The History of England, from the Accession of James II — Volume 3

48 (return)

[ Stat. I W.&M. sess. I. c. 5.; Commons' Journals, March 28. 1689.]

49 (return)

[ Stat. I W.& M. sess. I. c. 2.]

50 (return)

[ Ronquillo, March 8/18. 1689.]

51 (return)

[ See the account given in Spence's Anecdotes of the Origin of Dryden's Medal.]

52 (return)

[ Guardian, No. 67.]

53 (return)

[ There is abundant proof that William, though a very affectionate, was not always a polite husband. But no credit is due to the story contained in the letter which Dalrymple was foolish enough to publish as Nottingham's in 1773, and wise enough to omit in the edition of 1790. How any person who knew any thing of the history of those times could be so strangely deceived, it is not easy to understand particularly as the handwriting bears no resemblance to Nottingham's, with which Dalrymple was familiar. The letter is evidently a common newsletter, written by a scribbler, who had never seen the King and Queen except at some public place, and whose anecdotes of their private life rested on no better authority than coffeehouse gossip.]

54 (return)

[ Ronquillo; Burnet, ii. 2.; Duchess of Marlborough's Vindication. In a pastoral dialogue between Philander and Palaemon, published in 1691, the dislike with which women of fashion regarded William is mentioned. Philander says "But man methinks his reason should recall, Nor let frail woman work his second fall."]

55 (return)

[ Tutchin's Observator of November 16. 1706.]

56 (return)

[ Prior, who was treated by William with much kindness, and who was very grateful for it, informs us that the King did not understand poetical eulogy. The passage is in a highly curious manuscript, the property of Lord Lansdowne.]

57 (return)

[ Memoires originaux sur le regne et la cour de Frederic I, Roi de Prusse, ecrits par Christophe Comte de Dohna. Berlin, 1833. It is strange that this interesting volume should be almost unknown in England. The only copy that I have ever seen of it was kindly given to me by Sir Robert Adair. "Le Roi," Dohna says, "avoit une autre qualite tres estimable, qui est celle de n'aimer point qu'on rendit de mauvais offices a personne par des railleries." The Marquis de La Fork tried to entertain His Majesty at the expense of an English nobleman. "Ce prince," says Dohna "prit son air severe, et, le regardant sans mot dire, lui fit rentrer les paroles dans le ventre. Le Marquis m'en fit ses plaintes quelques heures apres. 'J'ai mal pris ma bisque,' dit-il; 'j'ai cru faire l'agreable sur le chapitre de Milord.. mais j'ai trouva a qui parler, et j'ai attrape un regard du roi qui m'a fait passer l'envie de tire.'" Dohna supposed that William might be less sensitive about the character of a Frenchman, and tried the experiment. But, says he, "j'eus a pert pres le meme sort que M. de la Foret."]

58 (return)

[ Compare the account of Mary by the Whig Burnet with the mention of her by the Tory Evelyn in his Diary, March 8. 1694/5, and with what is said of her by the Nonjuror who wrote the Letter to Archbishop Tennison on her death in 1695. The impression which the bluntness and reserve of William and the grace and gentleness of Mary had made on the populace may be traced in the remains of the street poetry of that time. The following conjugal dialogue may still be seen on the original broadside.

"Then bespoke Mary, our most royal Queen, 'My gracious king William, where are you going?' He answered her quickly, 'I count him no man That telleth his secret unto a woman.' The Queen with a modest behaviour replied, 'I wish that kind Providence may be thy guide, To keep thee from danger, my sovereign Lord, He which will the greatest of comfort afford.'"

These lines are in an excellent collection formed by Mr. Richard Heber, and now the property of Mr. Broderip, by whom it was kindly lent to me; in one of the most savage Jacobite pasquinades of 1689, William is described as

"A churle to his wife, which she makes but a jest."]

59 (return)

[ Burnet, ii. 2.; Burnet, MS. Harl. 6484. But Ronquillo's account is much more circumstantial. "Nada se ha visto mas desfigurado; y, quantas veces he estado con el, le he visto toser tanto que se le saltaban las lagrimas, y se ponia moxado y arrancando; y confiesan los medicos que es una asma incurable," Mar. 8/18 1689. Avaux wrote to the same effect from Ireland. "La sante de l'usurpateur est fort mauvaise. L'on ne croit pas qu'il vive un an." April 8/18.]

60 (return)

[ "Hasta decir los mismos Hollandeses que lo desconozcan," says Ronquillo. "Il est absolument mal propre pour le role qu'il a a jouer a l'heure qu'il est," says Avaux. "Slothful and sickly," says Evelyn. March 29. 1689.]

61 (return)

[ See Harris's description of Loo, 1699.]

62 (return)

[ Every person who is well acquainted with Pope and Addison will remember their sarcasms on this taste. Lady Mary Wortley Montague took the other side. "Old China," she says, "is below nobody's taste, since it has been the Duke of Argyle's, whose understanding has never been doubted either by his friends or enemies."]

63 (return)

[ As to the works at Hampton Court, see Evelyn's Diary, July 16. 1689; the Tour through Great Britain, 1724; the British Apelles; Horace Walpole on Modern Gardening; Burnet, ii. 2, 3.

When Evelyn was at Hampton Court, in 1662, the cartoons were not to be seen. The Triumphs of Andrea Mantegna were then supposed to be the finest pictures in the palace.]

64 (return)

[ Burnet, ii. 2.; Reresby's Memoirs. Ronquillo wrote repeatedly to the same effect. For example, "Bien quisiera que el Rey fuese mas comunicable, y se acomodase un poco mas al humor sociable de los Ingleses, y que estubiera en Londres: pero es cierto que sus achaques no se lo permiten." July 8/18 1689. Avaux, about the same time, wrote thus to Croissy from Ireland: "Le Prince d'Orange est toujours a Hampton Court, et jamais a la ville: et le peuple est fort mal satisfait de cette maniere bizarre et retiree."]

65 (return)

[ Several of his letters to Heinsius are dated from Holland House.]

66 (return)

[ Narcissus Luttrell's Diary; Evelyn's Diary, Feb. 25 1689/1690]

67 (return)

[ De Foe makes this excuse for William

"We blame the King that he relies too much On strangers, Germans, Huguenots, and Dutch, And seldom does his great affairs of state To English counsellors communicate. The fact might very well be answered thus, He has too often been betrayed by us. He must have been a madman to rely On English gentlemen's fidelity. The foreigners have faithfully obeyed him, And none but Englishmen have e'er betrayed him."] —The True Born Englishman, Part ii.]

68 (return)

[ Ronquillo had the good sense and justice to make allowances which the English did not make. After describing, in a despatch dated March 1/11. 1689, the lamentable state of the military and naval establishments, he says, "De esto no tiene culpa el Principe de Oranges; porque pensar que se han de poder volver en dos meses tres Reynos de abaxo arriba es una extravagancia." Lord President Stair, in a letter written from London about a month later, says that the delays of the English administration had lowered the King's reputation, "though without his fault."]

69 (return)

[ Burnet, ii. 4.; Reresby.]

70 (return)

[ Reresby's Memoirs; Burnet MS. Hart. 6584.]

71 (return)

[ Burnet, ii. 3, 4. 15.]

72 (return)

[ ibid. ii. 5.]

73 (return)

["How does he do to distribute his hours, Some to the Court, and some to the City, Some to the State, and some to Love's powers, Some to be vain, and some to be witty?"] —The Modern Lampooners, a poem of 1690]

74 (return)

[ Burnet ii. 4]

75 (return)

[ Ronquillo calls the Whig functionaries "Gente que no tienen practica ni experiencia." He adds, "Y de esto procede el pasarse un mes y un otro, sin executarse nada." June 24. 1689. In one of the innumerable Dialogues which appeared at that time, the Tory interlocutor puts the question, "Do you think the government would be better served by strangers to business?" The Whig answers, "Better ignorant friends than understanding enemies."]

76 (return)

[ Negotiations de M. Le Comte d'Avaux, 4 Mars 1683; Torcy's Memoirs.]

77 (return)

[ The original correspondence of William and Heinsius is in Dutch. A French translation of all William's letters, and an English translation of a few of Heinsius's Letters, are among the Mackintosh MSS. The Baron Sirtema de Grovestins, who has had access to the originals, frequently quotes passages in his "Histoire des luttes et rivalites entre les puissances maritimes et la France." There is very little difference in substance, though much in phraseology, between his version and that which I have used.]

78 (return)

[ Though these very convenient names are not, as far as I know, to be found in any book printed during the earlier years of William's reign, I shall use them without scruple, as others have done, in writing about the transactions of those years.]

79 (return)

[ Burnet, ii. 8.; Birch's Life of Tillotson; Life of Kettlewell, part iii. section 62.]

80 (return)

[ Swift, writing under the name of Gregory Misosarum, most malignantly and dishonestly represents Burnet as grudging this grant to the Church. Swift cannot have been ignorant that the Church was indebted for the grant chiefly to Burnet's persevering exertions.]

81 (return)

[ See the Life of Burnet at the end of the second volume of his history, his manuscript memoirs, Harl. 6584, his memorials touching the First Fruits and Tenths, and Somers's letter to him on that subject. See also what Dr. King, Jacobite as he was, had the justice to say in his Anecdotes. A most honourable testimony to Burnet's virtues, given by another Jacobite who had attacked him fiercely, and whom he had treated generously, the learned and upright Thomas Baker, will be found in the Gentleman's Magazine for August and September, 1791.]

82 (return)

[ Oldmixon would have us believe that Nottingham was not, at this time, unwilling to give up the Test Act. But Oldmixon's assertion, unsupported by evidence, is of no weight whatever; and all the evidence which he produces makes against his assertion.]

83 (return)

[ Burnet, ii. 6.; Van Citters to the States General, March 1/11 1689; King William's Toleration, being an explanation of that liberty of conscience which may be expected from His Majesty's Declaration, with a Bill for Comprehension and Indulgence, drawn up in order to an Act of Parliament, licensed March 25. 1689.]

84 (return)

[ Commons' Journals, May 17. 1689.]

85 (return)

[ Sense of the subscribed articles by the Ministers of London, 1690; Calamy's Historical Additions to Baxter's Life.]

86 (return)

[ The bill will be found among the Archives of the House of Lords. It is strange that this vast collection of important documents should have been altogether neglected, even by our most exact and diligent historians. It was opened to me by one of the most valued of my friends, Mr. John Lefevre; and my researches were greatly assisted by the kindness of Mr. Thoms.]

87 (return)

[ Among the Tanner MSS. in the Bodleian Library is a very curious letter from Compton to Sancroft, about the Toleration Bill and the Comprehension Bill, "These," says Compton, "are two great works in which the being of our Church is concerned: and I hope you will send to the House for copies. For, though we are under a conquest, God has given us favour in the eyes of our rulers; and they may keep our Church if we will." Sancroft seems to have returned no answer.]

88 (return)

[ The distaste of the High Churchman for the Articles is the subject of a curious pamphlet published in 1689, and entitled a Dialogue between Timothy and Titus.]

89 (return)

[ Tom Brown says, in his scurrilous way, of the Presbyterian divines of that time, that their preaching "brings in money, and money buys land; and land is an amusement they all desire, in spite of their hypocritical cant. If it were not for the quarterly contributions, there would be no longer schism or separation." He asks how it can be imagined that, while "they are maintained like gentlemen by the breach they will ever preach up healing doctrines?"—Brown's Amusements, Serious and Comical. Some curious instances of the influence exercised by the chief dissenting ministers may be found in Hawkins's Life of Johnson. In the Journal of the retired citizen (Spectator, 317.) Addison has indulged in some exquisite pleasantry on this subject. The Mr. Nisby whose opinions about the peace, the Grand Vizier, and laced coffee, are quoted with so much respect, and who is so well regaled with marrow bones, ox cheek, and a bottle of Brooks and Hellier, was John Nesbit, a highly popular preacher, who about the time of the Revolution, became pastor of a dissenting congregation in flare Court Aldersgate Street. In Wilson's History and Antiquities of Dissenting Churches and Meeting Houses in London, Westminster, and Southwark, will be found several instances of nonconformist preachers who, about this time, made handsome fortunes, generally, it should seem, by marriage.]

90 (return)

[ See, among many other tracts, Dodwell's Cautionary Discourse, his Vindication of the Deprived Bishops, his Defence of the Vindication, and his Paraenesis; and Bisby's Unity of Priesthood, printed in 1692. See also Hody's tracts on the other side, the Baroccian MS., and Solomon and Abiathar, a Dialogue between Eucheres and Dyscheres.]

91 (return)

[ Burnet, ii. 135. Of all attempts to distinguish between the deprivations of 1559 and the deprivations of 1689, the most absurd was made by Dodwell. See his Doctrine of the Church of England concerning the independency of the Clergy on the lay Power, 1697.]

92 (return)

[ As to this controversy, see Burnet, ii. 7, 8, 9.; Grey's Debates, April 19. and 22. 1689; Commons' Journals of April 20. and 22.; Lords' Journals, April 21.]

93 (return)

[ Lords' Journals, March 16. 1689.]

94 (return)

[ Burnet, ii. 7, 8.]

95 (return)

[ Burnet says (ii. 8.) that the proposition to abolish the sacramental test was rejected by a great majority in both Houses. But his memory deceived him; for the only division on the subject in the House of Commons was that mentioned in the text. It is remarkable that Gwyn and Rowe, who were tellers for the majority, were two of the strongest Whigs in the House.]

96 (return)

[ Lords' Journals, March 21. 1689.]

97 (return)

[ Lords' Journals, April 5. 1689; Burnet, ii. 10.]

98 (return)

[ Commons' Journals, March 28. April 1. 1689; Paris Gazette, April 23. Part of the passage in the Paris Gazette is worth quoting. "Il y eut, ce jour le (March 28), une grande contestation dans la Chambre Basse, sur la proposition qui fut faite de remettre les séences apres les fetes de Pasques observees toujours par l'Eglise Anglicane. Les Protestans conformistes furent de cet avis; et les Presbyterians emporterent a la pluralite des voix que les seances recommenceroient le Lundy, seconde feste de Pasques." The Low Churchmen are frequently designated as Presbyterians by the French and Dutch writers of that age. There were not twenty Presbyterians, properly so called, in the House of Commons. See A. Smith and Cutler's plain Dialogue about Whig and Tory, 1690.]

99 (return)

[ Accounts of what passed at the Conferences will be found in the Journals of the Houses, and deserve to be read.]

100 (return)

[ Journals, March 28. 1689; Grey's Debates.]

101 (return)

[ I will quote some expressions which have been preserved in the concise reports of these debates. Those expressions are quite decisive as to the sense in which the oath was understood by the legislators who framed it. Musgrave said, "There is no occasion for this proviso. It cannot be imagined that any bill from hence will ever destroy the legislative power." Pinch said, "The words established by law, hinder not the King from passing any bill for the relief of Dissenters. The proviso makes the scruple, and gives the occasion for it." Sawyer said, "This is the first proviso of this nature that ever was in any bill. It seems to strike at the legislative power." Sir Robert Cotton said, "Though the proviso looks well and Healing, yet it seems to imply a defect. Not able to alter laws as occasion requires! This, instead of one scruple, raises more, as if you were so bound up to the ecclesiastical government that you cannot make any new laws without such a proviso." Sir Thomas Lee said, "It will, I fear, creep in that other laws cannot be made without such a proviso therefore I would lay it aside."]

102 (return)

[ Lady Henrietta whom her uncle Clarendon calls "pretty little Lady Henrietta," and "the best child in the world" (Diary, Jan. 168-I), was soon after married to the Earl of Dalkeith, eldest son of the unfortunate Duke of Monmouth.]

103 (return)

[ The sermon deserves to be read. See the London Gazette of April 14. 1689; Evelyn's Diary; Narcissus Luttrell's Diary; and the despatch of the Dutch Ambassadors to the States General.]

104 (return)

[ A specimen of the prose which the Jacobites wrote on this subject will be found in the Somers Tracts. The Jacobite verses were generally too loathsome to be quoted. I select some of the most decent lines from a very rare lampoon:

"The eleventh of April has come about, To Westminster went the rabble rout, In order to crown a bundle of clouts, a dainty fine King indeed. "Descended he is from the Orange tree; But, if I can read his destiny, He'll once more descend from another tree, a dainty fine King indeed. "He has gotten part of the shape of a man, But more of a monkey, deny it who can; He has the head of a goose, but the legs of a crane, A dainty fine King indeed."

A Frenchman named Le Noble, who had been banished from his own country for his crimes, but, by the connivance of the police, lurked in Paris, and earned a precarious livelihood as a bookseller's hack published on this occasion two pasquinades, now extremely scarce, "Le Couronnement de Guillemot et de Guillemette, avec le Sermon du grand Docteur Burnet," and "Le Festin de Guillemot." In wit, taste and good sense, Le Noble's writings are not inferior to the English poem which I have quoted. He tells us that the Archbishop of York and the Bishop of London had a boxing match in the Abbey; that the champion rode up the Hall on an ass, which turned restive and kicked over the royal table with all the plate; and that the banquet ended in a fight between the peers armed with stools and benches, and the cooks armed with spits. This sort of pleasantry, strange to say, found readers; and the writer's portrait was pompously engraved with the motto "Latrantes ride: to tua fama manet."]

105 (return)

[ Reresby's Memoirs.]

106 (return)

[ For the history of the devastation of the Palatinate, see the Memoirs of La Fare, Dangeau, Madame de la Fayette, Villars, and Saint Simon, and the Monthly Mercuries for March and April, 1689. The pamphlets and broadsides are too numerous to quote. One broadside, entitled "A true Account of the barbarous Cruelties committed by the French in the Palatinate in January and February last," is perhaps the most remarkable.]

107 (return)

[ Memoirs of Saint Simon.]

108 (return)

[ I will quote a few lines from Leopold's letter to James: "Nunc autem quo loco res nostrae sint, ut Serenitati vestrae auxilium praestari possit a nobis, qui non Turcico tantum bello impliciti, sed insuper etiam crudelissimo et iniquissimo a Gallis, rerun suarum, ut putabant, in Anglia securis, contra datam fidem impediti sumus, ipsimet Serenitati vestrae judicandum relinquimus.... Galli non tantum in nostrum et totius Christianae orbis perniciem foedifraga arma cum juratis Sanctae Crucis hostibus sociare fas sibi ducunt; sed etiam in imperio, perfidiam perfidia cumulando, urbes deditione occupatas contra datam fidem immensis tributis exhaurire exhaustas diripere, direptas funditus exscindere aut flammis delere Palatia Principum ab omni antiquitate inter saevissima bellorum incendia intacta servata exurere, templa spoliare, dedititios in servitutem more apud barbaros usitato abducere, denique passim, imprimis vero etiam in Catholicorum ditionibus, alia horrenda, et ipsam Turcorum tyrannidem superantia immanitatis et saevitiae exempla edere pro ludo habent."]

109 (return)

[ See the London Gazettes of Feb. 25. March 11. April 22. May 2. and the Monthly Mercuries. Some of the Declarations will be found in Dumont's Corps Universel Diplomatique.]

110 (return)

[ Commons Journals, April 15. 16. 1689.]

111 (return)

[ Oldmixon.]

112 (return)

[ Commons' Journals, April 19. 24. 26. 1689.]

113 (return)

[ The Declaration is dated on the 7th of May, but was not published in the London Gazette till the 13th.]

114 (return)

[ The general opinion of the English on this subject is clearly expressed in a little tract entitled "Aphorisms relating to the Kingdom of Ireland," which appeared during the vacancy of the throne.]

115 (return)

[ King's State of the Protestants of Ireland, ii. 6. and iii. 3.]

116 (return)

[ King, iii. 3. Clarendon, in a letter to Rochester (June 1. 1686), calls Nugent "a very troublesome, impertinent creature."]

117 (return)

[ King, iii. 3.]

118 (return)

[ King, ii. 6., iii. 3. Clarendon, in a letter to Ormond (Sep. 28. 1686), speaks highly of Nagle's knowledge and ability, but in the Diary (Jan. 31. 1686/7) calls him "a covetous, ambitious man."]

119 (return)

[ King, ii. 5. 1, iii. 3. 5.; A Short View of the Methods made use of in Ireland for the Subversion and Destruction of the Protestant Religion and Interests, by a Clergyman lately escaped from thence, licensed Oct. 17. 1689.]

120 (return)

[ King, iii. 2. I cannot find that Charles Leslie, who was zealous on the other side, has, in his Answer to King, contradicted any of these facts. Indeed Leslie gives up Tyrconnel's administration. "I desire to obviate one objection which I know will be made, as if I were about wholly to vindicate all that the Lord Tyrconnel and other of King James's ministers have done in Ireland, especially before this revolution began, and which most of any thing brought it on. No; I am far from it. I am sensible that their carriage in many particulars gave greater occasion to King James's enemies than all the other in maladministrations which were charged upon his government." Leslie's Answer to King, 1692.]

121 (return)

[ A True and Impartial Account of the most material Passages in Ireland since December 1688, by a Gentleman who was an Eyewitness; licensed July 22. 1689.]

122 (return)

[ True and Impartial Account, 1689; Leslie's Answer to King, 1692.]

123 (return)

[ There have been in the neighbourhood of Killarney specimens of the arbutus thirty feet high and four feet and a half round. See the Philosophical Transactions, 227.]

124 (return)