CHAPTER I. REIGN OF WILLIAM AND MARY. Death of Dundee. Accession of William and Mary conjointly to the Crown-Disaffection of the The Mutiny Bill-Relief of Dissenters-War declared against France- Rebellion in Scotland - Battle of Killiecrankie -Death of Dundee-Recep- WILLIAM OF ORANGE had now fully succeeded in his enter- the 12th of February, 1689, he was admitted to hold the wards acquired the name of the pretender was the real son His first public measure was to announce that all protestant subjects who were in office on the 1st of December last should retain their posts till further notice. On the 17th of February he published the list of his privy council, which contained men of almost all parties-Danby, Halifax, and even old Sancroft, the archbishop of Canterbury-in order to show the church that its interests would be protected. This But splendid as was the position which William had and all other endeavours, however, failed to win over the achieved that of the monarch of one of the very first king- high church prelate. The whole list was as follows:-The doms of the world, his throne was no bed of roses. The prince of Denmark, the princess Anne's husband, who had catholics and the tories still retained their old leaning been one of the first to abandon James, and had thereby towards James. True, many of the tories had been greatly acquired the nickname of Est-il possible; the archbishop of embittered against James by his later measures, but now that Canterbury; the duke of Norfolk: the marquises of Halifax he was deposed, and a monarch sate on the throne who had and Winchester; the earls of Danby, Lindsay, Devonshire, been notoriously brought in by the whigs, a strong reaction Dorset and Middlesex, Oxford, Shrewsbury, Bedford, Bath, took place in them. They professed surprise at William Macclesfield, and Nottingham; the viscounts Falconberg, assuming the sceptre; they pretended that they had Mordaunt, Newport, and Lumley; the bishop of London; expected from his declaration that he intended only to assist the lords Wharton, Montague, Delamere, and Churchill ; them in bringing James to reason, and in putting him under Messrs. Bentinck, Sidney, Powle, Russell, Hampden, and proper constitutional restraints. Numbers of them were Boscawen; Sir Robert Howard, and Sir Henry Capel. already in full correspondence with the banished prince. The clergy were equally disaffected. They had resisted the attempts of James to bring in popery, but they had now got a presbyterian king, and were not very sanguine of his support of the hierarchy. Moreover, they had been compelled to swallow their loud and long-continued vaunts of passive obedience, and now saw a monarch sitting on the throne who was placed there by the direct defeat of their grand principle, and who was therefore a standing monument of their humiliation. The same feeling prevailed in the army. It had been powerful in numbers, but had done nothing to withstand a foreign prince at the head of foreign troops marching through the country, and placing himself on the throne. They had not been exactly defeated, because they had not come to a regular engagement; but they saw a foreign prince, supported by his foreign troops, presiding in the country; and, though not beaten, they felt humbled, and were now as near to mutiny as they had been ready to revolt under James. As for the whig party, which had invited and supported William, they were only eager for office and emolument. It was not patriotism in the bulk of them which animated them, but the triumph of their party; and they thought that nothing could ever pay them for the favour they had conferred on William. The accounts of those writers who were present and cognisant of their proceedings, represent them as clamorous for place, honour, and emolument, no one thinking that William could do enough for them, and every one ready to upbraid him for giving to others those posts which they thought they themselves were more entitled to. Thus, though there was a great deal of outward rejoicing -the people shouting, the lord mayor and corporation, the speakers and maces of the two houses of parliament joining in the procession of the proclamation, followed by a long train of coaches containing noblemen and gentlemen of distinction, and crowds of whigs thronging the court at Whitehallbeneath the surface all was hollow, much was volcanic and dangerous, and nothing but the shrewd and cautious intellect of William could have enabled him to maintain his illustrious but most uneasy position. If some of the members of the council gazed at each other in astonishment to find themselves included in one body, still more was that the case with the ministry. Danby, though a tory, was made president of the council; but whilst this offended others, who remembered that he had opposed the idea of the throne being vacant though he had resisted the appointment of a regency, he himself was wofully disappointed in not receiving the white staff. But William neither now nor till the end of his reign entrusted the office of lord high treasurer to a single person, but put it in commission. On the other hand Halifax, who had not joined William's party till the last moment, received again the privy seal, and was continued speaker of the house of lords, to the great disgust of the whigs, who remembered how long he had deserted them, and how successfully he had opposed them on the question of the exclusion bill. To add to their chagrin, the earl of Nottingham was made secretary of state. Nottingham had been foremost amongst those who had maintained the doctrine of passive obedience; who had denied that the throne could for an instant become vacant; had declined to give up James or to call in William, but had also led that party in submitting to the decision of the convention in favour of William and Mary, on the ground that we are enjoined by the New Testament to be subject to the powers that be. The other secretary, the earl of Shrewsbury, was indeed a whig, and in the highest favour with that party. He had been foremost in calling in William; but then he was a mere youth, only eight and-twenty years of age. Admiral Herbert expected to be appointed lord high admiral, and to have the entire control of the admiralty; but he had the mortification to see a number of others placed at the board of admiralty to share his authority, though he bore nominally the name of first lord of it. Churchill expected to be made master of the ordnance for his treason to James; but William had too certain evidence that he was at this very moment a traitor to himself; was in correspondence with the court of St. Germain's, and believed that he would be one of the first to run if any future success warranted a hope of James's restoration. He was therefore appointed only to a post in the household, along with Devonshire, A.D. 1689.] THE CONVENTION DECLARED A VALID PARLIAMENT. Mordaunt, Oxford, Dorset, Lovelace, and others; whilst the gallant foreigner Schomberg was made master of the ordnance. The admiralty, the treasury, and the great seal were all put into commission; which, though this enabled the king to distribute his favours to a greater number of his adherents, yet it disquieted internally the chief leaders, who hoped for the influence and emolument of those offices individually in their own hands. At the head of the commissioners of the great seal was placed the sound old lawyer Sir John Maynard. Whilst the leaders, therefore, were deeply disappointed, all aspirants to favour were extremely jealous of the three staunch Dutch adherents of William, Bentinck, Auverquerque, and Zuleystein, whom William kept about him with a very natural feeling, for they had been faithful to him through all his arduous struggles in his own country, and were now, indeed, almost the only men in whom he could put implicit confidence. The main thing in which Danby, Halifax, Nottingham, and Shrewsbury agreed was in complaining that William did not make them his confidants, but preferred the secret advice of Bentinck, whom he soon made earl of Portland, and the counsel of Sidney, whom he created lord Sidney. William had but too much cause for keeping the knowledge of his thoughts and intentions from those around him, for many amongst his privy councillors and chief ministers would have betrayed them at once to the exiled monarch. Danby had been heard to say, even after James had quitted England, that if he would only abandon his priests, he might come back again; and others besides Churchill were in regular traitorous correspondence with James's court. With all William's caution, not a thing was discussed in his council but was immediately transmitted to St. Germain's. The been the mingling up of ourselves with the questions of This amongst all the alleged mischiefs of William's acces- William's great argument was the protestant interest both here and abroad-a very paramount interest, This was one of the which could now be very conveniently prosecuted with English money and English arms. chief adjuncts of William's ambition to reach the throne of England. His whole life had been spent in the unequal contest with Louis of France, and he now trusted to cope effectually with him through English money and English valour. His heart lay in this object far more than in the glory of ruling the English people-amongst whom he was always a stranger, from whom he was constantly receiving troubles and annoyances, which nothing would have taught him to endure but his darling scheme of repressing and To his trusty countrymen already mentioned William punishing the unprincipled aggressions of the Grande His great friend | Monarque. gave profitable offices near his person. Bentinck was made groom of the stole, with five thousand pounds a year; Auverquerque, master of the horse; and Zuleystein had charge of the robes. The earl of Devonshire, perhaps the most disinterested man in the whole party, was made lord steward; Dorset, lord chamberlain; Mordaunt was placed at the head of the treasury; Delamere was chancellor of the exchequer, and also sat at the treasury board with Godolphin, Sir Henry Capel, and Richard Hampden. The new judges were Pollexfen, chief justice of the common pleas; Sir John Holt, chief justice of the King's Bench; Sir Robert Atkins, chief baron, Powell, who had been dismissed for his upright conduct in the trial of the bishops, was restored to the bench; Treby was attorneygeneral, and Somers solicitor-general. These arrangements being made, on the 18th of February William, for the first time, addressed the two houses of parliament. It is remarkable that the very first subject which he introduced to them was a demand for liberal supplies to carry on the war on the continent-a topic which never ceased to be heard in our parliaments from the moment that a foreign king became seated on the throne till the conclusion of the great war of the French revolution. One of the nost serious inconveniences of the rule of a continental dynasty in the country has since then till our own time William reminded them, too, that their domestic affairs would demand serious attention, and especially the condition of Ireland, where a strong feeling was known to exist for the fallen dynasty, through the interests of the catholic religion. This alluded to the He exhorted them moreover to take immediate measures for securing the despatch of business. settlement of the great question, whether the convention The question had been debated could continue to sit legally after the deposition of the monarch who had called it. in the council, and now, on the king's retiring, the lords immediately laid on the table of the house a bill declaring the convention a valid parliament. It was speedily carried and sent down to the commons; but there it excited a warm debate. The whigs were vociferous for it; the tories, whe believed that the calling of a new parliament would be in their favour, were as vehemently against it. The depositions of Edward II. and Richard II. were referred to and strongly argued upon but the case in point was the convention Sir John Maynard moreover contended that, as which recalled Charles II., and continued to sit and act long after. they were like men who found themselves in a trackless desert, it was not for them to stand crying, Where That track was the precedent o is the king's highway? but to take the track that would lead them out of it. Charles II.'s reign. The house passed the bill without a division, and it received the royal assent on the tenth day after the accession. A clause in this bill provided that, after the 1st of March, no person could sit or vote in either house until he had taken the new oath of allegiance to their majesties. Great excitement was occasioned by this oath. It was hoped by the tories and high church there would be found a sufficient number of persons of influence who would refuse the oath, so as to render the seat of the new monarchs unstable, and open the way to the return of James. Care was taken to consult the prejudices of the adherents to the old notions of right divine as much as possible, and the words "rightful and lawful sovereigns," after much deliberation, were omitted; but this did not prevent many refusing it. As the day approached for taking the oath, the capital was full of rumours. It was said that the duke of Grafton had escaped to France in order to reconcile himself to his uncle; and numerous other persons were supposed to have followed his example. When the day arrived, however, Grafton was one of the first to present himself; and the number of the lords who declined it, amongst them the earls of Clarendon, Lichfield, and Exeter, with the archbishop of Canterbury, and some of the bishops, was small. Of the bishops, five were of those who refused to obey the commands of James to publish his indulgence, and had been sent to the Tower. Rochester, the brother of Clarendon, was expected to refuse the oath, as he had adhered to James after Clarendon had abandoned him; but Clarendon's income was secure from his estate. Rochester had a pension of four thousand pounds a year, which he would lose if he refused the oath --a strong argument, which seems to have proved convincing, for he took the oath. Four hundred of the lower house had taken the oath on the 2nd of March, and amongst them Seymour, who had led the tory opposition; but when the oath was extended to the clergy and other individuals in office, above four hundred of the clergy, including some of the most distinguished dignitaries, refused it; and thus began the great schism of the non-jurors, who long continued to figure as the unswerving advocates of the right divine. The next great question was that of the revenue. The parliaments of Charles and James had been exceedingly munificent in their grants of income. In the heat of their loyalty on the restoration, the commons forgot all the salutary fears of their predecessors, and gave up every point for which they had contended with Charles I. Tonnage and poundage were granted for life, and afterwards confirmed to James. They settled on these monarchs half of the excise in perpetuity, and half for life. The fixed revenue of Charles and James had been one million two hundred thousand pounds, but the actual revenue had been a great deal more. It was now found by examination of the accounts that James had been in the annual receipt of no less than two millions, of which ninety thousand pounds had been expended in secret service money. William had, since arriving at Whitehall, been in the habit of collecting and applying this magnificent revenue as chief of the state; and seemed to expect that it would be now settled on him. The first question discussed was, whether an income granted to a monarch for life could be received legally by his successor in case of his abdication so long as he lived. Many of the chief lawyers contended that he could; that the revenue was granted to the monarch in his political capacity, and not to the man, and that, therefore, the prince who came to discharge his official duties so long as he lived was rightfully in receipt of it. But the more common-sense opinion prevailed, that the prince who superseded another by the call of the nation must receive all his rights as well as his call from the nation. The house therefore passed to the question of the amount of the revenue, and they did not appear very much disposed to use the same lavish folly towards William as they had done towards the late monarchs. Instead of granting him a life revenue, they granted him one million two hundred thousand pounds, the sum allowed to Charles II., but only for three years, one half of which was to be appropriated to the civil list, the other half to the public defences. Wiljiam was sensibly chagrined by this caution, and complained much of want of confidence in him, and of unusual parsimony. He presented a claim of seven hundred thousand pounds from the Dutch, the cost of the expedition which had placed him on the throne. If the commons had wholly refused this "little account" from the Dutch, it could not have been much wondered at; for when men attempt a great and profitable enterprise, it is only reasonable that they should pay for it. Had it failed the Dutch could have made no claim on England; and, because it had succeeded, could that be truly said to have established a right to repayment? The act was voluntary, and the result was likely to be especially beneficial in the increased trade with England, and the defences of their swamps by Englishmen and English money. Just as well might England have presented a bill for the far greater sums sent afterwards to Holland in defence of Holland. The commons, however, consented to pay six hundred thousand pounds, and William received the sum for his careful countrymen with a very ill grace. The commons did not the less displease him by reducing his demand for the navy from one million one hundred thousand pounds to seven hundred thousand pounds, and by granting the supply for the army for only six months; Sir Edward Seymour all the time warning them that it was the foolish liberality of Charles II.'s parliament which enabled him to enslave the nation as he had done. One thing which did William great credit, however, was the recommendation to the commons to abolish the abominable hearth-tax. As he had advanced from Torbay to London, the people had importuned him on all sides to set aside this detestable tax, which had been farmed out to rapacious collectors, who treated the people with every species of insult, cruelty, and violence in enforcing payment of it. It was a most unequal tax, which fell with disproportionate weight on the very poor; for as it was levied, not by the value of the property, but by the number of chimneys, the peasant in many cases paid nearly as much as a man of really great substance; and where the money was not ready when called for, the tax-gatherers forced open even bedrooms, and sold the very bed from beneath the sick, and the table at which the family sat. William was much impressed by its injustice, and, at his special desire, the act was repealed. A.D. 1689.] THE MUTINY BILL PASSED. Whilst in the midst of the money debates, a circumstance occurred which materially hastened the decision, and no William doubt increased the liberality of the commons. announced to them that James had sailed from Brest, with an armament, for Ireland. At the same time a regiment of Scotch soldiers, whom William had ordered to be embarked at Harwich for the Netherlands, refused to go. They declared that William was king of England, but not yet of Scotland; that they had taken an oath to James as their own monarch, James VII. of Scotland, and were not to be ordered Officers and out by a foreign king to fight his wars abroad. men broke into open mutiny at Ipswich, and resolved to march off into their own country. At this alarming news several regiments of horse and foot were dispatched, under the command of Ginckell, to intercept and, if necessary, to attack and destroy the mutineers. Before he could come up with them they had reached the fens of Lincolnshire near Sleaford, and had drawn up in a posture of defence; but the sight of the overwhelming force brought them to an unco ditional surrender, and they were shipped off to the continent without further hesitation. perhaps the greatest stretch of parliamentary authority The passing these extraordinary measures excited the alarm of many even well disposed to the revolution; but to the adherents of the Stuart dynasty they afforded the opportunity for the most vehement declamations against the new monarch. "What!" they said, "have we denounced king James as a tyrant only to bring in a man under the guise of a deliverer, who, within ten weeks of his accession, has destroyed bulwarks of personal freedom which the discarded to touch? The person, the manners, the spirit and intenHe was family, in their most arbitrary moments, never once dared Bu the alarm of James's descent on Ireland, and the dis- tions of William were severely criticised. affection in the army, roused the commons from their tone undeniably of a still, close, and gloomy temperament, and of caution. They passed resolutions of patriotic devotion to found it impossible to assume that gaiety and affability of the crown, and in an address assured William that their demeanour which to Charles II. were natural. He had the They manners and the accent of a foreigner, and chilled all those lives and fortunes were at his service in its defence. In fact, he knew that he was surrounded by went further, and rushed into an extreme which brought who approached him at court by his cold and laconic additional unpopularity on William's government, and manners. furnished a facile handle to subsequent ones to infringe the traitors, and could unbend only in the company of his liberties of the subject. As there were great numbers of Dutch favourites. He became extremely unpopular, and not political persons in custody-persons openly disaffected to all the endeavours and the agreeable and cordial manners of the present dynasty having been prudently secured during the queen could prevent the serious effect of his own reserved the progress of the revolution-now that the revolution was temper. At the same time more was truly to be attributed completed, and authorised judges were once more on the to the force of circumstances than to any bias of William bench, it was feared that these prisoners would demand their towards tyranny. In one direction William was anxious habeas corpus, and come forth at the very moment when all to extend the liberties of the nation. He was for establish the adherents of James were on the alert to watch the effect ing the utmost freedom of religious opinion. He would of his reception in Ireland. The commons, therefore, passed have abolished the test act, and granted free enjoyment of an act to suspend the habeas corpus act for the present. This all Christian creeds, and of office to members of all denomiwas the first time that such a suspension had taken place, nations; but though there was no fear of a leaning to popery and it called forth the more violent remark. Was this the in him, he found himself stoutly opposed in these intentions act, it was asked, of a government which pretended to have by his subjects. The church was split into high church and freed us from tyrants who disregarded the safeguards of low church, jurors and non-jurors; but every party in the He had church, and almost every body of dissenters, were averse to What had James done worse? personal liberty? not suspended this palladium of freedom for a single day; conceding any liberty of creed or capability of office to the catholics. Again, the church was bent against admission of his brother Charles had passed the act itself. any one to office who refused to subscribe to the thirty-nine articles, and to take the oaths, not only of allegiance but of Under these circumstances William found it supremacy. impossible to set aside the test act or the corporation act; but he brought in and passed the celebrated toleration act. Yet even this act, from which we still date our enjoyment of religious liberty, was far more circumscribed than what it is now, owing to successive improvements. It did not repeal the obnoxious act of uniformity, the five-mile act, the conventicle act, and those other statutes which so harassed and oppressed the dissenters; but it exempted them from their operation on certain conditions. They must subscribe thirty-four out of the thirty-nine articles, which most of them could do; the baptists were excused from professing But simultaneously the commons were passing another act Hitherto there had been no of scarcely less significance. military power of controlling and punishing soldiers or officers who offended against discipline or their oath. They were subject only to the civil tribunals, and must be brought there, and tried and punished as any other subjects. James had obtained from his servile judges a decision that he might punish any deserter from his standard summarily; but this was not law, and the cominons, now alarmed at the affair of Ipswich, passed an act called the Mutiny Bill, by which any military offenders might be arrested by military authority, and tried and condemned by court-martial in perfect independence of the civil authority. This bill, which passed without a single dissentient vote, was in itself |