it is true; and, when out of humour, | scarcely knew what, of genius and vithey could be sullen and rude; but gour. Unhappily, during the first never did they, even when most angry months of his reign, almost every thing and unreasonable, fail to keep his went wrong. His subjects, bitterly dissecrets and to watch over his interests appointed, threw the blame on him, with gentlemanlike and soldierlike and began to doubt whether he merited fidelity. Among his English council- that reputation which he had won at lors such fidelity was rare. It is his first entrance into public life, and painful, but it is no more than just, to which the splendid success of his last acknowledge that he had but too good great enterprise had raised to the highest reason for thinking meanly of our point. Had they been in a temper to national character. That character judge fairly, they would have perceived was indeed, in essentials, what it has that for the maladministration of which always been. Veracity, uprightness, they with good reason complained he and manly boldness were then, as now, was not responsible. He could as yet qualities eminently English. But those work only with the machinery which qualities, though widely diffused among he had found; and the machinery which the great body of the people, were sel- he had found was all rust and rottendom to be found in the class with which ness. From the time of the RestoraWilliam was best acquainted. The tion to the time of the Revolution, standard of honour and virtue among neglect and fraud had been almost conour public men was, during his reign, at stantly impairing the efficiency of every the very lowest point. His predecessors department of the government. Hohad bequeathed to him a court foul nours and public trusts, peerages, barowith all the vices of the Restoration, a netcies, regiments, frigates, embassies, court swarming with sycophants, who governments, commissionerships, leases were ready, on the first turn of fortune, of crown lands, contracts for clothing, to abandon him as they had abandoned for provisions, for ammunition, pardons his uncle. Here and there, lost in that for murder, for robbery, for arson, were ignoble crowd, was to be found a man sold at Whitehall scarcely less openly of true integrity and public spirit. Yet than asparagus at Covent Garden or even such a man could not long live in herrings at Billingsgate. Brokers had such society without much risk that the been incessantly plying for custom in strictness of his principles would be the purlieus of the court; and of these relaxed, and the delicacy of his sense brokers the most successful had been, of right and wrong impaired. It was in the days of Charles, the harlots, and surely unjust to blame a prince sur- in the days of James, the priests. From rounded by flatterers and traitors for the palace, which was the chief seat of wishing to keep near him four or five this pestilence, the taint had diffused servants whom he knew by proof to be itself through every office and through faithful even to death. every rank in every office, and had every' where produced feebleness and disorwhich our ancestors were un-ganisation. So rapid was the progress maladmi just to him. They had ex- of the decay that, within eight years nistration. pected that, as soon as so after the time when Oliver had been distinguished a soldier and statesman the umpire of Europe, the roar of the was placed at the head of affairs, he guns of De Ruyter was heard in the would give some signal proof, they Tower of London. The vices which had brought that great humiliation on the country had ever since been rooting themselves deeper and spreading themselves wider. James had, to do him justice, corrected a few of the gross abuses which disgraced the naval administration. Yet the naval administration, in spite of his attempts to Nor was this the only instance in General * De Foe makes this excuse for William : He has too often been betrayed by us. He must have been a madman to rely On English gentlemen's fidelity.. And none but Englishmen have e'er betrayed him." in Some of the most serious difficulties of his situation were caused by Dissenthe conduct of the ministers on sions whom, new as he was to the men details of English affairs, he office. was forced to rely for information about men and things. There was indeed no want of ability among his chief counsellors: but one half of their ability was employed in counteracting the other half. Between the Lord President and the Lord Privy Seal there was an inveterate enmity. It had begun twelve years before when Danby was Lord High Treasurer, a persecutor of nonconformists, an uncompromising defender of prerogative, and when Halifax was rising to distinction as one of the most eloquent leaders of the country party. In the reign of James, the two statesmen had found themselves in opposition together; and their common hostility to France and to Rome, to the High Commission and to the dispensing power, had produced an apparent reconciliation; but as soon as they were in office together the old antipathy revived. The hatred which the Whig party felt towards them both ought, it should seem, to have produced a close alliance between them: but in fact each of them saw with complacency the danger which threatened the other. Danby exerted himself to rally round him a strong phalanx of Tories. Under the plea of ill health, he withdrew from court, seldom came to the Council over which it was his duty to preside, passed reform it, moved the contempt of men wanting since the death of Oliver. But who were acquainted with the dock- the instantaneous reform of inveterate yards of France and Holland. The abuses was a task far beyond the powers military administration was still worse. of a prince strictly restrained by law, The courtiers took bribes from the and restrained still more strictly by the colonels; the colonels cheated the sol- difficulties of his situation.* diers the commissaries sent in long bills for what had never been furnished: the keepers of the magazines sold the public stores and pocketed the price. But these evils, though they had sprung into existence and grown to maturity under the government of Charles and James, first made themselves severely felt under the government of William. For Charles and James were content to be the vassals and pensioners of a powerful and ambitious neighbour: they submitted to his ascendency: they shunned with pusillanimous caution whatever could give him offence: and thus, at the cost of the independence and dignity of that ancient and glorious crown which they unworthily wore, they avoided a conflict which would instantly have shown how helpless, under their misrule, their once formidable kingdom had become. Their ignominious policy it was neither in William's power nor in his nature to follow. It was only by arms that the liberty and religion of England could be protected against the mightiest enemy that had threatened our island since the Hebrides were strown with the wrecks of the Armada. The body politic, which, while it remained in repose, had presented a superficial appearance of health and vigour, was now under the necessity of straining every nerve `in a wrestle for life or death, and was immediately found to be unequal to the exertion. The first efforts showed an utter relaxation of fibre, an utter want of training. Those efforts were, with scarcely an exception, failures; and every failure was popularly imputed, not to the rulers whose mismanagement had produced the infirmities of the state, but to the ruler in whose time the infirmities of the state became visible. William might indeed, if he had volver en dos meses tres Reynos de abato arriba es una extravagancia." Lord President been as absolute as Lewis, have used Stair, in a letter written from London about such sharp remedies as would speedily a month later, says that the delays of the Enghave restored to the English adminis-reputation, "though without his fault." tration that firm tone which had been Ronquillo had the good sense and justice to make allowances which the English did not make. After describing, in a despatch dated March. 1689, the lamentable state of the military and naval establishments, he says, "De esto no tiene culpa el Principe de Oranges; porque pensar que se han de poder lish administration had lowered the King's † Burnet, ii. 4.; Reresby. much time in the country, and took still indulged at taverns in the city. scarcely any part in public affairs ex- Shrewsbury produced ferocious lamcept by grumbling and sneering at all poons which the Jacobites dropped the acts of the government, and by every day in the coffeehouses. "Every doing jobs and getting places for his Whig," said the Tory Secretary, "is an personal retainers.* In consequence enemy of Your Majesty's prerogative." of this defection, Halifax became prime “Every Tory," said the Whig Secreminister, as far as any minister could,tary, "is an enemy of Your Majesty's in that reign, be called prime minister. title."* An immense load of business fell on At the Treasury there was a complihim; and that load he was unable to cation of jealousies and quarrels.f sustain. In wit and eloquence, in am- Both the First Commissioner, Morplitude of comprehension and subtlety daunt, and the Chancellor of the of disquisition, he had no equal among Exchequer, Delamere, were zealous the statesmen of his time. But that Whigs: but, though they held the very fertility, that very acuteness, which same political creed, their tempers difgave a singular charm to his conversa- fered widely. Mordaunt was volatile, tion, to his oratory, and to his writings, dissipated, and generous. The wits of unfitted him for the work of promptly that time laughed at the way in which deciding practical questions. He was he flew about from Hampton Court to slow from very quickness. For he saw the Royal Exchange, and from the Royal so many arguments for and against Exchange back to Hampton Court. every possible course that he was longer How he found time for dress, politics, in making up his mind than a dull man lovemaking, and balladmaking was a would have been. Instead of acquies- wonder. Delamere was gloomy and cing in his first thoughts, he replied on acrimonious, austere in his private himself, rejoined on himself, and sur- morals, and punctual in his devotions, rejoined on himself. Those who heard but greedy of ignoble gain. The two him talk owned that he talked like an principal ministers of finance, thereangel but too often, when he had ex-fore, became enemies, and agreed only hausted all that could be said, and came to act, the time for action was over. Meanwhile the two Secretaries of State were constantly labouring to draw their master in diametrically opposite directions. Every scheme, every person, recommended by one of them was reprobated by the other. Nottingham was never weary of repeating that the old Roundhead party, the party which had taken the life of Charles the First and had plotted against the life of Charles the Second, was in principle republican, and that the Tories were the only true friends of monarchy. Shrewsbury replied that the Tories might be friends of monarchy, but that they regarded James as their monarch. Nottingham was always bringing to the closet intelligence of the wild daydreams in which a few old eaters of calf's head, the remains of the once formidable party of Bradshaw and Ireton, *Reresby's Memoirs; Burnet MS. Harl. 6584. VOL. II. in hating their colleague Godolphin. What business had he at Whitehall in these days of Protestant ascendency, he who had sate at the same board with Papists, he who had never scrupled to attend Mary of Modena to the idolatrous worship of the Mass? The most provoking circumstance was that Godolphin, though his name stood only third in the commission, was really first Lord. For in financial knowledge and in habits of business Mordaunt and Delamere were mere children when compared with him; and this William soon discovered. § Similar feuds raged at the other great boards and through all the subordinate ranks of public functionaries. In every customhouse, in every arsenal, * Burnet, ii. 3, 4. 15. "How does he do to distribute his hours, T were a Shrewsbury and a Nottingham, The truth is that the charges which a Delamere and a Godolphin. The the two parties brought against each Whigs complained that there was no other were, to a great extent, well department in which creatures of the founded, but that the blame which both fallen tyranny were not to be found. It threw on William was unjust. Official was idle to allege that these men were experience was to be found almost versed in the details of business, that exclusively among the Tories, hearty they were the depositaries of official attachment to the new settlement altraditions, and that the friends of most exclusively among the Whigs. It liberty having been, during many years, was not the fault of the King that the excluded from public employment, must knowledge and the zeal, which, comnecessarily be incompetent to take on bined, make a valuable servant of the themselves at once the whole manage-state, must at that time be had sepament of affairs. Experience doubtless had its value but surely the first of all the qualifications of a servant was fidelity; and no Tory could be a really faithful servant of the new government. If King William were wise, he would rather trust novices zealous for his interest and honour than veterans, who might indeed possess ability and knowledge, but who would use that ability and that knowledge to effect his ruin. The Tories, on the other hand, complained that their share of power bore no proportion to their number, or to their weight in the country, and that every where old and useful public servants were, for the crime of being friends to monarchy and to the Church, turned out of their posts to make way for Rye House plotters and haunters of conventicles. These upstarts, adepts in the arts of factious agitation, but ignorant of all that belonged to their new calling, would be just beginning to learn their business when they had undone the nation by their blunders. To be a rebel and a schismatic was surely not all that ought to be required of a man in high employment. What would become of the finances, what of the marine, if Whigs who could not understand the plainest balance sheet were to manage the revenue, and Whigs who had never walked over a dockyard to fit out the fleet? * *Ronquillo calls the Whig functionaries "Gente que no tienen pratica ni experiencia." He adds, "Y de esto procede el pasarse un mes y un otro, sin executarse nada." June 24. 1689. In one of the innumerable Dialogues which appeared at that time, the Tory interlocutor puts the question, "Do you think the government would be better served by rately or not at all. If he employed men of one party, there was great risk of mistakes. If he employed men of the other party, there was great risk of treachery. If he employed men of both parties there was still some risk of mistakes; there was still some risk of treachery; and to these risks was added the certainty of dissension. He might join Whigs and Tories: but it was beyond his power to mix them. In the same office, at the same desk, they were still enemies, and agreed only in murmuring at the Prince who tried to mediate between them. It was inevitable that, in such circumstances, the administration, fiscal, military, naval, should be feeble and unsteady; that nothing should be done in quite the right way or at quite the right time; that the distractions from which scarcely any public office was exempt should produce disasters, and that every disaster should increase the distractions from which it had sprung. Foreign There was indeed one department of which the business was well Depart conducted; and that was the ment of department of Foreign Affairs. Affairs There William directed every thing, and, on important occasions, neither asked the advice nor employed the agency of any English politician. One invaluable assistant he had, Anthony Heinsius, who, a few weeks after the Revolution had been accomplished, behad entered public life as a member of came Pensionary of Holland. Heinsius that party which was jealous of the power of the House of Orange, and strangers to business?" The Whig answers, "Better ignorant friends than understanding enemies." desirous to be on friendly terms with France. But he had been sent in 1681 on a diplomatic mission to Versailles; and a short residence there had produced a complete change in his views. On a near acquaintance, he was alarmed by the power and provoked by the insolence of that Court of which, while he contemplated it only at a distance, he had formed a favourable opinion. He found that his country was despised. He saw his religion persecuted. His official character did not save him from some personal affronts which, to the latest day of his long career, he never forgot. He went home a devoted adherent of William and a mortal enemy of Lewis.* The foreign policy of England, directed immediately by William Religious in close concert with Heinsius, disputes. was, at this time, eminently skilful and successful. But in every other part of the administration the evils arising from the mutual animosity of factions were but too plainly discernible. Nor was this all. To the evils arising from the mutual animosity of factions were added other evils arising from the mutual animosity of sects. The year 1689 is a not less important epoch in the ecclesiastical than in the civil history of England. In that year was granted the first legal indulgence to Dissenters. In that year was made The office of Pensionary, always im- the last serious attempt to bring the portant, was peculiarly important when Presbyterians within the pale of the the Stadtholder was absent from the Church of England. From that year Hague. Had the politics of Heinsius dates a new schism, made, in defiance been still what they once were, all the of ancient precedents, by men who had great designs of William might have always professed to regard schism with been frustrated. But happily there peculiar abhorrence, and ancient prewas between these two eminent men a cedents with peculiar veneration. In perfect friendship, which, till death that year began the long struggle bedissolved it, appears never to have tween two great parties of conformists. been interrupted for one moment by Those parties indeed had, under various suspicion or ill humour. On all large forms, existed within the Anglican questions of European policy they cor- communion ever since the Reformation; dially agreed. They corresponded_as-but till after the Revolution they did siduously and most unreservedly. For, though William was slow to give his confidence, yet, when he gave it, he gave it entire. The correspondence is still extant, and is most honourable to both. The King's letters would alone suffice to prove that he was one of the greatest statesmen whom Europe has produced. While he lived, the Pensionary was content to be the most obedient, the most trusty, and the most discreet of servants. But, after the death of the master, the servant proved himself capable of supplying with eminent ability the master's place, and was renowned throughout Europe as one of the great Triumvirate which humbled the pride of Lewis the Fourteenth.† Négociations de M. Le Comte d'Avaux, 4 Mars 1683; Torcy's Memoirs. †The original correspondence of William and Heinsius is in Dutch. A French translation of all William's letters, and an English translation of a few of Heinsius's letters, are among the Mackintosh MSS. The Baron not appear marshalled in regular and permanent order of battle against each other, and were therefore not known by established names. Some time after the accession of William they began to be called the High Church party and the Low Church party; and, long before the end of his reign, these appellations were in common use.* In the summer of 1688 the breaches which had long divided the great body of English Protestants had seemed to be almost closed. Disputes about Sirtema de Grovestins, who has had access to the originals, frequently quotes passages in his "Histoire des luttes et rivalités entre les puissances maritimes et la France.' There is very little difference in substance, though much in phraseology, between his version and that which I have used. *Though these very convenient names are not, as far as I know, to be found in any book printed during the earlier years of William's reign, I shall use them without scruple, as others have done, in writing about the transactions of those years. |