Parlia ments of III. CHAP. III. question on the ground of the feeling out of doors, so it was resolved to go into committee on the state of the William coinage. The problem for decision was, Who was to bear the loss, the State or the individual? The King desired the State to be the loser, and the Commons took this view. On December, 10th, after a lengthy debate, the Lower House resolved to recoin the clipped money, according to the established standard of the Mint, both as to weight and fineness; and, to make it more easy for the people, they voted a recompense for the deficiency of the clipped money. Locke, the philosopher, who issued two pamphlets on the subject, which "form an epoch in the history of the theory of currency," opposed this view because it contradicted the axiom that society was based on the individual. But it was absolutely necessary to do something for the public. On another issue, however, the Commons agreed with Locke, and, by 225 votes to 114, decided that the new coinage should be unchanged, and should follow the established standard of value. Revenue tion. The loss to the revenue by the operations was estimated and Taxa- at £1,200,000, and this could only be met by new taxes. The old hearth tax was unpopular because it savoured of Crown privileges, so it was resolved that a tax known as the window tax should be levied on all dwellinghouses except cottages. The impost was to be exacted for seven years, at the rate of 2s. yearly upon each house, 4s. upon every house having ten windows, and 88. upon such houses as had twenty windows, over and above the 28. While the people gained, the Crown lost by these monetary changes, for William surrendered the recoinage of the currency, which preceding sovereigns had tenaciously held as a right. King and Parliament. There were two important matters at this time in which William sustained a check at the hands of Parliament. The first related to the large Crown domains in Wales, which the King had granted to his friend. Bentinck, Earl of Portland. The House of Commons strongly opposed these grants on the ground that they Parliaments of III. would sever the connection between King and subjects. CHAP. III, They did not affirm that the sovereign had no right at all to alienate Crown property, but they maintained that William there were certain cases which called for the assent of Parliament. For example, these Portland grants would swallow up the revenues on which the government of the country depended. They were vigorously attacked by Sir Roger Puleston and Mr. Price, a very able lawyer and subsequently one of the Barons of the Exchequer ; and the King had no option but to recall his gift. Darien The second matter in which the King's policy was Isthmus of seriously called in question was the scheme of Paterson scheme. the banker for colonising the Isthmus of Darien as a central place of trade. The Scots took up the plan by which goods from India were to come by ship to the Isthmus on the Pacific side, to be then carried overland to the colony, and there shipped off to Glasgow. They were then to be borne by a Clyde and Forth canal to Leith, and from this port a ready entrance would be found to the European markets. A capital of £400,000 was raised in Scotland, and in 1695 the scheme received the approval of the Scottish Parliament. It was sanctioned by the royal commissioner on the ground of the King's promise to favour Scottish commerce and to support its settlements in foreign parts. But the English merchants attacked the scheme, perceiving in it a formidable rival to their commercial enterprises. Parliament was moved on the subject, and both Houses complained of the King for entering into a project, not only opposed to English interests, but hostile to his own. Both England and Holland, they urged, must suffer from the new company, and there would be a great loss in import duties. The King was more bound to consider England than Scotland. William gave way, and removed the Scottish Ministers chiefly responsible for the project. Trade es Parliament followed up this step, and established a Board of Board of Trade, for the better securing of the trade of the tablished. nation. The King ordered his Ministers to oppose the Parliaments of William III. CHAP. III. plan, but the Earl of Sunderland, to his great surprise, supported it. Then William proceeded to name the members of the Board, among whom Locke was included, but the House of Commons asserted its own right of naming the members. The law of Trea son. Important legislation on the question of trial for high treason was initiated this session, and the Crown was involved in a struggle with the Lords, in which the latter conquered. A bill "for regulating trials in cases of treason and misprision of treason," which had been several times lost in former Parliaments, was again brought into the House of Commons, and in a short time read three times there, and sent up to the Lords for their concurrence. This measure, which mitigated or removed many hardships upon the liberty of the subject, enacted "That all persons indicted for high treason or misprision of it, shall have a copy of the indictment five days before their trial, and shall be admitted to make their defence by counsel learned in the law, not exceeding two. That no person shall be indicted or attainted but by the oaths of two lawful witnesses. That no person shall be prosecuted unless the indictment be found within three years after the offence committed. That all persons indicted shall have copies of the presentment of the jury two days before their trial, and shall have like process to compel their witnesses to appear before them as is, usually granted to witnesses against them." The Lords added the following clause to the bill: "That upon the trial of any peer or peeress for treason or misprision of it, all the peers who have a right to sit and vote in Parliament shall be duly summoned twenty days at least before such trial, and shall not vote without first taking the oaths appointed by the act 1 Will. and Mary and subscribing and repeating the declaration mentioned in the act 30 Car. II." The provision by which the Lords claimed to be tried before the whole body of the peers alone, and not by a commission appointed by the Government, naturally made the aristocracy independent of the Crown party, and it was thought that it would either fail to pass the House of Commons, or that the King would not give CHAP. III. his consent to it; but the current of feeling was too powerful, and William assented to the bill. Parliaments of William III. Interest Whilst the Treason Bill was passing through the Commons, Lord Ashley, afterwards Earl of Shaftesbury, ing inciand author of the Characteristics, prepared a speech on dent. behalf of the bill, which he intended to deliver in the Lower House, of which he was a member. But when he stood up to speak, the great audience so intimidated him that he lost all memory, and was unable to proceed.' The House, after giving him a little time to recover his confusion, called loudly upon him to go on, when he proceeded to this effect: "If I, Sir" (addressing himself to the Speaker), "who rise only to give my opinion on the bill now depending, am so confounded that I am unable to express the least of what I proposed to say, what must the condition of that man be who without any assistance is pleading for his life, and under apprehensions of being deprived of it?" This sudden turn of wit was thought to have been premeditated by some, but such was not the case, and it was of no little service in promoting the fortunes of the bill. the Press. The freedom of the press was practically established Liberty of this session. By the Licensing Act of 1662 printing was confined to London, York, and the two Universities, and the number of master printers was limited to the old number of twenty, while all new works were subjected to examination by an officer called the licenser. The harsh provisions of the act were cruelly used by the licenser, Roger L'Estrange, and all London newspapers were stopped except the official London Gazette and the Observator. The act expired in 1679, but it was revived at the accession of James II., and continued in vogue until now. A committee of the House of Commons again proposed to renew the censorship, and the Government held it to be a grievance that unauthorised journals 1 This incident will recall Lord Beaconsfield's first appearance in the House of Commons, a century and a half later. Parliaments of But CHAP. III. should be permitted to disseminate intelligence. there was a general tendency in Parliament towards William freedom from Government restraint, and especially as touching the independence of the press, and the Lower House negatived the renewal of the censorship. In theory at least the press was henceforth free. III. William and the War. Safety of the kingdom. The King gave way to Parliament on all matters of grave domestic import, such as the law, commerce, and the press. His enemies thought that a quarrel between him and the Whigs was inevitable, but William would have made even still further concessions rather than have been thwarted in his darling project, the prosecution of the war. And he soon needed all the support which could be given to him, for French and Jacobite schemes of invasion were rife at this time. The Duke of Berwick took a very prominent part in the unsuccessful plot for a Jacobite insurrection, which was to have been aided by a French force. Several conspirators were hanged at Tyburn; but it is not clear that Berwick was acquainted with the darker schemes of some of the plotters, who aimed at William's assassination. On February 24th, 1696, the King went down to the House of Lords to request the co-operation of Parliament in measures for the common safety, when both Houses immediately assured him that they were resolved to defend him and his government against all foes at home and abroad, and especially against James II. They added the declaration to all the world "that in case your Majesty shall come to any violent death (which God forbid), we will revenge the same upon all your enemies and their adherents." The King thanked the Houses for their assurances, and said he would adventure his life for the preservation of the kingdom. Energetic The resolutions passed by the Commons at this time measures. testify to the critical aspect of things. The Habeas Corpus Act was suspended; power was given to the King to secure persons conspiring against his person or government; instructions were issued for the more effectual raising of the militia; it was provided in the |