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and an act passed which prohibited all who were not natives of England from holding office under the crown.

The great object of William's life was the humiliation of France: for this cause he had accepted the English crown; and as soon as the war in Ireland was over he entered into an alliance with Holland, Spain, and Germany to effect this purpose. The war was carried on in Flanders and Piedmont; but the allies were unable at first to obtain any advantage over the King of France, who was at this time served by the finest army and most skilful generals of the age.

In 1692 an event occurred in the Highlands which has always been regarded as a great blot on the character of William. This was the massacre of Glencoe. M'Donald, the chief of that clan, had been prevented by distance from taking the oaths of allegiance to William within the prescribed time, but had done so willingly afterwards, and was told that it was quite sufficient. But his enemies of another clan reported that the chief of Glencoe was a traitor and conspirator against the government. Some troops were, therefore, sent to occupy the vale of Glencoe, and punish the whole clan. These troops were hospitably received by the unconscious inhabitants, and entertained for a week or two without any suspicion of their intentions; when one night, without a moment's notice, they fell upon their hosts, massacred them without distinction of age, burnt their houses, and left their wives and children to perish in the snow. There can be no doubt but that William was deceived by his subordinates in thismatter; yet his apathy and the lenity with which the murderers were treated, will ever be a stain on his character.

In 1694 a bill was passed for limiting the duration of parliaments to three years. This was called the Triennial Act, and remained in operation till 1715. In 1695 an important act was passed, regulating the law with regard to trials for high treason, and ensuring the nation against the recurrence of those disgraceful scenes witnessed at such trials in the preceding reigns. The judges of William's appointment were very different men from the corrupt and brutal Scroggs and Jeffreys. Lord Holt was made Chief-Justice, and Somers, who had been so wise a counsellor at the Revolution, was made Lord Chancellor.

From this reign we must date the liberty of the press, and the rise of another power, happily designated in our day the fourth estate. The act for licensing the press expired in 1693; and though several attempts were made to revive it, they all failed. Both parties employed the press with great diligence in this reign; and the signal victory of liberal principles is manifestly due to the boldness and eloquence with which they were promulgated.

The exiled James made another attempt to regain his throne, and Louis assembled a great fleet and army on the coast of France for the purpose of making a descent on England; but the French fleet was defeated off Cape La Hogue, in 1693, by Admiral Russell, and the whole design frustrated. On the land the French were more successful. William, who commanded the combined armies in person, was defeated at Steenkirk, and the French generals captured many important fortresses in Flanders.

In 1694 Queen Mary died.

Her loss was greatly

deplored by all the people. She had, by her virtues, her piety, and benevolence, endeared herself to all; and William was inconsolable for her loss.

In 1697 the war on the Continent was concluded by the peace of Ryswick. By this treaty Louis recognised William as King of Great Britain and Ireland, and restored to him his principality of Orange. But the seeds of a new war were sown next year by the partition treaty, to which William was a party. The object of this treaty was, to prevent Spain and its vast possessions from falling into the hands of Louis, whose descendants would have a claim to the throne of Spain on the death of Philip the king without heirs.

The following year the Commons resolved that the standing army in time of peace should not amount to more than 7000 men, and that all these soldiers should be natural-born subjects of the crown. This compelled William, to his great disgust, to dismiss his favourite Dutch guards, and those regiments of French Protestant refugees who had fought under him so bravely. But, at the same time, to show their loyalty, all ranks of people united in a voluntary association for the protection of his majesty's life against Jacobite plots, and pledged themselves to avenge his death and maintain the Revolution settlement.

The Duke of Gloucester, the son of the Princess Anne, and after her, the heir of the throne, died in 1700; and in the next session of Parliament the Act of Settlement was passed, which excluded James and all his posterity from the throne of England, and declared the Princess Sophia, Electress of Hanover, and daughter of Elizabeth, the Queen of Bohemia, daughter of

James the First, to be the next in succession of the Protestant line. Other two clauses of great importance in this act were, that the judges should be appointed during good behaviour, and their salaries ascertained and established, but upon the address of both Houses of Parliament it should be lawful to remove them; and secondly that no pardon under the great seal of England should be pleadable to an impeachment by the Commons in Parliament.

The few remaining years of William's life were spent in peace. Commerce and manufactures flourished under the security of free institutions. In 1695 one William Paterson established the Bank of England with a capital of about 1,200,000l. Before this time the goldsmiths of London had been the chief bankers of the kingdom; but their limited dealings were insufficient to meet the wants of an increasing trade.

In literature the reign of William was distinguished, in poetry, by John Dryden; in philosophy, by John Locke; and in theology, by Tillotson, Sherlock, and Burnet.

In 1701, James, the exiled king, died at St. Germains, near Paris; and in defiance of the treaty of Ryswick, Louis the Fourteenth at once recognised and proclaimed his son as James the Third. The people of England, however, gave him the appellation of the Pretender. This circumstance, and the death of the Spanish king, by which the Spanish dominions fell to the grandson of Louis, compelled England to declare war against France; and great preparations were made for conducting it vigorously by land and sea. But on the second of February, 1702, William fell from his

horse while hunting, and this accident so affected his weak constitution that he died on the 7th of March in that year.

CHAP. XXXIII.

ENGLAND AT THE CLOSE OF THE SEVENTEENTH CENTURY.

THE close of another century of English history is a proper time to call up before our eyes England as it was at the close of the seventeenth century, before the rapid improvements of the eighteenth changed the face of society.

Could we do so by some magical process, we should hardly recognise our native land. Everything has been changed but the durable features of nature, and here and there some lasting monument of human art. We might find here and there a Norman minster, or a castle which witnessed the wars of the Roses. But with such rare exceptions, everything would be strange "Many thousands of square miles, which are now rich corn land and meadow, intersected by green hedgerows, and dotted with villages and pleasant country seats, would appear as moors covered with furze, or fens abandoned to wild ducks. We should see straggling huts built of wood, and covered with thatch, where we now see manufacturing towns and seaports renowned to the farthest ends of the world."

to us.

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