The History of England, from the Accession of James II - Volume 4

Titel: The History of England, from the Accession of James II — Volume 4

von ca. 337-422 Faxian, Sir Samuel White Baker, Sax Rohmer, Bernardin de Saint-Pierre, Maria Edgeworth, Saint Sir Thomas More, Herodotus, L. Mühlbach, Herbert Allen Giles, G. K. Chesterton, Algernon Charles Swinburne, Rudyard Kipling, A. J. O'Reilly, William Bray, O. Henry, graf Leo Tolstoy, Anonymous, Lewis Wallace, Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, Edgar Allan Poe, Jack London, Elizabeth Cleghorn Gaskell, Jules Verne, Frank Frankfort Moore, Susan Fenimore Cooper, Anthony Trollope, Henry James, T. Smollett, Thomas Burke, Emma Goldman, George Eliot, Henry Rider Haggard, Baron Thomas Babington Macaulay Macaulay, A. Maynard Barbour, Edmund Burke, Gerold K. Rohner, Bernard Shaw, Sir Joshua Reynolds, Bret Harte, Nathaniel Hawthorne, Jerome K. Jerome, Isabella L. Bird, Christoph Martin Wieland, Rainer Maria Rilke, Ludwig Anzengruber, Freiherr von Ludwig Achim Arnim, G. Harvey Ralphson, John Galsworthy, George Sand, Pierre Loti, Fyodor Dostoyevsky, Giambattista Basile, Homer, John Webster, P. G. Wodehouse, William Shakespeare, Edward Payson Roe, Sir Walter Raleigh, Victor [pseud.] Appleton, Arnold Bennett, James Fenimore Cooper, James Hogg, Richard Harding Davis, Ernest Thompson Seton, William MacLeod Raine, E. Phillips Oppenheim, Maksim Gorky, Henrik Ibsen, George MacDonald, Sir Max Beerbohm, Lucy Larcom, Various, Sir Robert S. Ball, Charles Darwin, Charles Reade, Adelaide Anne Procter, Joseph Conrad, Joel Chandler Harris, Joseph Crosby Lincoln, Alexander Whyte, Kate Douglas Smith Wiggin, James Lane Allen, Richard Jefferies, Honoré de Balzac, Wilhelm Busch, General Robert Edward Lee, Charles Dickens, Wilkie Collins, David Cory, Booth Tarkington, George Rawlinson, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, Dinah Maria Mulock Craik, Christopher Evans, Thomas Henry Huxley, Mary Roberts Rinehart, Erskine Childers, Alice Freeman Palmer, Florence Converse, William Congreve, Stephen Crane, Madame de La Fayette, United States. Army. Corps of Engineers. Manhattan District, Willa Sibert Cather, Anna Katharine Green, Oliver Wendell Holmes, Charlotte M. Brame, Alphonse Daudet, Booker T. Washington, Clemens Brentano, Sylvester Mowry, Geoffrey Chaucer, Ellen Anderson Gholson Glasgow, Gail Hamilton, William Roscoe Thayer, Margaret Wade Campbell Deland, Rafael Sabatini, Archibald Henderson, Albert Payson Terhune, George Wharton James, Padraic Colum, James MacCaffrey, John Albert Macy, Annie Sullivan, Helen Keller, Walter Pater, Sir Richard Francis Burton, Baron de Jean-Baptiste-Antoine-Marcelin Marbot, Aristotle, Gustave Flaubert, 12th cent. de Troyes Chrétien, Valentine Williams, Thomas Wentworth Higginson, Alexandre Dumas fils, John Gay, Andrew Lang, Hester Lynch Piozzi, Jeffery Farnol, Alexander Pope, George Henry Borrow, Mark Twain, Francis Bacon, Margaret Pollock Sherwood, Henry Walter Bates, Thornton W. Burgess, Edmund G. Ross, William Alexander Linn, Voltaire, Giles Lytton Strachey, Henry Ossian Flipper, Émile Gaboriau, Arthur B. Reeve, Hugh Latimer, Baron Edward Bulwer Lytton Lytton, Benito Pérez Galdós, Robert Smythe Hichens, Niccolò Machiavelli, Prosper Mérimée, Ivan Sergeevich Turgenev, Anatole Cerfberr, Jules François Christophe, Victor Cherbuliez, Edgar B. P. Darlington, David Grayson, Mihai Nadin, Helen Beecher Long, Plutarch, Harriet Beecher Stowe, Margaret E. Sangster, Herman Melville, John Keats, Fannie Isabel Sherrick, Maurice Baring, William Terence Kane, Mary Russell Mitford, Henry Drummond, Rabindranath Tagore, Hubert Howe Bancroft, Charlotte Mary Yonge, William Dean Howells, Jesse F. Bone, Basil Hall Chamberlain, William Makepeace Thackeray, Samuel Butler, Frances Hodgson Burnett, E. Prentiss, Sir Walter Scott, Alexander K. McClure, David Livingstone, Bram Stoker, Victor Hugo, Patañjali, Amelia Ruth Gere Mason, Bertrand Russell, Alfred Russel Wallace, Molière, Robert Louis Stevenson, Simona Sumanaru, Michael Hart, Edmund Gosse, Samuel Smiles, Pierre Corneille, Clarence Edward Mulford, Mrs. Oliphant, George Pope Morris, Aristophanes, baron de Etienne-Léon Lamothe-Langon, William Morris, Henry David Thoreau, E. C. Bentley, Samuel Taylor Coleridge, Hippolyte Taine, Pedro Calderón de la Barca, John Philip Sousa, Wilhelm Grimm, Jacob Grimm, William Gardner, J. M. Judy, E. M. Forster, Percival Lowell, Alexandre Dumas père, William Greenwood

ISBN 978-3-7429-2517-6

Alle Rechte vorbehalten.

Es ist ohne vorherige schriftliche Erlaubnis nicht gestattet, dieses Werk im Ganzen oder in Teilen zu vervielfältigen oder zu veröffentlichen.

THE HISTORY OF ENGLAND

FROM THE ACCESSION OF JAMES II,

VOLUME 4 (of 5)

(Chapters XVIII-XXII)

by Thomas Babington Macaulay.

Philadelphia

Porter & Coates

Contents

CHAPTER XVII CHAPTER XVIII CHAPTER XIX CHAPTER XX CHAPTER XXI CHAPTER XXII

DETAILED CONTENTS

CHAPTER XVIIWilliam's Voyage to Holland William's Entrance into the Hague Congress at the Hague William his own Minister for Foreign Affairs William obtains a Toleration for the Waldenses; Vices inherent in the Nature of Coalitions Siege and Fall of Mons William returns to England; Trials of Preston and Ashton Execution of Ashton Preston's Irresolution and Confessions Lenity shown to the Conspirators Dartmouth Turner; Penn Death of George Fox; his Character Interview between Penn and Sidney Preston pardoned Joy of the Jacobites at the Fall of Mons The vacant Sees filled Tillotson Archbishop of Canterbury Conduct of Sancroft Difference between Sancroft and Ken Hatred of Sancroft to the Established Church; he provides for the episcopal Succession among the Nonjurors The new Bishops Sherlock Dean of Saint Paul's Treachery of some of William's Servants Russell Godolphin Marlborough William returns to the Continent The Campaign of 1691 in Flanders The War in Ireland; State of the English Part of Ireland State of the Part of Ireland which was subject to James Dissensions among the Irish at Limerick Return of Tyrconnel to Ireland Arrival of a French Fleet at Limerick; Saint Ruth The English take the Field Fall of Ballymore; Siege and Fall of Athlone Retreat of the Irish Army Saint Ruth determines to fight Battle of Aghrim Fall of Galway Death of Tyrconnel Second Siege of Limerick The Irish desirous to capitulate Negotiations between the Irish Chiefs and the Besiegers The Capitulation of Limerick The Irish Troops required to make their Election between their Country and France Most of the Irish Troops volunteer for France Many of the Irish who had volunteered for France desert The last Division of the Irish Army sails from Cork for France State of Ireland after the War CHAPTER XVIIIOpening of the Parliament Debates on the Salaries and Fees of Official Men Act excluding Papists from Public Trust in Ireland Debates on the East India Trade Debates on the Bill for regulating Trials in Cases of High Treason Plot formed by Marlborough against the Government of William Marlborough's Plot disclosed by the Jacobites Disgrace of Marlborough; Various Reports touching the Cause of Marlborough's Disgrace. Rupture between Mary and Anne Fuller's Plot Close of the Session; Bill for ascertaining the Salaries of the Judges rejected Misterial Changes in England Ministerial Changes in Scotland State of the Highlands Breadalbane employed to negotiate with the Rebel Clans Glencoe William goes to the Continent; Death of Louvois The French Government determines to send an Expedition against England James believes that the English Fleet is friendly to him Conduct of Russell A Daughter born to James Preparations made in England to repel Invasion James goes down to his Army at La Hogue James's Declaration Effect produced by James's Declaration The English and Dutch Fleets join; Temper of the English Fleet Battle of La Hogue Rejoicings in England Young's Plot CHAPTER XIXForeign Policy of William The Northern Powers The Pope Conduct of the Allies The Emperor Spain William succeeds in preventing the Dissolution of the Coalition New Arrangements for the Government of the Spanish Netherlands Lewis takes the Field Siege of Namur Lewis returns to Versailles Luxemburg Battle of Steinkirk Conspiracy of Grandval Return of William to England Naval Maladministration Earthquake at Port Royal Distress in England; Increase of Crime Meeting of Parliament; State of Parties The King's Speech; Question of Privilege raised by the Lords Debates on the State of the Nation Bill for the Regulation of Trials in Cases of Treason Case of Lord Mohun Debates on the India Trade Supply Ways and Means; Land Tax Origin of the National Debt Parliamentary Reform The Place Bill The Triennial Bill The First Parliamentary Discussion on the Liberty of the Press State of Ireland The King refuses to pass the Triennial Bill Ministerial Arrangements The King goes to Holland; a Session of Parliament in Scotland CHAPTER XXState of the Court of Saint Germains Feeling of the Jacobites; Compounders and Noncompounders Change of Ministry at Saint Germains; Middleton New Declaration put forth by James Effect of the new Declaration French Preparations for the Campaign; Institution of the Order of Saint Lewis Middleton's Account of Versailles William's Preparations for the Campaign Lewis takes the Field Lewis returns to Versailles Manoeuvres of Luxemburg Battle of Landen Miscarriage of the Smyrna Fleet Excitement in London Jacobite Libels; William Anderton Writings and Artifices of the Jacobites Conduct of Caermarthen Now Charter granted to the East India Company Return of William to England; Military Successes of France Distress of France A Ministry necessary to Parliamentary Government The First Ministry gradually formed Sunderland Sunderland advises the King to give the Preference to the Whigs Reasons for preferring the Whigs Chiefs of the Whig Party; Russell Somers Montague Wharton Chiefs of the Tory Party; Harley Foley Howe Meeting of Parliament Debates about the Naval Miscarriages Russell First Lord of the Admiralty; Retirement of Nottingham Shrewsbury refuses Office Debates about the Trade with India Bill for the Regulation of Trials in Cases of Treason Triennial Bill Place Bill Bill for the Naturalisation of Foreign Protestants Supply Ways and Means; Lottery Loan The Bank of England Prorogation of Parliament; Ministerial Arrangements; Shrewsbury Secretary of State New Titles bestowed French Plan of War; English Plan of War Expedition against Brest Naval Operations in the Mediterranean War by Land Complaints of Trenchard's Administration The Lancashire Prosecutions Meeting of the Parliament; Death of Tillotson Tenison Archbishop of Canterbury; Debates on the Lancashire Prosecutions Place Bill Bill for the Regulation of Trials in Cases of Treason; the Triennial Bill passed Death of Mary Funeral of Mary Greenwich Hospital founded CHAPTER XXIEffect of Mary's Death on the Continent Death of Luxemburg Distress of William Parliamentary Proceedings; Emancipation of the Press Death of Halifax Parliamentary Inquiries into the Corruption of the Public Offices Vote of Censure on the Speaker Foley elected Speaker; Inquiry into the Accounts of the East India Company Suspicious Dealings of Seymour Bill against Sir Thomas Cook Inquiry by a joint Committee of Lords and Commons Impeachment of Leeds Disgrace of Leeds Lords Justices appointed; Reconciliation between William and the Princess Anne Jacobite Plots against William's Person Charnock; Porter Goodman; Parkyns Fenwick Session of the Scottish Parliament; Inquiry into the Slaughter of Glencoe War in the Netherlands; Marshal Villeroy The Duke of Maine Jacobite Plots against the Government during William's Absence Siege of Namur Surrender of the Town of Namur Surrender of the Castle of Namur Arrest of Boufflers Effect of the Emancipation of the English Press Return of William to England; Dissolution of the Parliament William makes a Progress through the Country The Elections Alarming State of the Currency Meeting of the Parliament; Loyalty of the House of Commons Controversy touching the Currency Parliamentary Proceedings touching the Currency Passing of the Act regulating Trials in Cases of High Treason Parliamentary Proceedings touching the Grant of Crown Lands in Wales to Portland Two Jacobite Plots formed Berwick's Plot; the Assassination Plot; Sir George Barclay Failure of Berwick's Plot Detection of the Assassination Plot Parliamentary Proceedings touching the Assassination Plot State of Public Feeling Trial of Charnock, King and Keyes Execution of Charnock, King and Keyes Trial of Friend Trial of Parkyns Execution of Friend and Parkyns Trials of Rookwood, Cranburne and Lowick The Association Bill for the Regulation of Elections Act establishing a Land Bank CHAPTER XXIIMilitary Operations in the Netherlands Commercial Crisis in England Financial Crisis Efforts to restore the Currency Distress of the People; their Temper and Conduct Negotiations with France; the Duke of Savoy deserts the Coalition Search for Jacobite Conspirators in England; Sir John Fenwick Capture of Fenwick Fenwick's Confession Return of William to England Meeting of Parliament; State of the Country; Speech of William at the Commencement of the Session Resolutions of the House of Commons Return of Prosperity Effect of the Proceedings of the House of Commons on Foreign Governments Restoration of the Finances Effects of Fenwick's Confession Resignation of Godolphin Feeling of the Whigs about Fenwick William examines Fenwick Disappearance of Goodman Parliamentary Proceedings touching Fenwick's Confession Bill for attainting Fenwick Debates of the Commons on the Bill of Attainder The Bill of Attainder carried up to the Lords Artifices of Monmouth Debates of the Lords on the Bill of Attainder Proceedings against Monmouth Position and Feelings of Shrewsbury The Bill of Attainder passed; Attempts to save Fenwick Fenwick's Execution; Bill for the Regulating of Elections Bill for the Regulation of the Press Bill abolishing the Privileges of Whitefriars and the Savoy Close of the Session; Promotions and Appointments State of Ireland State of Scotland A Session of Parliament at Edinburgh; Act for the Settling of Schools Case of Thomas Aikenhead Military Operations in the Netherlands Terms of Peace offered by France Conduct of Spain; Conduct of the Emperor Congress of Ryswick William opens a distinct Negotiation Meetings of Portland and Boufflers Terms of Peace between France and England settled Difficulties caused by Spain and the Emperor Attempts of James to prevent a general Pacification The Treaty of Ryswick signed; Anxiety in England News of the Peace arrives in England Dismay of the Jacobites General Rejoicing The King's Entry into London The Thanksgiving Day

CHAPTER XVII

ON the eighteenth of January 1691, the King, having been detained some days by adverse winds, went on board at Gravesend. Four yachts had been fitted up for him and for his retinue. Among his attendants were Norfolk, Ormond, Devonshire, Dorset, Portland, Monmouth, Zulestein, and the Bishop of London. Two distinguished admirals, Cloudesley Shovel and George Rooke, commanded the men of war which formed the convoy. The passage was tedious and disagreeable. During many hours the fleet was becalmed off the Godwin Sands; and it was not till the fifth day that the soundings proved the coast of Holland to be near. The sea fog was so thick that no land could be seen; and it was not thought safe for the ships to proceed further in the darkness. William, tired out by the voyage, and impatient to be once more in his beloved country, determined to land in an open boat. The noblemen who were in his train tried to dissuade him from risking so valuable a life; but, when they found that his mind was made up, they insisted on sharing the danger. That danger proved more serious than they had expected. It had been supposed that in an hour the party would be on shore. But great masses of floating ice impeded the progress of the skiff; the night came on; the fog grew thicker; the waves broke over the King and the courtiers. Once the keel struck on a sand bank, and was with great difficulty got off. The hardiest mariners showed some signs of uneasiness. But William, through the whole night, was as composed as if he had been in the drawingroom at Kensington. "For shame," he said to one of the dismayed sailors "are you afraid to die in my company?" A bold Dutch seaman ventured to spring out, and, with great difficulty, swam and scrambled through breakers, ice and mud, to firm ground. Here he discharged a musket and lighted a fire as a signal that he was safe. None of his fellow passengers, however, thought it prudent to follow his example. They lay tossing in sight of the flame which he had kindled, till the first pale light of a January morning showed them that they were close to the island of Goree. The King and his Lords, stiff with cold and covered with icicles, gladly landed to warm and rest themselves. 1

After reposing some hours in the hut of a peasant, William proceeded to the Hague. He was impatiently expected there for, though the fleet which brought him was not visible from the shore, the royal salutes had been heard through the mist, and had apprised the whole coast of his arrival. Thousands had assembled at Honslaerdyk to welcome him with applause which came from their hearts and which went to his heart. That was one of the few white days of a life, beneficent indeed and glorious, but far from happy. After more than two years passed in a strange land, the exile had again set foot on his native soil. He heard again the language of his nursery. He saw again the scenery and the architecture which were inseparably associated in his mind with the recollections of childhood and the sacred feeling of home; the dreary mounds of sand, shells and weeds, on which the waves of the German Ocean broke; the interminable meadows intersected by trenches; the straight canals; the villas bright with paint and adorned with quaint images and inscriptions. He had lived during many weary months among a people who did not love him, who did not understand him, who could never forget that he was a foreigner. Those Englishmen who served him most faithfully served him without enthusiasm, without personal attachment, and merely from a sense of public duty. In their hearts they were sorry that they had no choice but between an English tyrant and a Dutch deliverer. All was now changed. William was among a population by which he was adored, as Elizabeth had been adored when she rode through her army at Tilbury, as Charles the Second had been adored when he landed at Dover. It is true that the old enemies of the House of Orange had not been inactive during the absence of the Stadtholder. There had been, not indeed clamours, but mutterings against him. He had, it was said, neglected his native land for his new kingdom. Whenever the dignity of the English flag, whenever the prosperity of the English trade was concerned, he forgot that he was a Hollander. But, as soon as his well remembered face was again seen, all jealousy, all coldness, was at an end. There was not a boor, not a fisherman, not an artisan, in the crowds which lined the road from Honslaerdyk to the Hague, whose heart did not swell with pride at the thought that the first minister of Holland had become a great King, had freed the English, and had conquered the Irish. It would have been madness in William to travel from Hampton Court to Westminster without a guard; but in his own land he needed no swords or carbines to defend him. "Do not keep the people off;" he cried: "let them come close to me; they are all my good friends." He soon learned that sumptuous preparations were making for his entrance into the Hague. At first he murmured and objected. He detested, he said, noise and display. The necessary cost of the war was quite heavy enough. He hoped that his kind fellow townsmen would consider him as a neighbour, born and bred among them, and would not pay him so bad a compliment as to treat him ceremoniously. But all his expostulations were vain. The Hollanders, simple and parsimonious as their ordinary habits were, had set their hearts on giving their illustrious countryman a reception suited to his dignity and to his merit; and he found it necessary to yield. On the day of his triumph the concourse was immense. All the wheeled carriages and horses of the province were too few for the multitude of those who flocked to the show. Many thousands came sliding or skating along the frozen canals from Amsterdam, Rotterdam, Leyden, Haarlem, Delft. At ten in the morning of the twenty-sixth of January, the great bell of the Town House gave the signal. Sixteen hundred substantial burghers, well armed, and clad in the finest dresses which were to be found in the recesses of their wardrobes, kept order in the crowded streets. Balconies and scaffolds, embowered in evergreens and hung with tapestry, hid the windows. The royal coach, escorted by an army of halberdiers and running footmen, and followed by a long train of splendid equipages, passed under numerous arches rich with carving and painting, amidst incessant shouts of "Long live the King our Stadtholder." The front of the Town House and the whole circuit of the marketplace were in a blaze with brilliant colours. Civic crowns, trophies, emblems of arts, of sciences, of commerce and of agriculture, appeared every where. In one place William saw portrayed the glorious actions of his ancestors. There was the silent prince, the founder of the Batavian commonwealth, passing the Meuse with his warriors. There was the more impetuous Maurice leading the charge at Nieuport. A little further on, the hero might retrace the eventful story of his own life. He was a child at his widowed mother's knee. He was at the altar with Diary's hand in his. He was landing at Torbay. He was swimming through the Boyne. There, too, was a boat amidst the ice and the breakers; and above it was most appropriately inscribed, in the majestic language of Rome, the saying of the great Roman, "What dost thou fear? Thou hast Caesar on board." The task of furnishing the Latin mottoes had been intrusted to two men, who, till Bentley appeared, held the highest place among the classical scholars of that age. Spanheim, whose knowledge of the Roman medals was unrivalled, imitated, not unsuccessfully, the noble conciseness of those ancient legends which he had assiduously studied; and he was assisted by Graevius, who then filled a chair at Utrecht, and whose just reputation had drawn to that University multitudes of students from every part of Protestant Europe. 2 When the night came, fireworks were exhibited on the great tank which washes the walls of the Palace of the Federation. That tank was now as hard as marble; and the Dutch boasted that nothing had ever been seen, even on the terrace of Versailles, more brilliant than the effect produced by the innumerable cascades of flame which were reflected in the smooth mirror of ice. 3 The English Lords congratulated their master on his immense popularity. "Yes," said he; "but I am not the favourite. The shouting was nothing to what it would have been if Mary had been with me."

A few hours after the triumphal entry, the King attended a sitting of the States General. His last appearance among them had been on the day on which he embarked for England. He had then, amidst the broken words and loud weeping of those grave Senators, thanked them for the kindness with which they had watched over his childhood, trained his young mind, and supported his authority in his riper years; and he had solemnly commended his beloved wife to their care. He now came back among them the King of three kingdoms, the head of the greatest coalition that Europe had seen during a hundred and eighty years; and nothing was heard in the hall but applause and congratulations. 4