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DEATH OF THE QUEEN.

[1694.

went sorrowfully from the Parliament House to Kensington. Mary had been ill two days. She had never had the small-pox; but her regular physicians disputed about the symptoms. Ratcliffe, the most skilful "in all early and quick discovery of a distemper,"-but, "proud of his fame in his profession, which fed his natural haughtiness, and made him think himself above, and refuse the attending of the highest personages when he had taken any prejudice against them,"-declined at first to attend the queen when he was sent for. He came at last, and pronounced the fatal word "small-pox." William was in despair. "He called me," says Burnet, "into his closet, and gave a free vent to a most tender passion. He burst out into tears, and cried out that there was no hope of the queen, and that from being the happiest, he was now going to be the miserablest creature on earth. He said, during the whole course of their marriage, he had never known one single fault in her; there was a worth in her that nobody knew besides himself." Mary's fortitude and resignation were above all praise. The religious consolations which her faithful friend and counsellor, archbishop Tillotson, would have administered to the dying queen were to be bestowed by his successor, Tenison. Tillotson had died five weeks before. When Tenison made Mary aware of her danger, but with "some address not to surprise her too much," she was perfectly calm. "She thanked God she had always carried this in her mind, that nothing was to be left to the last hour." Queen Mary died on the 20th of December, in the thirty-third year of her age. All parties agreed in acknowledging the beauties of her character. Burnet, the Whig, says, "She was the most universally lamented princess, and deserved the best to be so, of any in our age, or in our history." Evelyn, the Tory, writes: "She was such an admirable woman, abating for taking the crown without a more due apology, as does, if possible, outdo the renowned queen Elizabeth." She had many arduous duties to perform in the repeated absences of the king; and not the least important was the distribution of ecclesiastical preferments. With a deep sense of religion she marked her preference for those divines who were moderate in their opinions, and earnest in the proper discharge of their high functions. When there were state affairs to attend to, she never shrunk from the proper labours of the sovereign. Her tastes were simple and unostentatious; her morals of unblemished purity; her charity was universal. Her deep attachment to her husband was founded upon her admiration of his high qualities. William's grief for her loss "was greater," says Burnet, "than those who knew him best thought his temper was capable of; he went beyond all bounds in it. When she died, his spirits sunk so low, that there was great reason to apprehend that he was following her." Queen Mary was sumptuously interred in Westminster Abbey, although," on opening a cabinet, a paper was found, wherein she had desired that her body might not be opened, nor any extraordinary expense at her funeral, whenever she should die: this paper was not found in time to be observed." The funeral cost fifty thousand pounds. A more worthy expenditure of public money in her honour took place when William determined to erect Greenwich Hospital,

* We find this character of Ratcliffe, and his refusal, in Onslow's Notes on Burnet. Evelyn. "Diary," March 8.

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DEATH OF THE QUEEN.

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in compliance with that desire which she had expressed after the battle of La Hogue, to provide an asylum for disabled seamen. Mary, in following the fortunes of her husband and accepting with him the sovereign power of these kingdoms to the exclusion of her father, discharged a higher duty even than that of filial affection, But she was always solicitous for that father's personal safety. The paltriness of James's character was manifested upon his daughter's decease, in a manner which St. Simon thus records: "The king of England [James] prayed the king [Louis] that the Court should not wear mourning. All those who were related to the prince of Orange, including M. de Bouillon and M. de Duras, were forbidden to wear it. They obeyed and were silent; but this sort of revenge was considered very petty."

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Extreme grief of William-Parliamentary Corruption-War in the Netherlands-Siege of Namur
by the Allies-Namur taken-William's reception in England-State of the Currency-
A new Parliament-Measures for a new Coinage-Trials for Treason regulated by Law-
The Assassination Plot.

THE death of the queen appears to have prostrated William. Shrewsbury could hardly approach him, till, a month after, in consequence of "the retired manner his majesty has lived in since his last great misfortune."* His "former application to business" had not yet returned with the healing power of strenuous occupation. His political correspondence with the Grand Pensionary of Holland was suspended. The general before whom he retreated at Landen was no more: the strange life of Luxemburg-the crook-backed voluptuary who appeared to have no higher object than sensual ease, but who on the battle-field was all fire and decision-came to an end. Louis thought that William would rejoice. William heeded not this important event; and expressed his belief that he himself was no longer fit for military command. The French court sent Harlay, the president of the Parliament of Paris, to sound the Dutch as to the possibility of a peace. Pale and very thin was the envoy. Are you a sample, said the rough republicans, of the wretched condition of France? Let me send for my wife, replied the clever lawyer, and she will give you a notion of our thriving state.† Harlay, who had no

* 66 Shrewsbury Correspondence," p. 218.

+ St. Simon.

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t

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accredited mission, did not put the Dutch in good humour by his joke. There was still to be a struggle before peace was established.

William gradually recovered his serenity. The Houses of Parliament went on as usual with their labours. The proposed renewal of the Licensing Act was rejected without a division in the Commons. The press had been more than commonly bold, even seditious. But the representatives of the English people did not choose to interfere with that noble principle which, half a century before, had been proclaimed to all the civilised world by the most eloquent of freedom's advocates: "Though all the winds of doctrine were let loose to play upon the earth, so truth be in the field, we do injuriously, by licensing and prohibiting, to misdoubt her strength. Let her and falsehood grapple. Who ever knew truth put to the worse in a free and open encounter?”*

The proceedings of this Session disclosed, what was no secret to men of all parties, the frightful corruption by which statesmen in power and statesmen in opposition were moved to support or to resist some measure in which large pecuniary interests were involved; or to screen some public delinquent. Guy, a member of Parliament and secretary of the Treasury, was sent to the Tower for receiving a bribe, in connection with some inquiries into the conduct of a colonel of a regiment, who had appropriated the money for which he ought to have paid the quarters of his troops. Trevor, the Speaker of the House of Commons, was proved to have received a bribe of a thousand guineas from the Corporation of London, for assisting in passing "An Act for relief of the orphans and other creditors of the City of London " +-that Act under which, when a poor man buys a sack of coals in this winter of 1858, he has still to pay a tax to this long-tolerated phantom of a departed greatness. Trevor had to put the question from the Chair whether he himself was guilty of a high crime and misdemeanor; and had to say, "The Ayes have it." He was expelled the House. The East India Company had spent a hundred and seven thousand pounds in secret service money, as an examination of their books had proved to a parliamentary committee. Eightyseven thousand pounds had thus been distributed in 1693 and 1694. Sir Thomas Cook, the chairman of the Company, had the management of these delicate matters. He was member for Colchester. In his place in Parliament he refused to answer inquiries. The Commons then passed a bill compelling him to answer, under enormous penalties. Upon the bill going to the Upper House, the duke of Leeds-the earl of Danby of Charles II., the marquis of Carmarthen of 1689-spoke strongly against the bill, and laying his hand on his breast, protested that he was perfectly disinterested in the matter. The inquiries went on, implicating others; and the Commons finally impeached Thomas, duke of Leeds, President of the Council, for that he did, “in breach of the great trust reposed in him, by himself, his agents, or servants, corruptly and illegally treat, contract, and agree, with the merchants trading to the East Indies, for five thousand five hundred guineas, to procure their charter of confirmation." The duke had appeared at the bar of the House, and had to a certain extent acknowledged his delinquency, by admitting that

* Milton. "Areopagitica."

+5 & 6 Gul. and Mar., c. 10.

"Parliamentary History," vol. v. col. 937.

VOL. V.

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WAR IN THE NETHERLANDS.

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he had helped a friend to get the money. That friend was one Bales, who admitted that he had received the money to bribe the duke, and had given it to a Swiss, who was the confidential manager of the duke's private business. The Swiss fled; the Parliament was prorogued; and the impeachment fell to the ground. The king's personal friend, Portland, was found to have been proof against these temptations, having refused a bribe of fifty thousand pounds.

The king was no doubt rejoiced to get away from this tainted atmosphere to the bracing air of a campaign. He was first reconciled to the princess Anne, and then departed for the continent; having, when he prorogued the Parliament on the 3rd of May, said, "I will take care to place the administration of affairs, during my absence, in such persons on whose care and fidelity I can entirely depend." The duke of Leeds was not one of those persons. Burnet, writing in the reign of queen Anne, says of the princess, now that he [William] was to go beyond sea, she was not set at the head of the councils, nor was there any care taken to oblige those about her." "'* The bishop no doubt alludes to Marlborough and his duchess; and adds, "this looks either like jealousy and distrust, or a coldness towards her." Lord Dartmouth, in a note upon this passage, says, "The princess was not only next to him in succession, but there was a party which might have made a claim for her against him. She was a very good woman, and not likely of herself to give in to it. But she was not of the strongest understanding, and always influenced by others, who might have found their account in it." Marlborough took the more prudent course. Shrewsbury writes to Russell that the princess Anne has lost no opportunity of showing her zeal to the king and the government; and that "our friend" [Marlborough] seemed resolved to encourage this union. "I do not see," adds Shrewsbury, "that he is likely at present to get much by it, not having yet kissed the king's hand, but his reversion is very fair and great.” †

The energy and perseverance of William were at length to be crowned with success. It was a real advantage to him that Luxemburg was gone. It was a greater advantage that Louis had appointed as his successor an accomplished courtier but a feeble general, Villeroy; and that this sycophant of the great king entrusted an important command to the duke de Maine, the most favoured of the illegitimate children of Louis. But the numbers, and the high discipline, of the French armies would have probably interfered with any signal advantage on the part of the allies, if William had not exercised in this campaign many of the highest qualities of a great commander. The opening of the campaign, says St. Simon, was a beautiful game of chess; the prince of Orange, the elector of Bavaria, and the earl of Athlone moving in detached bodies; and Villeroy, Boufflers, Harcourt, and Montal regulating their own movements by those of their enemy which they saw, or by those which they expected. William, "who had well taken all his measures to cover his main design," suddenly turned his course towards Namur. The elector of Bavaria, and the Brandenburg army, arrived at the same point. That strongest fort of Europe was invested by this united force at the beginning of July. Vauban had materially strengthened the fortifications "Shrewsbury Correspondence," p. 220.

* "Own Time," vol. iv. p. 261.

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