1701.] THE KING ASKS ASSISTANCE FOR THE STATES-GENERAL. 245 of the great object of his policy. When he received the Address of the Commons in reply to his Speech, he laid before them a Memorial from the Envoy Extraordinary of the States General. It set forth that they had acknowledged the new king of Spain, under the condition that a negotiation should be entered into, in concert with their allies, to secure the peace of Europe. They prayed the king of England to send the necessary instructions to his minister at the Hague to act conjointly with them. But they added that, as French troops were moving towards their frontier, they requested the succour agreed to be provided for their defence, under a treaty made by England with the States in 1677. The Commons asked that the Treaty of 1677 should be laid before them. They then unanimously resolved to request the king to enter into such negotiations with the States General, and with other powers, as might conduce to the mutual safety of these kingdoms and the United Provinces, and promising their support in performance of the Treaty. William was unexpectedly gratified by this decision. "Nothing," he said to the Houses, "can more effectually conduce to our security than the unanimity and vigour you have shown on this occasion." From that hour the king calmly and resolutely looked upon the future. There was a slight change in the temper of the Commons, which he probably could trace to a higher cause than the change which he had made of his ministers. Public opinion was slowly but surely coming into operation. There were few organs of opinion besides party pamphlets; but the people had some knowledge of political events, even from their meagre newspapers. They thought for themselves, and they expressed their thoughts freely amongst themselves. In the heat of the contest between William and the House of Commons about disbanding the army, we are assured that the king " was in truth more really beloved by the body of the people than he thought himself to be, or than his enemies seemed to believe he was."* Swift, who, in 1701, looked upon politics from a higher elevation than the molehill of party, says, that one cause of the popular aversion to some of the proceedings of the Commons was, “a great love and sense of gratitude in the people toward their present king, grounded upon a long opinion of his merit, as well as concessions to all their reasonable desires, so that it is for some time they have begun to say, and to fetch instances, where he has in many things been hardly used."+ We shall soon see this temper of the people coming into direct collision with their representatives. It was on the 3rd of March that the portion of the king's speech which relates to the Protestant Succession was brought forward in the Commons. Burnet says: "The manner in which this motion of the Succession was managed did not carry in it great marks of sincerity. It was often put off from one day to another, and it gave place to the most trifling matters." During the whole of March and April the two great parties were engaged in the most furious broils. It was perhaps fortunate that their attention was diverted from high matters that concerned the future, to temporary ebullitions of party rage. The nomination of the princess Sophia and her descendants might otherwise have been resisted by the furious Jacobites; and the Onslow's Note on Burnet, vol. iv. p. 392. + "Contests and Dissentions in Athens and Rome," chap. v. 246 THE ACT OF SETTLEMENT. [1701. clauses of the Act of Settlement which gave guarantees for constitutional freedom, in addition to the Bill of Rights, might have been opposed by the advocates of absolute government. There was comparatively little discussion about these conditions "for better securing the rights and liberties of the subject." They were proposed by Harley; supported by the Tories; and not resisted by the Whigs,-although the clauses against the sovereign going out of his dominions without the consent of Parliament, and for preventing any foreigner holding office, had the appearance of a personal reflection upon the government of king William. The clause which disqualifies all holders. of office, and all receivers of pensions, from sitting in the House of Commons, was repealed early in the reign of Anne. Burnet says, "those who wished well to the Act were glad to have it passed any way, and so would not examine the limitations that were in it." He reckoned it "a great point carried that we had now a law on our side for a Protestant Successor; for we plainly saw a great party formed against it, in favour of the pretended prince of Wales.” It was indeed a great point gained for the welfare of these realms, that an Act was passed by which the House of Brunswick has possessed the Crown for a century and a half, under whose rule there has been a constant progress towards the solution of the difficult problem of representative government,the union of the largest amount of individual liberty with the most perfect security for social order.* Negotiations were proceeding at the Hague between England, Holland, and France, for the removal of French troops from the Spanish Netherlands, and for other objects of prevention against the preponderance of France. Burnet affirms that "the French, seeing these demands run so high, and being resolved to offer no other security for the peace of Europe but the renewing the treaty of Ryswick, set all their engines at work in England to involve us in such contentions at home, as should both disable us from taking any care of foreign affairs, and make the rest of Europe conclude that nothing considerable was to be expected from England." It was scarcely necessary that party rage should be stimulated either by the intrigues or the gold of France. The Tories applied themselves to the task, most unpatriotic at such a moment, of assailing the Partition Treaties with unmeasured invectives, and of pursuing the chiefs of the late Whig ministry with a rancour very little proportioned to any offences which could be alleged against them. The Commons resolved to impeach Portland, Orford, Somers, and Halifax, for their concern in the Treaties by which the king had endeavoured to save Europe from the war which was now impending, and for other alleged offences. It is scarcely necessary, in a narrative which attempts chiefly to regard those historical events which have a permanent interest, to enter into a minute relation of these violent party conflicts. These party dissensions called up a third party, that had hitherto manifested very little participation in the contests of the two great factions. Swift, with the strongest good sense, temperately pointed out to the members of Parliament, during the recess—which he calls "a lucid interval "—the consequence of their bitter animosities: "It would be wise in them, as individual and private mortals, to look back a little upon the storms they have raised, as well as those they have escaped; to We have printed the Act of Settlement as a Note at the end of this chapter. 1701.] IMPEACHMENT OF SOMERS AND OTHER WHIGS. 247 reflect that they have been authors of a new and wonderful thing in England, which is, for a House of Commons to lose the universal favour of the numbers they represent." The Commons having decided upon impeachment, asked the king to condemn the four peers without trial, by removing them. from his councils and presence for ever. The Lords begged his majesty to pass no sentence of discredit upon his late servants, till their alleged high crimes and misdemeanours should be inquired into. The king gave a very general answer to the Commons that he should employ none but those he thought deserving of trust. To the Lords he said nothing. He evidently had made up his mind to let the factions fight out their battle without his intervention. Conferences were held between the two Houses, which became unseemly squabbles. The days were fixed for the trials of Somers and Orford. The Commons said they should not have justice, and refused to attend. The impeachments fell to the ground. That "new and wonderful thing" of 1701-a House of Commons displeasing to the people—a popular party speaking by other voices than that of its legally-constituted organs-became too familiar to the nation, in times much nearer to our own than the opening of the eighteenth century.† In 1701 the popular feeling began to take the form which has subsequently shaken many a faction, and disturbed many a scheme of blind and selfish policy. On the 15th of May secretary Vernon wrote to the duke of Shrewsbury, "There grows a great ferment out of the House, which begins to make our topping men uneasy. They are endeavouring to suppress petitions; and perhaps the means they may use for it may blow them up higher." At the quarter sessions for the county of Kent, held at Maidstone on the 29th of April, the grand jury drew up a petition to the House of Commons, which was unanimously signed by them, and also by the chairman of the sessions, and twenty-one of the justices. It was also signed by a large body of freeholders. Mr. Colepeper, the chairman, with four other gentlemen, proceeded to London with the petition, which was at last presented to the House by Mr. Meredith, one of the members for Kent, on the 8th of May. It is a plain-spoken document, but one which we should now call temperate and respectful: "We, the gentlemen, justices of the peace, grand jury, and other freeholders, at the general quarter sessions at Maidstone, in Kent, deeply concerned at the dangerous estate of this kingdom, and of all Europe; and considering that the fate of us and our prosperity depends upon the wisdom of our representatives in Parliament, think ourselves bound in duty, humbly to lay before this honourable House the consequence, in this conjuncture, of your speedy resolution, and most sincere endeavour, to answer the great trust reposed in you by your country. And in regard, that from the experience of all ages it is manifest, no nation can be great or happy without union, we hope, that no pretence whatever shall be able to create a misunderstanding among ourselves, or the least distrust of his most sacred majesty; whose great actions for this nation are writ in the hearts of his subjects, and can never, without the blackest ingratitude, be forgot. We most humbly implore this honourable House to have regard to the voice of the people, that our religion and safety may be * "Contests and Dissentions," &c. + See Dr. Arnold's "Lectures on Modern History," lecture vii. Vernon Letters, vol. iii. p. 145. 248 THE KENTISH PETITION. [1701. effectually provided for, that your Loyal Addresses may be turned into Bills of Supply, and that his most sacred majesty (whose propitious and unblemished reign over us we pray God long to continue) may be enabled powerfully to assist his allies before it is too late." Upon hearing this read, the House resolved, "That the said petition was scandalous, insolent, and seditious, tending to destroy the constitution of parliaments, and to subvert the established government of these realms." They then ordered that those gentlemen who had brought the petition should be taken into custody, as guilty of promoting it. They were committed to the Gate-house. The "great ferment out of the House," which Vernon describes, then ran through the country. "This disposition to blame the slowness in which the House of Commons proceeded, with relation to foreign affairs, and the heat with which private quarrels were pursued, began to spread itself through the whole nation."* The imprisonment of the Kentish men led to many discussions of the right of the Commons to imprison any persons but their own members, or such as had violated the privileges of the House. On the 14th of May, the day after Mr. Colepeper and his friends were committed, a paper, signed "Legion," was conveyed to Harley, the Speaker;-some accounts say, was presented to him as he entered the House. It purported to be a Memorial, in which the grievances of the nation were set forth, and the rights of the people asserted, in the boldest terms. The concluding paragraph may be taken as a sample of its general spirit: "Thus, Gentlemen, you have your duty laid before you, which 'tis hoped you will think of: but, if you continue to neglect it, you may expect to be treated according to the resentment of an injured nation; for Englishmen are no more to be slaves to parliaments than to kings." In that "History of England from the Revolution," which still holds its place in companionship with that of Hume, it is written, "The Commons were equally provoked and intimidated by this libel, which was the production of one Daniel Defoe, a scurrilous partywriter, in very little estimation." The author of "Humphrey Clinker" might have been expected to speak somewhat more respectfully of the author of "Robinson Crusoe." There is little doubt that Defoe did write the Legion Memorial. When the Kentish gentlemen were released at the end of the Session of Parliament, a public dinner was given to them at Mercers' Hall by the chief citizens of London; where, says a Tory writer, "Nothing was wanting to show their respect to them, and the cause of sedition they had been carrying on,-no, not so much as some of the nobility themselves, to give a stamp of authority to what had been done, contrary to all law, good manners, or prudence." § Another Tory pamphleteer says, speaking of this dinner, "Next the Worthies [the Kentish men] was placed their Secretary of State, the author of the Legion letter, and one might have read the downfal of Parliaments in his very countenance." || The bitterness of Defoe was no doubt excited by his devotion to the king. William probably found in this most sturdy and sagacious representative of the great middle class, an enlarged patriotism, and a sympathy with his own high views, which he had almost ceased to look for amongst those who were "swaddled, and rocked, Burnet, vol. iv. p. 497. + Ibid. § Quoted in Wilson's Defoe, vol. i. p. 405. Ibid. 1701.] THE LEGION MEMORIAL. 249 and dandled" into statesmen. William respected the man who had the courage to attack that vulgar prejudice which, regarding every foreigner as an enemy to England, compelled him to dismiss the Dutch guards and the French refugees, who had served him so long and so faithfully. "The True Born Englishman" of Defoe, made this prejudice contemptible. The Kentish Petition, and the Legion Memorial, struck at the power which had set the representatives of the people above public opinion, the power of commanding a majority of the House of Commons by frothy declamation and passionate invective. The Tories possessed the superiority in this power, and they abused it, in this season of real national peril, to an extent which has sometimes been equalled by both of the great parties in Parliament, but never excelled. The impeachment of William's Whig ministers had "dragged its slow length along," for weeks, amidst conflicts between Lords and Commons. The terms of the Partition Treaties were again and again debated, the Commons thus subjecting themselves to the just reproof of "Legion," "Voting the Treaty of Partition fatal to Europe, because it gave so much of the Spanish dominions to the French, and not concerning yourselves to prevent their taking possession of it all." The States-General had made the most urgent appeal for the assistance of England. They were preparing for the same sort of resistance to France which had signalised them under the guidance of the young prince of Orange. The heart of the prematurely-aged king of England must have leaped in his bosom, when his countrymen sent to him to say, "We have been obliged to put ourselves in a state of defence, more than if we were actually attacked, by overflowing our country, and even cutting our dykes, to secure our frontiers." Though the Commons had passed two formal votes of support to the king in carrying out the old treaty with the Republic, they were too much occupied with their partyquarrels to look steadily at the great question upon which William had asked their advice and assistance. They were told by Legion "that they were deserting the Dutch when the French are at their doors, till it be almost too late to help them." Gradually the House of Commons came more clearly to understand the public feeling. The people wanted more deeds and less talk. They turned" from petty tyrants to the throne." The House of Lords had a quicker comprehension of the national temper than the Commons had. They addressed the king in terms which encouraged him in the work to which the remainder of his life was devoted: "We humbly desire your majesty will be pleased, not only to make good all the articles of any former treaties to the States-General, but that you will enter into a strict league, offensive and defensive, with them, for their common preservation: and that you will invite unto it all princes and states who are concerned in the present visible danger, arising from the union of France and Spain." The Commons stopped short of directly sanctioning the extensive alliance which William desired, and which the Lords contemplated-an alliance which could have no other end than war. But they voted sufficient supplies to enable the king to send assistance to the States-telling him, however, "they are more than ever were given in a time of peace.' On the 24th of June the Parliament was prorogued. On the 1st of July the king embarked for Holland. Burke has vividly described the great crisis of the summer of 1701. The House of Commons had been more reserved than the Lords. "But now they |