Page:Cassell's Illustrated History of England vol 4.djvu/125

A.D. 1697.] James, and his belief in the right of the prince of Wales after him.

After an abortive attempt to pass a bill establishing a property qualification for the commons, another to put the press again under the licensing system, and another to abolish those dens of protected crime, the Savoy and Whitefriars, parliament was prorogued on the 16th of April.

Whilst this desperate conflict had been going on betwixt whig and tory in England, in Scotland a most useful measure had passed the Scottish parliament, namely, an act establishing a school and schoolmaster in every parish. To this admirable act Scotland owes the superior intelligence of its working classes; and it is a singular fact that England to this hour has not been able to achieve the same privilege. At the same time the rigid bigotry of the clergy perpetrated one of the most revolting acts in history. A youth of eighteen, named Thomas Aikenhead, had picked up some of the sceptical notions of Hobbes and Tindal, and was arrested, tried, and hanged for blasphemy betwixt Leith and Edinburgh. It was in vain that he expressed the utmost repentance for his errors, the ministers were as impatient for his death as the Jews were for the death of our Saviour, and he died accordingly, to the disgrace of the presbyterian church and the whole country.

William embarked for Holland on the 26th of April, having before his departure made several promotions. To the disgust of many, Sunderland was appointed one of the lords-justices and lord chamberlain. The protestants wondered that a man who had apostatised when there was a popish king, should find such favour with a presbyterian one; and the honourable-minded that a man who had stooped to so many dirty acts and arts should be this exalted by a prince of sober morals. But William's only excuse was that all his ministers were so bad that there was little to choose in their principles, and that he employed them not for their virtues but their abiilties. Russell was rewarded for running down Fenwick with the title of earl of Orford: the lord-keeper Somers was elevated to the full dignity of lord chancellor, and created baron Somers of Evesham. Montague was made first lord of the treasury, in place of Godolphin; lord Wharton, in addition to his post of comptroller of the household, was appointed chief justice in Eyre, south of the Trent and his brother, Godwin Wharton, became a lord of the admiralty.

The campaign in Flanders was commenced by the French with an activity apparently intended to impress upon the allies their ample ability to carry on the war, although, in fact, never had France more need of peace. Its finances were exhausted, its people were miserable; but far more than the sufferings of his subjects to Louis were the ambitious projects which he was now particularly cherishing. John Sobieski, the brave deliverer of Vienna from the Turks, the king of Poland, was dead, and Louis was anxious to place the prince of Conti on the throne of that kingdom. There had been, as usual, various competitors for the crown — the duke of Lorraine, the prince of Baden, Don Livio Odeschalchi, nephew to the pope; but the chief candidates were Conti and Augustus, elector of Saxony. French money so far prevailed that Conti was elected, and proclaimed king by the primate of Poland, who had Te Deum sung in the cathedral of Warsaw on the occasion. But the emperor of Germany, alarmed at having a French power thus erected in his immediate neighbourhood, brought forward the elector of Saxony, who changed his religion to obtain the crown, and agreed to distribute eight millions of florins amongst the Poles, to confirm their privileges, and to defend their country from attack with his Saxon army. His claims were powerfully supported by Peter, the czar of Muscovy, who had, in return for assistance to John Sobieski against the Turks, obtained from him a great part of the Ukraine, and was quite as unwilling as the emperor to see a French kingdom so near him and his now soaring designs. Augustus was chosen by this party. Peter marched an army to the frontiers of Lithuania, to overawe the partisans of Conti. Louis, however, continued to support the claims of Conti, and sent a fleet with him to Dantzic. Conti landed at Dantzic with a great supply of money, but he met no encouragement either there or at Marienburg, to which place he proceeded, and returned to France with his treasure. This repulse had mortified Louis at the time of the opening of the present campaign; but as the prince of Conti had still a strong party in Poland, and the condition of that country was uncertain, he still cherished his ambitious design of restoring Conti and the French power there, which he might much better effect if relieved from the pressure of this general war.

He had, however, a still more weighty motive for peace. The king of Spain, the sickly and imbecile Charles II, was fast hastening to the tomb. The emperor of Germany, as head of the house of Austria, had claims of direct descent on the throne of Spain. Charles II. was childless; no provision was made by the Spanish government for filling the throne, and Louis of France was equally watching for the death of Charles, who was the son of Louis's niece, whilst Louis himself was married to the aunt of the Spanish king; for a man like Louis, ample pretensions to the Spanish crown. Now, if the throne of Spain fell vacant during the alliance, the allies, and William amongst them, would out of policy support the emperor's claims. It was, therefore, equally to the interest of the emperor to prolong the war, and of Louis to be rid of it.

Spain and Germany, therefore, were averse to peace. William and Louis were the only parties, each for his own purposes, really anxious for it. Louis, early in the spring, had made overtures to Dykvelt through Caillières, which were really surprising. They were no less than to relinquish all the conquests made by him during the war, to restore Lorraine to its duke, Luxembourg to Spain, Strasburg to the empire, and to acknowledge William's title to the crown of England without condition or reserve. Such terms the allies never could have expected. They were a complete renunciation by the ambitious Louis of all that he had been fighting for so many years — of all that he had drained his kingdom of its life and wealth to accomplish. That he contemplated maintaining the peace any longer than till he had secured Spain and Poland is not to be supposed. If he obtained peace now, these objects were more feasible, and William, his most formidable enemy, he knew would have disbanded his army, and must create a new one and a new alliance before he could take the field again to oppose him.