A.D. 1699.]

SECOND TREATY OF PARTITION.

York in October, more like skeletons than living men. On the 13th of November Paterson and his companions reached England in the Caledonia. The indignation of the Scotch at their treatment was beyond bounds, and the more so because, unacquainted with the real facts of the case, they had sent out a second expedition of one thousand three hundred men.

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sent evasive answers, and the fury of the people rose to that height that nothing was talked of but that the king had forfeited his right to the allegiance of Scotland by his conduct, and of a war with England.

When William returned from Holland, in the autumn of 1699, he found this tempest of indignation raging against him in Scotland. Events on the continent soon caused

The history of this second expedition was as miserable as him to repent of his callous treatment of this scheme of that of the first. On arriving, the new adventurers, instead colonisation, and as we have said, when it was too late, he of a flourishing colony, found the place deserted, and only a sent for Paterson to discuss the practicability of still carryfew miserable Indians to tell them the fate of their prede- ing it out. Paterson, though he had sunk his fortune in it, essors. With this new arrival came four Presbyterian was still as zealous for it as ever. His plan for reviving the ·lergymen, who assumed the command and seemed to think colony of Darien may be seen in Sir John Dalrymple's of nothing but establishing a presbytery in all its rigour and "Memoirs." He proposed to give four-fifths of the interest uncharitableness. Paterson, like Penn in Pennsylvania and in it to England; and in 1701, when William determined lord Baltimore in Baltimore, had proclaimed perfect civil and to strike a blow at the fame of Louis in South America, religious liberty to men of all creeds and nations. This was he gave Paterson assurances of his support. It was too late. now reversed: there was nothing but the most harsh and Mr. Saxe Bannister has recently thrown the true light on senseless phariseeism. They quarrelled with gentlemen who the character and aims of Paterson, in a life of his drawn were not of their creed, and, says Dalrymple, "they ex- from the public documents in the Advocates' Library at hausted the spirits of the people by requiring their attend- Edinburgh, in the Bodleian, at Guildhall, and various other ance at sermon four or five hours at a stretch, relieving each sources. In this work he has amply shown that Paterson other by preaching alternately, but allowing no relief to was far before his time in his perception of the principles of their hearers. Wednesday they divided into three parts-free trade, or sound morality in all mercantile and political thanksgiving, humiliation, and supplication, in which these ministers followed each other. And as the service of the Church of Scotland consists of a lecture with a comment, sermon, two prayers, three psalms, and a blessing, the work of that day, upon an average of the length of the service of that age, could not take up less than twelve hours, during which space of time the colony was collected and kept close together in the guard room, which was used as a church, in a tropical climate, and in a sickly season. They demanded, besides this, of the council, to set apart a day for a solemn fasting and humiliation, &c." Instead of a comfort, these men proved one of the worst curses of this unfortunate colony, thwarting and damping the exertions of the people, and continually threatening the poor people with hell fire. Two of these ministers perished.

In the midst of these miseries arrived Captain Campbell of Ferrol, with a force of his own men. He attacked and dispersed a body of one thousand Spaniards, sent against him, but this was only a fresh offence against Spain, and, therefore, against king William. They were soon, however, assailed by a more powerful Spanish squadron. Campbell rot away to New York, the rest of the colony capitulated, and there was an end of the unhappy expedition to Darien. The Spaniards humanely allowed the remnant of this wretched company to embark in one of their vessels, the Rising Sun; but as the British authorities at all the islands refused them any succour or stores whatever, only eighty of them arrived alive in England.

Scotland was in a frenzy of indignation at this cold-blooded conduct of the king, who, if he had visited the projectors with severity, ought to have had some compassion for the poor deluded sufferers. The exasperated Scots called on the king to withdraw his proclamation against a company which had an undoubted right by charter to trade to the West Indies, if not to the mainland. They demanded that the Scottish parliament should be summoned, but William only

schemes; and in his ideas of religious toleration. His scheme of a Council of Trade embraces a wonderful circle of suggestions for the effectual promotion of our commerce, for the management of our poor laws, for the purchasing and warehousing of corn by government to secure it at a reasonable rate for the supply of our poor, for regulating the home and foreign trade, for encouraging the fisheries, for a board of works, including the best maintenance of highways, streets, bridges, harbours, docks, &c., for punishing thieves by making them labour in favour of the parties robbed, for the lenient yet salutary treatment of debtors and bankrupts, for regulating the coinage and equalising all weights and measures, and for reducing all important import duties to one per cent. The plans of Paterson still deserve the serious attention of political reformers. He urged on William the benefits of a union with Scotland, and gave him a plan for effectually preventing embezzlement and neglect in the public offices, as well as for a sinking fund. In 1715 he was granted, by act of parliament, eighteen thousand two hundred and fortyone pounds ten shillings and ten pence, in consideration of his losses by the Darien Company. His last days were spent in resisting the various paper schemes of John Law.

Meantime the partition treaty had become known to the court at Madrid, and William's meddling in it excited great indignation. At the same time the agents of Louis had prevailed on the failing king to nominate the electoral prince of Bavaria his heir to the crown. Scarcely, however, was this done when this young prince died, being only eight years of age. Louis still kept up the farce of disinterestedness, and persuaded William to enter into a second treaty, settling the crown of Spain on the archduke Charles, son of the emperor, but leaving the Italian states to the dauphin. Again were William, Portland, and Tallard, with an agent of the emperor, busy on the new partition at Loo. But whilst they were busy there, the French ambassador was equally busy at Madrid, inflaming the mind of the weak and

murder of one of his seamen, William Moore, a circumstance appeal to each house of parliament, declaring that the report figuring largely in the ballads of the day :

My name was Captain Kydd;

I murdered William Moore,
And laid him in his gore,
Not many leagues from shore,
When I sailed, when I sailed.

On reaching New York he found governor Fletcher and the other friends of piracy no longer in power, but lord Bellamont, one of the very persons who had sent him out. He therefore buried his treasures in Gardner's Island and other places—one of them called after him, Kydd's Island, one of the Thimble Islands near Sachem's Head, Long Island. In Kydd's Island the pirates are said to have hidden themselves in a cave still remaining. The crew, however, soon dispersed, and Kydd ventured to show himself in New York, where he sent one Emmet to lord Bellamont, to offer to purchase indemnity from him by a large sum. Bellamont inveigled him into a negotiation, seized him, and sent word to the government in England. The admiralty, by order of the lords-justices, dispatched the ship Rochester to fetch him; but after beating about for some time in tempestuous weather, this vessel, which was in ill condition, was compelled to put back. This circumstance was seized on by the tories to damage Somers and his colleagues. It was declared that, as they were the authors of the piratical enterprise, they did not want the Rochester to reach New York. The old East India Company complained bitterly of Kydd's outrages in the Indian seas, declaring that it would bring them into trouble with the Great Mogul. In the beginning of December a motion was made in the commons that "the letters patent granted to the earl of Bellamont and others of pirates' goods were dishonourable to the king, and contrary to the laws of nations and the laws and statutes of the realm, invasive of property, and destructive of trade and commerce." There was a violent debate, in which the tories contended that the lord-chancellor Somers had knowingly affixed the great seal to the commission to enrich himself, his colleagues, and the king out of the plunder of unfortunate merchants. The motion was rejected by a large majority; the character of Somers stood too high for such a charge to reach him. But the opposition did not rest here; it was determined to wound the king and his government in every possible quarter.

In

There lay a cause in Ireland much more dangerous to the king and his chancellor than the affairs of captain Kydd. William had promised not to bestow any of the confiscated lands there without consent of parliament. regardlessness of his word he had conferred immense estates on his Dutch favourites, Portland, Albemarle, Athlone, and his French one, lord Galway (Ruvigny), as well as on his mistress, Mrs. Villiers. The commons, therefore, appointed commissioners to inquire into the royal grants there. These commissioners were the earl of Drogheda, Sir Francis Brewster, Sir Richard Leving, Hamilton, Annesley, Trenchard, and Langford. The four last-named commissioners were earnest supporters of the commons' inquiry; but it was soon perceived by them that the earl of Drogheda, Brewster, and Leving were in the interest of the government. When they came to draw up their report, these three commissioners vehemently dissented, and made an

had not their concurrence, and that it was not borne out by the evidence laid before them. They complained that the other commissioners had endeavoured to overbear them in a most arbitrary manner, trying to influence them by letters and instructions which they alleged they had received from members of the commons. The commons, however, regarding Drogheda, Brewster, and Leving as tools of the court, paid no attention to their remonstrance. They received the report, signed by the other four, who, on their part, complained that, in the prosecution of their inquiry, they had been greatly hindered by the backwardness of the people of Ireland to give information for fear of the vengeance of the grantees, and from reports industriously spread that the inquiry, from the influence of the crown and the new grantees, would come to nothing. The three dissentient commissioners agreed to much of this, but attributed the fear of the people to the grantees at large, and not to those recently favoured by government. They affirmed that John Burke, commonly called lord Bophin, had agreed to pay to my lord Albemarle seven thousand five hundred pounds for procuring from the king letters patent restoring him to his honours and estates. They gave amazing details of the wholesale plunder of cattle, horses, sheep, &c., from the catholics, which had never been accounted for to the crown. The report stated the persons who had been outlawed since the 13th of February, 1689, for participation in the rebellion, amounted in England to fifty-seven, but in Ireland to 3,921, that the lands confiscated in Ireland since that period amounted to 1,060,792 acres, with a rental of £211,623; which, at twenty years' purchase, were of the value of nearly £3,000,000; that some of these lands had been restored to their ancient proprietors, but chiefly by heavy bribes to the persons who had betrayed his majesty's trust in them. They then gave a list of seventy-six grants under the great seal, amongst which stood prominent those to lord Romney, who, as lord Sidney, had been lord-lieutenant of Ireland, consisting of 49,517 acres; two to the king's recent favourite, Keppel of Guilderland, made by William earl of Albemarle, amounting to 106,633 acres; to William Bentinck, lord Woodstock, the son of Portland, 135,820 acres; to Ginckel, earl of Athlone, 26,480 acres; to Ruvigny, the Huguenot, earl of Galway, 36,148 acres; that after all the deductions and allowances, they valued the estates forfeited since the 13th of February, 1689, and not restored, at £1,699,343.

Well might this report rouse the choler of parliament at this astounding bestowal of the national property on his Dutch favourites. It appeared that they could ask nothing from him, however enormous, that he would not grant, and that he paid no regard to his word solemnly pledged to parliament on that head. What, however, excited, perhaps, more indignation, was the discovery that he had granted to his mistress, Elizabeth Villiers, whom he had made countess of Orkney, all the Irish estates of the late king James, amounting to 95,649 acres, valued at £25,995 a year! and this William had done at the same time that he had been continually urging the nation into most extravagant expenditure for the defence of Holland.

The indignant commons seemed as if they could not suffi

A.D. 1700.]

RESUMPTION OF GRANTS OF FORFEITED ESTATES.

ciently express their resentment at the conduct of the king, and they attempted, not very honourably, to wound him through Burnet. The lords had taken notice of the conduct of Dr. Watson, bishop of St. David's. The archbishop of Canterbury had convicted him of simony in purchasing his bishopric, and then selling the presentations in his gift to repay himself. The deprived bishop appealed to the lords, who ignored his appeal on the ground of his being no longer a member of their house. The commons thought this a favourable opportunity to demand the dismissal of bishop Burnet from his office of preceptor to the duke of Gloucester, on the ground of his being not suitable, as a Scotchman, to instruct an English prince, and also on the old score of his pastoral letter, which had been burned by order of parliament. Burnet little deserved this attack, for he had discharged his trust most conscientiously. He had begged to decline the office, but had not been permitted, and when it was in a manner forced on him, had offered to resign his bishopric, as not feeling it right to devote any of his time to other objects whilst he held it. When this was also declined, he insisted on the prince residing constantly at Windsor, which was in his bishopric, and devoted the whole salary of the tutorship to the charities of his see. The motion was very properly rejected.

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charges against the four commissioners, Annesley, Trenchard, Hamilton, and Langford were groundless and malicious, that they had discharged their trust with understanding, courage, and integrity, and that Leving had made false and empty statements against them and should be committed to the Tower, and he was accordingly committed.

The commons then addressed the king, declaring that the procuring and passing of those grants had occasioned heavy debts and taxation to the nation, and reflected severely on the king's honour. William bluntly replied that he had consulted both his inclination and his duty in rewarding those brave officers with forfeited lands who had contributed so much to put down the rebellion in Ireland; and as to the debts occasioned by the war, he conceived that they would best be consulting their own honour in taking measures to discharge them. This answer was received with a tempest of indignation, and the house resolved that whoever had suggested such an answer to his majesty was guilty of endeavouring to create a breach betwixt the king and his people.

They instantly set themselves to frame a bill of resumption of all the grants. They ordered the report of the commissioners, the speeches and promises of the king regarding these forfeited estates, and their former resolutions regarding The year 1700 opened amid the combined attacks of the them, to be printed, that the whole country might judge of commons on the king and his ministers. Montague, though this matter for itself. And they resolved that any member out of the ministry, made a bold effort to turn the tide of the privy council who should procure or be concerned in against the attacking party. He complained that Mr. procuring grants from the crown for their own purposes, Arthur Moore, a member of the house, had by letter urged should be deemed guilty of a high crime and misdemeanour. the commissioners to throw the odium on the king, by making As the tories were the means of carrying this resumption a separate and prominent case of the grant to the countess bill, the whigs, to avenge themselves, moved by way of of Orkney, saying that this case "would reflect upon amendment, that all grants made since the 6th of February, somebody." There was a vehement call for Montague to 1684, should be resumed, and the tories were caught in name the parties who gave that information. He at first their own snare, for they could not with a show of conexcused himself on the ground that this would be betraying sistency oppose a measure of their own originating. Thereprivate confidence, but he was forced to speak out, and named fore the bill passed, and they were themselves compelled to Methuen, Chancellor of Ireland. Methuen, thus unex- disgorge all the crown property they had settled on thempectedly brought forward, boldly denied having said any-selves from the accession of James. Ministers proposed to thing of the kind; and the house hastened to pass a resolution that the charge as to Arthur's Moore's letter was false and scandalous. But Leving and Brewster demanded that their side should be heard, denouncing the resolution as precipitate and unfair till they had been allowed an opportunity of defending themselves. Leving then declared that his opinion was, and he had asserted it before the commissioners, that the estates granted to the countess of Orkney had no right to be brought under their notice; that their jurisdiction extended only to lands forfeited since the 13th of February, 1689, but the lands of James were forfeited on his abdication, and were conferred on William and Mary with the crown. He charged Trenchard and Annesley with having said that they had received such a letter as that mentioned by Mr. Montague, as well as one from Mr. Harcourt, urging them to reflect upon somebody. Brewster confirmed this, and Trenchard not only denied it, but brought Annesley and Langford to deny it. Notwithstanding these stout denials, the letters of Moore and Harcourt were produced and read. There remained no doubt that the commissioners had been urged to reflect on the king; but the commons took no notice of this, but passed a resolution that the

insert a clause to reserve a third part of the forfeited property for the king's own disposal, but the commons would not listen to it, and they resolved not to receive any petition from any person whatever concerning the grants; and that they would consider the services of the commissioners, who had so well discharged their duty in this business. That justice might be done to purchasers and creditors in the act of resumption, they appointed thirteen trustees to hear and determine all claims, to sell to the highest purchasers, and to appropriate the money to pay the arrears of the army. The house of lords introduced some alterations, but the commons unanimously rejected them, and to prevent the bill being lost in the lords they consolidated it with a money-bill for the service of the year. The lords demanded a conference, and the commons, exasperated at their interference in a money-bill, prepared to go greater lengths. They assumed the aspect of the commons in Charles I.'s time. They ordered the doors to be closed, and called for a list of the privy councillors. They then moved that John, lord Somers, should be expelled from the service of the king for ever. The resolution was not carried, but the temper of the house was such as made wise men tremble for an approaching crisis.