The History of England, from the Accession of James II Volume IV Part 43

[Footnote 647: Commons' Journals, Dec. 13. 1695.]

[Footnote 648: Stat. 7 Gul. 3.c. [1].; Lords' and Commons' Journals; L'Hermitage, Dec 31/Jan 10 Jan 7/17 10/20 14/24 1696. L'Hermitage describes in strong language the extreme inconvenience caused by the dispute between the Houses:--"La longueur qu'il y a dans cette affaire est d'autant plus desagreable qu'il n'y a point (le sujet sur lequel le peuple en general puisse souffrir plus d'incommodite, puisqu'il n'y a personne qui, a tous moments, n'aye occasion de l'esprouver.)]

[Footnote 649: That Locke was not a party to the attempt to make gold cheaper by penal laws, I infer from a pa.s.sage in which he notices Lowndes's complaints about the high price of guineas. "The only remedy,"

says Locke, "for that mischief, as well as a great many others, is the putting an end to the pa.s.sing of clipp'd money by tale." Locke's Further Considerations. That the penalty proved, as might have been expected, inefficacious, appears from several pa.s.sages in the despatches of L'Hermitage, and even from Haynes's Brief Memoires, though Haynes was a devoted adherent of Montague.]

[Footnote 650: L'Hermitage, Jan 14/24 1696.]

[Footnote 651: Commons' Journals, Jan. 14. 17. 23. 1696; L'Hermitage, Jan. 14/24; Gloria Cambriae, or Speech of a Bold Briton against a Dutch Prince of Wales 1702; Life of the late Honourable Robert Price, &c. 1734. Price was the bold Briton whose speech--never, I believe, spoken--was printed in 1702. He would have better deserved to be called bold, if he had published his impertinence while William was living.

The Life of Price is a miserable performance, full of blunders and anachronisms.]

[Footnote 652: L'Hermitage mentions the unfavourable change in the temper of the Commons; and William alludes to it repeatedly in his letters to Heinsius, Jan 21/31 1696, Jan 28/Feb 7.]

[Footnote 653: The gaiety of the Jacobites is said by Van Cleverskirke to have been noticed during some time; Feb 25/March 6 1696.]

[Footnote 654: Harris's deposition, March 28. 1696.]

[Footnote 655: Hunt's deposition.]

[Footnote 656: Fisher's and Harris's depositions.]

[Footnote 657: Barclay's narrative, in the Life of James, ii. 548.; Paper by Charnock among the MSS. in the Bodleian Library.]

[Footnote 658: Harris's deposition.]

[Footnote 659: Ibid. Bernardi's autobiography is not at all to be trusted.]

[Footnote 660: See his trial.]

[Footnote 661: Fisher's deposition; Knightley's deposition; Cranburne's trial; De la Rue's deposition.]

[Footnote 662: See the trials and depositions.]

[Footnote 663: L'Hermitage, March 3/13]

[Footnote 664: See Berwick's Memoirs.]

[Footnote 665: Van Cleverskirke, Feb 25/March 6 1696. I am confident that no sensible and impartial person, after attentively reading Berwick's narrative of these transactions and comparing it with the narrative in the Life of James (ii. 544.) which is taken, word for word, from the Original Memoirs, can doubt that James was accessory to the design of a.s.sa.s.sination.]

[Footnote 666: L'Hermitage, March Feb 25/March 6]

[Footnote 667: My account of these events is taken chiefly from the trials and depositions. See also Burnet, ii. 165, 166, 167, and Blackmore's True and Impartial History, compiled under the direction of Shrewsbury and Somers, and Boyer's History of King William III., 1703.]

[Footnote 668: Portland to Lexington, March 3/13. 1696; Van Cleverskirke, Feb 25/Mar 6 L'Hermitage, same date.]

[Footnote 669: Commons' Journals, Feb. 24 1695.]

[Footnote 670: England's Enemies Exposed, 1701.]

[Footnote 671: Commons' Journals, Feb. 24. 1695/6.]

[Footnote 672: Ibid. Feb. 25. 1695/6; Van Cleverskirke, Feb 28/March 9; L'Hermitage, of the same date.]

[Footnote 673: According to L'Hermitage, Feb 27/Mar 8,there were two of these fortunate hackney coachmen. A shrewd and vigilant hackney coachman indeed was from the nature of his calling, very likely to be successful in this sort of chase. The newspapers abound with proofs of the general enthusiasm.]

[Footnote 674: Postman March 5. 1695/6]

[Footnote 675: Ibid. Feb. 29., March 2., March 12., March 14. 1695/6.]

[Footnote 676: Postman, March 12. 1696; Vernon to Lexington, March 13; Van Cleverskirke, March 13/23 The proceedings are fully reported in the Collection of State Trials.]

[Footnote 677: Burnet, ii. 171.; The Present Disposition of England considered; The answer ent.i.tled England's Enemies Exposed, 1701; L'Hermitage, March 17/27. 1696. L'Hermitage says, "Charnock a fait des grandes instances pour avoir sa grace, et a offert de tout declarer: mais elle lui a este refusee."]

[Footnote 678: L'Hermitage, March 17/27]

[Footnote 679: This most curious paper is among the Nairne MSS. in the Bodleian Library. A short, and not perfectly ingenuous abstract of it will be found in the Life of James, ii. 555. Why Macpherson, who has printed many less interesting doc.u.ments did not choose to print this doc.u.ment, it is easy to guess. I will transcribe two or three important sentences. "It may reasonably be presumed that what, in one juncture His Majesty had rejected he might in another accept, when his own and the public good necessarily required it. For I could not understand it in such a manner as if he had given a general prohibition that at no time the Prince of Orange should be touched... n.o.body that believes His Majesty to be lawful King of England can doubt but that in virtue of his commission to levy war against the Prince of Orange and his adherents, the setting upon his person is justifiable, as well by the laws of the land duly interpreted and explained as by the law of G.o.d."]

[Footnote 680: The trials of Friend and Parkyns will be found, excellently reported, among the State Trials.]

[Footnote 681: L'Hermitage, April 3/13 1696.]

[Footnote 682: Commons' Journals, April 1, 2. 1696; L'Hermitage, April 3/13. 1696; Van Cleverskirke, of the same date.]

[Footnote 683: L'Hermitage, April 7/17. 1696. The Declaration of the Bishops, Collier's Defence, and Further Defence, and a long legal argument for Cook and Snatt will be found in the Collection of State Trials.]

[Footnote 684: See the Manhunter, 1690.]

[Footnote 685: State Trials.]

[Footnote 686: The best, indeed the only good, account of these debates is given by L'Hermitage, Feb 28/March 9 1696. He says, very truly; "La difference n'est qu'une dispute de mots, le droit qu'on a a une chose selon les loix estant aussy bon qu'il puisse estre."]

[Footnote 687: See the London Gazettes during several weeks; L'Hermitage, March 24/April 3 April 14/24. 1696; Postman, April 9 25 30]

[Footnote 688: Journals of the Commons and Lords; L'Hermitage, April 7/17 10/20 1696.]

[Footnote 689: See the Freeholder's Plea against Stockjobbing Elections of Parliament Men, and the Considerations upon Corrupt Elections of Members to serve in Parliament. Both these pamphlets were published in 1701.]

[Footnote 690: The history of this bill will be found in the Journals of the Commons, and in a very interesting despatch of L'Hermitage, April 14/24 1696.]

[Footnote 691: The Act is 7 & 8 Will. 3. c. 31. Its history maybe traced in the Journals.]

[Footnote 692: London Gazette, May 4. 1696]

[Footnote 693: Ibid. March 12. 16. 1696; Monthly Mercury for March, 1696.]

[Footnote 694: The Act provided that the clipped money must be brought in before the fourth of May. As the third was a Sunday, the second was practically the last day.]

[Footnote 695: L'Hermitage, May 5/15 1696; London Newsletter, May 4., May 6. In the Newsletter the fourth of May is mentioned as "the day so much taken notice of for the universal concern people had in it."]