The History of England, from the Accession of James II Volume IV Part 36

[Footnote 344: Lords' and Commons' Journals, Nov. 4., Jan. 1692.]

[Footnote 345: Commons' Journals, Nov. 10 1692.]

[Footnote 346: See the Lords' Journals from Nov. 7. to Nov. 18. 1692; Burnet, ii. 102. Tindall's account of these proceedings was taken from letters addressed by Warre, Under Secretary of State, to Colt, envoy at Hanover. Letter to Mr. Secretary Trenchard, 1694.]

[Footnote 347: Lords' Journals, Dec. 7.; Tindal, from the Colt Papers; Burnet, ii. 105.]

[Footnote 348: Grey's Debates, Nov. 21. and 23. 1692.]

[Footnote 349: Grey's Debates, Nov. 21. 1692; Colt Papers in Tindal.]

[Footnote 350: Tindal, Colt Papers; Commons' Journals, Jan. 11. 1693.]

[Footnote 351: Colt Papers in Tindal; Lords' Journals from Dec. 6. to Dec. 19. 1692; inclusive,]

[Footnote 352: As to the proceedings of this day in the House of Commons, see the Journals, Dec. 20, and the letter of Robert Wilmot, M.P. for Derby, to his colleague Anchitel Grey, in Grey's Debates.]

[Footnote 353: Commons' Journals, Jan. 4. 1692/3.]

[Footnote 354: Colt Papers in Tindal; Commons' Journals, Dec. 16. 1692, Jan. 11 1692; Burnet ii. 104.]

[Footnote 355: The peculiar antipathy of the English n.o.bles to the Dutch favourites is mentioned in a highly interesting note written by Renaudot in 1698, and preserved among the Archives of the French Foreign Office.]

[Footnote 356: Colt Papers in Tindal; Lords' Journals, Nov. 28. and 29.

1692, Feb. 18. and 24. 1692/3.]

[Footnote 357: Grey's Debates, Nov 18. 1692; Commons' Journals, Nov.

18., Dec. 1. 1692.]

[Footnote 358: See Cibber's Apology, and Mountford's Greenwich Park.]

[Footnote 359: See Cibber's Apology, Tom Brown's Works, and indeed the works of every man of wit and pleasure about town.]

[Footnote 360: The chief source of information about this case is the report of the trial, which will be found in Howell's Collection. See Evelyn's Diary, February 4. 1692/3. I have taken some circ.u.mstances from Narcissus Luttrell's Diary, from a letter to Sancroft which is among the Tanner MSS in the Bodleian Library, and from two letters addressed by Brewer to Wharton, which are also in the Bodleian Library.]

[Footnote 361: Commons' Journals, Nov. 14. 1692.]

[Footnote 362: Commons' Journals of the Session, particularly of Nov.

17., Dec. 10., Feb. 25., March 3.; Colt Papers in Tindal.]

[Footnote 363: Commons' Journals, Dec. 10.; Tindal, Colt Papers.]

[Footnote 364: See c.o.ke's Inst.i.tutes, part iv. chapter 1. In 1566 a subsidy was 120,000L.; in 1598, 78,000L.; when c.o.ke wrote his Inst.i.tutes, about the end of the reign of James I. 70,000L. Clarendon tells us that, in 1640, twelve subsidies were estimated at about 600,000L.]

[Footnote 365: See the old Land Tax Acts, and the debates on the Land Tax Redemption Bill of 1798.]

[Footnote 366: Lords' Journals Jan. 16, 17, 18, 19, 20.; Commons'

Journals, Jan. 17, 18. 20. 1692; Tindal, from the Colt Papers; Burnet, ii. 104, 105. Burnet has used an incorrect expression, which Tindal, Ralph and others have copied. He says that the question was whether the Lords should tax themselves. The Lords did not claim any right to alter the amount of taxation laid on them by the bill as it came up to them.

They only demanded that their estates should be valued, not by the ordinary commissioners, but by special commissioners of higher rank.]

[Footnote 367: Commons' Journals, Dec. 2/12. 1692,]

[Footnote 368: For this account of the origin of stockjobbing in the City of London I am chiefly indebted to a most curious periodical paper, ent.i.tled, "Collection for the Improvement of Husbandry and Trade, by J. Houghton, F.R.S." It is in fact a weekly history of the commercial speculations of that time. I have looked through the files of several years. In No. 33., March 17. 1693, Houghton says: "The buying and selling of Actions is one of the great trades now on foot. I find a great many do not understand the affair." On June 13. and June 22. 1694, he traces the whole progress of stockjobbing. On July 13. of the same year he makes the first mention of time bargains. Whoever is desirous to know more about the companies mentioned in the text may consult Houghton's Collection and a pamphlet ent.i.tled Anglia Tutamen, published in 1695.]

[Footnote 369: Commons' Journals; Stat. 4 W. & M. c. 3.]

[Footnote 370: See a very remarkable note in Hume's History of England, Appendix III.]

[Footnote 371: Wealth of Nations, book v. chap. iii.]

[Footnote 372: Wesley was struck with this anomaly in 1745. See his Journal.]

[Footnote 373: Pepys, June 10. 1668.]

[Footnote 374: See the Politics, iv. 13.]

[Footnote 375: The bill will be found among the archives of the House of Lords.]

[Footnote 376: Lords' Journals, Jan. 3. 1692/3.]

[Footnote 377: Introduction to the Copies and Extracts of some Letters written to and from the Earl of Danby, now Duke of Leeds, published by His Grace's Direction, 1710.]

[Footnote 378: Commons' Journals; Grey's Debates. The bill itself is among the archives of the House of Lords.]

[Footnote 379: Dunton's Life and Errors; Autobiography of Edmund Bohun, privately printed in 1853. This autobiography is, in the highest degree, curious and interesting.]

[Footnote 380: Vox Cleri, 1689.]

[Footnote 381: Bohun was the author of the History of the Desertion, published immediately after the Revolution. In that work he propounded his favourite theory. "For my part," he says, "I am amazed to see men scruple the submitting to the present King; for, if ever man had a just cause of war, he had; and that creates a right to the thing gained by it. The King by withdrawing and disbanding his army yielded him the throne; and if he had, without any more ceremony, ascended it, he had done no more than all other princes do on the like occasions."]

[Footnote 382: Character of Edmund Bohun, 1692.]

[Footnote 383: Dryden, in his Life of Lucian, speaks in too high terms of Blount's abilities. But Dryden's judgment was bia.s.sed; for Blount's first work was a pamphlet in defence of the Conquest of Granada.]

[Footnote 384: See his Appeal from the Country to the City for the Preservation of His Majesty's Person, Liberty, Property, and the Protestant Religion.]

[Footnote 385: See the article on Apollonius in Bayle's Dictionary.

I say that Blount made his translation from the Latin; for his works contain abundant proofs that he was not competent to translate from the Greek.]

[Footnote 386: See Gildon's edition of Blount's Works, 1695.]

[Footnote 387: Wood's Athenae Oxonienses under the name Henry Blount (Charles Blount's father); Lestrange's Observator, No. 290.]

[Footnote 388: This piece was reprinted by Gildon in 1695 among Blount's Works.]

[Footnote 389: That the plagiarism of Blount should have been detected by few of his contemporaries is not wonderful. But it is wonderful that in the Biographia Britannica his just Vindication should be warmly extolled, without the slightest hint that every thing good in it is stolen. The Areopagitica is not the only work which he pillaged on this occasion. He took a n.o.ble pa.s.sage from Bacon without acknowledgment.]

[Footnote 390: I unhesitatingly attribute this pamphlet to Blount, though it was not reprinted among his works by Gildon. If Blount did not actually write it he must certainly have superintended the writing. That two men of letters, acting without concert, should bring out within a very short time two treatises, one made out of one half of the Areopagitica and the other made out of the other half, is incredible.

Why Gildon did not choose to reprint the second pamphlet will appear hereafter.]