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Illegal Reflections Of An
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.
and wishes were fixed on England. In the north, as soon as
Londonderry was put down, it was easy for James to go across to
Scotland, there to commence the campaign for the recovery of the
English crown. But this was the very thing which his Irish partisans
dreaded. They felt certain that if James recovered the English
throne, they should be left to contend with the colonists of Ulster
themselves; and the victorious ascendency of that small but sturdy
body of people was too vividly burnt into their minds by ages of their
domination. They therefore counselled James to remain as a king at
Dublin, and leave his generals to put down the opposition in the
north; and in this they were zealously seconded by D'Avaux and the
French. James on the throne of England would be a very different
person to James on the throne of Ireland only. In the one case, if he
succeeded, he might ere long become independent of Louis; if he
failed, the English Protestant king would soon subdue Ireland to his
sway. But if James continued only monarch of Ireland, he must
continue wholly dependent on Louis. He could only maintain himself
there by his aid in men and money, and then Ireland would become
gradually a French colony—a dependence most flattering to the
pride and power of France—a perpetual thorn in the side of England.
The contention between the two parties was fierce, and Tyrconnel
joined with the French and Irish in advising James to remain at
Dublin. On the other hand, Melfort and the English pointed out to
him the immense advantage to his prospects to settle the last
remains of disaffection in the north, and to appear again in arms in
his chief kingdom, where they persuaded him that the Highlanders
and all the Catholic and Royalist English would now flock to his
standard. William, they assured him, was to the highest degree
unpopular; a powerful party in Scotland were opposed to him, and in
the ascendant. These views prevailed. James, attended by D'Avaux
and the French officers, set out for Ulster. The journey was again
through a country blasted by the horrors of war and robbery. There
was no fodder for their horses, scarcely a roof to shelter the heads
of the travellers; and, after a long and terrible journey, plunging and
struggling through deep roads, and bogs where there was no road at
all, famished and worn out by fatigue, they reached Charlemont on
the 13th of April. When James at length arrived before Londonderry,
the fall of that place did not appear likely to be quite so early an
event as he had been led to believe. Rosen, however, treated lightly
the resistance which the inhabitants could make. The walls of the
town were old, the ditches could scarcely be discerned, the gates
and drawbridges were in disorder, and the town was commanded at
various points by heights from which artillery might play upon it.
What was still more favourable to James, it was well known that
Lundy, the governor, was a traitor. Rosen was placed in the chief
command, and Maumont next to him over the head of Hamilton.
Lundy meanwhile depressed the spirits of the people within by
telling them that it was useless to attempt to defend such a place,
and kept up a secret correspondence with the enemy without,
informing them of all that passed there, and of its weak points and
condition. He did more—he contrived to send away succours which
arrived from England. Colonel Cunningham appeared in the bay with
a fleet having on board two regiments for the defence of the place.
Cunningham and his chief officers went on shore and waited on the
governor. Lundy called a council, taking care to exclude all but his
own creatures; and these informed Cunningham that it was mere
waste of men and money to land them; the town was perfectly
indefensible; and that, in fact, he was going to surrender it. His
supporters confirmed this view of the case, and Cunningham and his
officers withdrew, and soon after made sail homeward, to the
despair of the inhabitants; Lundy, as he saw them depart, sending
word into the enemy's camp that he was ready to surrender.
But the spirit of the inhabitants was now roused. They openly
declared Lundy a traitor, and, if they could have found him, would
have killed him on the spot. He had, however, concealed himself,
and at night was enabled, by connivance of his friends, to escape
over the walls in disguise. As night approached, the people, to their
astonishment, found the gates set open, and the keys were not to
be found. People said they had seen the confederates of Lundy
stealing out, and the alarm flew through the place. The townsmen
came together, and called all to arms by beat of drum. A message
was despatched to Cunningham to bring in his forces; but he was
already on the move, and declared that his orders permitted him
only to follow the commands of the governor.
Thus deserted, the inhabitants courageously resolved to depend on
their own energies. They placed Major Baker and Captain Murray at
the head of the armed citizens, who amounted to seven thousand,
many of them Ulster gentlemen of family, and endowed with all the
dauntless spirit which had made them so long masters of the north
of Ireland. At this moment, too, the Rev. George Walker, the Rector
of Donaghmore, who had been driven in along with the rest of the
fugitives, displayed that spirit, eloquence, and ability which inspired
the whole place with a wonderful enthusiasm, and which have made
his name famous amongst the Protestant patriots of Ireland. Walker
was appointed joint governor with Major Baker, and they set
themselves to work to organise their armed people into military
bodies with their proper officers, to place cannon on all the most
effective points, and post sentinels on the walls and at the gates.
The forces of James were already drawn up before the place,
expecting the promised surrender of Lundy. Presently a trumpeter
appeared at the southern gate, and demanded the fulfilment of the
governor's engagement. He was answered that the governor had no
longer any command there. The next day, the 20th of April, James
sent Lord Strabane, a Catholic peer of Ireland, offering a free pardon
for all past offences on condition of an immediate surrender, and a
bribe to Captain Murray, who was sent to hold a parley with him, of
a thousand pounds and a colonelcy in the royal army. Murray
repelled the offer with contempt, and advised Strabane, if he valued
his safety, to make the best of his way out of gunshot.
At this unexpected answer, James displayed the same pusillanimity
which marked his conduct when he fled from England. Instead of
ordering the place to be stormed, he lost heart, and, though he had
been only eleven days before the town, set off back to Dublin, taking
Count Rosen with him, and leaving Maumont in command, with
Hamilton and Pusignan under him. Then the siege was pushed on
with spirit. The batteries were opened on the town, to which the
townsmen replied vigorously; and, on the 21st of April, made a
desperate sally under Captain Murray, killed General Maumont and
two hundred of the Irish, and, under cover of a strong fire kept up
by a party headed by Walker, regained the town. The siege under
Hamilton, who succeeded to the command, then languished. On the
4th of May the townspeople made another sally, and killed Pusignan.
After this sallies became frequent, the bold men of Londonderry
carried off several officers prisoners into the town, and two flags of
the French, which they hung up in the cathedral. It was at length
resolved by the besiegers to carry the place by storm, but they were
repelled with great loss, the very women joining in the mêlée, and
carrying ammunition and refreshments to the defenders on the
walls. As the storming of the town was found to be impracticable,
Hamilton commenced a blockade. The troops were drawn round the
place, and a strong boom thrown across the river, and the besiegers
awaited the progress of famine.
All this time the people of Enniskillen had been making a noble
diversion. They had marched out into the surrounding country,
levied contributions of provisions from the native Irish, and given
battle to and defeated several considerable bodies of troops sent
against them. They took and sacked Belturbet, and carried off a
great quantity of provisions; they made skirmishing parties, and
scoured the country in the rear of the army besieging Londonderry,
cutting off straggling foragers, and impeding supplies. The news of
the continued siege of Londonderry, and the heroic conduct of the
people of both these places, raised a wonderful enthusiasm in
England on their behalf. Lundy, who had reached London, and
Cunningham, who had brought back his regiments, were arrested,
and Lundy was thrown into the Tower and Cunningham into the
Gatehouse. Kirke was also dispatched with a body of troops from
Liverpool to relieve the besieged in Londonderry. On the 15th of
June his squadron was discerned approaching, and wonderful was
the exultation when it was ascertained that Kirke had arrived with
troops, arms, ammunition, and supplies of food.
It was high time that relief should have come, for they were reduced
to the most direful extremities, and were out of cannon-ball, and
nearly out of powder. But they were doomed to a horrible
disappointment. Kirke, who could be bold enough in perpetrating
barbarities on defenceless people, was too faint-hearted to attempt
forcing the boom in the river, and relieving the place. He drew off his
fleet to the entrance of Lough Foyle, and lay there in tantalising
inactivity. His presence, instead of benefiting them, brought fresh
horrors upon them; for no sooner did James in Dublin learn that
there was a chance of Kirke's throwing in fresh forces and
provisions, than he dispatched Rosen to resume the command, with
orders to take the place at all costs.
This Rosen, who was a Russian, from Livonia, was a brutal savage,
and vowed that he would take the place, or roast the inhabitants
alive. He first began by endeavouring to undermine the walls; but
the besieged so briskly attacked the sappers, that they soon killed a
hundred of them, and compelled them to retire. Filled with fury,
Rosen swore that he would raze the walls to the ground, and
massacre every creature in the town,—men, women, and children.
He flung a shell into the place, to which was attached a threat that,
if they did not at once surrender, he would collect from the whole
country round all the people, their friends and relatives, the women,
the children, the aged, drive them under the walls, and keep them
there till they perished. He knew that the besieged could give them
no support, for they were perishing fast themselves from famine,
and its attendant fevers and diseases. The fighting men were so
weak that they often fell down in endeavouring to strike a blow at
the enemy. They were living on dogs, rats, any vile thing they could
seize. They had eaten up all the horses to three, which were mere
skin and bone. They had salted the hides and chewed them to keep
down their ravening hunger. There were some amongst them who
began to talk of eating the bodies of those who fell in the action.
Numbers perished daily in their houses of exhaustion, and the
stench arising from the unburied dead was terrible and pestilential.
Many of their best men had died from fever, amongst them Major
Baker, their military governor, and Colonel Mitchelbourne had been
elected in his place. They were reduced to fire brickbats instead of
cannon-balls; and their walls were so battered, that it was not they
but their own spirit which kept out the enemy. Yet, amid these
horrors, they treated the menace with silent contempt, and sent out
an order that any one even uttering the word "Surrender," should be
instantly put to death.
The savage Rosen put his menace into force. He drove the wretched
people from the country, at the point of the pike, under the walls.
On the 2nd of July this melancholy crowd of many hundreds was
seen by the besieged from the walls, hemmed in between the town
and the army—old men incapable of bearing arms, miserable
women, and lamenting children, where, without food or shelter, they
were cooped up between their enemies and their friends, who could
not help them. Many of these unhappy people had protections under
James's own hand, but Rosen cared not for that. For two days and
nights this woful throng of human beings was kept there, in spite of
the strong remonstrances of Hamilton and other English officers,
who were not accustomed to such devilish modes of war. The
indignant men in Londonderry erected gallows on the walls, and sent
Rosen word that, unless he let the perishing people go, they would
hang up the principal of their prisoners. But it was not till many of
the victims had died, and a storm of indignation at this unheard-of
barbarity assailed him in his own camp, that Rosen opened his ranks
and allowed the poor wretches to depart.
James, who was himself by no means of the melting mood, was
shocked when he heard of this diabolical barbarity, and the
comments upon it amongst those around him. He recalled Rosen
and restored the command to Hamilton. Then the siege again went
on with redoubled fury, and all the last expiring strength of the
besieged was required to sustain it. Hamilton also terrified them by
continual ruses and false rumours. He ordered his soldiers to raise a
loud shout, and the besieged to be informed that Enniskillen had
fallen, and that now there was no hope whatever for them. The
besieged were so depressed by this news, for they had no means of
testing it, that they offered to capitulate, but could obtain no terms
that they could accept. And all this time the imbecile or base Kirke
was lying within a few miles of them with abundance of provisions,
and a force capable with ease of forcing its way to them. He had
even the cruelty to send in a secret message to Walker that he was
coming in full force, and then to lie still again for more than a
fortnight. At length, however, he received a peremptory order from
William to force the boom and relieve the town. No sooner did this
order reach him than he showed with what ease he could have
accomplished this at first, six weeks ago. The boom was burst
asunder by two vessels—the Mountjoy and Phœnix—dashing
themselves against it, while they were covered by a third, the
Dartmouth, and the place was open (July 30) to the conveyance of
the troops and the provisions. Kirke was invited to take the
command, and the Irish camp, despairing of any success, drew off
on the 1st of August, and raised this most memorable siege, in
which four out of the seven thousand defenders perished, besides a
multitude of other inhabitants, amounting, according to some
calculations, to eight or nine thousand souls. On the side of the Irish
as many are said to have fallen; and of the thirty-six French gunners
who directed the cannonade, all had been killed but five. Besides the
miseries endured in the town, those of the poor people who survived
being driven under the walls found, on their return to what had been
their homes, that they were their homes no longer. Their villages,
crops, ricks, buildings, all had been burnt down, and the whole
country laid waste.
 THE "MOUNTJOY" AND "PHŒNIX" BREAKING THE BOOM AT
LONDONDERRY. (See p. 416.)
[See larger version]
The Enniskilleners had meanwhile been actively engaged against
other detachments of James's army, but had bravely beaten them
off, and on the same day that Londonderry was relieved had won a
signal victory over them at Newton Butler, attacking five thousand
Irish under General Macarthy, though they themselves numbered
only about three hundred, and killing, it is said, two thousand, and
driving five hundred more into Lough Erne, where they were
drowned. This decisive defeat of the Irish hastened the retreat of
the army retiring from Londonderry. They fled towards Dublin in
haste and terror, leaving behind their baggage. Sarsfield abandoned
Sligo, and James was on the very point of abandoning Dublin in the
midst of the panic that seized it. At the same time came from
Scotland the news of the death of Dundee at Killiecrankie; and on
the 13th of August Marshal Schomberg landed at Carrickfergus with
an army of sixteen thousand, composed of English, Scots, Dutch,
Danes, and French Huguenots. Matters were fast assuming a serious
aspect for James; his affairs not only in the field, but his civil
government, falling every day into a more ominous condition.

LANDING OF MARSHAL SCHOMBERG AT CARRICKFERGUS. (See p. 416.)

[See larger version]
One reason for James quitting the siege of Londonderry in person
was that the time for the assembling of his Irish Parliament drew
near. No sooner did he reach Dublin than he was met by the news
that the English fleet under Admiral Herbert had been beaten by the
French at Bantry Bay. Herbert had been ordered to intercept the
French fleet between Brest and Ireland; but he had missed it, and
James had safely landed. Whilst he was still beating about, a second
squadron, under Chateau Renard, had also made its way over, and
anchored with the first in Bantry Bay. On Herbert discovering them
there, confident in their superior numbers, they came out, and there
was a sharp fight. In the evening Herbert sheered off towards the
Scilly Isles, and the French with great exultation, as in a victory,
returned into the bay. James found the French at Dublin in high
spirits at the unusual circumstance of beating English sailors; but his
English adherents were by no means pleased with this triumphing
over their countrymen, hostile though they were; and James, who
had always prided himself on the English navy, is said, when D'Avaux
boasted how the French had beaten the English, to have replied
gloomily, "It is the first time." Even the English exiles in France
showed a similar mortification, though the French victory, such as it
was, was in their cause. Both sides, however, claimed the victory. In
England Parliament voted thanks to Herbert; in Dublin James
ordered bonfires and a Te Deum.
On the 7th of May, the day after the Te Deum, James met his
Parliament. What sort of a Parliament it was, and what it was likely
to do in Ireland may be surmised from the fact that there were only
six Protestants in the whole House of Commons, consisting of two
hundred and fifty members. Only fourteen lords appeared to his
summons, and of these only four were Protestants. By new
creations, and by reversal of attainders against Catholic peers, he
managed to add seventeen more members to the Upper House, all
Catholics, so that in the whole Parliament there were only ten
Protestants, and four of these were the Bishops of Meath, Ossory,
Cork, and Limerick. The majority of these members were not only
Catholic, eager to visit upon the Protestants all the miseries and
spoliations which the latter had inflicted on them, but they were men
totally unaccustomed to the business of legislation or government,
from having been long excluded from such functions, and
condemned to pass their time on their estates in that half savage
condition which qualified them rather for bandits than for lawgivers
and magistrates.
James's first act was that of complete toleration of liberty of
conscience to all Christian denominations. This sounded well, and
was in perfect keeping with his declarations and endeavours in
England for which he had been driven out, and England had now an
opportunity of observing with what justice; of judging whether or
not his real object had been wrongfully suspected. In his speech
from the throne, he reverted with great pride to these endeavours,
and to his determination still to be the liberator of conscience. This
was language worthy of the noblest lawgiver that ever existed; but,
unfortunately, James's English subjects never could be persuaded of
his sincerity, and did not believe that this happiness would arrive as
the result of his indulgence. The very next Act which he now passed
decided that they had not mistrusted him without cause. Scarcely
had he passed the Act of Toleration, when he followed it up by the
repeal of the Act of Settlement, by which the Protestants held their
estates, and their rights and liberties in Ireland. This just and
tolerant monarch thus, at one stroke, handed over the whole
Protestant body to the mercy of the Irish Catholics, and to one
universal doom of confiscation. The Bill was received with exultation
by this Parliament, which portended all the horrors which were to
follow.
But there were other parties whose estates were not derived from
the Act of Settlement, but from purchase, and another Act was
passed to include them. It was a Bill confiscating the property of all
who had aided or abetted the Prince of Orange in his attempt on the
Crown, or who were absent and did not return to their homes before
the 5th of October. The number of persons included in this great Act
of Attainder, as it was called, amounted to between two and three
thousand, including men of all ranks from the highest noble to the
simplest freeholder. All the property of absentees above seventeen
years of age was transferred to the king. The most unbounded lust
of robbery and revenge was thus kindled in the public mind. Every
one who wanted his neighbour's property, or had a grudge against
him, hurried to give in his name to the Clerk of the House of
Commons, and, without any or much inquiry, it was inserted in the
Bill.
To make the separation of England and Ireland complete, and to set
up the most effectual barrier against his own authority, should he
again regain the throne of England, James permitted his Parliament
to pass an Act declaring that the Parliament of England had no
power or authority over Ireland, and this contrary to the provisions
of Poynings' Act, which gave the initiative power to the English
Council, and made every Irish Act invalid unless first submitted to
the King and Council of England.
Having transferred the property of the laity back to the Irish, another
Act made as sweeping a conveyance of that of the Church from the
Protestant to the Catholic clergy. Little regard had been had to
Catholic rights in piling property on the Protestant hierarchy, and as
little was shown in taking it back again. The Anglican clergy were left
in a condition of utter destitution, and more than this, they were not
safe if they appeared in public. They were hooted, pelted, and
sometimes fired at. All colleges and schools from which the
Protestants had excluded the Catholics were now seized and
employed as Popish seminaries or monasteries. The College of
Dublin was turned into a barrack and a prison. No Protestants were
allowed to appear together in numbers more than three, on pain of
death. This was James's notion of the liberty of conscience, and a
tender regard for "every man's rights and liberties." It was a fine
lesson, too, for the clergy and gentry who had welcomed him to
Ireland as the friends of passive obedience. They had now enough
of that doctrine, and went over pretty rapidly to a different notion.
The Protestants everywhere were overrun by soldiers and rapparees.
Their estates were seized, their houses plundered, their persons
insulted and abused, and a more fearful condition of things never
existed in any country at any time. The officers of the army sold the
Protestants protections, which were no longer regarded when fresh
marauders wanted more money.
This model Parliament voted twenty thousand pounds a year to
Tyrconnel for bringing this state of things about, and twenty
thousand pounds a month to the king. But the country was so
completely desolated, and its trade so completely destroyed by this
reign of terror and of licence, that James did not find the taxes come
in very copiously; and he resorted to a means of making money
plentiful worthy of himself. He collected all the old pots, pans, brass
knockers, old cannon, and metal in almost any shape, and coined
clumsy money out of them, on which he put about a hundred times
their intrinsic value. The consequence was that shopkeepers refused
to receive this base coin. All men to whom debts were due, or who
had mortgages on other men's property, were opposed to having
them discharged by a heap of metal which in a few weeks might be
worth only a few pence a pound. Those who refused such payment
were arrested, and menaced with being hanged at their own doors.
Many were thrown into prison, and trade and intercourse were
plunged into a condition of the wildest anarchy. The whole country
was a scene of violence, confusion, and distress. Such was the state
of Ireland and of James's Court when, as we have seen, Schomberg
landed with his army at Carrickfergus on the 23rd of August, and
roused James, his Court, and the whole country to a sense of their
danger, and of the necessity for one great and universal effort. A
spirit of new life seemed to animate them, and James, receiving
fresh hope from the sight, marched from Dublin at the head of his
troops to encounter Schomberg.
During the summer the Court of William had not been an enviable
place. In the spring the Parliament had proceeded to reverse the
judgments which had been passed in the last reign against Lord
William Russell, Algernon Sidney, the Earl of Devonshire, Cornish,
Alice Lisle, and Samuel Johnson. Some of the Whigs who had
suffered obtained pecuniary compensation, but Johnson obtained
none. He was deemed by the Whigs to be too violent—in fact, he
was a Radical of that day. The scoundrel Titus Oates crawled again
from his obscurity, and, by help of his old friends the Whigs,
managed to obtain a pension of three hundred pounds a year. This
done, there was an attempt to convert the Declaration of Rights into
a Bill of Rights—thus giving it all the authority of Parliamentary law;
and in this Bill it was proposed, in case of William, Mary, and Anne
all dying without issue, to settle the succession on the Duchess
Sophia of Brunswick Lüneburg, the daughter of the Queen of
Bohemia, and granddaughter of James I.; but it failed for the time. A
Bill of Indemnity was also brought in as an Act of oblivion of all past
offences; but this too was rejected. The triumphant Whigs, so far
from being willing to forgive the Tories who had supported James,
and had been their successful opponents during the attempts
through Titus Oates and his fellow-plotters to exclude James from
the succession, were now clamorous for their blood and ruin. William
refused to comply with their truculent desires, and became, in
consequence, the object of their undisguised hatred. They
particularly directed their combined efforts against Danby, now Earl
of Caermarthen, and Halifax. They demanded that Caermarthen
should be dismissed from the office of President of the Council, and
Halifax from holding the Privy Seal, and being Speaker of the House
of Lords. But William steadfastly resisted their demands, and
declared that he had done enough for them and their friends, and
would do no more especially in the direction of vengeance against
such as were disposed to live quietly and serve the State faithfully.
On the 19th of October the second session of William's first
Parliament met. The Commons were liberal in voting supplies; they
granted at once two million pounds, and declared that they would
support the king to the utmost of their ability in reducing Ireland to
his authority, and in prosecuting the war with France. The required
sum was to be levied partly by a poll-tax, partly by new duties on
tea, coffee, and chocolate, partly by an assessment of one hundred
thousand pounds on the Jews, but chiefly by a tax on real property.
The Jews, however, protested that they would sooner quit the
kingdom than submit to the imposition, and that source was
abandoned. The Commons next took up the Bill of Rights, and
passed it, omitting the clause respecting the succession of the House
of Brunswick, which measure was not brought forward again for
eleven years. They, however, took care, at the suggestion of Burnet
to insert a clause that no person who should marry a Papist should
be capable of ascending the throne; and if any one on the throne so
married, the subjects should be absolved from their allegiance.
After thus demonstrating their zeal for maintaining the throne in
affluence and power, the Commons next proceeded to display it in a
careful scrutiny of the mode in which the last supplies had been
spent. The conduct of both army and navy had not been such as to
satisfy the public. The Commons had, indeed, not only excused the
defeat of Herbert at Bantry Bay, but even thanked him for it as
though it had been a victory. But neither had Schomberg effected
anything in Ireland; and he loudly complained that it was impossible
to fight with an army that was not supplied with the necessary food,
clothing, or ammunition. This led to a searching scrutiny into the
commissariat department, William himself being the foremost in the
inquiry, and the most frightful peculation and abuses were brought
to light. The muskets and other arms fell to pieces in the soldiers'
hands; and, when fever and pestilence were decimating the camp
there was not a drug to be found, though one thousand seven
hundred pounds had been charged Government for medicines. What
baggage and supplies there were could not be got to the army for
want of horses to draw the waggons; and the very cavalry went
afoot, because Shales, the Commissary-General, had let out the
horses destined for this service to the farmers of Cheshire to do their
work. The meat for the men stank, the brandy was so foully
adulterated that it produced sickness and severe pains. In the navy
the case was the same; and Herbert, now Lord Torrington, was
severely blamed for not being personally at the fleet to see into the
condition of his sailors, but was screened from deserved punishment
by his connections. The king was empowered by Parliament at
length to appoint a Commission of Inquiry to discover the whole
extent of the evil, and to take remedies against its recurrence.

FIVE-GUINEA PIECE OF WILLIAM AND MARY.

 CROWN OF WILLIAM AND MARY.

FOURPENNY PIECE OF WILLIAM AND MARY.

Then the Commons reverted again to their fierce party warfare.

Whigs and Tories manifested an equal desire to crush their
opponents if they had the power, and they kept William in a constant
state of uneasiness by their mutual ferocity, and their alternate
eagerness to force him into persecution and blood. Edmund Ludlow,
one of the regicides, who had managed to escape the murderous
vengeance of Charles and James, but whose companion, John Lisle,
had fallen by the hands of Charles's assassins at Lausanne, had
been persuaded that he might now return to England unmolested.
But he soon found that he was mistaken. The Tories vehemently
demanded his arrest of the king, and William was obliged to promise
compliance; but he appeared in no haste in issuing the warrant; and
probably a hint was given to Ludlow, for he escaped again to the
Continent, and there remained till his death.

HALFPENNY OF WILLIAM AND MARY.

On the other hand, the Whigs were as unrelaxing in their desire of
persecuting the Tories. They refused to proceed with the Indemnity
Bill, which William was anxious to get passed as a final preventive of
their deadly intentions. They arrested and sent to the Tower the
Earls of Peterborough and Salisbury for going over from their party
to that of James in the last reign, in order to impeach them of high
treason. The same was done to Sir Edward Hales and Obadiah
Walker. They appointed a committee to inquire into the share of
various individuals in the deaths of Lord William Russell, Sidney, and
others of the Whig party. The committee was termed "the
Committee of Murder," and they summoned such of the judges, law
officers of the Crown, and others as had taken part in these
prosecutions. Sir Dudley North and Halifax were called before them,
and underwent a severe examination; but they did not succeed in
establishing a charge sufficient to commit them upon. Halifax had
already resigned the Speakership of the House of Lords, and they
sought to bring William to deprive him of the Privy Seal. In these
proceedings of the Commons, John Hampden, the grandson of the
great patriot, and John Howe, were the most violent. Hampden went
the length of saying that William ought to dismiss every man who
had gone over to him from the late king, and ought not to employ
any one who entertained Republican principles. This declaration,
from a man who had himself been a full-length Republican and the
friend of Sidney, threw the House into a roar of laughter; but that
did not abash Hampden. On behalf of a committee of the Commons,
he drew up an address so violent that it was altogether dropped,
calling on the king to dismiss the authors of the late malversations
and the consequent failures of the army and navy.
The Whigs next brought in a Bill to restore to the corporations their
charters, which had been taken away by Charles II.; but, not
content with the legitimate fact of the restoration of these ancient
rights, they again seized on this as an opportunity for inflicting a
blow on the Tories. They introduced at the instigation of William
Sacheverell, a clause disqualifying for seven years every mayor,
recorder, common councilman, or other officer who had been in any
way a party to the surrender of these charters. They added a
penalty of five hundred pounds and perpetual disqualification for
every person who, in violation of this clause, should presume to hold
office in any corporation. They declared that if the Lords should
hesitate to pass this Bill, they would withhold the supplies till it was
acquiesced in.
But William did not hesitate to express his displeasure with the Bill,
and with the indecent hurry with which it was pushed forward. A
short delay was interposed, and meanwhile the news of the intended
passing of the Bill was carried into every quarter of the kingdom,
and the Tories, Peers and Commons, who had gone down to their
estates for Christmas, hastened up to town to oppose it. The battle
was furious. The Whigs flattered themselves that, if they carried this
Bill, the returns to the next Parliament would be such that they
should be able to exclude their opponents from all power and place.
After a fierce and prolonged debate, the Bill was thrown out, and the
Tories, elated by their victory, again brought forward the Indemnity
Bill; but this time they were defeated in turn, and the Whigs
immediately proceeded with their design of converting this Bill into
one of pains and penalties; and to show that they were in earnest,
they summoned Sir Robert Sawyer before the House for his part in
the prosecution of the Whigs in the last reign. He had been
Attorney-General, and conducted some of the worst cases which
were decided under Jeffreys and his unprincipled colleagues, with a
spirit which had made him peculiarly odious. The case of Sir Thomas
Armstrong was in particular brought forward—a very flagrant one.
Sir Thomas had been charged with being engaged in the Rye House
plot. He had escaped to the Netherlands, but the authorities having
been bribed to give him up, he was brought back, and hanged,
without a hearing, as an outlaw. It was a barbarous case, and
deserved the severest condemnation. But it was pleaded, on the
other hand, that Sawyer had rendered great services to the Whig
cause; that he had stoutly resisted the attempts of James to
introduce Popery and despotism; that he had resigned his office
rather than advocate the Dispensing Power, and had undertaken the
defence of the seven bishops. No matter; he was excepted from
indemnity and expelled the House. A committee of the whole House
proceeded to make out a complete list of all the offenders to be
excluded from the benefit of the Bill.
This brought William to a resolve which, if carried into effect, would
have given a death-blow to the Whig party, and have neutralised the
glory of their accomplishment of the Revolution. He sent for his chief
ministers, and announced to them his determination to relinquish
the fruitless task of endeavouring to govern a country thus torn to
pieces by faction; that he was weary of the whole concern, and
would return to Holland, never more to meddle with English affairs,
but abandon them to the queen; that for ten months he had been
vainly endeavouring to make peace between the factions of Whig
and Tory, and to prevent them from rushing at each other's throats;
that they clearly regarded nothing but their mutual animosities, for
in their indulgence they utterly neglected the urgent affairs of the
nation. Their enemy was in Ireland, yet it had no effect in bringing
them to their senses. Still worse, every department of the
Government was overrun with corruption, peculation, and neglect.
The public service was paralysed; the public peace was entirely
destroyed; and as for himself, with far from robust health and with
the duty of settling the Government upon him, it was useless further
to contend; he could contend no longer. A squadron was ready to
bear him away, and he could only hope that they would show more
regard to the wishes of the queen than they had to his.
Whether William was in earnest, or whether he only had recourse to
a ruse to bring the combatants to their senses, the result was the
same. The ministers stood confounded. To drive the king from the
country by their quarrels, and that at a time when the old and
implacable enemy of Protestantism and liberty was at their doors,
would be a blow to freedom and to their own credit from which the
most disastrous consequences must flow. They entreated him on
their knees and with tears to forego this design, promising all that
he could desire. William at length consented to make one more trial;
but it was only on condition that the Bill of Indemnity should pass,
and that he should himself proceed to Ireland, and endeavour, by his
own personal and determined effort, to drive James thence.
Accordingly, on January 27, 1690, he called together the two
Houses, and, announcing his intention to proceed to Ireland,
declared the Parliament dissolved, amid the utmost signs of
consternation in the Whigs, and shouts of exultation from the Tories.
This act of William's to defeat the malice of the Whigs, and his
continued firm resistance to their endeavours to fine and disqualify
the Tories, had a wonderful effect on that party. A numerous body of
them deputed Sir John Lowther to carry their thanks to the king, and
assure him that they would serve him with all their hearts and
influence. Numbers of them who had hitherto stood aloof began to
appear at Court, and attended the levee to kiss the king's hand.
William gave orders to liberate those whom the Whigs had sent to
prison on charges of treason.
On the 1st of February the hour arrived in which all ecclesiastics who
had neglected to take the Oaths of Allegiance and Supremacy would
be deposed. A considerable number of them came in in time; but
Sancroft, the Primate, and five of his bishops, stood out, and were
deprived of their bishoprics, but were treated with particular lenity.
It was soon found that the conduct of the Whigs had alienated a
great mass of the people. Their endeavours, by Sacheverell's clause,
to disqualify all who had consented to the surrender of the
corporation charters, had made mortal enemies of those persons,
many of whom were at the moment the leading members of the
corporations, and therefore possessing the highest influence on the
return of members to the new Parliament. The same was the case in
the country, amongst those who had been sheriffs or other officers
at that period. The consequence was that the Tories returned a
decided majority to the new House, and amongst them came up Sir
Robert Sawyer from Cambridge, whilst the violence of Hampden had
caused his exclusion.
The revival of the Tory influence introduced great changes in the
ministry. Halifax resigned the Privy Seal. Mordaunt—now Earl of
Monmouth—Delamere, Sidney Godolphin, and Admiral Herbert—now
Earl of Torrington—were dismissed. Caermarthen was continued
Lord President of the Council, and Prime Minister. Sir John Lowther
was appointed First Lord of the Treasury, in place of Monmouth.
Nottingham retained his post as Secretary of State; and Thomas
Herbert, Earl of Pembroke, was placed at the head of the Admiralty,
Torrington having, to his great discontent, to yield that position, but
retaining that of High Admiral, and being satisfied by a splendid
grant of ten thousand acres of Crown land in the Peterborough fens.
Delamere, too, was soothed on his dismissal by being created Earl of
Warrington. Richard Hampden became Chancellor of the Exchequer.
Parliament met on the 20th of March, and the Commons, under the
new Tory influence, elected Sir John Trevor Speaker, who was
besides made First Commissioner of the Great Seal. In this man is
said to have commenced that system of Government corruption of
Parliament—the buying up, or buying off of members, which grew to
such a height, and attained its climax under Sir Robert Walpole.
Trevor was an unscrupulous Tory, and Burnet says he was "furnished
with such sums of money as might purchase some votes." He
undertook, accordingly, to manage the party in the House. The
Whigs were in the worst of humours, but they had now learnt that it
was not wise to push matters with the Crown too far, and as a body
they watched their opportunity for recovering by degrees their
ascendency. Some of the more violent, however, as the Earl of
Shrewsbury and the notorious Ferguson, entered into immediate
correspondence with James.
William, in his opening speech, dwelt chiefly on the necessity of
settling the revenue, to enable him to proceed to Ireland, and on
passing the Bill of Indemnity; and he was very plain in expressing his
sense of the truculent spirit of party, which, in endeavouring to
wound one another, injured and embarrassed his Government still
more. He informed them that he had drawn up an Act of Grace,
constituting the Bill of Indemnity, and should send it to them for
their acceptance; for it is the practice for all such Acts to proceed
from the Crown, and then to be voted by the Peers, and finally by
the Commons. He then informed them that he left the administration
during his absence in Ireland in the hands of the Queen; and he
desired that if any Act was necessary for the confirmation of that
authority, they should pass it. The Commons at once passed a vote
of thanks, and engaged to support the Government of their
Majesties by every means in their power. On the 27th of March they
passed unanimously the four following resolutions—namely, that all
the hereditary revenues of King James, except the hearth-tax, were
vested now in their present Majesties; that a Bill should be brought
in to declare and perpetuate this investment; that the moiety of the
excise granted to Charles and James should be secured by Bill to
their present Majesties for life; and finally, that the customs which
had been granted to Charles and James for their lives should be
granted for four years from the next Christmas. William was much
dissatisfied with the last proviso, and complained that the Commons
should show less confidence in him, who had restored their liberties,
than in Charles and James, who destroyed them. Sir John Lowther
pressed this point on the Commons strongly, but in vain; and Burnet
told King William that there was no disrespect meant towards him,
but that the Commons wished to establish this as a general principle,
protective of future subjects from the evils which the ill-judged
liberality of past Parliaments had produced.
The next measure on which the Whigs and Tories tried their strength
was a Bill brought in by the Whigs to do what was already
sufficiently done in the Bill of Rights—to pronounce William and Mary
the rightful and lawful sovereigns of this realm, and next to declare
that all the acts of the late Convention should be held as valid as
laws. The first part, already sufficiently recognised, was quietly
passed over; but the Tories made a stout opposition to extending
the Act beyond the year 1689, on the plea that nothing could
convert the self-constituted Convention into a legal Parliament. But
the distinction was a mere party distinction; for, if the Convention
was not a legal body, nothing could render its acts so. The Earl of
Nottingham, who headed this movement, entered a strong protest
on the journal of the Lords against it, and this protest was signed by
many peers, and amongst them the Whig peers, Bolton,
Macclesfield, Stamford, Bedford, Newport, Monmouth, Herbert,
Suffolk, Warrington, and Oxford. The Bill, however, was carried, and
with still more ease in the Commons.
The Tories, mortified at the triumph of the Whigs, now brought in a
Bill to change the military government of the City of London as the
lieutenancy of the counties had been changed. They thanked the
king for having by his measures brought in so many Churchmen and
thrown out so many Nonconformists. This Bill the Whigs managed to
impede till the session closed; but not so with another from the Tory
party, ordering payment of the five hundred pounds fines incurred
by all who had taken office or served as magistrates without taking
the necessary Oaths of Allegiance and Supremacy. This was carried,
and the money ordered to be paid into the Exchequer, and a
separate account of it to be kept.
The defeat of the Whigs only infused more fierceness in the party
warfare. They hastened to bring in a Bill compelling every person in
office, civil, ecclesiastical, or military, to take an oath to abjure King
James and his right to the Crown, thence called the Abjuration Oath.
This oath might, moreover, be tendered by any magistrate to any
subject of their Majesties whatever, and whoever refused it was to
be committed to prison, and kept there till he complied. It was
hoped by the Whigs that this Bill would greatly embarrass the Tories
who had taken office under the present monarchy, and accordingly it
met with a decided opposition in the Commons, and was thrown out
by a majority of one hundred and ninety-two to one hundred and
seventy-eight. It was then, with some alteration, introduced as a
fresh Bill into the Lords. William went down to the Lords to listen
personally to the debate; and several of the peers made very free
and pertinent remarks on the uselessness of so many oaths to bind
any disloyal or unconscientious person.
The Bill was defeated in the Lords by being committed, but never
reported, for on the 20th of May, after King William had given his
consent to the Bill, which he had recommended, for conferring on
the queen full powers to administer the government during his
absence in Ireland, and also to that revising the quo warranto
judgment against the City of London, the Marquis of Caermarthen
appeared in the House with an Act of Grace ready drawn and signed
by the king.
 HENRY VII.'S CHAPEL, WESTMINSTER ABBEY.
[See larger version]
William had tried in vain to curb the deadly animosities of the
contending parties by Bills of Indemnity. These could be discussed
and rejected, not so an Act of Grace: it issued from the sovereign,
and came already signed to Parliament. It must be at once accepted
or rejected by each House, and in such a case as the present, where
it was meant as a healing and pacifying act, it could not be rejected
without a disloyal and ungracious air. Accordingly it was received
with the deference which it deserved, and both Houses gave their
sanction to it, standing bareheaded, and without one dissenting
voice. From the benefit of this Act of Grace, pardoning all past
offences, were, it is true, excepted thirty names, prominent amongst
whom were the Marquis of Powis, the Lords Sunderland,
Huntingdon, Dover, Melfort, and Castlemaine; the Bishops of
Durham and St. Davids; the Judges Herbert, Jenner, Withers, and
Holloway; Roger Lestrange; Lundy, the traitor governor of
Londonderry; Father Petre; and Judge Jeffreys. This last monster of
infamy was already deceased in the Tower, but it was well
understood that if the others named only kept themselves at peace
they would never be inquired after. Neither party, however, thanked
William for the constrained peace. The Whigs were disappointed of
the vengeance they burned to enjoy; the Tories, and even those who
had the most narrowly escaped the intended mischief, ungenerously
said that if William had really anything to avenge, he would not have
pardoned it.