Chapter VIII: REIGN OF CHARLES II. (continued) (2)

The duchess left behind her in England one of her maids, a Mademoiselle Querouaille, or, as the English came to call her, Madam Carwell, whom Louis had selected as a spy and agent, feeling assured that she would soon captivate this amorous king, which she did at once, and became, in the usual way, his mistress, and at the same time maid of honour to the queen. She was soon advanced to the title of Duchess of Portsmouth, and so well did she serve the purposes of Louis, that in 1673 he gave her also a French title and estate. It was now thought by Charles and James that they could venture to put down the liberties, and, as James earnestly advocated, the religion of the nation. It was proposed to fortify Portsmouth, Hull, and Plymouth, at which towns French soldiers might be introduced, and James having the command of the fleet, no interruption to their transit could take place. When Parliament met in October, Charles observed that both Holland and France were increasing their navies--he could have told them really why--and on pretence of necessary caution, he demanded large supplies to place our own navy on a proper footing. There were complaints of prodigality and hints of Popery thrown out, but a sum of no less than two million five hundred thousand pounds was voted, by taxes on land, stock, law proceedings, and salaries--in fact, an income and property tax. There was a proposal to tax theatres, and when it was objected that the theatres contributed to his Majesty's pleasure, Sir John Coventry asked sarcastically, "whether his Majesty's pleasure lay amongst the men or the women players?"

For this remark Sir John was made to pay severely. The King and the whole Court were furious at his hard hit against the Moll Davieses and Nell Gwynns. The king declared that he would send a detachment of the Guards to watch in the street where Sir John Coventry lived, and set a mark upon him. The Duke of York in vain endeavoured to dissuade the king; the Duke of Monmouth, who was living on terms of great professed friendship with Coventry, yet undertook the execution of the business. He sent Sandys, his lieutenant, and O'Brien, the son of Lord Inchiquin, with thirteen soldiers, who waited for Sir John as he returned from Parliament on the evening of the 21st of December, 1670, and encountering him in the Haymarket, assaulted him. Sir John placed his back to the wall, snatched the flambeau from the hands of his servant, and with that in one hand he so well plied his sword with the other, that he wounded several of the soldiers, and got more credit by his gallantry than for any action in his life. But he was overpowered by numbers in the end, beaten to the ground, and then had his nose cut to the bone with a penknife, to make a mark for life, to teach him respect for the king. They then went back to the Duke of Monmouth's, where O'Brien, who was wounded in the arm, had it dressed. Coventry had his nose so well sewed up, that the trace of the outrage was scarcely discernible; but the House of Commons, even such a House, resented this dastardly attempt on one of its members, and it passed an Act making it felony without benefit of clergy to cut or maim the person, and banishing for life the four principal offenders unless they surrendered before a certain day, as well as rendering the crime incapable of pardon, even by Act of Parliament. But Monmouth and his assistants got out of the way, and the Parliament never had the virtue to enforce its own Act.

The year 1671 was chiefly employed in preparing for the war with Holland. Though Charles was under condition to become an avowed Roman Catholic, he published a proclamation, declaring that, as he had always adhered to the true religion as established, he would still maintain it by all the means in his power. De Witt, who was aware of what was going on, hastened to make a treaty with Spain, and Louis demanded a free passage through the Netherlands to attack Holland, or declared that he would force one at the head of sixty thousand men. Whilst war was thus impending, the Duchess of York, Hyde's daughter, died. She had been for some time a professed Catholic. Henrietta Maria, the mother of Charles, had died in August, 1669, at the Castle of Colombe, near Paris.

Charles and his ministers of the Cabal bribed by Louis (who even pensioned the mistress of Buckingham, Lady Shrewsbury, with ten thousand livres a year) prepared to rush into the war against Holland in the hope of retrieving past disgraces, and securing some valuable prizes. At the close of the last session, on pretence of maintaining the Triple Alliance, the very thing they were intending to betray, and of keeping Louis of France in check, whom they were, in fact, going to assist in his aggressions, they procured eight hundred thousand pounds from the Commons, and then immediately prorogued Parliament. But this most unprincipled trick was nothing to what they were preparing to perpetrate.

During the recess of Parliament, it was suddenly announced by proclamation on the 2nd of January, 1672, that the Exchequer was shut. To understand what was meant by this most flagitious act, we must recollect that Charles was in the habit of anticipating the supplies voted, by borrowing of the London bankers and goldsmiths, and granting them some branch of revenue to refund themselves with interest. He had at this time obtained one million three hundred thousand pounds in this manner, but calculating that the Dutch war could not be carried on without larger means than the recent Parliamentary grant, it was therefore announced that Government was not prepared to repay the principal borrowed, or, in other terms, could not grant the annual security of the incoming taxes, but the lenders must be content with the interest. This would enable the Government to receive the revenue themselves instead of paying their just debts with it. The consternation was terrible. The Exchequer had hitherto kept its engagements honourably, and had thus obtained this liberal credit. The lenders, in their turn, could not meet the demands of their creditors. The Exchange was in a panic, many of the bankers and mercantile houses failed, a great shock was given to credit throughout the kingdom, and many annuitants, widows, and orphans, who had deposited their money with them, were reduced to ruin. Ashley and Clifford were said to have been the authors of the scheme, but Ashley was a man of infinite schemes, and probably was the original inventor. Government declared that the postponement of payment should only be for one year; but the greater part of the money was never again repaid, and this sum so fraudulently obtained became the nucleus of the National Debt.

The manner in which the Government commenced the war on Holland was characterised by the same infamous disregard of all honourable principle. Though Charles had bound himself to make war on the Dutch, he had no cause of quarrel with them, whatever he pretended to have. When Louis menaced them with hostilities, Charles offered himself as a mediator, and the Dutch regarded him as such. Under these circumstances he sent Sir Robert Holmes with a large fleet to intercept a Dutch fleet of merchantmen coming from the Levant, and calculated to be worth a million and a half. Holmes, in going out, saw the squadron of Sir Edward Spragge at the back of the Isle of Wight, which had lately returned from destroying the Algerine navy; and though his orders were to take all the vessels along with him that he could find at Portsmouth, or should meet at sea, lest Spragge should obtain some of the glory and benefit, he passed on and gave him no summons. The next day he descried the expected Dutch fleet; but to his chagrin he found that it was well convoyed by seven men-of-war, and the merchantmen, sixty in number, were many of them well armed. The vast preparations of Louis, and some recent movements of the English, had put them on their guard. Notwithstanding Charles's hypocritical offers of friendly mediation, he had withdrawn the honourable Sir William Temple from the Hague, and sent thither the unprincipled Downing, a man so detested there, that the mob chased him away. Van Nesse, the Dutch admiral, successfully resisted the attack of Holmes, who only managed to cut off one man-of-war and four merchantmen. The chagrin of Charles was equal to the disgrace with which this base action covered him and his ministers. Both his own subjects and foreigners denounced the action in fitting terms, and Holmes was styled "the cursed beginner of the two Dutch wars."

There was nothing now for it but to declare war, which was done by both England and France. Charles mustered up a list of trumpery charges, which, bad as they were, would have come with a better grace before attacking his allies without any notice--the detention of English traders in Surinam; the neglect to strike the Dutch flag to him in the narrow seas; and refusal to regulate their trade relations according to treaty. Louis simply complained of insults, and declared his intention to assert his glory. Under such thin veils did Louis and his bond-slave Charles attempt to hide their real intentions.

The Dutch fleet was not long in appearing at sea with seventy-five sail under De Ruyter. On the 3rd of May the Duke of York, admiral of the English fleet, consisting of only forty sail of the line, descried this powerful armament posted between Calais and Dover, to prevent his junction with the French fleet. He managed, however, to pass unobserved, and join the French squadron under D'Estrées, La Rabiniere, and Du Quesne. On the 28th they came to an engagement near Southwold Bay; the battle was terrible--scarcely any of these sanguinary conflicts of those times with the Dutch more so.

Owing to the wind and tide, not more than twenty of the English sail could engage the enemy. The French squadron under D'Estrées formed in opposition to the Zeeland squadron of Banker; but they stood away under easy sail southward and never came to action; in fact, it was the well-known policy of Louis to allow the Dutch and English to play the bulldogs with each other, and to spare his own infant navy. The Duke of York, with a part of the Red squadron, opposed De Ruyter; the Earl of Sandwich, with part of the blue, Van Ghent and the Amsterdam fleet. The English were so surrounded by multitudes of the enemy, that they could afford little aid to each other, and were exposed on all sides to a most merciless fire. By eleven o'clock the Duke of York's ship was totally disabled, and had lost one-third of her men. He himself escaped out of a cabin window, and got on board the _St. Michael_, of seventy guns. Poor old Admiral Montagu, Earl of Sandwich, in the _Royal James_, did marvels of valour. Surrounded by the enemy, he boarded a seventy-gun ship that lay athwart his hawse, and killed Van Ghent, the Dutch admiral; but assailed by two fire-ships, he destroyed one, and the other destroyed him. The _Royal James_ was blown up, and thus the old man, who had so long figured both under the Commonwealth and Crown, finished his career. He had a foreboding of his fate, and told Evelyn, when he took leave of him to go on board, that he would see him no more. Two hundred of his men escaped.

In the afternoon the _St. Michael_, to which the Duke had fled, was also sinking, and he had to remove to the _London_. In the evening the Dutch fleet drew off, and the next morning the two divisions of the English fleet joined and offered battle, but De Ruyter tacked about and a chase commenced. Twice the English were on the point of pouring their broadsides into the enemy, when a fog saved them, and on the second day the Dutch took refuge within the Wierings. The duke showed unquestionable courage on this occasion; no real advantage to the country, however, but much cost and damage, resulted from this unnatural war to prostrate a Protestant country, in order to pander to the mad ambition of the French king. Louis all this time was taking advantage of the Dutch being thus engaged. He marched upon Holland with one hundred thousand men, assisted by the military talent of Turenne, Condé, and Luxembourg. He took Orsoi, Burick, Wesel, and Rhinberg on the Rhine, crossed the river at Schneck in the face of the enemy, and overran three of the seven united provinces. The city of Amsterdam itself was in consternation, for the fires of the French camp could be seen from the top of the Stadt House. Even the great De Witt was in despair; but at this crisis Holland was saved by a youth whose family had been jealously thrust from the Stadtholdership. This was William of Orange, afterwards William III. of England.

William of Nassau was the nephew of the English King, being the son of Charles's sister. He was then only twenty-one years of age, of a sickly constitution, and at that time of no experience in State or military affairs. The House of Nassau had acquired almost sovereign power in Holland, from having rescued the country from the cruel yoke of Spain, and had rendered the office of stadtholder almost synonymous with king. The municipal body, the aristocracy of the country, jealous of the powers and aims of the House of Orange, at the death of William's father had abolished for ever the office of stadtholder, and placed the government of the country in the hands of the Town Council, the Provincial States, and the States-General. De Witt, the Grand Pensionary of the Province of Holland, was made Chief Minister, and conducted the government with consummate ability. William of Orange was a posthumous child and a ward of De Witt, who was also at the same time at the head of the Louvestein faction, which was violently opposed to the House of Nassau. But William of Orange stood high in the affections of the people. They regarded with as much jealousy the municipal oligarchy which ruled the country as that did the House of Nassau. They felt that the Orange family had achieved the independence of Holland, and, being themselves shut out from all influence in State affairs, they sympathised with the young prince. Besides, he had a princely fortune, the possession of territories entrenched behind the river Maas, and the dykes of South Holland, not easily invaded, and was not only a prince of the German Empire, but of the royal blood of England.

The people, now seeing the critical condition to which the Louvestein faction had reduced their country, demanded that the command of the army should be put into the hands of William. De Witt, who could not prevent it, endeavoured to persuade the people to bind the prince by an oath never to aspire to the stadtholdership; but the Orange party now seized their opportunity to rouse the people against the oligarchy, and they did it to such effect that De Witt and his brother were torn to pieces by the populace before the gates of the palace of the States-General at the Hague (July 24, 1672). William, who had no share in the murder, however, committed the same grave error as he did afterwards in England, in the case of the massacre of Glencoe--he rewarded the murderers, and accepted the office of Commander-in-Chief. Low as the country was reduced, its very danger was its strongest means of rescue. Germany and Spain, alarmed for the consequences to Europe, sent promises of speedy assistance, and even Charles II. seemed to perceive the folly of his proceedings. The war at sea had brought nothing but expense and bloodshed. If Spain came to a rupture with France, England would lose the benefit of its lucrative Spanish trade. Charles had sent six thousand troops, according to treaty, to assist Louis in Holland, under the command of his son Monmouth, who displayed no talents as a general, but plenty of courage--a quality of the family. With him he sent Buckingham, Arlington, and Saville as plenipotentiaries. These ministers now hastened to the Hague, and expressed the friendly feeling of England towards Holland. The Dowager Princess of Holland, who knew what friendliness had been shown towards his nephew by Charles, who, Buckingham said, did not wish to use Holland like a mistress, but love like a wife, replied, "Truly, I believe you would love us as you do your wife!"--a hard hit. From the Hague they proceeded to the camp of Louis, who, however, before he would treat with the Dutch, made the English sign a new treaty that they would not agree to any separate peace.

The terms then proposed by these allies show how little they were aware of the power yet lurking in the invalid but stubborn and subtle young Prince of Orange. Charles required, on his part, the dignity of stadtholder for the prince, his nephew, the acknowledgment of England's sovereignty of the narrow seas, ten thousand pounds per annum for liberty of fishing on the English coasts, and the fortresses of Goree, Flushing, and some others as a guarantee for the payment. Louis demanded all the territory lying on the left bank of the Rhine, all such places as the French had formerly wrested from Spain, seventeen millions of livres as indemnification of the costs of the war, which he had himself commenced, and an annual gold medal in acknowledgment of his surrendering the three provinces he had now taken, but in reality in retaliation for the medal which the States had cast on the formation of the Triple Alliance. They were also to grant freedom of worship to the Catholics.

William of Orange bade them reject the whole of these conditions. He told them that even were they beaten to the last, they could transport themselves with their wealth to the Indian Archipelago, and then erect in Java and the isles a new and more resplendent Holland, with a new and vast world around them for their empire. The courage of the people rose at the dauntless spirit of their young prince, and they resolved to resist to the last man. William ordered the dykes to be cut; the invaders were obliged by a precipitate retreat to seek their own safety. Amsterdam was saved, and the different towns of Holland stood isolated amid a vast sea, which no enemy could approach without a large fleet of flat-bottomed boats, and supplies which must be conveyed by the same mode. Meanwhile William, where he could reach the French, beat them in several smart actions, and thus further raised the courage of his countrymen, whilst forces from Germany were fast pouring down the Rhine to their aid.

Louis XIV., who by no means relished a campaign of this kind, returned to Paris, and left Turenne to contend with the enemy, who, though he displayed the highest military talents, and still held many strong places, saw that the conquest of Holland was little better than hopeless. At sea the Duke of York arrived off the Dogger Bank, to intercept the Dutch East India fleet in vain, and De Ruyter lay snug in port.

At home Charles had promoted his Cabal Ministry, as if they had done some great deed, to honours and titles. Clifford was called Lord Clifford of Chudleigh; Lord Arlington, Earl of Arlington; and Ashley, Earl of Shaftesbury. Buckingham and Arlington received the honour of the Garter. In order to protect the bankers whom he had kept out of their money from the suits commenced against them by their creditors in Chancery, Charles desired Bridgeman to enter an injunction there, but Bridgeman doubted the rectitude of the proceeding, and he was removed, and Shaftesbury put in his place (1672), who at once issued the injunction, and appointed a distant day for hearing evidence against it. Ashley, as the new Lord Chancellor, displayed a vanity and eccentricity which caused him to be greatly ridiculed by the lawyers. He went to preside on the bench in "an ash-coloured gown silver-laced, and full-ribboned pantaloons." He at first acted with much self-sufficiency and conceit, but was soon brought to his senses by the lawyers, and afterwards became one of the most tame and complying judges that ever sat on the bench. Violent altercation, however, arose between Ashley and Arlington, who expected Ashley's place made vacant in the Treasury, which was given to Clifford.

On the 5th of February, 1673, Parliament was summoned after a recess of nearly a year and a half. Ashley undertook to justify the shutting of the Exchequer and the Dutch war. But the days of the Cabal were numbered. The king, by their advice, had, during the recess, issued a Declaration of Indulgence. This was done with the hope of winning the support of the Nonconformists and the Papists. But of all subjects, that of indulgence of conscience in religion, at that period, was the most double-edged. The Nonconformists were ready enough to enjoy indulgence, but then the eternal suspicion that it was intended only as a cloak for the indulgence of Popery made them rather satisfied to be without it than enjoy it at that peril. No sooner, therefore, had they granted Charles the liberal sum of one million two hundred thousand pounds, to be collected by eighteen monthly assessments, than the Commons fell on this Proclamation of Indulgence. The members of the Church and the Nonconformists united in their denunciation of it. On the 10th of February they resolved, by a majority of one hundred and sixty-eight to one hundred and sixteen, that "penal statutes, in matters ecclesiastical, cannot be suspended except by Act of Parliament." Charles stood for awhile on his prerogative, but the effervescence in the House and country was so great that he gave way, and his declaration, on the 8th of March, that what he had done should not be drawn into a precedent, was received with acclamations by both Houses, and by rejoicings and bonfires by the people. Shaftesbury immediately passed over to the Country party, as the Opposition was called.

The Cabal was now forced to submit to another humiliation. The Country party introduced, at the instance of Shaftesbury, an Act requiring every person holding any office, civil or military, not only to take the oath of Allegiance and Supremacy, but also to receive the Sacrament in the form prescribed by the Church of England, or be incapable of accepting or holding such office. All such persons were likewise required to make a declaration against Transubstantiation, under a penalty of five hundred pounds, of being disabled from suing in any court of law, and from being a guardian or executor. This Act was passed by both Houses unanimously, the Nonconformists being promised that another Bill should be introduced to protect them from the operation of this. But before it was done Parliament was prorogued on the 29th of March, and they were caught in their own trap.

No sooner was this Act passed, which became known as the Test Act, and continued in force till the reign of George IV., than the Cabal fell to pieces. Its immediate effect was to compel Lord Clifford and Arlington to resign: the wedge was thus introduced into the Cabal, and the Duke of York, who resigned his office of Lord High Admiral, became inimical to them. The office of Lord Treasurer, resigned by Clifford, was given by the king to Sir Thomas Osborne, a gentleman of Yorkshire, who was created Earl of Danby, and became in reality Prime Minister. The rise of Danby was the certain destruction of the Cabal. His foreign policy was entirely opposed to theirs: he saw clearly enough the ruinous course of aggrandising France at the expense of the Protestant States of Europe; his views of domestic policy were more profound, though not less unprincipled than theirs. He saw the necessity of combining the old Royalist and Church interests for the support of the throne, but he set about this process by buying up the favour of the Cavaliers, the nobles, the country gentlemen, and the clergy and universities. He was not the first to bribe--the Cabal had done that so far as Parliament members were concerned--but Danby, like Walpole, and the ministers after him, bought up by direct bribes or lucrative appointments any and every man that could secure his views.

When Parliament reassembled on the 7th of January, 1674, there appeared alarming proofs of some whispered disclosures having taken place during the disruptions in the Cabal, regarding the king's secret treaty with Louis. Charles solemnly denied his having any secret engagement whatever with France. Parliament also exhibited its uneasiness regarding the practices of the Papists. The Duke of York, since the prorogation of Parliament on the 4th of November last, had married Maria D'Este, a Catholic princess, sister of the Duke of Modena. This had roused all the fears of the country regarding the succession, and the Commons recommended severe measures against the Papists, and that the militia should be ready at an hour's notice to act against any disturbances on their part. They also demanded the removal from the ministry of all persons Popishly affected, and of those who advised the alliance with France and the rupture with Holland, and the placing a foreigner at the head of the army. Both army and navy, in fact, were commanded by foreigners--Prince Rupert had succeeded the Duke of York as admiral; Schomberg was sent with the army to Holland.

Charles himself not having been able in the autumn to draw his pension from Louis, and Parliament now holding fast its purse-strings, he was ready to listen to terms from Holland, whereby the triumph of the Country party was completed. On this the States offered, through the Spanish ambassador, Del Fresno, the terms which they had once already refused. The conquests on both sides should be restored, the honour of the flag conceded to England, and eight hundred thousand crowns should be paid Charles for indemnification for the expenses of the war. Had the terms been far inferior, the fact of the money would probably have decided the matter with Charles. As to the dignity of stadtholder for William, the States themselves settled that, by conferring it on him and his heirs for ever, before the time of their treaty, and nothing whatever was said of the ten thousand pounds for liberty to fish. On the 9th of February the treaty was signed, and on the 11th announced to Parliament by Charles.

We may now take a brief glance at proceedings in Scotland and Ireland.

In Scotland Archbishop Sharp had pursued his persecuting and coercive system to such an extent, that Charles was obliged to order him not to overstep his proper duties, but to confine himself to spiritual concerns alone. Such was the hatred which this renegade Churchman had excited, that in 1668 a young man of the name of Mitchell, who had witnessed the horrible cruelties which followed the battle of Rullion Green, believed himself called upon to put Sharp to death. He therefore posted himself in front of the archbishop's palace in St. Andrews, and as the archbishop came out with the Bishop of Orkney to get into his carriage, he stepped up and fired at Sharp, who was just seated; but at the same moment the Bishop of Orkney raised his arm to enter the carriage, and received the ball in his wrist. There was a cry that a man was killed, but some one exclaimed, "It is only a bishop!" and Mitchell, coolly crossing the street, mixed with the crowd, walked away, and changed his coat; and though the Council offered a large reward for his apprehension, it was six years before he was discovered.

The Earl of Rothes had been removed from the office of Royal Commissioner, and the Earl of Tweeddale, who now occupied that post, endeavoured to soften the spirit of persecution, and granted a certain indulgence. This was to admit the ejected ministers to such of their livings as were vacant, or to appoint them to others, provided they would accept collation from the bishop, and attend the presbyteries and synods. But this was to concede the question of episcopacy, and the king's supremacy in the Church. The more complying of the ejected members, to the number of forty-three, accepted the offer; but they found that by so doing they had forfeited the respect of their flocks, who deserted their churches, and crowded to other preachers more stanch to their principles. Lauderdale soon after returned to Scotland, and his very first proceeding was to pass an Act to appoint Commissioners to co-operate with English Commissioners, to endeavour to effect a union of the two kingdoms. His next was to pass another, converting the Act of Allegiance into an act of absolute Supremacy. This at once annihilated the independence of the Kirk; and a third Act was to give the king a right to maintain an army, and to march it to any part of the king's dominions. This was so evidently a step towards despotism, that not only in Scotland, but in the English Parliament, the indignation was great, and the English Commons presented an address to the Crown, praying for Lauderdale's removal. The address, however, produced no effect. Lauderdale proceeded, plausibly offering indulgence to such easy-principled ministers as would accept livings subject to the oath of Supremacy and the acknowledgment of bishops, whilst at the same time he passed an Act in July, 1670, more rigorously prohibiting conventicles within private houses or in the open air. Any minister preaching or praying at such meetings was to suffer forfeiture of both life and property. The Scots did not understand this kind of indulgence, which allowed their ministers to enter their churches by the sacrifice of their moral principles, and put them to death if they took the liberty of following their consciences. The people took arms and went to their meetings, determined to defend their preachers and themselves. Lauderdale then, with the aid of Archbishop Leighton, extended the "indulgence" to all such ministers as would attend presbyteries, where the bishops should have no negative voice; but this did not deceive the people. The rigour against their own chosen ministers and places of worship was kept up, and they declared that bishops, even without a negative voice in the presbyteries, were bishops still; that such assemblies had no resemblance to those previous to 1638; that they had no power of the keys, no ordination, no jurisdiction; that the whole was but a snare to draw in unwary or self-interested ministers, and after them their flocks. To assent to such terms would be apostacy from the principles of the Kirk. Lauderdale made another step in his "indulgence" in 1673. He named eighty ejected ministers, and ordered them to repair to their churches and officiate there, but nowhere else, under severe penalties. This was to lock up the conventicles in which these preachers ministered. About one-fourth of the number refused to obey, and were confined by order of the Council to particular places. But this did not diminish the number of conventicles: it only excited a schism between the complying and the non-complying. He next passed an act of grace, pardoning all offences against the Conventicle Acts committed before the 4th of March, 1674; but this only encouraged the people to fresh freedom in their attendance on conventicles. They regarded his concessions as certain proofs of his weakness, and scorning any compliance with episcopacy and royal supremacy, their independent meetings spread and abounded more than ever. They assembled in vacant churches, where they would not have entered to listen to what they called an intrusive minister, or in the open air in glen or mountain, around a lofty pole erected as a signal. "The parish churches of the curates," says Kirton, "came to be like pest-houses, few went into any of them, and none to some; so the doors were kept locked." No policy, however severe or plausibly insinuating, could induce the wary Scots to swallow the hated pill of episcopacy.

In Ireland, the prohibition of importing Irish cattle into England was followed by a like prohibition from the Scottish Parliament, and the Irish Parliament retaliated by prohibiting Scottish woollens being imported into Ireland. These illiberal measures only spread mischief and misery on all sides. So long as the Duke of Ormond retained the lord-lieutenancy, he endeavoured to mitigate these evils. He procured the liberty of free trade between Ireland and all foreign countries, whether at war or peace with England; and five hundred families of Walloons were induced to settle in Ireland and to establish the manufacture of woollen and linen cloths. But the many sufferers from the Act of Settlement, which confirmed the possession of the Irish lands in the hands of the English soldiers and adventurers, complained greatly of Ormond, and his enemies at Court procured his removal in 1669. After him succeeded Lord Robartes, and next Lord Berkeley; but it mattered little who governed, nothing could induce the natives to sit down quietly under the loss of their estates, and that, too, whilst they had been often firm loyalists and the intruders rebels. In 1671 a Commission was appointed to inquire into all alleged grievances, consisting of Prince Rupert, Buckingham, Lauderdale, Anglesey, Ashley, and others. This lasted till March 26th, 1673, but ended in nothing. The possessors of the Irish lands were too powerful at Court, and no result followed but fresh severities against the Catholics, who were expelled from all corporations, and their priests banished the kingdom.

The war between France and the confederates--Holland, Austria, and Spain--had now spread all over Europe, both by land and sea. Louis poured his soldiers in torrents into the Netherlands, and excited insurrections in the dependencies of Spain. He managed to excite sedition against her in Sicily, and against Austria in Hungary. De Ruyter, the famous admiral, was despatched by the Prince of Orange to assist the Spaniards in Sicily, and was killed at Messina. On the other hand, Louis's great general, Turenne, was killed at the battle of Salzbach, on the Rhine. After his death, the Austrian general, Montecucculi, defeated the French repeatedly, and recovered Alsace. But Vauban, who introduced a new system of fortification, recovered the ascendency of Louis, by teaching the French how to defend towns. Louis maintained this enormous war at a cost which brought an immense burden on France, and laid the foundation of the great Revolution which horrified Europe. On the other hand, William of Orange manfully maintained the conflict under many disadvantages. His authority at home was often questioned; the governors of the Spanish Netherlands frequently crossed his plans, and his German allies frequently failed him. Yet reverse after reverse was not able to damp his spirit, or overcome his imperturbable tenacity of purpose. Charles, during this awful struggle of his nephew, was enjoying peace, but a most inglorious peace, purchased by the money of Louis, to allow him to destroy all the independent States of Europe. Not even the interests of his own subjects were protected. In the course of seven months fifty-three sail of merchantmen were captured by the French cruisers. The sufferers made loud complaints, and Charles promised to obtain restoration, but very little was ever obtained. He received his annual pension from Louis; and though he drew it through Chiffinch, his pander and man of the back stairs, the transaction was well known to his ministers Danby and Lauderdale, and his brother the Duke of York.

When he reassembled his Parliament on the 5th of February, 1677, the Country party, headed by Shaftesbury and Buckingham in the Lords, contended that the Parliament was legally at an end. That, by two statutes of Edward III., it was required that Parliaments should be held once a year, or oftener; and this Parliament having been prorogued for a period of fifteen months, had ceased to exist. But Lord Chancellor Finch truly replied, that by the Triennial Act of Charles I. the vacations were extended to three years. In the Commons there was also a motion for a dissolution, but it was postponed. The motion of Buckingham in the Lords to vote the present Parliament effete was negatived, and he, Salisbury, Shaftesbury, and Wharton, were ordered by the House to retract their illegal opinions, and beg pardon of the House and the king. They refused, and were committed to the Tower. The following day the motion for a dissolution in the Commons was lost by a minority of one hundred and forty-two to one hundred and ninety-three. Defeated in the attempt to break up this corrupt Pension Parliament, the Opposition in the Lords next endeavoured to secure the succession against a Catholic prince. Charles had no children but illegitimate ones, and James, therefore, was heir to the Crown. The Bill passed the Lords, and provided that on the demise of the king, the bishops should tender a declaration against Transubstantiation to the heir; and if he refused to take it, they should appoint to all bishoprics and benefices, and take charge of the education of the king's children; but the Commons rejected the Bill on the ground of the undue power which it conferred on the bishops; and they immediately threw out another Bill of the Peers for abolishing the punishment of death for Popish recusancy. The two Houses, however, agreed in abolishing the detestable writ _De hæretico comburendo_.

This Parliament has been accused of singular inconsistency in calling upon the king to declare war against France, in order to check that country in its ominous progress against Holland and the Netherlands, and yet refusing him money. A very valid plea for anxiously desiring the declaration of war, and yet shrinking from putting money into Charles's hands, might have been advanced had it been an honest Parliament. The nation saw with great discontent and humiliation the growing ascendency of France, the increase of Louis's navy, the expansion of his ambitious plans, the danger of Protestant Holland, and the despicable position into which England had fallen. It had fears of Popery, fears of absolutism through a standing army. There were dark rumours, though no direct proofs, of the king's secret league with France. Whilst they, therefore, would have willingly granted him money for a war with France, they dreaded to do it, knowing how it would go in folly, and believing how it would go to strengthen despotism. They did not leave him destitute; he had the excise, and they now granted six hundred thousand pounds for the building of new ships; but they took care to tie it up, by proper securities, to its legitimate purpose. How well they were justified was shown by the first use which the king made of the money now received from France. The bulk of it went to purchase votes in the House of Commons.

Unfortunately, this Parliament was little more honest than the king himself; it was receiving bribes on all sides. Dalrymple shows that Spanish, Dutch, German, and French money was freely distributed amongst the members. In 1673 three leaders of the Opposition in the Commons were bribed with six thousand pounds, to induce them to vote unusually large supplies, and they did it. They were now in the pay of all the chief contending countries in Europe. When they raised the cry of war on this occasion, the king expressed his readiness, but demanded six hundred thousand pounds at the least for the necessary expenditure. Thereupon Spain bribed the patriots to vote for it with twenty thousand pounds, and the King of France bribed them against war with a still larger sum. The proposal was thrown out, Louis having feed not only the Parliament but the ministers and the king. On receiving about two hundred thousand pounds from Louis, Charles adjourned Parliament on the 16th of April, and did not call it together again till the next January. Never, surely, had everything like principle or patriotism so thoroughly abandoned the nation. Soon after the adjournment, Buckingham, Salisbury, and Wharton, made their submission to the king, and were released; Shaftesbury held out seven months longer, and then followed their example.

During the recess the Prince of Orange came to England. Though William could place little dependence on the alliance of his uncle Charles, yet he could not be insensible that a marriage with Mary opened up a prospect towards the throne of England, and that an alliance between the two Protestant nations must mutually strengthen their position in Europe. He therefore began to cultivate the friendship of Danby, the Prime Minister, and then solicited the union which he had before declined. The overture was received with a coldness that the more sensibly impressed the prince with the political blunder which he had committed. He therefore humbled himself, and requested permission to make a visit to London and apologise for his past conduct and explain his future views. Charles not only resented William's refusal of his former offer, but he was jealous of his intrigues with the popular leaders; and though he did not forbid his coming, he stipulated that he should return before the meeting of Parliament. On the 9th of October he joined his uncle at Newmarket, and, having the services of Danby and Temple, Charles was soon persuaded to his marriage with the princess. James appeared at first averse from the connection, but he soon acquiesced; and whilst Charles boasted of having made this alliance to secure the religion of the nation, James took credit to himself from his consent, of proving how false were the suspicions which had been expressed of his intention to make changes in both the religion and the State. The marriage gave universal satisfaction, and during the festivities with which it was celebrated at Court, in November, 1677, William engaged the king in the project of a general peace. The following were the proposals arrived at by them, to be submitted to the different Powers: That Holland and France should mutually restore the conquests that they had made; that the Duchy of Lorraine should be restored to the duke, its rightful sovereign; and that France should keep possession of the places won from Spain, except Ath, Charleroi, Oudenarde, Courtrai, Tournai, Condé, and Valenciennes, which should be restored, and form a chain of fortresses between the new frontier of France and the old ones of Holland. Charles despatched Lord Feversham to lay the proposals before Louis; but the French king would not listen to them, and tidings reached William which caused him immediately to hasten home.

In spite of the season, the end of November, Louis had taken the field, according to his novel plan of winter campaign, and invested Guislain, which was expected to fall in a few days.

This decisive conduct on the part of Louis roused the wrath of Charles; he had adjourned Parliament from the 16th of April to the 15th of January. He expressed his surprise to Louis at the unreasonableness of his conduct, and despatched directions to Hyde, the ambassador at the Hague, to enter into a separate treaty with the States, on the model of the Triple Alliance, engaging not only to defend each other against all aggressors, but to continue to force the other parties to come to fair terms. Such a treaty was signed at the Hague on the 31st of December. Louis, on hearing of it, stopped the payment of Charles's pension, but at the same time he proposed, through Montagu, the English ambassador, a truce of twelve months, during which all might be arranged, and then he threw out a bait which he knew would be extremely tempting to Charles,--that if he could persuade his nephew to consent to the cession of Condé, Valenciennes, and Tournai, their full value should be paid to the king in bars of gold, concealed in bales of silk, and any sum that the Lord Treasurer might name in reward of his services should be remitted in diamonds and pearls. But both Danby and the Duke of York set their faces against any such disgraceful compromise; Danby remaining steady to his views of the danger of the French ascendency, and the duke being zealous for the interests of his new son-in-law, and in the hope of receiving the command of any auxiliary force sent from England to co-operate with Holland. At the duke's suggestion the English forces were recalled from the army of France, a strong squadron was sent to the Mediterranean to reinforce the fleet under Sir John Narborough, and the Port of Ostend was demanded from Spain as a depôt for the English army in Flanders.

This unusual vigour induced Louis to set in motion the forces of the Opposition both in England and Holland. To Barillon, his ambassador at London, he sent over the younger Ruvigny, who was related to Lady Vaughan, and intimate with the Russell family. The ambassadors first tried to bring Charles over again by the most liberal offers of money; they warned him to beware of the pernicious counsels of Danby, who was seeking popularity; and to Danby himself they paid the highest compliments, and begged him to use his influence with the king. Charles, who never long resisted the temptations of money, was not, however, yet to be moved, and the ambassadors then tried their influence with the Opposition. They found Holles and Lord William Russell extremely hostile to the Court, but suspicious of a secret engagement between Charles and Louis. This suspicion the ambassadors did their best to root out, and Holles and Russell engaged to attach to the supply conditions which should cause the king to reject it. The ambassadors promised that Louis, on his part, should use all his influence to cause a dissolution of Parliament, and to ruin Danby, measures which the Opposition desired. They even offered money to the Opposition, and asked Lord William Russell to give them the names of such persons as they should reward for their services in this matter. Russell repelled the offer with indignation, and replied that he should be sorry to have anything to do with men who could be bought with money. They did not, however, find others of the patriots quite so scrupulous. Louis, at the same time, was at work at the Hague, insinuating through his agents that William, now connected with England, was joined with Charles, whom the Dutch most cordially hated, in a common scheme for ruling Holland and England by a military force, and that their only safety lay in peace and disbandment of troops. Their arts were so successful, that the Dutch began to cry for peace on any terms.

When Parliament met on the 28th of January, Charles announced that he had made a league, offensive and defensive, with Holland, for the protection of Flanders, and that if France would not consent to a peace on fair terms, they would endeavour to force it; but that he should require to put ninety ships into commission, and raise thirty or forty thousand troops, and a liberal supply would be necessary to defray the cost. This was the very thing that the Country party had been clamouring for, but they had now been drawn into a false position by the acts of Louis; and though they could not condemn the proposals, they declared that no peace ought to be made with France, except such as should restrain that country to the limits set by the treaty of the Pyrenees. This, under the present circumstances, it would be folly to ask of Louis, and Charles reproached the Opposition with the inconsistency of their conduct, in throwing obstacles in the way of the very measure they had clamoured for, especially after he had followed their own advice in making the treaty with Holland. The Ministry, however, carried a vote for the maintenance of the necessary fleet and army, and a supply was granted on general taxes to cover the expenditure.

Meanwhile Louis had pushed his military operations forward in the Netherlands with a vigour which confounded his enemies. Towards the end of January he proceeded from Paris to Metz; Namur and Mons were invested, and before the end of March he had made himself master of Ypres and Ghent. By this means he had opened a road into the very heart of Holland, and exposed Brussels to his attacks; and both on the Continent and in England the cry was now for more vigorous measures. Three thousand soldiers were sent by Charles to Ostend, and the levy of forces was proceeded with briskly. But the more Charles exerted himself to raise troops and prepare actively for war, the more the Opposition expressed their suspicions of the use intended for these troops. Russell talked of Popery, and Sir Gilbert Gerrard declared that the forces would never be used against any foreign enemy; that their object was nearer home. They demanded, therefore, that the king should at once declare war against France, recall his Commissioners from Nimeguen, and dismiss the French ambassador. This language on the part of men many of whom had been receiving their money to compel a peace advantageous to France, surprised not a little Barillon and Ruvigny, who remonstrated with Holles and Russell, Shaftesbury and Buckingham. But they were told that the real object was to embarrass the king in raising these troops; for that, once raised, he would secure the leaders of the Opposition, and then would obtain from the slavish Parliament any supplies that he might demand, thus at once making himself independent of Parliament and of Louis.

That the Opposition had grounds for their fears there was little question, and the French envoys were obliged to be satisfied with this odd-looking sort of friendship. Charles undoubtedly had rather have the army and the supplies than go to war with Louis; and the consternation of the confederates now opened up to him a new chance of obtaining Louis's money, and keeping the peace. Both the Prince of Orange and Spain, by its ambassadors, informed him that they would now no longer object to the cession of Tournai and Valenciennes, if France would restore the other five towns, with Ypres and Ghent. Charles, who now thought all difficulty removed, hastened to write these conditions to Louis, and so confident was he that they would be accepted, that he caused Danby to add, in a private letter, that if the peace were effected on these terms, he should expect a pension of six millions of livres for the next three years for his services. In a postscript the king himself wrote, "This is writ by my order.--C. R." This letter, afterwards produced against Danby, occasioned his ruin.

But Louis was not so easily satisfied after his recent victories. He demanded Ypres and Condé as well as Tournai and Valenciennes. Charles professed to be disgusted with this grasping disposition, but both Holland and Spain expressed their willingness to yield. The conquest of Ghent and French gold produced their effect, and an armistice was entered into to allow time for preparing the articles of peace. To satisfy Charles, Louis assented to his demand of a pension of six million livres, on condition that he bound himself to break with Holland if it refused to sign the treaty on the conditions now offered, to recall his troops from Flanders, to reduce his army to six thousand men, and to prorogue and then dissolve Parliament.

When Parliament met on the 23rd of May, they demanded that Charles should immediately declare war or disband the whole of the troops recently raised. They voted two hundred thousand pounds on condition that the troops should be at once paid off with it, and two hundred thousand pounds more for the navy. The king asked for three hundred thousand pounds a year in addition to his present income, to enable him to punish the pirates of Algiers, and take that position in the Continental politics which the rank of England required; but to this the Commons turned a deaf ear.