stroyed by the French squadrons. § XXVI. Wheeler's expedition to the West Indies. § XXVII. Benbow bombards St. Maloes. XXVIII. The French King has recourse to the mediation of Denmark. § XXIX. Severity of the government against the Jacobites. § Xxx. Complaisance of the Scottish Parliament. XXXI. The King returns to England, makes some changes in the ministry, and opens the session of Parliament. § XXXII. Both houses inquire into the miscarriages by sea. § XXXIII. The Commons grant a vast sum for the services of the ensuing year. § XXXIV. The King rejects the bill against free and impartial proceedings in Parliament; and the Lower House remonstrates on this subject. XXXV. Establishment of the Bank of England. XXXVI. The East India Company obtain a new charter. § XXXVII. Bill for a general naturalization dropped. § XXXVIII. Sir Francis Wheeler perishes in a storm. § XXXIX. The English attempt to make a descent in Camaret Bay, but are repulsed with loss. XL. They bombard Dieppe, Havre de Grace, Dunkirk, and Calais. § XLI. Admira! Russel sails for the Mediterranean, relieves Barcelona, and winters at Cadiz. § XLII. Campaign in Flanders. § XLIII. The Allies reduce Huy. § XLIV. The Prince of Baden passes the Rhine, but is obliged to repass that river. Operations in Hungary. § XLV. Progress of the French in Catalonia. State of the war in Piedmont. § XLVI. The King returns to England. The Parliament meets. The bill for triennial Parliaments receives the royal assent. § LXVII. Death of Archbishop Tillotson and of Queen Mary. LXVIII. Reconciliation between the King and the Princess of Denmark.

§ I. WHILE king William seemed wholly engrossed by the affairs of the continent, England was distracted by domestic dissension, and overspread with vice, corruption, and profaneness. Over and above the jacobites, there was a set of malcontents, whose number daily increased, They not only murmured at the grievances of the nation, but composed and published elaborate dissertations upon the same subject. These made such impresVOL. I.

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sions upon the people, already irritated by heavy burdens, distressed in their trade, and disappointed in their sanguine expectations, that the queen thought it necessary to check the progress of those writers, by issuing out a proclamation, offering a reward to such as would discover seditious libellers. The earl of Marlborough had been committed to the Tower, on the information of one Robert Young, a prisoner in Newgate, who had forged that nobleman's handwriting, and contrived the scheme of an association in favour of king James, to which he affixed the names of the earls of Marlborough and Salisbury, Sprat, bishop of Rochester, the lord Cornbury, and sir Basil Firebrace. One of his emissaries had found means to conceal this paper in a certain part of the bishop's house at Bromley in Kent, where it was found by the king's messengers, who secured the prelate in consequence of Young's information. But he vindicated himself to the satisfaction of the whole council; and the forgery of the informer was detected by the confession of his accomplice. The bishop obtained his release immediately, and the earl of Marlborough was admitted to bail in the court of king's bench.

§ II. So many persons of character and distinction had been imprisoned during this reign, upon the slightest suspicion, that the discontented part of the nation had some reason to insinuate, they had only exchanged one tyrant for another. They affirmed, that the habeas corpus act was either insufficient to protect the subject from false imprisonment, or had been shamefully misused. They expatiated upon the loss of ships, which had lately fallen a prey to the enemy; the consumption of seamen; the neglect of the fisheries; the interruption of commerce, in which the nation was supplanted by her allies, as well as invaded by her enemies; the low ebb of the kingdom's treasure, exhausted in hiring foreign bottoms, and paying foreign troops to fight foreign quarrels; and the slaughter of the best and bravest of their countrymen, whose blood had been lavishly spilt in support of connexions with which they ought to have had no concern. They demonstrated the mischiefs that necessarily arose from the unsettled state of the nation. They observed that the government could not be duly established, until a solemn declaration should

confirm the legality of that tenure by which their majesties possessed the throne; that the structure of parliaments was deficient in point of solidity, as they existed entirely at the pleasure of the crown, which would use them no longer than they should be found necessary in raising supplies for the use of the government. They exclaimed against the practice of quartering soldiers in private houses, contrary to the ancient laws of the land, the petition of right, and the subsequent act on that subject passed in the reign of the second Charles. They enumerated among their grievances the violation of property, by pressing transport ships into the service without settling any fund of payment for the owners: the condition of the militia, which was equally burdensome and useless; the flagrant partiality in favour of allies, who carried on an open commerce with France, and supplied the enemy with necessaries, while the English laboured under the severest prohibitions, and were in effect the dupes of those very powers whom they protected. They dwelt upon the ministry's want of conduct, foresight, and intelligence, and inveighed against their ignorance, insolence, and neglect, which were as pernicious to the nation as if they had formed a design of reducing it to the lowest ehb of disgrace and destruction. By this time, indeed, public virtue was become the object of ridicule, and the whole kingdom was overspread with immorality and corruption; towards the increase of which, many concurring circumstances happened to contribute. people were divided into three parties, namely, the Williamites, the jacobites, and the discontented revolutioners: these factions took all opportunities to thwart, to expose, and to ridicule the measures and principles of each other: so that patriotism was laughed out of doors, as an hypocritical pretence. This contention established a belief that every man consulted his own private interest at the expense of the public: a belief that soon grew into a maxim almost universally adopted. The practice of bribing a majority in parliament had a pernicious influence upon the morals of all ranks of people, from the candidate to the lowest borough elector. The expedient of establishing funds of credit for raising supplies to defray the expenses of government threw large premiums and sums of money

The

into the hands of low, sordid usurers, brokers, and jobbers, who distinguished themselves by the name of the moneyed interest. Intoxicated by this flow of wealth, they affected to rival the luxury and magnificence of their superiors; but, being destitute of sentiment and taste, to conduct them in their new career, they ran into the most absurd and illiberal extravagancies. They laid aside all decorum; became lewd, insolent, intemperate, and riotous. Their example was caught by the vulgar. All principle, and even decency, was gradually banished; talent lay uncultivated, and the land was deluged with a tide of ignorance and profligacy.

at sea.

§ III. King William having ascertained the winter quarters of the army, and concerted the operations of the ensuing campaign with the states general, and the ministers of the allies, set sail for England on the fifteenth day of October: on the 18th landed at Yarmouth, was met by the queen at Newhall, and passed through the city of London to Kensington, amidst the acclamations of the populace. He received a congratulatory address from the lord mayor and aldermen, with whom he dined in public by invitation. A day of thanksgiving was appointed for the victory obtained The lutestring company was established by patent, and the parliament met on the fourth day of November. The house of lords was deeply affected with discontent, which in some measure proceeded from the dissension between the queen and her sister the princess of Denmark, which last underwent every mortification that the court could inflict. Her guards were taken away; all honours which had been paid to her rank by the magistrates of Bath, where she sometimes resided, and even by the ministers of the church where she attended at divine service, were discontinued, by the express order of his majesty. Her cause was naturally espoused by those noblemen who had adhered to her in her former contest with the king, about an independent settlement; and these were now reinforced by all the friends of the earl of Marlborough, united by a double tie; for they resented the disgrace and confinement of that lord, and thought it their duty to support the princess Anne under a persecution incurred by an attachment to his countess. The earl of Shrewsbury lived in friendship with

Marlborough, and thought he had been ungratefully treated by the king: the marquis of Halifax befriended him, from opposition to the ministry: the earl of Mulgrave, for an opportunity to display his talents, and acquire that consideration which he thought due to his merit. Devonshire, Montague, and Bradford, joined in the same cause from principle: the same pretence was used by the earls of Stamford, Monmouth, Warrington, and other whigs, though in effect they were actuated by jealousy and resentment against those by whom they had been supplanted. As for the jacobites, they gladly contributed their assistance to promote any scheme that had a tendency to embroil the administration.

IV. The king, in his speech to parliament, thanked them for their last supplies, congratulated them upon the victory obtained at sea, condoled them upon the bad success of the campaign by land, magnified the power of France,represented the necessity of maintaining a great force to oppose it, and demanded subsidies equal to the occasion. He expressed his reluctance to load them with additional burdens, which, he said, could not be avoided, without exposing his kingdom to inevitable destruction. He desired their advice towards lessening the inconvenience of exporting money for the payment of the forces. He intimated a design of making a descent upon France; declared he had no aim but to make his subjects a happy people, and that he would again cheerfully expose his life for the welfare of the nation. The lords, after an adjournment of three days, began with great warmth to assert their privileges, which they conceived had been violated in the cases of the earl of Marlborough, and the other noblemen, who had been apprehended, committed to prison, and afterwards admitted to bail by the court of king's bench. These circumstances being fully discussed in a violent debate, the house ordered lord Lucas, constable of the Tower, to produce the warrants of commitment, and the clerk of the king's bench to deliver the affidavit of Aaron Smith, the court solicitor, upon which the lords had been remanded to prison. At the same time, the whole affair was referred to a committee, empowered to send for persons, papers, and records. The judges were ordered to attend: Aaron