Denbighshire, never having money to spend in this way. The donation excited a terrible clamour: it was pretended that the king intended to make this Dutchman Prince of Wales-to give him all that the crown could give in the principality; and the gentlemen of Denbighshire, with true Welsh heat, petitioned the House of Commons against these grants. The petition was presented by Mr. Price, with a speech which was afterwards printed, and which was " equally bold and bitter." After stating that the Welsh petitioners were not actuated by their own interests, but by a regard to the honour of the crown and the welfare of the nation, which would be alike injured by granting away the lands and revenues of the crown, Price represented that the whole grant comprehended not only the three lordships of Denbigh, Bomfield, and Yale, but also a farther extent of land worth 3000l. a-year; that the amount of the whole was at least 100,000l.; that the people of Wales were bound to pay a certain duty and service to the prince, which could not be severed from the crown and transferred to any other individual, and least of all to a foreigner. "It cannot be expected," continued Price," that he should know our laws, who is a stranger to us and we to him, any more than we know his counsels, which I wish we did. .. These ministers are guilty of the highest violation of the laws and liberties of England, and strike at the very foundation of the succession, and tear up the Bill of Rights by the root. It was their province and duty to have acquainted the king of his power and interest, that the ancient revenue of the crown is sacred and unalienable, in time of war and the people's necessities. By the old law, it is part of the coronation oath of the kings of England not to alien the ancient patrimony of the crown without consent of parliament. But as to those oaths of office, most kings have court casuists enough about them to inform them that they have a prerogative to dispense with those oaths, especially when their interest (as it generally does) goes along with their counsel." Price then mentioned the numerous cases in which parliament had resumed the grants made by over-liberal sovereigns, recommending the same proceeding in the present case. He then made his speech hissing hot with the materials that were lodged in the popular jealousies and antipathies. The Dutch were denounced without mercy as enemies to the trade and prosperity of England. "They have planted themselves among us," said Price, some being of the king's council, some in the army, some naturalized, some made denizens; and their common traders have possessed themselves of the outskirts of this our great city. . . . We see our good coin all gone, and our confederates openly coining base money of Dutch alloy for us: we see most places of power and profit given to foreigners: we see our confederates in conjunction with the Scotch to ruin our English trade. . . . How can we hope for happy days in England when this great lord and other foreigners are in the English as also I shall make in the Dutch councils? no severe remarks on this great man, for his greatness makes us little; and will make the crown both poor and precarious. . . I foresee, that when we are reduced to extreme poverty (as now we are very near it), we are to be supplanted by our neighbours, and become a colony to the Dutch. And when God shall please to send us a Prince of Wales, he may have such a present of a crown made him, as a pope made to King John, who was surnamed Sans-Terre." And then of course ensued a diatribe against popery, which had nothing to do with the business, or that with the title of Lackland, bestowed upon the execrable John. To the fiery petition William coolly replied-"I have a kindness for my Lord Portland, which he has deserved of me by long and faithful services; but I should not have given him these lands if I had imagined the House of Commons could have been concerned: I will, therefore, recall the grant, and find some other way of showing my favour to him." And he forthwith made a fresh grant to the Earl of Portland of the manors of Grantham, Dracklow, Pevensey, East Greenwich, &c., in the several counties of Lincoln, Cheshire, Sussex, and Kent, together with the honour of Penrith, in the county of Cumberland, and other manors in Norfolk, York, and the Duchy of Lancaster. As these ancient crown lands were far apart, it could not be pretended that the king was creating a principality for his favourite; but the English murmured at the largeness of the grants; and probably the more because Bentinck was not only a foreigner, but a man of cold, retiring habits like his master. The House of Lords took up the popular outcry against the trading charters granted to the Scots, and represented that the whole trade of the larger and richer kingdom of England must be destroyed by them. They invited the Commons to a conference, and both Houses agreed in a joint address to the throne, in which they represented that an act of parliament which had lately received his majesty's assent in his kingdom of Scotland, for erecting a company trading to Africa and the Indies, was like to bring many great prejudices and mischiefs to all his English subjects that were concerned in the wealth or trade of this nation: that the said act exempted the Scots from restraints, customs, taxes, &c., to which the said trade was liable in England: that by reason of these great advantages, and the duties and difficulties that lay upon their trade in England, a great part of the stock and shipping of this nation would be carried to Scotland, and so Scotland would be made a free port for all the East India commodities; that, moreover, the said commodities would be brought by the Scotch into England by stealth, both by land and sea, to the vast prejudice of English trade and navigation, and to the great detriment of his majesty in his customs. The address, which ought to have been called a remonstrance, represented still further," That when that nation should have settled themselves in plantations in America, the | who had not yet forgotten their old national ani English commerce in tobacco, sugar, cotton, wool, skin, masts, &c., would be utterly lost; because the privileges of that nation, granted to them by this act, were such, that that kingdom must be the magazine for all commodities, and the English plantations and the traffic there lost to this nation, and the exportation of their own manufactures yearly decreased: that, besides these and many other obstacles that this act would unavoidably bring to the general trade of this nation, another clause in the said act, whereby his majesty promised to interpose his authority to have restitution, reparation, and satisfaction made, for any damage that might be done to any one of the ships, goods, merchandize, persons, or other effects whatsover belonging to the said company, and that upon the public charge, did seem to engage his majesty to employ the shipping and strength at sea of this nation to support this new company, to the great detriment even of this kingdom." To this address the king replied, "That he had been ill served in Scotland; but that he hoped some remedies might be found to prevent the inconveniencies which might arise from the Scottish act."* A. D. 1696.—But the Commons did not give over the clamour. Being quickened by a petition from the English East India Company, they, on the 26th of January, came to the resolution that the directors of the Company of Scotland trading to Africa and the Indies, &c., and, under colour of a Scotch act of parliament, styling themselves a Company, and acting as such, and raising monies in this kingdom, for carrying on the said Company, were guilty of a high crime and misdemeanor; and that the said directors, whose names were inserted, should be impeached of the said high crimes and misdemeanors. The spirit of jealousy and monopoly was bitter and boundless; but at the same time the framers of the Scottish act, in tenderness to their own countrymen, had inserted clauses and conditions which, though thought necessary for the infant foreign trade of a poor country, gave the Scots invidious advantages over the established companies in England, and had thus exceeded the intentions of William, who had given the royal assent in a hurry in his camp in Flanders, and in the midst of the cares and turmoils of war. (Yet we believe that, had there been no investment of English capital in these speculations, the East India Company, the real champion in this conflict, would have paid much less attention to the Scottish charter.) William dismissed the Marquess of Tweedale, his lord high commissioner, and the two secretaries of state for Scotland, and made great changes in the ministry of that kingdom. All this, with the assurances of his English ministers, that he had been duped, and that the Scots should not be allowed to benefit by the deception, quieted the powerful East India Company, and gave general satisfaction to the English, * Ralph. mosity. But," says Burnet, "when it was understood in Scotland that the king had disowned that act, from which it was expected that great riches should flow into that kingdom, it is not easy to conceive how great and how general an indignation was spread over the whole kingdom. The Jacobites saw what a game it was like to prove in their hands they played it with great skill, and to the advantage of their cause, in a course of many years. All this led to a motion to create, by act of parliament, a board or council of trade. The Commons resolved themselves into a general committee to consider the commercial state of the nation, and it was therein resolved-1. That a council of trade should be established by act of parliament, with powers for the more effectual preservation of the trade of this kingdom. 2. That the commissioners constituting the said council should be nominated by parliament. 3. That none of the said commissioners should be members of the House. 4. That the said commissioners should take an oath acknowledging King William to be rightful and lawful king of this realm; that the late King James had no right or title, &c. William took umbrage at the bill, which he considered as an attempt to change the constitution by depriving him of an important part of the executive government. "Many," says Burnet, "apprehended that, if the parliament named the persons, how low soever their powers might be at first, they would be enlarged every session; and, from being a council to look into matters of trade, they would be next empowered to appoint convoys and cruisers: this in time might draw in the whole Admiralty, and that part of the revenue or supply that was appropriated to the navy; so that a king would soon grow to be a duke of Venice." To the mortification of William, the Earl of Sunderland declared for the bill, and did all that he could to promote it. According to Burnet, Sunderland did this out of fear of the extreme Whigs, whom the bishop now styles the "republican party." He says that the king himself told him that," If he went on driving it as he did, he must break with him.”* At this moment, however, William was in greater danger from the Jacobites in England, who, encouraged by the presence of another French army of invasion, collected on the opposite coasts, were getting ready to rise, while a desperate band among them, sanctioned by the devout and penitent outcast King James, were planning how they could best assassinate William. Notwithstanding his pilgrimages, his visitation to the monks of La The bishop adds that William himself imputed Sunderland's conduct to his fear; "for the unhappy steps he had made in King James's time gave his enemies so many handles and colours for attacking him, that he would venture on nothing that might provoke them." What follows looks rather childish in so practised a poli tician as Bishop Burnet. "Here was a debate, plainly on a point of prerogative. . . And yet, by an odd reverse, the Whigs, who were now most employed, argued for the prerogative, while the Tories seemed zealous for the public liberty; so powerfully does interest bias men of all forms!" Trappe, and his flagellations and fastings, James had never ceased to struggle for his earthly crowns; and his petty court at St. Germain had been the scene of constant plots and intrigues, including some of the darkest dye. Perceiving that his former declarations did not go far enough to satisfy the malcontent Whigs, or remove all the jealousies of popery entertained by the ultra-loyal highchurch party, James resolved to promise everything, with the mental reservation of a fixed intention to break all such of these promises as were too much for the tenderness of his conscience. According to his Memoirs, he was sensible he should be blamed by several of his friends for making such promises and submitting to such "hard terms;" but, "reasonably speaking," there was nothing else for him to do, and no other hope of regaining his kingdoms than by gratifying his English partisans -"that, as to France, the whole kingdom is weary of the war as well as the ministers, the country being almost ruined by the great taxes, together with the scarcity of wine and corn. And should he have refused these proposals, how hard soever they appeared, the clamour of the whole country would have been so great, that his most Christian majesty could not have been able to have resisted it, and probably he (James) would have been sent out of the kingdom as an opiniatre (obstinate) bigot, who preferred some points of his prerogative, which his people perhaps might have afterwards restored, before the peace and quiet of all Christendom.” This new declaration was dated in April, 1693; and, according to his Memoirs, included certain heads suggested by Marlborough, Admiral Russell, and other public men in England. When it had gone forth, and not before, he submitted this case of conscience to four of his own priests; whether he as a Catholic might declare and promise to protect and maintain the church of England as by law established; to fill up the bishoprics and all other dignities or benefices with the most worthy of the Protestant communion, to secure to the members of the English church all universities, colleges, schools, &c., and promise to agree to any laws that might hereafter be desired by the English parliament for the further security of their religion, &c. The four English or Irish priests thus consulted were, Father Sanders, the king's confessor; Dr. Betham, his son's preceptor; Mr. Innis, the queen's almoner; and Dr. Fenwick; who all answered in the negative-not frankly or decidedly, however, but stating "that the matter was improperly worded; that what reasonably could be expected might be granted in other words." But, not satis "For, first, they said, the king could not promise to protect and defend a religion he believed erroneous, which was the substance of the first and second query, nor could he make the promise required in the third, because they may think the educating the Prince of Wales in the Protestant religion necessary for its preservation, or to exclude any Catholic from succeeding, which had once been thought necessary even in respect of himself. But they agreed that the king might promise to secure and protect his subjects of the church of England as by law established, in the free and full exercise of their religion, and in the quiet and peaceable possession and enjoyment of their bishoprics, ecclesiastical dignities, and other benefices; and that upon all vacancies care should be taken to fill them up with fit members of their own persuasion, it being a quite different case 66 fied with this answer, James submitted his case to five French divines, and to the Bishop of Meaux, the celebrated Bossuet, who gave their sanction and approbation to the declaration which had been issued. According to the Memoirs, they did this too hastily," as not having a right notion of the case, nor understanding the laws of the kingdom;" and because James had only submitted to them a part of the queries. But it is stated, upon authority at least as good as that of the Stuart MSS., that the learned and elegant Bishop of Meaux answered in the affirmative, because he was expressly ordered so to do by Louis XIV.; and Bossuet, notwithstanding his great merits, had not the heroism to resist the will of an absolute monarch, but had before now condescended to many compliances against his conscience. It is added, in the Memoirs, that soon after these French divines recalled their judgment, "when they were more fully apprised of the case, and saw the declaration itself, together with the Test Act, and thought fit to write a long paper of reasons for their retraction." But, soon after, the declaration, and all the plans and armaments with which it was attended, were frustrated and shown to be, like the whole cause of James, utterly hopeless; so that then the divines might be honest without injury to the interests which they would have served with their duplicity or the straining of their consciences. Yet, according to the Memoirs, Bossuet compared the declaration to that which the most Christian king had given to the Huguenots in the edict of Nantes, and wrote his reasons in favour of it to Cardinal Janson at Rome, who made no reply either pro or con; "but though he (Bossuet) persisted something longer in his opinion than the rest, he owned his mistake at last, but did not think it necessary to do it by a writing or public instrument, the matter being then at an end, and all expectancies on that account determined." All this is base enough; but the archives of France have in our days been made to give up a document that completes the story. This is a letter written by James's secretary and chief adviser, my Lord Melfort, to Cardinal Janson, and sent to Rome with the letter written to the same French prince of the church by Bossuet. Melfort says to the cardinal that the declaration, of which he incloses a translation, has been made at the prayers of a very considerable part of his Protestant subjects in England; "but," he adds, "as the most lawful things are subject to misinterpretation, the king, my master, foreseeing that some scrupulous or ill-intentioned Catholics might blame certain concessions his majesty is obliged to make to his Protestant subjects, he has begged the Bishop of Meaux to put his opinion in writing and transmit it to his eminence, in order that he may render an to promise to maintain the religion itself, and to maintain the professors of it in their possessions, benefices, &c., which being all the security the Protestants desired, might reasonably have satisfied the ministers."-Life from the Stuart MSS., &c. It is said to have been in the sense here laid down by his four priests that James had made his declaration about religion to the English council on his accession. account of the affair to the Holy See, not doubting its full approbation," &c. In continuation, Melfort begs the cardinal to represent the matter to the pope secretly, not as if from King James, who would communicate with his holiness directly at a future time, but only as from Bossuet, who, having given his opinion by order of King Louis, had thought it his duty, by the means of his eminence, to explain the reasons to his holiness, and submit the whole to his decision. He urges that everything depended on representing matters at first in such a manner as to make a good impression; and he further tells the cardinal that James relies on his zeal for obtaining the approbation of the pope, and for shutting the mouths of some false zealots that might complain of his majesty's conduct with regard to the declaration. Above all things, Janson is to have the first word with his holiness. But Melfort reserved the most important part of this communication for a postscript, which he wrote with his own hand, having been prevented by illness and pain from writing the body of the letter. In this postscript his lordship, with honest roguery, tells the cardinal that the declaration, which had been made the subject of such delicate debates, was only meant to help James to get back to England. "What is to be done," said Melfort, "is not to avoid the censures of Rome, nor to bring about an examination of the affair, which must be avoided, and particularly the assembling of congregations upon it: what his majesty wants being to satisfy his holiness privately of the necessities under which he is with regard to his re-establishment, and his having the liberty of bringing up the Prince of Wales in the Catholic religion, which will be a greater benefit to the said religion than anything else that can happen. It is also to be considered that his majesty has assurances from the chief of those English with whom he has treated, that he shall obtain liberty of conscience for the Catholics of England, provided only that his majesty do not press the matter by his own authority, but leave it to the parliament. In fine, this I understand, the declaration is only to get us back, and we may much better dispute the affairs of the Catholics at Whitehall than at St. Germain."* And this was written only thirty-eight days after the signing of the declaration, in which the pious James had said-" We only come to vindicate our own right and to establish the liberties of our people, and may God give us success in the prosecution of the one as we sincerely intend a confirmation of the other." But the strange story is not yet told the French king, who had little sympathy with James's half scruples, but who wished to avoid any discouragement from Rome that might possibly have followed the too open false dealing of Secretary Melfort, was besides not desirous of committing his own name and These are the words of the last and most important clause of the postscript in the original French:-" En fin celle ry j'entends la declaration n'est que pour rentrer, et l'on peut beaucoup mieux disputer des affaires Catholiques à Whythall qu'à St. Germain.' kingly faith with the court of Rome, particularly, as he knew that James was at that very moment authorising the Jacobites to make a personal attack upon William. Accordingly Louis intercepted the whole packet, and neither the letter of Bossuet nor the letter of my Lord Melfort was ever sent to Rome or seen by Cardinal Janson.* Wondering why no answer came from the cardinal, yet soon perceiving that, though the intention of it were not fully revealed, his declaration produced nothing but blame from his friends, contempt from his enemies, and repentance in himself,"† the exiled king importuned Louis to take advantage of the consternation occasioned by William's defeat at Landen, and the disasters of the Smyrna fleet, and invade England. He represented as confidently as ever that a large part of the nation would join the invading force and conduct him back in triumph to Whitehall. But Louis was not in a condition to attempt anything of the sort, and James was still obliged to trust to his intrigues with the furious Jacobites and the discontented Whigs, who could scarcely have co-operated for a week if the course of events had brought them into the field. In the course of the following year (1694) two emissaries from the court of St. Germain-Crosby and Parker-were committed to prison on suspicion; but Crosby was soon liberated upon bail, and Parker contrived to escape out of the Tower. The evidence produced against Crosby was of a very defective kind; but as the designs attributed to him were of the worst kind, he was for some time closely watched. To counteract the Jacobite agents and spies, the court employed others; and, apparently, some of these scoundrels took pay from both sides. In the course of the present winter (1695-6) Louis, for his own interest, had gone again into James's plan of invasion, and had collected a considerable fleet and army on the coast; and James had sent over Sir George Barclay and his natural son, the Duke of Berwick, to promote an insurrection, without which, or the assurance of one to favour them on their landing, the French were loth to embark. Barclay and Berwick both got secretly into London, where the former, the more daring and less scrupulous conspirator of the two, remained some time lodging in Hatton Garden. This Barclay, according to his own account, as given in the Life of James, found that there was no great hope of an insurrection in England; but that there was a design on foot to form a party to fall upon the Prince of Orange." This design he says was first communicated to him by Mr. Charnock, who at their first meeting "complained to him that he and some others had a design on foot, which would have undoubtedly facilitated the king's return, but that his majesty would never permit them to put it in execution." A few days after Charnock made him acquainted with Sir William Perkins, who was con t cerned with him in all their projects, and who then opened the design more fully, assuring Barclay that they wanted nothing for perfecting it but his majesty's leave. "I did much approve of it," says Barclay," if it could be carried on with that secrecy and conduct as a thing of that consequence ought to be; upon which I immediately asked them if it was possible to find so many good men as would be requisite, and would undertake a brave action without asking of questions." They assured him that they knew several of their own mind. "Therefore," adds Barclay, “presuming upon the commission I held from his majesty to make war upon the Prince of Orange and all his adherents, I thought myself sufficiently authorised to engage with them to attack that prince when his guards were about him; upon which I showed them my commission, which they were much pleased with, but told me it was absolutely necessary I should see Mr. Porter, who lodged in the same house with them, and was privy to all their designs." Barclay says that for some time he would not condescend to visit this Porter; not that he mistrusted his loyalty, but because he heard "he was much given to drink, and open-minded.” But the other conspirators told him that their lives were as dear to them as he could esteem his own; that if Porter had been a drunkard and a blab they would not have trusted him; and at last Barclay went with Major Holmes to Porter's lodgings, where they found him confined to his bed. "By this time," says Barclay, "Captain Knightly had heard of me, and was very desirous to speak with me, so I made an appointment with him and Captain Hungate. At our meeting Captain Knightly told me he and some others had a design of making a party to fall upon the Prince of Orange, and that he and Durance, a good partisan, had viewed the ground several times, and found it for their purpose, and desired me to see Durance, which I did, to try what I could learn from him, and then went to see the ground, when I was conducted to a hunting-house kept by one Mr. Latten, and where the prince used to go often a-hunting. There it was they proposed to me to lay an ambuscade, but I could not agree to their design: not but that the place was to my mind, but my objection was, that the men must have been placed there over-night, and if the Prince of Orange did not come, they could not remove till the night following; and, in so little a spot of ground, they might have been discovered by the rangers, and if the design had failed twenty men would have been let into the secret." This deliberate assassin, Barclay, goes on to say that, being several times told" from good hands" that one Captain Fisher, that lived in King-street, Westminster, had made several great proposals, he went to him in disguise, when the captain proposed to attack the Prince of Orange between the two gates as he passed from Hyde Park to St. James,-he (Fisher) undertaking to kill one of the coachhorses with his own hand. Barclay set the cap VOL. IV. tain down for a fool, engaging him, however, to give him notice when William went a-hunting. Captain Fisher sent him word accordingly, and also informed him that a person lurking about Kensington Palace, whom Barclay supposed to be Durance, had been taken notice of by the servants; "for," says Barclay, "I had him and another placed to give me notice of what they could learn at that court; as, immediately after my arrival in London, I made it my business to know that prince's days of council and recreation, and how many guards he had when he went abroad; but after we were in readiness, I could never learn he was anywhere abroad at night or a-hunting." He assures us that, having once engaged in this affair, he was resolved to try every way to go through with it; that he was disappointed of any opportunity of meeting William in a fit place; that he went to Kensington itself with Major Holmes, and everywhere else about London where that prince used to go, both to know the ground and what plan would be best. At last he fixed upon Turnham Green as best suited for the purpose, and therefore that place was agreed upon by the rest of the conspirators. Then Sir William Perkins undertook to provide five men, well mounted and armed, but not to be there himself; and Mr. Porter and Mr. Charnock engaged each for the like number of men and to be there themselves. Barclay was to add five men to these fifteen, and he gave money to Major Holmes and Mr. Charnock to buy him twenty horses and furniture, which they did in a few days. To prevent suspicion, these horses were kept in different stables; and rendezvouses were appointed for the day of action at different inns about Turnham Green and Brentford.* After one or two balks, at which the heart of Charnock misgave him, and he talked of going into the country, Barclay received certain word on Saturday, the 15th of February, that William was getting into his coach, and that it was believed he was going to that hunting house where Mr. Latten was keeper, which was over against Brentford on the other side the river Thames. The plan of the assassins, who were now increased to thirty-five men, was to surprise William on his return at a hollow part of the road between Brentford and Turnham Green, one division of them being placed behind some bushes and brushwood at the western end of the green. Eight were to have "taken care of the prince, and the rest to have dealt with the guard,"-who, however, according to their calculation, would scarcely have got across the river when William fell into the ambuscade. When the murderers, or as Barclay calls them, "the gentlemen," were all ready to go to the posts assigned to them, word was brought that William had changed his mind and would not hunt that day. There was a fear that their design was suspected; but, after lying. close and still in the interval, Barclay, PorLife of James;-Sir G, Barclay's own relation, K |