The History of England, from the Accession of James II Volume IV Part 38

That Dunfermline was grossly ill used is plain even from the Memoirs of Dundee, 1714.]

[Footnote 425: So early as the year 1690, that conclave of the leading Jacobites which gave Preston his instructions made a strong representation to James on this subject. "He must overrule the bigotry of Saint Germains; and dispose their minds to think of those methods that are more likely to gain the nation. For there is one silly thing or another daily done there, that comes to our notice here which prolongs what they so pa.s.sionately desire." See also A Short and True Relation of Intrigues transacted both at Home and Abroad to restore the late King James, 1694.]

[Footnote 426: View of the Court of Saint Germains. The account given in this View is confirmed by a remarkable paper, which is among the Nairne MSS. Some of the heads of the Jacobite party in England made a representation to James, one article of which is as follows: "They beg that Your Majesty would be pleased to admit of the Chancellor of England into your Council; your enemies take advantage of his not being in it."

James's answer is evasive. "The King will be, on all occasions, ready to express the just value and esteem he has for his Lord Chancellor."]

[Footnote 427: A short and true Relation of Intrigues, 1694.]

[Footnote 428: See the paper headed "For my Son the Prince of Wales, 1692." It is printed at the end of the Life of James.]

[Footnote 429: Burnet, i. 683.]

[Footnote 430: As to this change of ministry at Saint Germains see the very curious but very confused narrative in the Life of James, ii.

498-575.; Burnet, ii. 219.; Memoires de Saint Simon; A French Conquest neither desirable nor practicable, 1693; and the Letters from the Nairne MSS. printed by Macpherson.]

[Footnote 431: Life of James, ii. 509. Bossuet's opinion will be found in the Appendix to M. Mazure's history. The Bishop sums up his arguments thus "Je dirai done volontiers aux Catholiques, s'il y en a qui n'approuvent point la declaration dont il s'agit; Noli esse justus multum; neque plus sapias quam necesse est, ne obstupescas." In the Life of James it is a.s.serted that the French Doctors changed their opinion, and that Bossuet, though he held out longer than the rest, saw at last that he had been in error, but did not choose formally to retract. I think much too highly of Bossuet's understanding to believe this.]

[Footnote 432: Life of James, ii. 505.]

[Footnote 433: "En fin celle cy--j'entends la declaration--n'est que pour rentrer: et l'on peut beaucoup mieux disputer des affaires des Catholiques a Whythall qu'a Saint Germain."--Mazure, Appendix.]

[Footnote 434: Baden to the States General, June 2/12 1693. Four thousand copies, wet from the press, were found in this house.]

[Footnote 435: Baden's Letters to the States General of May and June 1693; An Answer to the Late King James's Declaration published at Saint Germains, 1693.]

[Footnote 436: James, ii. 514. I am unwilling to believe that Ken was among those who blamed the Declaration of 1693 as too merciful.]

[Footnote 437: Among the Nairne Papers is a letter sent on this occasion by Middleton to Macarthy, who was then serving in Germany. Middleton tries to soothe Macarthy and to induce Macarthy to soothe others.

Nothing more disingenuous was ever written by a Minister of State. "The King," says the Secretary, "promises in the foresaid Declaration to restore the Settlement, but at the same time, declares that he will recompense all those who may suffer by it by giving them equivalents."

Now James did not declare that he would recompense any body, but merely that he would advise with his Parliament on the subject. He did not declare that he would even advise with his Parliament about recompensing all who might suffer, but merely about recompensing such as had followed him to the last. Finally he said nothing about equivalents. Indeed the notion of giving an equivalent to every body who suffered by the Act of Settlement, in other words, of giving an equivalent for the fee simple of half the soil of Ireland, was obviously absurd. Middleton's letter will be found in Macpherson's collection. I will give a sample of the language held by the Whigs on this occasion. "The Roman Catholics of Ireland," says one writer, "although in point of interest and profession different from us yet, to do them right, have deserved well from the late King, though ill from us; and for the late King to leave them and exclude them in such an instance of uncommon ingrat.i.tude that Protestants have no reason to stand by a Prince that deserts his own party, and a people that have been faithful to him and his interest to the very last."--A short and true Relation of the Intrigues, &c., 1694.]

[Footnote 438: The edict of creation was registered by the Parliament of Paris on the 10th of April 1693.]

[Footnote 439: The letter is dated the 19th of April 1693. It is among the Nairne MSS., and was printed by Macpherson.]

[Footnote 440: "Il ne me plait nullement que M. Middleton est alle en France. Ce n'est pas un homme qui voudroit faire un tel pas sans quelque chose d'importance, et de bien concerte, sur quoy j'ay fait beaucoup de reflections que je reserve a vous dire avostre heureuse arrivee."--William to Portland from Loo. April 18/28 1693.]

[Footnote 441: The best account of William's labours and anxieties at this time is contained in his letters to Heinsius--particularly the letters of May 1. 9. and 30. 1693.]

[Footnote 442: He speaks very despondingly in his letter to Heinsius of the 30th of May, Saint Simon says: "On a su depuis que le Prince d'Orange ecrivit plusieurs fois au prince de Vaudmont son ami intime, qu'il etait perdu et qu'il n'y avait que par un miracle qu'il put echapper."]

[Footnote 443: Saint Simon; Monthly Mercury, June 1693; Burnet, ii.

111.]

[Footnote 444: Memoires de Saint Simon; Burnet, i. 404.]

[Footnote 445: William to Heinsius, July. 1693.]

[Footnote 446: Saint Simon's words are remarkable. "Leur cavalerie," he says, "y fit d'abord plier des troupes d'elite jusqu'alors invincibles."

He adds, "Les gardes du Prince d'Orange, ceux de M. de Vaudemont, et deux regimens Anglais en eurent l'honneur."]

[Footnote 447: Berwick; Saint Simon; Burnet, i. 112, 113.; Feuquieres; London Gazette, July 27. 31. Aug. 3. 1693; French Official Relation; Relation sent by the King of Great Britain to their High Mightinesses, Aug. 2. 1693; Extract of a Letter from the Adjutant of the King of England's Dragoon Guards, Aug. 1.; Dykvelt's Letter to the States General dated July 30. at noon. The last four papers will be found in the Monthly Mercuries of July and August 1693. See also the History of the Last Campaign in the Spanish Netherlands by Edward D'Auvergne, dedicated to the Duke of Ormond, 1693. The French did justice to William. "Le Prince d'Orange," Racine wrote to Boileau, "pensa etre pris, apres avoir fait des merveilles." See also the glowing description of Sterne, who, no doubt, had many times heard the battle fought over by old soldiers. It was on this occasion that Corporal Trim was left wounded on the field, and was nursed by the Beguine.]

[Footnote 448: Letter from Lord Perth to his sister, June 17. 1694.]

[Footnote 449: Saint Simon mentions the reflections thrown on the Marshal. Feuquieres, a very good judge, tells us that Luxemburg was unjustly blamed, and that the French army was really too much crippled by its losses to improve the victory.]

[Footnote 450: This account of what would have taken place, if Luxemburg had been able and willing to improve his victory, I have taken from what seems to have been a very manly and sensible speech made by Talmash in the House of Commons on the 11th of December following. See Grey's Debates.]

[Footnote 451: William to Heinsius, July 20/30. 1693.]

[Footnote 452: William to Portland, July 21/31. 1693.]

[Footnote 453: London Gazette, April 24., May 15. 1693.]

[Footnote 454: Burchett's Memoirs of Transactions at Sea; Burnet, ii.

114, 115, 116.; the London Gazette, July 17. 1693; Monthly Mercury of July; Letter from Cadiz, dated July 4.]

[Footnote 455: Narcissus Luttrell's Diary; Baden to the States General, Jul 14/24, July 25/Aug 4. Among the Tanner MSS. in the Bodleian Library are letters describing the agitation in the City. "I wish," says one of Sancroft's Jacobite correspondents, "it may open our eyes and change our minds. But by the accounts I have seen, the Turkey Company went from the Queen and Council full of satisfaction and good humour."]

[Footnote 456: London Gazette, August 21 1693; L'Hermitage to the States General, July 28/Aug 7 As I shall, in this and the following chapters, make large use of the despatches of L'Hermitage, it may be proper to say something about him. He was a French refugee, and resided in London as agent for the Waldenses. One of his employments had been to send newsletters to Heinsius. Some interesting extracts from those newsletters will be found in the work of the Baron Sirtema de Grovestins. It was probably in consequence of the Pensionary's recommendation that the States General, by a resolution dated July 24/Aug 3 1693, desired L'Hermitage to collect and transmit to them intelligence of what was pa.s.sing in England. His letters abound with curious and valuable information which is nowhere else to be found. His accounts of parliamentary proceedings are of peculiar value, and seem to have been so considered by his employers.

Copies of the despatches of L'Hermitage, and, indeed of the despatches of all the ministers and agents employed by the States General in England from the time of Elizabeth downward, now are or will soon be in the library of the British Museum. For this valuable addition to the great national storehouse of knowledge, the country is chiefly indebted to Lord Palmerston. But it would be unjust not to add that his instructions were most zealously carried into effect by the late Sir Edward Disbrowe, with the cordial cooperation of the enlightened men who have charge of the n.o.ble collection of Archives at the Hague.]

[Footnote 457: It is strange that the indictment should not have been printed in Howell's State Trials. The copy which is before me was made for Sir James Mackintosh.]

[Footnote 458: Most of the information which has come down to us about Anderton's case will be found in Howell's State Trials.]

[Footnote 459: The Remarks are extant, and deserve to be read.]

[Footnote 460: Narcissus Luttrell's Diary.]

[Footnote 461: Narcissus Luttrell's Diary.]

[Footnote 462: There are still extant a handbill addressed to All Gentlemen Seamen that are weary of their Lives; and a ballad accusing the King and Queen of cruelty to the sailors.

"To robbers, thieves, and felons, they Freely grant pardons every day.

Only poor seamen, who alone Do keep them in their father's throne, Must have at all no mercy shown."]

Narcissus Luttrell gives an account of the scene at Whitehall.]

[Footnote 463: L'Hermitage, Sept. 5/15. 1693; Narcissus Luttrell's Diary.]

[Footnote 464: Narcissus Luttrell's Diary.]

[Footnote 465: Narcissus Luttrell's Diary. In a pamphlet published at this time, and ent.i.tled A Dialogue between Whig and Tory, the Whig alludes to "the public insolences at the Bath upon the late defeat in Flanders." The Tory answers, "I know not what some hotheaded drunken men may have said and done at the Bath or elsewhere." In the folio Collection of State Tracts, this Dialogue is erroneously said to have been printed about November 1692.]

[Footnote 466: The Paper to which I refer is among the Nairne MSS., and will be found in Macpherson's collection. That excellent writer Mr.

Hallam has, on this subject, fallen into an error of a kind very rare with him. He says that the name of Caermarthen is perpetually mentioned among those whom James reckoned as his friends. I believe that the evidence against Caermarthen will be found to begin and to end with the letter of Melfort which I have mentioned. There is indeed, among the Nairne MSS, which Macpherson printed, an undated and anonymous letter in which Caermarthen is reckoned among the friends of James. But this letter is altogether undeserving of consideration. The writer was evidently a silly hotheaded Jacobite, who knew nothing about the situation or character of any of the public men whom he mentioned. He blunders grossly about Marlborough, G.o.dolphin, Russell, Shrewsbury and the Beaufort family. Indeed the whole composition is a tissue of absurdities.]