Page:Cassell's Illustrated History of England vol 3.djvu/474

460 In Ireland, the prohibition of importing Irish cattle into England was followed by alike prohibition from the Scottish parliament, and the Irish parliament retaliated by prohibiting Scotch woollens being imported into Ireland. These illiberal measures only spread mischief and misery on all sides. So long as the duke of Ormond retained the lord-lieutenantcy, he endeavoured to mitigate these evils. He procured the liberty of a free trade betwixt Ireland and all foreign countries, whether at war or peace with England; and five hundred families of Walloons were induced to settle in Ireland and to establish the manufactory of woollen and linen clothes. But the many sufferers from the act of settlement, which confirmed the possession of the Irish lands in the hands of the English soldiers and adventurers, complained greatly of Ormond, and his enemies at court procured his removal in 1669. After him succeeded lord Robartes, and next lord Berkeley; but it mattered little who governed, nothing could induce the natives to sit down quietly under the loss of their estates, and that, too, whilst they had been often firm loyalists and the intruders rebels. In 1671 a commission was appointed to inquire into all alleged grievances, consisting of prince Rupert, Buckingham, Lauderdale, Anglesey, Ashley, and others. This lasted till March 26th, 1673, but ended in nothing. The possessors of the Irish lands were too powerful at court, and no result followed but fresh severities against the catholics, who were expelled from all corporations, and their priests banished the kingdom.

The war between France and the confederates, Holland, Austria, and Spain, had now spread all over Europe, both by land and sea. Louis poured his soldiers in torrents into the Netherlands, and excited insurrections in the dependencies of Spain. He managed to excite sedition against her in Sicily, and against Austria in Hungary. De Ruyter, the famous admiral, was despatched by the prince of Orange to assist the Spaniards in Sicily, and was killed at Messina. On the other hand, Louis's great general, Turenne, was killed in the battle of Saltzbach, on the Rhine. After his death, the Austrian general, Montecuculli, defeated the French repeatedly, and recovered Alsace. But Vaunban, who introduced a new system of fortification, recovered the ascendancy of Louis, by teaching the French how to defend towns. Louis maintained this enormous war at a cost which brought immense burdens on France, and laid the foundation of the great revolution which just preceded our time. On the other hand, William of Orange manfully maintained the conflict under many disadvantages. His authority at home was often questioned; the governors of the Spanish Netherlands frequently crossed his plans, and his German allies as frequently failed him. Yet reverse after reverse was not able to damp his spirit, or overcome his imperturbable tenacity of purpose. Charles, during this awful struggle of his nephew, was enjoying peace, but a most inglorious peace, purchased by the money of Louis, to allow him to destroy all the independent states of Europe. Not even the interests of his own subjects were protected. In the course of seven months fifty-three sail of merchantmen were captured by the French cruisers. The sufferers made loud complaints, and Charles promised to obtain restoration, but very little was ever obtained. He received his annual pension from Louis, and though he drew it through Chiffinch his pander and man of the back stairs, the transaction was well known to his ministers Danby and Lauderdale, and his brother the duke of York.

When he reassembled his parliament on the 5th of February, 1677, the country party, headed by Shaftesbury and Buckingham in the lords, contended that the parliament was legally at an end. That, by two statutes of Edward III., it was required that parliaments should be held once a year, or oftener; and this parliament having been prorogued for a period of fifteen months, had ceased to exist. But lord chancellor Finch truly replied, that by the triennial act of Charles I. the vacations were extended to three years. In the commons there was also a motion for a dissolution, but it was postponed. The motion of Buckingham in the lords to vote the present parliament effete was negatived, and he, Salisbury, Shaftesbury, and Wharton, were ordered by the house to retract their illegal opinion and beg pardon of the house and the king. They refused, and were committed to the Tower. The following day the motion of a dissolution in the commons was lost by a minority of one hundred and forty- two to one hundred and ninety-three. Defeated in the attempt to break up this corrupt pension parliament, the opposition in the lords next endavoured to secure the succession against a catholic prince. Charles had no children but illegitimate; ones, and James, therefore, was heir to the crown. The bill passed the lords, and provided that on the demise of the king, the bishops should tender a declaration against transubstantiation to the heir; and if he refused to take it, they should appoint to all bishoprics and benefices, and take charge of the education of the king's children; but the commons threw out the bill on the ground of the undue power which it conferred on the bishops; and they immediately threw out another bill of the peers for abolishing the punishment of death for popish recusancy. The two houses, however, agreed in abolishing the detestable writ de hæretico comburendo.

The present parliament has been accused of singular inconsistency in calling upon the king to declare war against France, in order to check it in its ominous progress against Holland and the Netherlands, and yet refusing him money. A very valid plea for their anxiously desiring the declaration of war, and yet shrinking from putting money into Charles's hands, might have been advanced had they been an honest parliament. The nation saw with great discontent and humiliation the growing ascendancy of France, the increase of Louis's navy, the expansion of his ambitious plans, the danger of protestant Holland, and the despicable position into which England had fallen. It had fears of popery, fears of absolutism, through a standing army. There were dark rumours, though no direct proofs, of the kings secret league with France. Whilst they, therefore would have willingly granted him money for a war with France, they dreaded to do it, knowing how it would go in folly, and believing how it would go to strengthen despotism. They did not leave him destitute; he had the excise, and they now granted six hundred thousand pounds for the building of new ships; but they took care to tie it up by proper securities to its legitimate purpose. How well they were justified, was shown by the first use which the king made of