98 THE PRINCESS ANNE. [1689 taken away.* The Parliament in this Session left few other records of considerate legislation. They went wildly to work with impeachments. They impeached the earl of Peterborough and the earl of Salisbury, for departing from their allegiance, and being reconciled to the Church of Rome. They impeached the earl of Castlemaine, under a charge of trying to reconcile the kingdom to the Church of Rome. They raked up the accusations against those who had been accessary to the convictions of Russell and Sidney, chiefly in the hope to fasten some charge upon Halifax, who had retired from office. They carried their political hatreds so far back into the region of history, as to accept a statement that "Major-General Ludlow is come into England, and is in town; and that his old accomplices do comfort, aid, and abet him ;" and thereupon they carried an address that the king would issue a proclamation for apprehending General Ludlow, who stood attainted of high treason for the murder of Charles I. Old Colonel Birch, who asked for evidence of Ludlow being in London, made a sly allusion to the contrast between the present and the past: "I am in a new periwig, and pray let the House look upon me." The men of the new periwigs seemed anxious that the passions of the old love-locks should never be forgotten. Ludlow returned to his asylum at Vevay; to wonder, perhaps, what sort of Revolution was that of 1688, which had thus repudiated what it owed to the Puritans who had made the Bill of Rights a practicable thing. Amongst the annoyances to which William and Mary were subjected by party intrigues, there were none, probably, more personally distasteful than the misunderstandings which arose out of the position of the princess Anne. Upon her marriage with prince George of Denmark she had a settlement of £20,000 a year. From the circumstance of Anne being the presumptive heir of the Crown, it was not unnatural that she should desire a larger revenue. From the peculiarities of her character she was necessarily a fit subject for intriguing politicians to work upon. Sarah Churchill, afterwards duchess of Marlborough, had over her the most unbounded influence. The attachment of Mrs. Morley (Anne) to her dear Mrs. Freeman (Sarah)—or rather the dependence of a weak nature upon an imperious one-had an influence of long duration upon the politics of England. The correspondence of the princess and the lady of the bed-chamber, under their fictitious names, would lead to the belief that real friendship was not incompatible with a court atmosphere, if we did not see beneath this seeming affection the schemes of one of the most cunning and domineering of her sex. The Tories, who looked to Anne, in 1689, as one to be propitiated, had been moved to apply to Parliament for a large increase of her income. Sarah tells the story herself: "Her majesty, when some steps were made in Parliament towards settling a revenue on the prince and princess, taking her sister one night to task for it, she asked her, What was the meaning of these proceedings? To which the princess answered, She heard her friends had a mind to make her some settlement. The queen hastily replied, with a very imperious air, Pray, what friends have you but the king and me?"" The lady goes on to state how she urged the princess to persist in applying to Parliament instead of depending upon the king; how Shrewsbury (she * 1 Gul. & Mar. Sess. 2, c. 2. "Parliamentary History," vol. v. col. 414. GENERAL 1689.] WHIG AND TORY FACTIONS. versity erroneously calls him " duke ") came to her from the king, "who promised to give the princess £50,000 if she would desist from soliciting the settlement by Parliament;" and how she, the dictatress of the princess, insinuated a doubt whether the king would keep his word; upon which the princess herself told Shrewsbury," that she could not think herself in the wrong to desire a security for what was to support her." * The friends who had a mind to make the princess some settlement went too far. They asked for £70,000 a year, which the House would not grant; and, finally, Anne received the £50,000 which Shrewsbury was authorised to offer. The politics of the palace were passing annoyances from the troublesome movements of a faction, rather than permanent causes of uneasiness to the king. The Whigs, to whom he in a great degree owed his crown, had manifested a violence towards their political opponents that rendered it impossible that he could wear that crown in tranquillity. They sought to obtain a considerable increase of power, by a bold manœuvre which would materially strengthen them in a new Parliament. Without any attempt to legislate in the spirit of party, a Bill had been read twice for restoring the Corporations which had surrendered their Charters at the mandates of Charles II. and James II. There was a thin attendance in the House, for it was the holiday time of Christmas. But the Whigs by concert mustered in force, and engrafted upon the Bill two clauses disqualifying for municipal office every person who had been instrumental in surrendering the charter of a borough. The term proposed for the duration of this disqualification was seven years. A large proportion of the parliamentary franchise was in the hands of corporations. The clause would have the effect of removing Tory electors, and substituting Whig electors. This attempt at a surprise was finally defeated. The gross injustice of the clauses-their spirit of vindictiveness-produced a disgust in which the king participated as much as any man. Absent members rushed to London from every district-and the clauses were at length rejected. The Tories, now triumphant, tried to carry the Bill of Indemnity for political offences, which had been laid aside in the last Session. So many exceptions to the measure of amnesty were introduced by the opposite faction, that it became a measure of proscription. William was worn out by these contests. According to Balcarres, he told the duke of Hamilton, "that he wished he were a thousand miles from England, and that he had never been king of it. "+ Burnet gives a circumstantial relation of the effect of these manifestations upon a mind so usually calm and imperturbable. "He was once very near a desperate resolution; he thought he could not trust the Tories, and he resolved he would not trust the Whigs; so he fancied the Tories would be true to the queen, and confide in her, though they would not in him. He therefore resolved to go over to Holland, and leave the government in the queen's hands: so he called the marquis of Carmarthen, with the earl of Shrewsbury, and some few more, and told them, he had a convoy ready, and was resolved to leave all in the queen's hands; since he did not see how he could extricate himself out of the difficulties into which the animosities of parties had brought him: they pressed him vehemently to lay aside all such "Authentick Memoirs of the Life of the Duchess of Marlborough," p. 89. + Ralph, vol. ii. note at p. 186. 100 STATE OF THE ARMY IN IRELAND. [1689. desperate resolutions, and to comply with the present necessity. Much passion appeared among them: the debate was so warm, that many tears were shed in conclusion, the king resolved to change his first design, into another better resolution, of going over in person, to put an end to the war in Ireland." * This last resolution came to be known; and it was determined by the Whigs to oppose it, as a step inconsistent with the health and safety of the king. William took a decisive course. He went to Parliament on the 27th of January, determined to prevent any address that should interfere with his purpose. In his speech from the throne he said, "It is a very sensible affliction to me, to see my good people burthened with heavy taxes; but, since the speedy recovery of Ireland is, in my opinion, the only means to ease them, and to preserve the peace and honour of the nation, I am resolved to go thither in person, and, with the blessing of God Almighty, endeavour to reduce that kingdom, that it may no longer be a charge to this." The Parliament was then prorogued; and, two days after, dissolved. "There was fierce and great carousing about being elected in the new Parliament." Thus writes Evelyn on the 16th of February. "There was a great struggle all England over in elections," says Burnet; "but the Corporation Bill did so highly provoke all those whom it was to have disgraced, that the Tories were by far the greater number in the new Parliament." A year had passed in which the foundations of civil and religious liberty had been widened and strengthened; but the constitutional legislation of the Convention Parliament was not likely to excite much popular enthusiasm. The people were heavily taxed to carry on the war. On the continent no effectual resistance had been offered to the ambition of France; and in Ireland James was dictator, at the head of a large military force. A prince with the highest reputation for courage and sagacity had come to be king over England; and yet her navy had been defeated in an encounter with the French; and the army which had gone to Ireland under Marshal Schomberg had done nothing, and was perishing in its inaction. At the dinner table of the most influential minister, Carmarthen," a very considerate and sober commander, going for Ireland, related to us the exceeding neglect of the English soldiers, suffering severely for want of clothes and necessaries this winter, exceedingly magnifying their courage and bravery during all their hardships." Meagre as are the reports of debates in Parliament, we may trace, in 1689, complaints of departmental neglect very similar to those which were so loudly outspoken in 1855. Mr. Waller gave an account at the bar of the House of Commons of the state of the army in Ireland. The baggage-horses were left behind at Chester; for profit was made by putting them to grass. The sickness by which Schomberg's forces were terribly reduced, he imputed to the great defect of clothing; "all that were well clothed were in health." He contrasted the care bestowed upon a Dutch regiment in camp with the neglect of the English: "Their officers looked upon their soldiers as their children, and would see them make their huts, pave them, and lay fresh straw; in the whole Dutch camp scarce two died." Surgeons' medicines were very ill provided: "It was reported they had 17007, worth of medicines, but I know not where they were." In that rainy season * "Own Time," vol. iv. p. 69. Evelyn, "Diary," February 19. 1689.] ABUSES IN GOVERNMENT DEPARTMENTS. 101 At a "the foreigners were warmer clothed than our own men, in great coats over their close coats; of which the English had none." Lastly, the troops" were not well furnished with shoes: some came late ;-they were not consigned to anybody."* The Commons naturally became furious at these recitals of neglect and peculation. Shales, the Commissary of the Stores, was the chief mark for their indignation. "If ever you have the war carried on with honour and success," said Colonel Birch, "you must hang this man." The House wanted to criminate higher men than the Commissary of the Stores, whose experience in what was useful as well as what was dishonest had been acquired in the army of James. The Commons resolved upon an indecent address to the king, to ask him to inform them who had recommended Shales. William consulted his higher sense of honour by refusing to be an informer. A wiser course was adopted than hanging Shales. A Commission was sent to Ireland, to remedy these abuses. The state of the navy was not more satisfactory than that of the army. The indefatigable Secretary of the navy, Pepys, though now out of office, had his keen eye upon the abuses of that department of which he had the most intimate knowledge of any man. dinner at which Evelyn was present, Pepys "deplored the sad condition of our navy, as governed by inexperienced men since the Revolution." He was for building frigates. He desired "they would leave off building such high decks, which were for nothing but to gratify gentlemencommanders, who must have all their effeminate accommodations, and for pomp. It would be the ruin of our fleets, if such persons were continued in command, they neither having experience, nor being capable of learning, because they would not submit to the fatigue and inconvenience which those who were bred seamen would undergo.t" The Victualling of the Fleet was as notoriously infamous as the Commissariat of the Army. The Victuallers were ordered by the House into custody; but the affair seems to have evaporated in talk. "I believe the fleet is as ill victualled as if our enemies had done it," was the sense of the House, thus expressed by Mr. Hampden. "You may talk of raising money, but not of raising seamen,' said another member. The seamen would not serve to be starved and poisoned. With a Council in which there was far more hatred than concord; with a Parliament in which the evils of Party greatly outweighed its advantages; with a Church equally divided in opinion-" of whom the moderate and sober part were for a speedy reformation of divers things, which it was thought might be made in our Liturgy, for the inviting of Dissenters, others more stiff and rigid, for no condescension at all;" with the dry rot of corruption in all the administrative departments of government,-we can scarcely be surprised that William panted for another field of action, in which his own energies could be fairly put forth. "The going to a campaign," he said, "was naturally no unpleasant thing to him; he was sure he understood that better than how to govern England."§ And so the sickly man advised with sir Christopher Wren about building for him a house of wood, that should be carried with the army like a showman's booth; and though his constant cough had driven him from Whitehall to Kensington for purer +"Diary," March 7. "Parliamentary History," vol. v. col. 453. S Burnet, vol. iv. p. 82. 102 OPENING OF THE NEW PARLIAMENT. [1690. air, he resolved to take no heed of those who manifested a real or pretended concern for his health. He would see with his own eyes if affairs in Ireland were irretrievable. Upon the king himself almost wholly devolved the duty of making a fit preparation for his campaign, by searching into the abuses of the military departments, and of remedying evils of such disastrous magnitude. He wrote to his friend Portland, after the prorogation of Parliament, "All will depend upon success in Ireland. I must apply myself entirely to regulate everything in the best way I can. There is no small work on my hands, being so badly assisted as I am." * At the opening of Parliament on the 20th of March, 1690, some changes had been made in the ministry, and in the lesser offices, "so that,” says Burnet, “Whig and Tory were now pretty equally mixed; and both studied to court the king by making advances upon the money-bills." The king had a tolerably equal contempt for both factions; and his sense of the baseness of some public men is recorded by the historian of his own time. Sir John Trevor, who had been Master of the Rolls under James, "being a Tory in principle, undertook to manage that party, provided he was furnished with such sums of money as might purchase some votes; and by him began the practice of buying off men, in which hitherto the king had kept to stricter rules. I took the liberty once to complain to the king of this method. He said he hated it as much as any man could do; but he saw it was not pos sible, considering the corruption of the age, to avoid it, unless he would endanger the whole." The corruption of the age lasted through three generations. It had "lighter wings to fly" when paper-credit came. It grew more rampant under the second George than under the first. It flourished through half the reign of the third George. It would have lasted to our time if the people had not become fully acquainted with the proceedings of their representatives. It could not live in the light of public opinion, shed upon the nation by the free publication of the debates. We can scarcely blame king William for using the ready means of self-defence, whilst his enemies freely employed the subtlest arts for his overthrow. It was difficult for him to trust any one. His favourite minister was the Whig, Shrewsbury. Read his correspondence, and he appears the fairest of advisers. He writes to the king, "I wish you could have established your party upon the moderate and honest principled men of both factions; but as there be a necessity of declaring, I shall make no difficulty to own my sense, that your majesty and the government are much more safe depending upon the Whigs, whose designs, if any against, are improbable and remoter than with the Tories, who, many of them, questionless, would bring in king James; and the best of them, I doubt, have a regency still in their heads; for though I agree them to be the properest instruments to carry the prerogative high, yet I fear they have so unreasonable a veneration for monarchy, as not altogether to approve the foundation yours is built upon." § William manifested some favour to the Tories, and Shrewsbury resigned the seals as Secretary of State. Burnet says, " he saw the Whigs, by using the king ill, were driving him into the Tories; and he thought these *Note in Macaulay, vol. iii. p. 537. + Burnet, vol. iv. p. 71. $ Coxe, "Shrewsbury Correspondence," p. 15. |