Page:Cassell's Illustrated History of England vol 4.djvu/148

134 murder of one of his seamen, William Moore, a circumstance figuring largely in the ballads of the day:—

On reaching New York he found governor Fletcher and the other friends of piracy no longer in power, but lord Bellamont, one of the very persons who had sent him out. He therefore buried his treasures in Gardner's Island and other places—one of them called after him, Kydd's Island, one of the Thimble Islands near Sachem's Head, Long Island. In Kydd's Island the pirates are said to have hidden themselves in a cave still remaining. The crew, however, soon dispersed, and Kydd ventured to show himself in New York, where he sent one Emmet to lord Bellamont, to offer to purchase indemnity from him by a large sum. Bellamont inveigled him into a negotiation, seized him, and sent word to the government in England. The admiralty, by order of the lords-justices, dispatched the ship Rochester to fetch him; but after beating about for some time in tempestuous weather, this vessel, which was in ill condition, was compelled to put back. This circumstance was seized on by the tories to damage Somers and his colleagues. It was declared that, as they were the authors of the piratical enterprise, they did not want the Rochester to reach New York. The old East India Company complained bitterly of Kydd's outrages in the Indian seas, declaring that it would bring them into trouble with the Great Mogul. In the beginning of December a motion was made in the commons that "the letters patent granted to the earl of Bellamont and others of pirates' goods were dishonourable to the king, and contrary to the laws of nations and the laws and statutes of the realm, invasive of property, and destructive of trade and commerce." There was a violent debate, in which the tories contended that the lord-chancellor Somers had knowingly affixed the great seal to the commission to enrich himself, his colleagues, and the king out of the plunder of unfortunate merchants. The motion was rejected by a large majority; the character of Somers stood too high for such a charge to reach him. But the opposition did not rest here; it was determined to wound the king and his government in every possible quarter.

There lay a cause in Ireland much more dangerous to the king and his chancellor than the affairs of captain Kydd. William had promised not to bestow any of the confiscated lands there without consent of parliament. In regardlessness of his word he had conferred immense estates on his Dutch favourites, Portland, Albemarle, Athlone, and his French one, lord Galway (Ruvigny), as well as on his mistress, Mrs. Villiers. The commons, therefore, appointed commissioners to inquire into the royal grants there. These commissioners were the earl of Drogheda, Sir Francis Brewster, Sir Richard Leving, Hamilton, Annesley, Trenchard, and Langford. The four last-named commissioners were earnest supporters of the commons' inquiry; but it was soon perceived by them that the earl of Drogheda, Brewster, and Leving were in the interest of the government. When they came to draw up their report, these three commissioners vehemently dissented, and made an appeal to each house of parliament, declaring that the report had not their concurrence, and that it was not borne out by the evidence laid before them. They complained that the other commissioners had endeavoured to overbear them in a most arbitrary manner, trying to influence them by letters and instructions which they alleged they had received from members of the commons. The commons, however, regarding Drogheda, Brewster, and Leving as tools of the court, paid no attention to their remonstrance. They received the report, signed by the other four, who, on their part, complained that, in the prosecution of their inquiry, they had been greatly hindered by the backwardness of the people of Ireland to give information for fear of the vengeance of the grantees, and from reports industriously spread that the inquiry, from the influence of the crown and the new grantees, would come to nothing. The three dissentient commissioners agreed to much of this, but attributed the fear of the people to the grantees at large, and not to those recently favoured by government. They affirmed that John Burke, commonly called lord Bophin, had agreed to pay to my lord Albemarle seven thousand five hundred pounds for procuring from the king letters patent restoring him to his honours and estates. They gave amazing details of the wholesale plunder of cattle, horses, sheep, &c., from the catholics, which had never been accounted for to the crown. The report stated the persons who had been outlawed since the 13th of February, 1689, for participation in the rebellion, amounted in England to fifty-seven, but in Ireland to 3,921, that the lands confiscated in Ireland since that period amounted to 1,060,792 acres, with a rental of £211,623; which, at twenty years' purchase, were of the value of nearly £3,000,000; that some of these lands had been restored to their ancient proprietors, but chiefly by heavy bribes to the persons who had betrayed his majesty's trust in them. They then gave a list of seventy-six grants under the great seal, amongst which stood prominent those to lord Romney, who, as lord Sidney, had been lord-lieutenant of Ireland, consisting of 49,517 acres; two to the king's recent favourite, Keppel of Guilderland, made by William earl of Albemarle, amounting to 106,633 acres; to William Bentinck, lord Woodstock, the son of Portland, 136,820 acres; to Ginckel, earl of Athlone, 26,480 acres; to Ruvigny, the Huguenot, earl of Galway, 36,148 acres; that after all the deductions and allowances, they valued the estates forfeited since the 13th of February, 1689, and not restored, at £1,699,343.

Well might this report rouse the choler of parliament at this astounding bestowal of the national property on his Dutch favourites. It appeared that they could ask nothing from him, however enormous, that he would not grant, and that he paid no regard to his word solemnly pledged to parliament on that head. What, however, excited, perhaps, more indignation, was the discovery that he had granted to his mistress, Elizabeth Villiers, whom he had made countess of Orkney, all the Irish estates of the late king James, amounting to 95,649 acres, valued at £25,995 a year! and this William had done at the same time that he had been continually urging the nation into most extravagant expenditure for the defence of Holland.

The indignant commons seemed as if they could not