1692.]

BATTLE OF LA HOGUE.

291

good grace from the party which had to boast of Jeffreys's campaign, and the torturings and massacres of the Cameronians!

Early in the spring (Mar. 5) the king returned to Holland to prepare for the ensuing campaign. The exiled monarch meantime had made his arrangements for the invasion of England. The jacobites and catholics secretly enlisted men and formed regiments; the princess Anne had lately written to implore her father's forgiveness, which he regarded as a proof of the inclination of the church-party; Marlborough continued to give him assurances of his fidelity; and even Russell, out of pride and pique, became a traitor to the cause of the revolution. Louis gave James some troops, which, with the regiments from Ireland and the Scotch and English exiles, forming a force of from fifteen to twenty thousand men, were encamped at La Hogue, where a large fleet was assembled to convey them to England. At the same time James issued a declaration, offering pardon and indemnity to his subjects (with, however, a long list of exceptions), and promising to protect the church.

The queen, on intelligence of these preparations, caused Marlborough and other suspected persons to be arrested; a camp was formed near Portsmouth, and Russell, who commanded the fleet, was ordered to put to sea. As reports were very prevalent of disaffection in the navy, lord Nottingham, by the queen's direction, wrote to the admiral to say that she gave no credit to them; and a most loyal address from the officers was the result of the royal magnanimity. The queen took the further measure of having king James's declaration published, with an answer to it from the pen of bishop Lloyd.

Russell, when joined by the squadrons of admirals Delaval and Carter, and by the ships of Holland, found himself at the head of a fleet of ninety-nine ships of the line. The count de Tourville, who commanded the French fleet, had only sixty-three ships; but Louis had sent him

positive orders to fight, reckoning that the Dutch would not have joined so soon. The engagement commenced off Cape Barfleur (May 19), and lasted from ten o'clock till four, when a dense fog came on. About six it cleared off, and the French were seen towing away their ships; the English gave chase; Carter, with part of the blue squadron, came up with them; he engaged them for half an hour, till he received a mortal wound; and the French got off with the loss of four ships. The chase was kept up the two following days. On the morning of the 22nd, part of the French fleet being seen near the Race of Alderney, chase was again given, and Tourville's own ship, the Soleil Royal, of 120 guns, and two others, were driven ashore near Cherbourg, where they were burnt by Delaval; a part made their escape through the Race to St. Malo; eighteen ran aground at La Hogue; vice-admiral Rooke immediately manned his boats to attack them, and, despite of the cannon which thundered from all sides, the brave British tars succeeded in burning thirteen sail of the line and a number of transports. James, who from his camp beheld this frustration of all his hopes, could not, it is said, refrain from exclaiming repeatedly," See my brave English!" He dismissed his troops for the present to their quarters, and returned himself to St. Germain. The correspondence was still kept up with Marlborough and Russell, who professed to be as zealous as ever in his service. The latter is in fact said to have gained his victory against his will*.

The principal events of the war in Flanders this campaign were, the taking of Namur by the French (June 5), and the battle of Steenkirk (July 24) between king William and marshal Luxemburg. The latter, deceived by one of his spies, suffered himself to be surprised; but the ill conduct of count Solms in not supporting the van of the allies, which was composed of English troops who

* See Dalrymple, and Hallam, iii. 171. With all this latter writer's partiality for the house of Russell, he terms the admiral "a most odious man, as ill-tempered and violent as he was perfidious."

1693.]

JACOBITE CONSPIRACY.

293

showed their usual heroism, and the arrival of marshal Boufflers with a large body of French dragoons, caused the beam finally to turn against the allies. They retired, with the loss of three thousand slain (among whom were generals Mackay and Lanier) and an equal number wounded and taken. The loss of the French was not inferior.

Shortly after, a plot to assassinate king William was discovered the agents in it were, the jacobite colonel Parker, Grandval a captain of French dragoons, and a M. Dumont. King James is said to have both known and approved of it. It was, however, fortunately discovered, and Grandval, who had been inveigled into the quarters of the allies, was executed by sentence of a court-martial.

Fortune was everywhere favourable to the French the following year (1693). They reduced the strong towns of Huy (July 23) and Charleroy (Oct. 11). In the battle of Neer-Winden, or Landen (July 29), the honour of the day remained with them, but their loss was equal to that of the allies. The loss of a part of the rich Smyrna fleet was, however, more severely felt in England than that of the battle of Landen. Louis had made incredible efforts to renew his navy, and when sir George Rooke was sent to the Straits to convoy the great Smyrna fleet of England and her allies, consisting of four hundred vessels, he fell in with a French fleet of eighty ships of the line off Cape St. Vincent. There was now no escaping. Two Dutch men of war were taken, and a Dutch and an English ship burnt; forty of the merchantmen were captured, and fifty sunk. The total loss was estimated at a million sterling.

In the commencement of this year one of the jacobite agents, a priest named Cary, went over to James with eight proposals from some of the English nobility, on his agreeing to which they would undertake to restore him. James sent them to Louis, and by his advice assented to them; and a declaration based on them having been drawn up by those lords, James published it (April 17). In this he promised pardon and indemnity to all who would not

oppose him; engaged to protect and defend the church of England, and secure to its members all their churches, colleges, rights, immunities, etc.; pledged himself not to dispense with the test, and to leave the dispensing power in other matters to be regulated by parliament; to assent to bills for the frequent meeting of parliament, and the freedom of elections, etc., and to re-establish the Act of Settlement in Ireland. James owns that in this document he put a force on his nature, which he excuses by the necessity of the case. He consulted both English and French divines of his own communion about the promise to protect and defend the church; the former thought he could not in conscience do it, the latter (including Bossuet) that he could; but the king says that these last finally coincided with the others in thinking that he could only promise to maintain the protestants in their possessions, benefices, etc.

This declaration did no service whatever to the cause of James. Those who proposed it became doubtful of his sincerity when they saw him so readily agree to it; the leading jacobites* were offended at it, saying, that if he came in on these terms it would be the ruin of himself and his loyal subjects; they therefore sent him word "that, if he considered the preamble and the very terms of it, he was not bound to stand by it, or to put it out verbatim as it was worded," with more to that purpose. Marlborough wrote pretty much to the same effect; and indeed James owns that he did not consider himself bound by it.

The machinations of the court of St. Germain were continued through the following year (1694). Russell, Marlborough, and Godolphin were as profuse as ever of their

* James (Life, ii. 514.) names the nonjuring bishops of Norwich (Lloyd), Bath (Ken), Ely (Turner), and Peterborough (White), the marquess of Worcester, and earl of Clarendon. "A decisive proof," observes Hallam, "how little that party cared for civil liberty, and how little would have satisfied them at the revolution if James had put the church out of danger."

The jacobites, we may here observe, were divided into Compounders, or those who would restore James with limitations; and Non-compounders, or those who, like the above, would invest him with the plenitude of despotism.

1694.]

UNSUCCESSFUL EXPEDITION.

295

professions of devotion, yet James observes that they performed nothing. He very properly judged that they regarded only their own interest; and he even seems to have suspected that Russell was only deluding him. It is much to be regretted that the name of lord Shrewsbury should be mixed up in these traitorous intrigues. It is a curious fact, but one for which there seems to be sufficient authority, that William made use of his knowledge of Shrewsbury's communications with the jacobite agents to oblige him to accept the post of secretary of state*. Shrewsbury was a man of honour, and William had no reason ever to regret his magnanimity.

On the 6th of May the king sailed for Holland. He had previously made several promotions in the peerage. The earls of Shrewsbury, Bedford, and Devonshire were created dukes of the same name; the marquess of Carmarthen duke of Leeds, and the earl of Clare duke of Newcastle; the earl of Mulgrave marquess of Normanby, and lord Sidney earl of Romney.

No action of importance took place in this campaign. The allies recovered Huy, and the advantage in general was on their side. William returned to England in the beginning of November.

Early in the month of June a combined fleet of thirty sail, under lord Berkeley, with six thousand troops on board, commanded by general Tollemache, had sailed with the intention of destroying the fleet and harbour of Brest. The fleet, however, had already sailed for the Mediterranean, and they found all due preparations made to receive them. Their attempts to silence the guns of the castle and forts having proved unavailing, Tollemache made a desperate effort to land his troops. In this attempt he received a mortal wound, and seven hundred of his men were slain or taken; it was then found necessary to abandon the enterprise. Tollemache declared that "he felt no

* See M'Pherson's State Papers, i. 481.