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382

NOTICE OF PRINCIPAL WRITERS.

of bondage and slavery is that which mankind, by nature, abhors;" that "liberty makes nations thrive, people great, a country pleasant, and nature fruitful; for liberty encourages industry, whilst sloth and slavery go hand in hand, and encourage each other:" also, that "the happiness of free nations does not consist merely in the liberties and privileges they enjoy, but in the sense they have of the excellency and use of those privileges, and the taste they have for liberty itself."*

If any apology be necessary for recording the services of those illustrious men, who, animated by a love of country, marked out the purest sources of her prosperity, it is furnished by one of the writers above-mentioned: for, "that nations should be well informed of their rights, is of the most absolute necessity; because the happiness or infelicity of any people entirely depends upon the enjoyment or deprivation of liberty. And it may be truly said, that unless men have utterly abandoned themselves to all that is detestable, they have seldom attempted to detract from the worth of the assertors of liberty, though ambition and other passions have influenced them to act in opposition to it."+

Review, vi. 226. ii. 671. viii. 262.
↑ Toland's Pref. to Sydney on Government.

CHAPTER XXVI.

Intemperate Proceedings in Parliament.-The Partition Treaty condemned.— Several Whig Lords impeached.-Partiality of the Commons.-The Lords dismiss the Impeachments.—Breach between the Two Houses.-Conduct of the King. Events favorable to a Change in the Public Feeling.-Swift's Discourse on the Contests and Dissentions in Athens.-De Foe sounds the Alarm.-Account of the Kentish Petition.-Notice of William Colepeper. -Intemperate Proceedings of the Commons.-The Kentish Gentlemen taken into Custody.-Their brutal Treatment.-Committed to the GateHouse.-Kindness of the Keeper.-Their Popularity.-Wailings of a Tory Writer.-De Foe's Legion Letter.-History of its Presentation.—The Letter to the Speaker.-Copy of the Memorial.—Its Effect upon the Commons.- -Release of the Kentish Petitioners.—They Dine with the Citizens at Mercers' Hall.-De Foe present.-Tory Account of the Entertainment. -Their Departure from London.-Honours received upon their Journey.— Account of Mr. Polhill.-Publications arising out of the Event.-De Foe's History of the Kentish Petition.-Jura Populi Anglicani.—Pamphlets against Legion.

1701.

WHATEVER credit the parliament might have acquired by the late measure relating to the succession, it was quickly lost by the intemperance of its proceedings. Nor was the cordiality between the king and his ministers of any long continuance. The partition treaty, although it was never fulfilled, had been, from the time of its negociation, a favorite subject for crimination with the Tories; and having a decided majority in the Commons, they determined to pour their vengeance upon its authors. With the people at large, the treaty was not popular; as well from its being a measure of the king's contrivance and conducted in secrecy, as from

384

SEVERAL WHIG-LORDS IMPEACHED.

their inability to reconcile its objects with English policy. In the debates upon the subject, the most violent language was employed in its condemnation; and some of the members did not scruple to cast reflections upon the king that were personally offensive. Both houses presented addresses expressive of their opinions, but the language of the Lords was most temperate and respectful. Without canvassing the policy of the treaty, which was suggested by a choice of evils, and fairly open to the discussion of parliament, it may be remarked, that the points selected for attack, savoured rather of jealousy and faction than any purer motives. But the spirit of party was most decidedly displayed in the Commons, where it was determined to sacrifice the leading Whigs to the pride and resentment of their opponents. For this purpose a committee was appointed from amongst the most violent members, to prepare articles of impeachment against the Earls of Portland and Orford, and Lords Somers and Halifax; and an address was presented to the king to dismiss them from his councils for ever. (o)

Had there been any reasonable ground for this proceeding, which, indeed, the authors of it were never able to make out, yet, the notorious partiality with which it was conducted, is sufficient to stamp it with dishonour, and to entail lasting opprobrium upon the men who devised it. Whatever blame attached to the treaty, the Earl of Jersey was entitled to as large a share of it as Lord Portland; but having now joined the Tories, it was a sufficient reason for passing him Several other peers, as well as commoners, were also

over.

(0) "These were all good men, and the three last were of remarkable abilities and experience. Lord Somers was the general patron of the literati ; the Earl of Orford had been considered in a manner as lord high admiral, the whole affairs of the navy having been committed to his charge; Lord Halifax had a fine geniu for poetry, and had employed his more youthful part of life in that science."-Orrery's Life of Swift, p. 93.

PARTIALITY OF THE COMMONS.

385

equally implicated, and as little disposed to shrink from inquiry. The Earl of Pembroke resolutely told the Lords, "he had offered the king those advices that he thought were most for his service, and for the good of the nation; and that he did not think himself bound to give an account of that to any other person." If the late ministers deserved impeachment for a measure in which they do not appear to have been much consulted, impartiality required that the whole should have been included; but the malignity of the Tories was directed only against the king's personal friends, whose abilities rendered them formidable rivals; and they thought by disgracing them, to establish themselves, and put an end for ever to their influence. Lord Haversham having reflected upon the gross partiality of the Commons, they passed some violent resolutions against him; and, throughout the whole business, discovered the furor of men stung by madness, and violently impelled by malice and revenge. The Lords, more cool and dispassionate in their proceedings, addressed the king not to prejudge the case of their impeached members by any previous act. Convinced, also, of the frivolous nature of the charges, and tired out by the dilatoriness of the Commons, nor less provoked by their insolence, they proceeded to the trial of Lord Somers, whom they speedily acquitted; and finally, upon the last day of the session, dismissed the other impeachments.

The opposite temper displayed in the proceedings of the two Houses of Parliament, gave rise to those angry feelings which vented themselves in mutual recriminations, and were a great impediment to the public business. Of these animosities the king was by no means an unconcerned spectator, although utterly destitute of any power to allay them. Chagrined at the opposition to his projects for curtailing the power of France, and mortified by the personal affronts that were daily heaped upon him, he grew wholly distrustful

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386

CHANGE IN THE PUBLIC FEELING.

of public men, and resolved to smother his feelings by assuming an indifference to public affairs, until some favorable occurrence should call them into active exercise. It was not long before such an event presented itself. In the early part of the session, an intercepted letter from the Earl of Melfort to his brother the Duke of Perth, conveyed the intelligence of large armaments preparing in France, and that James, encouraged by the divided and defenceless state of England, intended to take advantage of it by renewing his menace of an invasion. This naturally spread an alarm in the nation, which the turbulence of the Commons was not calculated to allay. The peaceable succession of the Duke of Anjou, and the consequent extension of the power of France, increased the dismay, until the nation was aroused to a sense of its danger, and William had the satisfaction of witnessing an ebullition of sentiment that corresponded with his own. Bishop Burnet, in describing the state of public feeling, says; the measures of the Commons "gave a general disgust to all England, more particularly to the city of London, where foreign affairs, and the interest of trade, were generally better understood. They saw visibly that first the ruin of trade, and then, as a consequence of that, the ruin of the nation must certainly ensue, if France and Spain were once firmly united; so they began openly to condemn the proceedings of the Commons, and to own a jealousy, that the louis d'ors sent hither of late, had not come over to England for nothing. This disposition to blame the slowness in which the House of Commons proceeded with relation to foreign affairs, and the heat with which private quarrels were pursued, began to spread itself through the whole nation."*

It was upon this occasion that Swift produced the first, and by far the most valuable of his political works, intitled,

Burnet's Own Time, iii. 380, 1.

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