhibit an account of their proceedings; and their report laid before the parliament, stated that Macdonald of Glenco had been perfidiously murdered; that the king's instructions contained nothing to warrant the massacre; and that secretary Dalrymple had exceeded his orders. The parliament concurred with this report, and, proceeding upon this affair, ordered colonel Hill and lieutenant-colonel Hamilton to be called. The former appeared, was examined and acquitted; but the latter not appearing, was declared guilty of the murder of the Glenco men, and ordered to be apprehended. As to the other actors of these bloody scenes, an address was voted to the king, that he would give orders for their being sent home, to be prosecuted or not as his majesty should think fit; and that he would take into his princely consideration the case of the Glenco men.

This apparent resolution of his majesty to vindicate the honour of the government and the justice of the nation respecting the slaughter of Glenco, was not the only means employed by the government to gain the Scots; the marquis of Tweedale, expatiating in his speech on his majesty's care and concern for their welfare, promised in the king's

name, that if they would pass an act to establish a colony in Africa, America, or any where else, his majesty would indulge them with such rights and privileges as he had granted in like cases to the subjects of his other dominions. This promise alluded to a mercantile project of an extensive kind, framed for Scotland by Patterson, the same who had been the chief instrument in establishing the bank of England. His scheme was to establish a settlement upon the isthmus of Darien, so as to carry on a trade in the South-Sea, the Atlantic, and even as far as the East-Indies; vesting the company to be formed with an exclusive right, and an exemption for 21 years from all duties and impositions. The bait was greedily seized; the people lost their resentment in the flattering hopes of wealth; the parliament itself was all submission, and unanimously voted a supply of 1,440,000l. and 9000 men, to be raised early to recruit the Scottish regiments abroad, and an act for erecting a public bank at Edinburgh. Then the parliament was adjourned to the 7th of November.

In Ireland, sir Henry Capel, created a lord, and two other lord justices, carried on the government with a great partiality against the catholics, but without any material difficulty or opposition. He promised to the ministers that should he be appointed lord deputy, with powers to displace some men in office, he would carry every thing in a parliament. His proposal was accepted, and he easily succeeded in bringing the parliament to comply with all the demands and projects of the crown, though the chancellor endeavoured to raise a party against him, and thwarted all his measures; which gave occasion to a motion made in parliament to impeach the chancellor for sowing discord and division among his majesty's subjects; he was, however, voted clear of all imputation by a great ma.

jority; and at the end of the session the parliament sent over an address, in which they bore testimony to the mild and just administration of their lord deputy.

During these transactions the siege of Namur was prosecuted with great ardour, under the eye of king William. The trenches were opened July 11th, and the next day the batteries began to play with incredible fury. The town capitulated on the 13th of August, and the citadel on the 1st of September. In the interval, mareschal Villeroi having vainly endeavoured to compel the allies to raise the siege of Namur, bombarded Brussels, and undertook the siege of Dixmude, garrisoned by eight battalions of foot and a regiment of dragoons, commanded by major-general Ellenberg, who, in 36 hours after the trenches were opened surrendered himself and his troops prisoners of war. shameful example was followed at Deynse by colonel O'Farrel. In the sequel they were both tried for their misbehaviour; Ellenberg suffered death, and O'Farrel was broke with infamy.

This

The reduction of Namur in the presence of a powerful French army, was the most brilliant of William's military exploits, and the energy of his reprisal or resentment against the enemy added to his reputation. The French, contrary to an express cartel, had detained the garrisons of Dixmude and Deynse. After the taking of Namur, the mareschal de Boufflers was arrested as a hostage, and sent prisoner to Maestricht, where he was detained till assurances were received that the imprisoned garrison should be sent back to the allies. The war languished, or rather a total inaction prevailed on the Upper Rhine. In Italy the campaign offered no other remarkable event than the surrender of Cazal to the duke of Savoy, on condition that the place should be restored to the duke of Mantua,