198 NEGOTIATIONS FOR PEACE. [1697. Attainder is a blot upon the reputation of the Whigs, as defenders of public. iberty. The conversion of such a solemn act into a revengeful party proceeding, is disgraceful to many of the statesmen of that time. "It is now. well known that Fenwick's discoveries went not a step beyond the truth."* The king closed the Session of Parliament on the 16th of April, 1697, and on the 26th embarked for Holland. He had promoted Somers to be Lord Chancellor, instead of Keeper of the Great Seal, and had created him a Peer. Russell was created earl of Orford. Montague obtained the higher office of First Lord of the Treasury. The campaign in the Netherlands was distinguished only by one considerable event-William rescued Brussels from a second bombardment. He out marched the French generals by a rapid night movement over the plain of Waterloo, and through the forest of Soignies, and encamping near Brussels, entrenched himself, and saved the city. In his speech at the close of the Session of Parliament, the king had alluded, though not in very decided terms, to the possibility that an honourable peace might be agreed to. The difficulty of concluding a general pacification was less on the part of France than on the part of some of the allies. Spain was haughty and intractable, though she had rendered little assistance in the war. The emperor of Germany wanted the war prolonged, with a view to his own interest in the succession to the crown of Spain. Plenipotentiaries were appointed by the several powers to discuss the terms of a treaty with the ministers of France. They disputed long as to the place of meeting. At last it was agreed that their conferences should be held at Newburg House, a palace belonging to William in the village of Ryswick, between the Hague and Delft. The earl of Pembroke, and others on the part of England; Harlay as the representative of France; the accredited agents of Spain, of the Emperor, of Sweden and of other minor powers-these met twice a week with solemn bows and ceremonial speeches. At the end of June they had concluded nothing, with their infinitude of protocols. The French and English armies were facing each other in the neighbourhood of Brussels. This state neither of peace nor war was not suited to the decisive temper of William. In each of the armies there was a man who could interpret in a straightforward manner the wishes of their respective sovereigns. Portland was thoroughly in the confidence of William. He sent a message to Boufflers, who had been his prisoner for a few days after the capture of Namur, when they formed that sort of intimacy that often springs up between generous enemies. Portland desired half an hour's private conversation with Boufflers, at some place between the two armies. Boufflers asked the consent of his sovereign, and received it, with the condition that he should repair "to this rendezvous with all the dignity becoming a marshal of France, who commands one of my armies." He was to speak as little as possible, and to draw from Portland all he could-a very general rule in that mysterious science called diplomacy. They met on the 8th of July at the village of Brucom, a short distance from Halle; standing apart from their attendants in an orchard. They had four subsequent discussions in open places, where walls could tell no secrets. Portland was authorized to say at the first interview, that William, on the part of England and of the States General, was * Hallam, chap. xv. Grimblot, vol. i. p. 5. 1697.] THE PEACE OF RYSWICK. 199 satisfied with the terms of territorial arrangement that Louis had proposed, provided satisfaction should be given upon points which concerned himself personally. At the sixth and last interview they met in a small house, and the points of the negotiation were put into writing. William demanded that Louis should sanction no attempt to disturb the existing order of things in England, by James and his friends; and that the Stuart exiles should remove. from France. There is the show of magnanimity in the answer of Louis, that his honour was wounded-" wounded by the proposal that has been made to me to name expressly in the treaty, and to engage to remove from my kingdom, a king who has found no asylum except with me, and no alleviation of his misfortunes except in the manner in which I have received him." As to the objection that whilst James was in France, the secret practices of his party would be encouraged, even against the wishes of Louis, the great king answers in the tone that only absolute power can assume: "All Europe is sufficiently aware of the obedience and submission of my people; and when I shall please to hinder my subjects from assisting the king of England-as I engage to do, by promising not to assist, directly or indirectly, the enemies of the prince of Orange, without any exception-there is no reason to apprehend that he will find any assistance in my kingdom."* Portland waived the point that James should be mentioned by name, provided that Louis agreed not to favour rebellions and intrigues in England, when William would give the like assurance with regard to any factions or rebellions in France. The high-blown pride of Louis was signally manifested at this presumption of William. He writes to Boufflers: "You shall answer to this proposal that this equality of condition cannot take place; and that the submission of my subjects, and the tranquillity of my kingdom, give me no reason to fear either faction or rebellion." William, however, succeeded in carrying the reciprocal condition. He refused the demand of Louis that a general amnesty should be granted to all the adherents of James. He would pardon offences of men who would live quietly, but he would not consent to such a stipulation on the part of a foreign power. The treaty of Ryswick was concluded between France, England, the States General, and Spain, on the 22nd of September. An extended term was given to the Emperor of Germany to accede to the treaty. On the 26th of November (N.s.) William made his entry into London. Never was public joy more manifest. The evil times had passed away; there was now hope that the nation would go forward in a career of prosperity under a stable government. On that night of universal gratulation, whilst fireworks were displayed, and pitch barrels were blazing, in every open place of London, William wrote from Kensington to his friend Heinsius, "I arrived here this evening, after having passed through the city amidst the lively acclamations of the people. I do not recollect having ever seen so great an assemblage of well-dressed people. It is impossible to conceive what joy the peace causes here." Well might England rejoice. Her constitutional king was acknowledged by the proud monarch who had so long treated him only as the prince of Orange. He had vindicated the choice of the nation, by nine years of incessant struggle against difficulties * Grimblot, vol. i. p. 21. + Ibid. p. 36. 200 OPENING OF SAINT PAUL'S CATHEDRAL. [1697. which would have crushed any common man. He had established the freedom and independence of the country which had chosen him as its head. When the negotiations were going forward, James issued what he termed a solemn protestation against "all whatsoever that may be treated of, regulated, or stipulated, with the usurper of our kingdoms," and "against all the proceedings of his pretended Parliament, and whatever tends to the subversion of the fundamental laws of our kingdom, particularly to those relating to the succession to our Crowns." He urged upon all princes and potentates to consider how dangerous the precedent of peace with an usurper would prove to themselves; "and since ours is the common cause of all Sovereigns, we call for their assistance in the recovery of our kingdoms." The unhappy man had not yet learnt that there is something higher than "the cause of all Sovereigns"-the cause of their People. The 2nd of December, 1697, was a memorable day in England. It was the day of General Thanksgiving for the Peace. It was especially memorable in London; for on that day the new Cathedral of Saint Paul's, which, for twenty-two years, had been gradually rising out of the ashes of the old Cathedral, was opened for divine worship. The king was to have attended this opening; but he heard Burnet preach at Whitehall, for he was told that if he went to Saint Paul's the streets would be so filled with spectators that all the parish churches would be forsaken. No crowd was assembled within the walls of the noble temple on that day of national thanksgiving; for the choir alone was constructed with a view to the performance of the ordinary ritual of Protestant worship. There, Compton, bishop of London, preached; there, the lord-mayor and aldermen represented the commonalty of London. Great public occasions have been since, when the vast spaces beyond that choir have been filled with multitudes. There is one annual solemnity when the voices of thousands of children unite here in hymns of adoration. But not till a hundred and sixty-one years had gone by, since the magnificent fabric of Wren had been opened for divine service, was the experiment made of assembling a vast congregation beyond the comparatively narrow limits of the choir, to join in the chaunts of our noble liturgy,-to listen to the preacher who was now to speak to such an assemblage as were once spoken to by the preachers of the Reformation at Paul's Cross. To the mind of the great architect the notion could never have presented itself, that three thousand people would have been seated in attendance on the evening service of each Sunday night of a cold and wet winter-the greater number in the area where the choir, the nave, and the transepts join. Wren could not have imagined that, above those piers which carry the majestic concave to which no one ever looked up without a sense of its grandeur, the vast circle of the dome would be illuminated with many hundreds of jets of flame-brilliant as stars, shedding down a light as of noon-day-produced by an invention unknown to his age of scientific discovery. On those Sunday nights of December, 1858, whilst the simplest chaunts of the cathedral service, and the commonest hymns of a rural congregation, were sung by a choral band of unusual number and skill, the voices of the vast assembly swelled louder than the organ-peal, as if they felt that, for the first time, the "Life of James II." vol. ii. p. 572. 1697.1 PARLIAMENT REDUCTION OF THE ARMY. 201 colossal fane which rises sublimely over the smoke and mists of London had been applied to its proper uses; that the decent solemnities of the Anglican Church had now acquired a grandeur which, could the pure-minded philosopher who sleeps in the crypt below the dome have foreseen this change, he would have thought that a far nobler destination for the great monument of his genius had been reached than all the pomp of Saint Peter's on its highest festivals. The Parliament was opened by William on the 3rd of December. The most important passage in the royal speech was this: "The circumstances of affairs abroad are such, that I think myself obliged to tell you my opinion, that, for the present, England cannot be safe without a land-force; and I hope we shall not give those who mean us ill the opportunity of effecting that, under the notion of a peace, which they could not bring to pass by a war." He spoke the language of the sovereign of a free nation when he said, "That which I most delight in, and am best pleased to own, is, that I have all the proofs of my people's affection that a prince can desire; and I take this occasion to give them the most solemn assurance that, as I never had, so I never will nor can have, any interest separate from theirs." The House of Commons behaved with becoming gratitude to William, in fixing the royal revenue at a liberal amount for his life. They were somewhat precipitate, greatly to his annoyance, in their determination to reduce the army to ten thousand horse and foot. Before the opening of Parliament the question of maintaining an army during peace had been warmly canvassed. The king wrote to Heinsius: "The members who have come from the provinces seem to be strongly prejudiced against this measure, and infinite pains are taken to discredit it in the eyes of the public by speeches and by pamphlets."* In January, the Commons limited the vote for the maintenance of troops for the current year to three hundred and fifty thousand pounds. William again wrote to Heinsius to say how greatly he was embarrassed: "You cannot Grimblot, vol. i. p. 139. 202 DANGERS OF AN INSUFFICIENT FORCE. [1697. form an idea of the indifference with which all foreign affairs are now considered. People here only busy themselves about a fanciful liberty, while they are forced to acknowledge that they were never so free, and have nothing to apprehend from me." * In alluding to the clamour for what he calls "a fanciful liberty," William has reference to that popular jealousy of a standing army, which burst out the instant that the army abroad had done its work. The notion then set forth in very able tracts that "a standing army is inconsistent with a free government, and absolutely destructive to the constitution of the English monarchy," has long since passed away. But "the indifference with which foreign affairs are considered " has, again and again, been a cause of deep anxiety, not only to lavish ministers but to disinterested patriots. The arguments that were urged in 1697 against leaving the kingdom in a defenceless state may be applied, with little change, to our own times. "If," says the author of a Letter once attributed to Somers, we were in the same condition that we and our neighbours were an age ago, I should reject the proposition of a standing army with horror. But the case is altered. The whole world, more particularly our neighbours, have now got into the mistaken notion of keeping up a mighty force; and the powerfullest of all these happens to be our next neighbour, who will very probably keep great armies. We may appear too inviting, if we are in such an open and unguarded condition that the success of an attempt may seem to be not only probable, but certain. England is an open country, full of plenty, everywhere able to subsist an army; our towns and cities are all open; our rivers are all fordable; no passes nor strong places can stop an enemy that should land upon us." The writer then contrasts the secresy and despatch with which an absolute government can carry forward its designs, whilst the measures of a free government must be contrived and executed without the same promptitude and the same concealment. This is good sense at any period; nor is the writer less sound when he points out the essential difference "between troops that have been long trained, who have learned the art and are accustomed to the discipline of war, and the best bodies of raw and undisciplined troops."+ These arguments were of little avail. William, with his accustomed imperturbability, wrote to Heinsius," I shall get on as well as I can. It is fortunate, however, that they have resolved to give half-pay to all the officers who shall be disbanded. I estimate their number at fifteen hundred, or nearly so; so that, if we could afford it, we should have the means of forming again a considerable army." ‡ The most important proceeding of this Session of Parliament was the Bill for settling the long-disputed question of continuing the monopoly of the old East India Company or for establishing a new Company. Fierce were the disputes between these rival traders; and these disputes took that form of party advocacy which is most violent when pecuniary interests are involved. The government, then composed almost exclusively of Whigs, favoured the pretensions of the adventurers who desired to be formed into a new Company, for they had promised to set on foot subscriptions for raising two millions. sterling, to be lent for the public service upon interest at eight per cent. * Grimblot, vol. i. p. 148. "A Letter balancing the necessity of keeping a land-force, with the dangers that may follow on it." Grimblot, vol. i. p. 150. |