other respects, public virtue-Godolphin, Shrews- BOOK L bury, and Russel. Even the marquis of Car-. 1692. marthen, one of the heads of the present administration, became a plotter or pretended plotter against the government: but the character of the earl of Nottingham, to his lasting honor, stands untainted and unimpeached *. About the end of the year 1690, it appears that colonel Bulkley and colonel Sackville arrived from St. Germaine's in England, and applied with success to the lords Godolphin, Halifax, and Marlborough; and a promise of pardon being not only obtained, but executed in form, Shrewsbury and Carmarthen professed their conversion. The admirals Russel and Carter followed their example; and in a short time also the princess of Denmark joined the same party. Some months afterwards the earl of Middleton was sent over to England. A considerable time was spent in adjusting terms, because the whigs, and particularly Russel, contended for concession after concession for the security of the constitution. At length all things were settled, and the court of St. Germaine's obtained assurances that the army would be directed by Marlborough, the fleet by Russel, and * Vide the Dalrymple and M'Pherson Collections of State Papers, passim. BOOK I. the church by the Princess Anne. Marlborough 1692. was, at his own request, and as a refinement of dissimulation, excepted from the declaration of pardon. During the preparations for an invasion, the correspondence between Russel and James continued; in the course of which Russel entreated James to prevent the two fleets from meeting, warning him, that, as an officer and an Englishman, it behoved him to fire upon the first French ship that he met, although he saw James upon the quarter-deck: and he complained that proper provision was not yet made for the security of the subject-so that James was provoked to say, "Russel's views were not so much directed to serve him, as from republican principles to degrade monarchy in his person. If he missed the French fleet, he would claim credit with him; if he met it, he would, as was manifest, use his utmost efforts in favor of his rival." In the books of the privy council, May 3, 1692, there is a warrant for seizing Bulkley, Lloyd, and Middleton; and on the 23d of June following the names of Shrewsbury, Halifax, and Marlborough, were struck out of the council-book. The most easy and obvious mode of accounting for the prevalence of a conduct so treacherous, is the extreme apprehension which appears to have been almost universally entertained of the even 1693. tul restoration of the late king. For the extra- BOOK I. ordinary political revolutions which had taken place in the course of the last half century-the dethronement and death of king Charles I.-the establishment of a commonwealth, with its sudden subversion-the consequent restoration of king Charles II-the deposition and expulsion of James, and the surprising advancement of the prince of Orange to the crown, made the reestablishment of the late king appear incomparably more feasible to the contemporary actors than it is now easy to credit or conceive-supported, as it must ever be remembered, James at this period was, by the mighty and, in the current opinion of numbers, irresistible power of France. Princess of cease to ap Court of A great coolness had for some time subsisted Prince and between the king and queen, and the prince and Denmark princess of Denmark, on account of an applica- pear at the tion made by the princess to parliament for an St. James's. independent revenue without the privity of the king, and the actual grant of the sum of 50,0001. per annum, by the house of commons, out of the civil list for that purpose. This misunderstanding was now much heightened by the refusal of the princess, at the request or rather command of the queen, to dismiss the countess of Marlborough from her household, where she had long occupied the station of first lady of the bedcham BOOK I. ber, and had possessed the highest place in the 1693. affection and favor of her royal mistress. From this time the prince and princess of Denmark no longer appeared in the court of St. James's, and the rupture in the royal family became unavoidably public and visible to all. BOOK II. King embarks for Holland. Namur captured by the French. Grandval's Plot. Campaign on the Battle of Steinkirk. Ma Rhine, &c. Hanover erected into a ninth Electorate. chinations of the Jacobites. Victory off La Hogue. Session of Parliament. Earl of Marlborough released from the Tower. Dismission of Admiral Russel. Affairs of the East India Company. Royal Assent refused to the Triennial Bill. Enquiry into the State of Ireland. Sir John Somers made Lord Keeper of the Great Seal. Battle of Landen. Charle roy taken by M. Luxemburg. Campaign on the Rhine. Sack of Heidelberg. Battle of Marsiglia. Smyrna Fleet captured. Affairs of Scotland. Massacre of Glencoe. Remarkable Declaration of K. James. Intrigues of the Court of St. Germaine's. Earl of Nottingham dismissed. Earl of Sunderland in favor with the King. Death of the Marquis of Halifax. Whigs regain their Ascendency. Pacific Advances of France rejected. Royal Assent refused to the Place Bill. Bank of England established. Affairs of the East India Company. State of Ireland. The Lords Justices Coningsby and Porter impeached. Mr. Montague constituted Chancellor of the Exchequer. Campaign in Flanders, &c. Admiral Wheeler shipwrecked. Disastrous Attempt on Brest. Session of Parliament. Triennial Act passed. Death of Archbishop Tillotson-and of Sancroft. Illness and Death of the Queen. Princess of Denmark reconciled to the King. Speaker of the House of Commons expelled the House. Duke of Leeds impeached for Malversations in Office. Sir William |