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124 would support the claims of the dauphin in his second son, the duke of Anjou, they might have him to educate and make a thorough Spaniard of him.

The proposal did not find much response from the Spaniards, who knew that the mother of the dauphin had absolutely renounced all claim for herself and issue on the Spanish crown, and who had no desire to become a dependence of France. Harcourt dropped his demand to that of their taking the electoral prince of Bavaria rather than the emperor, or, in fact, if they would choose a king after their own will, he would support him in opposition to the house of Austria.

The queen of Spain, the sister of the emperor's late wife, was a zealous advocate for the succession of the king of the Romans, the emperor's son. She soon perceived the intrigues carried on by the French minister, and took active measures against them. She re-modelled the council, making it more in accordance with her views, appointed the prince de Vaudemont viceroy of Milan, and the prince of Hesse-Darmstadt viceroy of Catalonia. To remove the king from the influence of the creatures of Harcourt, she got him away to Toledo on plea of a better air for him. But Harcourt lost no time in removing to Toledo too, especially as he learnt that the count de Harrach was gone thither, and he suspected that the object was to induce the king to confirm the will of his father in favour of the emperor. Harcourt, on arriving at Toledo, solicited an audience of the king on the pretext that he had an offer of assistance against the Moors from the king his master to make to his majesty; but he was informed that the king's health did not permit him to attend to business, and that all affairs of state were left in the hands of cardinal Corduba at Madrid.

Harcourt was not disconcerted by this rebuff. He returned to Madrid, and exerted all his power to corrupt the ministry there, and at last succeeded in purchasing the important interest of cardinal Portocarrero. At the same time Louis was at work with equal diligence in exciting the jealousy of the northern powers against this very secret treaty; and though the king of Sardinia had been induced to sign it, he now got him to sign a separate treaty with himself, which was completely in antagonism to it.

William, on his part, having ratified this delusion of a treaty, was employed in putting an end to the war which had been raging in Hungary for the last fifteen years. He sent lord Paget and Mr. Colliers as ambassadors from England and Holland to the Turkish camp near Belgrade, and by their mediation the peace of Carlowitz was concluded, though not ratified till the following January. By this peace the emperor retained all his conquests; Camenieck was restored to the Poles; the cardinal primate of Poland, who had supported the pretensions of the prince of Conti, acknowledged Augustus of Saxony as king of Poland; the Morea and several fortresses in Dalmatia were ceded to the Venetians, and Peter of Russia retained Azoph; so that Turkey suffered the loss of a great part of its European territories. Peace for a moment prevailed throughout Christendom.

William returned to England in the beginning of December. He arrived on the 4th, and opened his new parliament on the 6th. It had been obliged to be prorogued owing to his prolonged stay, having been called for August. The ministers in William's absence had not taken much pains to influence the elections, and it soon appeared that a very independent body of gentlemen had been sent up. Not only had the electors put forward men of free principles, but the press had warmly urged the selection of a liberal speaker as essential to the full exercise of parliamentary freedom. There were three candidates for the speakership more particularly in view, Sir Edward Seymour, Sir Thomas Littleton, and Harley, the one supported by the tories.

A paper on the choice of a speaker had been actively circulated, which said that the great lord Burleigh declared "that England could never be undone except by a parliament," and that, whenever we were enslaved like our continental neighbours, it would be by the joint influence of a corrupt parliament and a standing army. It cried down Seymour as a man who had constantly been bargaining with the court since the days of the pension parliament of Charles II., and, on the other hand, that men holding office under the crown were most unfit for the office of speaker. This was aimed at Sir Thomas Littleton, which appeared a good omen for the court, but, as it soon appeared, was no sound indication.

In his opening speech William told the commons that, notwithstanding the state of peace, it would be necessary for them to consider well the strength which they ought to maintain both at sea and on land; that the honour and even safety of the nation depended on not denuding it too much of its forces in the eyes of foreign nations. It was necessary, he contended, that Europe should be impressed with the idea that they would not be wanting to themselves. They had acquired a great position amongst the nations, and it was their duty to preserve it. He recommended to them to make some progress in the discharge of the debts incurred in this long and expensive war, for, he added unadvisedly, an English parliament could never, he imagined, neglect the sacred obligations which it had assumed. He also suggested to them some measures for the improvement of trade, for the discouragement of profaneness, and to act with unanimity.

The remarks on the necessity of maintaining more troops than the last parliament had determined on, and on defraying the debts incurred by the war, seemed to rouse an extraordinary spirit of anger and disrespect in the new house. It neglected the ordinary courtesy of an address. Before leaving for Holland in the summer, William left a sealed paper, ordering ministers not to reduce the army in compliance to less than sixteen thousand men. Probably this was become known, and there had got abroad a persuasion that the king meant to resist the will of the parliament in this respect; no other cause appeared sufficient to explain the animus which now manifested itself. The house resounded with speeches against standing armies, and on the waste of the people's substance on foreign wars, and it resolved that all the land forces of England in English pay should not exceed seven thousand, and that these should all be natural-born subjects; that not more than twelve thousand should be maintained in Ireland—these, too, all natural-born subjects, and to be supported by the revenue of Ireland. The ministers had told the king before the meeting of parliament that they thought they could obtain a grant of ten or twelve thousand