1692-1694 THE LAST PIECE OF GOLD 659 defeats, William had, in his usual fashion, so rallied his defeated troops, that the French gained little by their victories. In the end success would come to the side which had most endurance. Money was as much needed as men, and, in 1692, Parliament decided on borrowing 1,000,000l. for the support of the war. Kings and Parliaments had often borrowed money before, but in the long run they had failed either to pay interest or to repay the principal, and this loan is understood to be the beginning of the National Debt, because it was the first on which interest was steadily paid. The last piece of gold, the French king had said, would carry the day, and England with her commerce was likely to provide more gold than France, where trade was throttled by the constant interference of the Government, and deprived of the protection of an efficient navy. 18. Disorder in the Government. 1693.-On his return after his defeat at Neerwinden, William found everything in disorder. The House of Commons was out of temper in consequence of the military failure, and still more because of the corruption prevailing amongst the king's ministers, and the disorder of the administration. The system of drawing ministers from both parties had led to quarrels, and the House of Commons was at least as inefficient as the Government. There was no assured majority in it. If, as often happened, fifty or a hundred Whigs went off one day to amuse themselves at tennis, or to see a new play or a cock-fight, the Tories carried everything before them. If, on another day, fifty or a hundred Tories chose to disport themselves in the same manner, the Whigs could undo all that had been done by their rivals. There was, in those times, no fear of the constituencies before the eyes of a member of Parliament. No division-lists were printed and no speeches reported. "Nobody," said an active politician, "can know one day what a House of Commons will do the next." 19. The Whig Junto. 1693 1694. —Acting upon the advice of Sunderland, who, though in James's reign he had changed his religion to retain his place, was a shrewd observer of mankind, William provided a remedy for these disorders. Before the end of 1694 he discharged his Tory ministers and filled their posts with Whigs, who had now the sole possession of office. The four leading Whigs, who were consulted on all important matters and who were popularly known as the Junto, were Lord Somers, the Lord Keeper, a statesmanlike and large-minded lawyer; Admiral Russell, the First Lord of the Admiralty ; Charles Montague, the Chancellor of the Exchequer, an acute and able financier; and Thomas Wharton, afterwards Lord Wharton, Comptroller of the Household, a man of the worst character but an excellent electioneering agent, versed in all the arts which win adherents to a political party. What William hoped from this change of system was that, by having ministers who were of one mind, he would be able to have a House of Commons of one mind. Whig members would think it worth while to attend the House steadily, at personal inconvenience to themselves, not only because they wished to keep their own friends in office, but because those friends, as long as they remained in office, would dispose of plenty of well-paid posts and rewards of various kinds, and were more likely to give them to men who voted steadily for them than to those who did not. 20. The Junto the Beginning of the Modern Cabinet.Nothing was further from William's thoughts than the introduction of a new kind of government. The ministers were still his ministers, and what he expected of them was that they would carry on the war more efficiently. Nevertheless, the formation of the Junto was a great step in advance in the direction of the modern Cabinet system, because it recognised frankly what Charles II. had occasionally recognised tacitly, that the growth of the power of the House of Commons was so great that the king could not govern satisfactorily unless the views of his ministers accorded with those of a majority of the House of Commons. It is evident now that this admission would ultimately lead to government, not by the king, but by a Cabinet supporting itself on an organised party in the House of Commons; but ideas grow slowly, and there would be much opposition to overcome before such a system could take root with general approbation. 21. The Bank of England. 1694.-The increased strength of William's government was not long in showing itself. In 1694 the Bank of England was founded, at the suggestion of William Paterson, a Scotchman who, through the influence of Montague, had become a member of the House of Commons. The growing wealth of the country made it necessary that a place should be found in which money might be more safely deposited than with the goldsmiths (see p. 604), and the new Bank, having received deposits of money, made a loan to the Crown on the security of a Parliamentary promise that interest should be paid till the capital was returned. The Government was thereby put in possession of sufficient resources to enable it to carry on the war successfully. This would not have happened unless moneyed men had been 1694 THE WHIG JUNTO 661 confident in the stability of William's government and of Parliamentary institutions. 22. The Place Bill. 1694.-Useful as the concentration of power in the hands of the Whig Junto was, it raised alarm lest the ministers should become too strong. The system of winning votes in Parliament by corruption was on the increase, and the favourite device of a minister in need of support was to give to a member of the House of Commons a place revocable at the pleasure of the Crown, and thereby to bind him by self-interest to vote as the minister pleased. This system, bad enough when the ministers were of different parties, became intolerable when they were all of one party, and it now seemed possible that the Whig Junto might keep itself permanently in office by the votes which it purchased. Independent members, indeed, had from time to time introduced a Place Bill, making it illegal for any member of the House of Commons to hold not merely small offices unconnected with politics, but even the great ministerial posts, such as those of a Secretary of State or a Chancellor of the Exchequer; but the influence of the ministers had been too strong for them, and they were no more successful in 1694 than they had been in former years. 23. The Second Triennial Act. 1694. Another grievance was actually removed in 1694. As the law then stood a king who had a Parliament to his mind might retain it to his death, even if the feelings of the nation had undergone a complete change, as had been the case in the course of the seventeen and a half years during which Charles II. retained the Cavalier Parliament. By the Triennial Act of 1694 it was enacted that no Parliament should last longer than three years. It was, therefore, quite different from the Triennial Act of 1641 (see p. 530), which enacted that a Parliament should be summoned at least once in three years. 24. Death of Mary. 1694.-Scarcely was the Triennial Act passed when Queen Mary was attacked by the small-pox, and in those days, when vaccination had not yet been discovered, the ravages caused by the small-pox were enormous. The physicians soon assured William that there was no hope. He was stern and self-contained in the presence of most men, but he was warmly affectionate to the few whom he really loved. His grief was now heart-rending: "There is no hope," he said to one of the bishops. "I was the happiest man on earth, and I am the most miserable. She had no fault-none: you knew her well, but you could not know-nobody but myself could know-her goodness." The 1094-1695 A NOBLE MONUMENT 663 Charles II. had queen died, but she left a memorial behind her. begun to build a magnificent palace at Greenwich. When the news of the Battle of La Hogue reached England, Mary announced her intention of completing the palace as a place of refuge for sailors disabled in the service of their country. Greenwich Hospital is the lasting monument of the gentle queen. 1. The Liberty of the Press. 1695.-Ever since the Restoration, except for a short interval, there had been a series of licensing acts, authorising the Crown to appoint a licenser, without whose leave no book or newspaper could be published. In 1695 the House of Commons refused to renew the Act, and the press suddenly became free. The House does not seem to have had any idea of the importance of this step, and established the liberty of the press simply because the licensers had given a good deal of annoyance. Yet what they did would hardly have been done twenty years before. The Toleration Act, allowing men to worship as they pleased, and to preach as they pleased, had brought about a state of mind which was certain, before long, to lead to the permission to men to print what they pleased. 2. The Surrender of Namur. 1695. The campaign of 1695, in the Netherlands, was marked by William's first success. His financial resources were now far greater than those of Louis, and he took Namur, though a French army was in the field to relieve |