tercede with the queen, that she would alter her resolutions; but she continued steady to her purpose; and the earl of Strafford demanded the immediate concurrence of the States, declaring, in the queen's name, that she would look upon any delay, on their part, as a refusal to comply with her propositions. Intimidated by this declaration, they agreed to open the general conferences at Utrecht on the first day of January. They granted passports to the French ministers; while the queen appointed Robinson bishop of Bristol, and the earl of Strafford, her plenipotentiaries at the congress. Charles, the new emperor, being at Milan, when he received a copy of the preliminaries, wrote circular letters to the electors and the princes of the empire, exhorting them to persist in their engagements to the grand alliance. He likewise desired the States-general to join councils with him in persuading the queen of England to reject the proposals of France, and prosecute the war; or at least to negotiate on the foundation of the first preliminaries, which had been signed by the mar quis de Torcy. He wrote a letter to the same purpose to the queen of Great Britain, who received it with the most mortifying indifference. No wonder that he should zealously contend for the continuance of a war, the expense of which she and the Dutch had hitherto almost wholly defrayed. The new preliminaries were severely attacked by the whigs, who ridiculed and reviled the ministry in word and writing. Pamphlets, libels, and lampoons, were to-day published by one faction, and to-morrow answered by the other. They contained all the insinuations of malice and contempt, all the bitterness of reproach, and all the rancour of recrimination. In the midst of this contention the queen despatched the earl of Rivers to Hanover, with an assurance to the elector, that his succession to the crown should be effectually ascertained in the treaty. The earl brought back an answer in writing: but, at the same time, his electoral highness ordered baron de Bothmar, his envoy in England, to present a memorial to the queen, representing the pernicious consequences of Philip's remaining in possession of Spain and the West Indies. This remonstrance the baron published, by way of appeal to the people, and the whigs extolled it with the highest encomiums; but the queen and her ministers resented this step, as an officious and inflammatory interposition. The proposals of peace made by the French king were disagreeable even to some individuals of the tory party; and certain peers, who had hitherto adhered to that interest, agreed with the whigs, to make a remonstrance against the preliminary ar ticles. The court being apprized of their intention, prorogued the parliament till the seventh day of December, in expectation of the Scottish peers, who would cast the balance in favour of the ministry. In her speech, at the opening of the ses sion, she told them, that, notwithstanding the arts of those who delighted in war, the place and time were appointed for a congress; and that the Statesgeneral had expressed their entire confidence in her conduct. She declared her chief concern should be to secure the succession of the crown in the house of Hanover; to procure all the advantages to the nation which a tender and affectionate Sovereign could procure for a dutiful and loyal people; and to obtain satisfaction for all her allies. She observed, that the most effectual way to procure an advantageous peace, would be to make preparations for carrying on the war with vigour. She recommended unanimity, and prayed God would direct their consultations. In the house of lords, the earl of Nottingham, who had now associated himself with the whigs, inveighed against the preliminaries as captious and insufficient, and offered a clause to be inserted in the address of thanks, representing to her majesty, that in the opinion of the house, no peace could be safe or honourable to Great Britain or Europe, if Spain and the West Indies should be allotted to any branch of the honse of Bourbon. A violent debate ensued, in the course of which the earl of Anglesey represented the necessity of easing the nation of the burdens incurred by an expensive war. He affirmed that a good peace might have been procured immediately after the battle of Ramillies, if it had not been prevented by some persons who prolonged the war for their own private interest. This insinuation was levelled at the duke of Marlborough, who made a long speech in his own vindication. Hebow ed to the place where the queen sat incognito; and appealed to her, whether, while he had the honour to serve her majesty as general and plenipotentiary, he had not constantly informed her and her council of all the proposals of peace which had been made; and had not desired instructions for his conduct on that subject. He declared, upon his conscience, and in presence of the Supreme Being, before whom he expected soon to appear, that he was ever desirous of a safe, honourable, and lasting peace; and that he was always very far from entertaining any design of prolonging the war for his own private advantage, as his enemies had most falsely insinu. ated. At last the question being put, whether the earl of Nottingham's advice should be part of the address; it was carried in the affirmative by a small majority. The address was accordingly presented, and the queen, in her answer, said she should be very sorry any one could think she would not do her utmost to recover Spain and the West Indies from the house of Bourbon. Against this advice, however, several peers protested, because there was no precedent for inserting a clause of advice in an address of thanks; and because they looked upon it as an invasion of the royal prerogative. In the address of the commons there was no such article; and, therefore, the answer they received was warm and cordial. The duke of Hamilton claiming a seat in the house of peers, as duke of Brandon, a title he had lately received, was opposed by the anti-courtiers, who pretended to foresee great danger to the constitution from admitting into the house a greater number of Scottish peers than the act of union allowed. Counsel was heard upon the validity of his patent. They observed that no objection could be made to the queen's prerogative in conferring honours; and that all the subjects of the united kingdom were equally capable of receiving honour. The house of lords had already decided the matter, in admitting the duke of Queensberry upon his being created duke of Dover. The debate was managed with great ability on both sides: the Scottish peers united in defence of the duke's claim; and the court exerted its whole strength to support the patent. Nevertheless, the question being put, whether Scottish peers, created peers of Great Britain since the union, had a right to sit in that house; it was carried in the negative by a majority of five voices; though not without a protest signed by the lords in the opposition. The Scottish peers were so incensed at this decision, that they drew up a representation to the queen, complaining of it as an infringement of the union, and a mark of disgrace put upon the whole peerage of Scotland. The bill against occasional conformity was revived by the earl of Nottingham, in more moderate terms than those that had been formerly rejected; and it passed both houses by the connivance of the whigs, upon the earl's promise, that if they would consent to this measure, he would bring over many friends to join them in matters of greater consequence. On the twenty-second day of December, the queen being indisposed, granted a commission to the lordkeeper, and some other peers, to give the royal assent to this bill, and another for the land-tax. The duke of Devonshire obtained leave to bring in a bill for giving precedence of all peers to the electoral prince of Hanover, as the duke of Cambridge. An address was presented to the queen, desiring she would give instructions to her plenipotentiaries, to consult with the ministers of the allies in Holland before the opening of the congress; that they might concert the necessary measures for proceeding with unanimity, the better to obtain the great ends proposed by her majesty. DUKE OF MARLBOROUGH DISMISSED FROM ALL HIS EMPLOYMENTS. THE Commissioners for examining the public accounts having discovered that the duke of Marlborough had received an annual present of five or six thousand pounds from the contractors of bread to the army, the queen declared in council, that she thought fit to dismiss him from all his employments, that the matter might be impartially examined. This declaration was imparted to him in a letter under her own hand, in which she took occasion to complain of the treatment she had received. probably alluded to the insolence of his dutchess: the subjection in which she had been kept by the She ANNE. late ministry; and the pain lately taken by the PRINCE EUGENE ARRIVES IN ENGLAND. WALPOLE EXPELLED. HER majesty, who had been for some time af flicted with the gout, sent a message to both houses, en the seventeenth day of January, signifying that the plenipotentiaries were arrived at Utrecht; and that she was employed in making preparations for 169 commons would proceed in giving the necessary an early campaign; she hoped, therefore, that the tant succession, brought in a bill which had been despatch to the supplies. The lord treasurer, in proposed by the duke of Devonshire, giving preceorder to demonstrate his attachment to the protesdence to the whole electoral family, as children and nephews of the crown; and when it was pas sed into an act, he sent it over to Hanover by Mr. resume their seats in the upper house, from which Thomas Harley. The sixteen peers for Scotland they had absented themselves since the decision were prevailed upon, by promise of satisfaction, to against the patent of the duke of Hamilton; but obtained from the court, on which they were meanly dependent, they received no satisfaction from whatever pecuniary recompense they might have the parliament. The commons, finding Mr. Walpole very troublesome in their house, by his talents, activity, and zealous attachment to the whig interest, found means to discover some clandestine practices in which he was concerned as secretary at nership a person whom he had recommended for war, with regard to the forage-contract in Scotland. The contractors, rather than admit into their parthundred pounds. Their bill was addressed to Mr. Walpole, who endorsed it, and his friend touched that purpose, chose to present his friend with five This transaction was interpreted into a bribe. Mr. Walpole was voted guilty of corruption, imprisoned the money. [See note H H, at the end of this Vol.] in the Tower, and expelled the house. Being af Regis, which he had before represented, a petition terward rechosen by the same borough of Lynnhim incapable of being elected a member to serve was lodged against him, and the commons voted in the present parliament. rough, who was found to have received a yearly RESOLUTIONS AGAINST THE BARRIER- advance by her engagements. They attacked the the queen, declaring that the act for securing the barrier-treaty, which had been concluded with the presbyterian government was an essential and fun. States by lord Townshend, after the conferences at damental condition of the treaty of union. The Gertruydenberg. By this agreement, England house, notwithstanding this remonstrance, proguaranteed a barrier in the Netherlands to the ceeded with the bill, and inserted a clause prohibitDutch; and the States bound themselves to main- ing civil magistrates from executing the sentences tain, with their whole force, the queen's title, and of the kirkjudicatories (3). The episcopal, as well the protestant succession. The tories affirmed that as the presbyterian clergy, were required to take England was disgraced by engaging in any other the oaths of abjuration, that they might be on an state to defend a succession which the nation might equal footing in case of disobedience; for the comsee cause to alter: that, by this treaty, the States mons well knew that this condition would be rewere authorized to interpose in British councils;jected by both from very different motives. In that, being possessed of all those strong towns, order to exasperate the presbyterians with further they might exclude the English from trading to provocations, another act was passed for disconthem, and interfere with the manufactures of Great tinuing the courts of judicature during the ChristBritain. The house of commons voted, that in the mas holidays, which had never been kept by perbarrier-treaty there were several articles destruc- sons of that persuasion. When this bill was read tive to the trade and interest of Great Britain, and for the third time, Sir David Dalrymple said, " Since therefore highly dishonourable to her majesty: the house is resolved to make no toleration on the that the lord viscount Townshend was not authoriz- body of this bill, I acquiesce; and only desire it ed to conclude several articles in that treaty: that may be intituled, A bill for establishing jacobitism he and all those who had advised its being ratified and immorality." The chagrin of the Scottish were enemies to the queen and kingdom. All their presbyterians was completed by a third bill restor votes were digested into a long representation pre-ing the right of patronage, which had been taken sented to the queen, in which they averred that away when the discipline of the kirk was last England, during the war, had been overcharged established. Prince Eugene having presented a nineteen millions; a circumstance that implied memorial to the queen, touching the conduct of the mismanagement or fraud in the old ministry. The emperor during the war, and containing a proposal States, alarmed at these resolutions, wrote a re- with relation to the affairs of Spain, the queen comspectful letter to the queen, representing the ne- municated the scheme to the house of commons, cessity of a barrier, for the mutual security of Eng. who treated it with the most contemptuous neglect. land and the United Provinces. They afterwards The prince, finding all his efforts ineffectual, re. drew up a large memorial in vindication of their tired to the continent, as much displeased with proceedings during the war; and it was published the ministry, as he had reason to be satisfied with in one of the English papers. The commons im- the people of England. The commons having mediately voted it a false, scandalous, and malicious settled the funds for the supplies of the year, libel, reflecting upon the resolutions of the house; amounting to six millions, the treasurer formed and the printer and publisher were taken into cus- the plan of a bill appointing commissioners to extody, as guilty of a breach of privilege. amine the value and consideration of all the grants made since the revolution. His design was to make a general resumption; but, as the interest of so many noblemen was concerned, the bill met with a very warm opposition; notwithstanding which, it would have certainly passed, had not the duke of Buckingham and the earl of Strafford absented themselves from the house during the debate. ACTS UNFAVOURABLE TO THE PRESBYTERIAN DISCIPLINE IN SCOTLAND. THEY now repealed the naturalization act. They passed a bill granting a toleration to the episcopal clergy in Scotland, without paying the least regard to a representation from the general assembly to CHAPTER XI. The Conferences opened at Utrecht-The Queen's Measures obstructed by the Allies-Death of the Dau phin and his Son-The Queen demands Philip's Renunciation of the Crown of France-The Duke of Ormond takes the Command of the British Forces in Flanders-He is restricted from acting against the Enemy-Debate in the House of Lords on this Subject-A Loyal Address of the Commons-Philip promises to renounce the Crown of France-The Queen communicates the Plan of the Peace in a Speech to both Houses of Parliament-Exceptions taken to some of the Articles in the House of Lords -A Motion for a Guarantee of the Protestant Succession by the Allies rejected in the House of Commons-The Duke of Ormond declares to Prince Eugene, that he can no longer cover the Siege of Quesnoy-Irruption into France by General Grovestein-The Foreign Troops in British Pay refuse to march with the Duke of Ormond,-who proclaims a Cessation of Arms, and seizes Ghent and BrugesThe Allies defeated at Denain-Progress of the Conferences at Utrecht -The Duke of Hamilton and Lord Mohun are killed in a Duel-The Duke of Marlborough retires to the Continent-The Statesgeneral sign the Barrier-treaty-The other Allies become more tractable-The Peace with France signed at Utrecht-Both Houses of Parliament congratulate the Queen on the Peace--Substance of the Treaty with France-Objections to the Treaty of Commerce-Debates in the. House of Lords on the Malt-tax for Scotland-The Scottish Lords move for a Bill to dissolve the Union-Address of the Com mons about Dunkirk-Violence of Parties in England-Proceedings of the Parliament of IrelandNew Parliament in Englard-Writers employed by both Parties-Treaty of Rastadt between the Emperor and France-Principal Articles in the Treaty between Great Britain and Spain-Meeting of the Parliament-The House of Lords takes Cognizance of a Libel against the Scots-Mr. Steel expelled the House of Commons-Precautions by the Whigs for the Security of the Protestant Succession-Debates in the House of Lords concerning the Pretender and the Catalans-They address the Queen to set a Price on the Head of the Pretender-A Writ demanded for the Electoral Prince of Hanover, as Duke of Cambridge-Death of the Princess Sophia-Bill to prevent the Growth of Schism-Another against all who should list, or be enlisted in a Foreign Service-The Parliament prorogued-The Treasurer disgraced-Precautions taken for securing the Peace of the Kingdom-Death and Character of Queen Anne. CONFERENCES OPENED AT UTRECHT. IN 1712. N the month of January the conferences for peace began at Utrecht. The earl of Jersey would have been appointed the plenipotentiary for England, but he dying after the correspondence with the court of France was established, the queen conferred that charge upon Robinson, bishop of Bristol, lord privy-seaf, and the earl of Strafford. The chief of the Dutch deputies named for the congress, were Buys and Vanderdussen; the French king granted his powers to the mareschal D'Uxelles, the abbot (afterwards cardinal) de Polignac, and Menager, who had been in England. The ministers of the emperor and Savoy likewise assisted at the conferences, to which the empire and the other allies likewise sent their plenipotentiaries, though not without reluctance. As all these powers, except France, entertained sentiments very different from those of her Britannic majesty, the conferences seemed calculated rather to retard than accelerate a pacification. The queen of England had foreseen and provided against these difficulties. Her great end was to free her subjects from the miseries attending an unprofitable war, and to restore peace to Europe; and this aim she was resolved to accomplish, in spite of all opposition. She had also determined to procure reason. able terms of accommodation for her allies, without, however, continuing to lavish the blood and treasure of her people in supporting their extravagant demands. The emperor obstinately insisted upon his claim to the whole Spanish monarchy, refusing to give up the least tittle of his pretensions; and the Dutch adhered to the old preliminaries which Louis had formerly rejected. The queen saw that the liberties of Europe would be exposed to much greater danger from an actual union of the Imperial and Spanish crowns in one head of the house of Austria, than from a bare posibility of Spain's being united with France in one branch of the house of Bourbon. She knew by ex. perience the difficulty of dethroning Philip, rooted as he was in the affections of a brave and loyal people; and that a prosecution of this design would serve no purpose but to protract the war, and aug. ment the grievances of the British nation. She was well acquainted with the distresses of the French, which she considered as pledges of their monarch's sincerity. She sought not the total ruin of that people, already reduced to the brink of despair. The dictates of true policy dissuaded her from contributing to her further conquest in that kingdom, which would have proved the source of contention among the allies, depress the house of Bourbon below the standard of importance which the balance of Europe required it should maintain and aggrandize the States-general at the expense of Great Britain. As she had borne the chief. burden of the war, she had a right to take the lead, and dictate a plan of pacification; at least, she had a right to consult the welfare of her own kingdom, in delivering, by a separate peace, her subjects from those enormous loads which they could no longer sustain; and she was well enough aware of her own consequence, to think she could not obtain advantageous conditions. THE QUEEN'S MEASURES OBSTRUCTED. SUCH were the sentiments of the queen; and her ministers seem to have acted on the same principles, though perhaps party motives may have helped to influence their conduct. The allies concurred in opposing with all their might any treaty which could not gratify their different views of avarice, interest, and ambition. They practised a thousand little artifices to intimidate the queen, to excite a jealousy of Louis, to blacken the characters of her ministers, to raise and keep up a dangerous ferment among the people, by which her life and government were endangered. could not fail to resent these efforts, which greatly perplexed her measures, and obstructed her design. Her ministers were sensible of the dangerous predicament in which they stood. The queen's health was She much impaired; and the successor countenanced the opposite faction. In case of their sovereign's death, they had nothing to expect but prosecution and ruin for obeying her commands; they saw no hope of safety, except in renouncing their principles, and submitting to their adversaries; or else in taking such measures as would hasten the pacification, that the troubles of the kingdom might be appeased, and the people be satisfied with their conduct, before death should deprive them of their sovereign's protection. With this view they advised her to set on foot a private negotiation with Louis to stipulate certain advantages for her own subjects in a concerted plan of peace; to enter into such mutual confidence with that monarch, as would anticipate all clandestine transactions to her prejudice, and in some measure enable her to prescribe terms for her allies. The plan was judiciously formed: but executed with too much precipitation. The stipulated advantages were not such as she had a right to demand and insist upon; and without all doubt, better might have been obtained, had not the obstinacy of the allies abroad, and the violent conduct of the whig faction at home, obliged the ministers to relax in some material points, and hasten the conclusion of the treaty. advantages in commerce; and ordered the English ministers at the congress to tell them, that she would take her measures according to the return they should make on this occasion. Finding them still obstinately attached to their first chimerical preliminaries, she gave them to understand, that all her offers for adjusting the differences were founded upon the express condition, that they should come into her measures, and co-operate with her openly and sincerely; but they had made such bad returns to all her condescension towards them, that she looked upon herself as released from all engagements. The ministers of the allies had insisted upon a written answer to their specific de mands; and this the French plenipotentiaries declined, until they should receive fresh instructions from their master. Such was the pretence for suspending the conferences; but the real bar to a final agreement between England and France, was the delay of Philip's renunciation, which at length, however, arrived; and produced a cessation of THE DUKE of ormond TAKES THE COMMAND OF THE BRITISH FORCES. arms. DEATH OF THE DAUPHIN AND HIS SON. THE articles being privately regulated between the two courts of London and Versailles, the Eng-ready undertaken for the compliance of his grandlish plenipotentiaries at Utrecht were furnished with general powers and instructions, being ignorant of the agreement which the queen had made with the French monarch, touching the kingdom of Spain, which was indeed the basis of the treaty. This secret plan of negotiation, however, had well nigh been destroyed by some unforeseen events that were doubly afflicting to Louis. The dauphin had died of the small-pox in the course of the preceding year, and his title had been conferred upon his son, the duke of Burgundy, who now expired on the last day of February, six days after the death of his wife, Mary Adelaide of Savoy. The parents were soon followed to the grave by their eldest off spring the duke of Bretagne, in the sixth year of his age; so that of the duke of Burgundy's children, none remained alive but the duke of Anjou the late French king, who was at that time a sickly infant. Such a series of calamities could not fail of being extremely shocking to Louis in his old age; but they were still more alarming to the queen of England, who saw that nothing but the precarious life of an unhealthy child divided the two monarchies of France and Spain, the union of which she resolved by all possible means to prevent. She therefore sent the abbé Gualtier to Paris, with a memorial, representing the danger to which the liberty of Europe would be exposed, should Philip ascend the throne of France; and demanding, that his title should be transferred to his brother, the duke of Berry, in consequence of his pure, simple, and voluntary renunciation. THE QUEEN DEMANDS PHILIP'S RENUN- MEANWHILE the French plenipotentiaries at Utrecht were prevailed upon to deliver their proposals in writing, under the name of specific offers, which the allies received with indignation. They were treated in England with universal scoru. Lord Halifax, in the house of peers, termed them trifling, arrogant, and injurious to her majesty and her al lies. An address was presented to the queen, in which they expressed their resentment against the insolence of France, and promised to assist her with all their power in prosecuting the war, until a safe and honourable peace should be obtained. The plenipotentiaries of the allies were not less extravagant in their specific demands than the French had been arrogant in their offers. In a word, the ministers seemed to have been assembled at Utrecht, rather to start new difficulties, and widen the breach, than to heal animosities, and concert a plan of pacification. They amused one another with fruitless conferences, while the queen of Great Bri tain endeavoured to engage the States-general in her measures, that they might treat with France upon moderate terms, and give law to the rest of the allies. She departed from some of her own pretensions, in order to gratify them with the pos session of some towns in Flanders. She consented to their being admitted into a participation of some In the mean time the duke of Ormond, who was now invested with the supreme command of the British forces, received a particular order, that he should not hazard an engagement. Louis bad alson. Reflecting on his own great age, he was shocked at the prospect of leaving his kingdom involved in a pernicious war during a minority; and determined to procure a peace at all events. The queen, knowing his motives, could not help believing his protestations, and resolved to avoid a battle, the issue of which might have considerably altered the situation of affairs, and consequently retarded the conclusion of the treaty. Preparations had been made for an early campaign. In the beginning of March, the earl of Albemarle, having assembled a body of thirty-six battalions, marched towards Arras, which he reduced to a heap of ashes by a most terrible cannonading and bombardment. In May, the duke of Ormond conferred with the deputies of the States-general at the Hague, and assured them that he had orders to act vigorously in the prosecution of the war. He joined prince Eugene at Tournay; and, on the twenty-sixth day of May, the allied army passing the Schelde, encamped at Haspre and Solemnes. The imperial general proposed that they should attack the French army under Villars: but by this time the duke was restrained from hazarding a siege or battle; a circumstance well known to the French commander, who therefore abated of his usual vigilance. It could not be long concealed from prince Eugene and the deputies, who forthwith despatched an express to their principals on this subject, and afterwards presented a long memorial to the duke, representing the injury which the grand alliance would sustain from his obedience of such an order. He seemed to be extremely uneasy at this situation; and in a letter to secretary St. John, expressed a desire that the queen would permit him to return to England. Prince Eugene, notwithstanding the queen's order, which Ormond had not yet formally declared, invested the town of Quesnoy, and the duke furnished towards his enterprise seven battalions and nine squadrons of the foreign troops maintained by Great Britain. The Dutch deputies at Utrecht ex postulating with the bishop of Bristol upon the duke's refusing to act against the enemy, that prelate told them, that he had lately received an express, with a letter from her majesty, in which she complained, that as the States-general had not properly answered her advances, they ought not to be surprised, if she thought herself at liberty to enter into separate measures in order to obtain a peace for her own conveniency. When they remonstrated against such conduct, as contradictory to all the alliances subsisting between the queen and the States-general, the bishop declared his instructions further imported, that considering the conduct of the States towards her majesty, she thought herself disengaged from all alliances and engagements with their high mightinesses. The States and the ministers of the allies were instantly in commotion. Private measures were concerted with the elector of Hanover, the landgrave of Hesse-Cassel, and some other princes of the cm. |