Page:Cassell's Illustrated History of England vol 4.djvu/169

A.D. 1701.] to it were bound to furnish their stipulated quotas of men and money, though the treaty of Ryswick and the two partition treaties had virtually dissolved and superseded that compact. All parties were still looking to England to sacrifice herself for their particular interests, and the tone of the house of lords was of a kind to encourage this expectation. They sent to William an address, assuring him that they felt deeply the imminent danger of the States-General; that they regarded the interests of England and Holland as inseparable, and they prayed the king to renew all his treaties with his old allies, including the emperor of Germany, and expressed their confidence that his subjects would second his efforts in so righteous a cause as the defence of the liberties of Europe, with their property and their lives. They did not, however, conceal from him that they held him bound rather by treaties into which he had been led by fatal counsels, than by natural claims upon England had those treaties been kept clear of. William, notwithstanding this bitter drop in the cup of encouragement, thanked then for their address, assuring them that was a policy which would raise England to the pitch of national honour.

The tory party in the commons then returned to their prosecutions of the late whig ministers; but on the very day that the lords carried their martial address to the king at Kensington, Harley, the speaker of the commons, received a packet from the hands of a poor woman as he entered the house. Such an incident could not take place now, the commons having protected themselves from such irregular missives by making it necessary that all petitions should have the names of the places, as well as the persons whence they came, clearly stated, and be confided to the care of a member in good time for him to note its character and contents. This, however, turned out to be no petition, but a command. "The enclosed memorial," it was stated in a letter accompanying, "you are charged with in behalf of many thousands of the good people of England. There is neither popish, Jacobite, seditious, court, or party interest concerned in it, but honesty and truth. You are commanded by two hundred thousand Englishmen to deliver it to the house of commons, and to inform them that it is no banter, but serious truth, and a serious regard to it is expected. Nothing but justice and their duty is required; and it is required by them who have both a right to require and power to compel it — namely, the people of England. We could have come to the house strong enough to oblige you to hear us, but we have avoided any tumults, not desiring to embroil, but to serve our native country. If you refuse to communicate it to them, you will find cause in a short time to repent it."

This strange memorial was signed, and charged the house with unwarrantable practices under fifteen heads. A new claim of right was arranged under seven heads. Amongst the reprehensible proceedings of the commons were stated to be, voting the partition treaty fatal to Europe, because it gave too much of the Spanish dominions to the French, and not concerning themselves to prevent them taking possession of them all. Deserting the Dutch when the French were almost at their doors, and till it was almost too late to help them, it declared to be unjust to our treaties, unkind to our confederates, dishonourable to the English nation, and negligent of the safety of both our neighbourhood and ourselves. Addressing the king to displace his friends on base surmises, before the legal trial or any article proven, which it pronounced illegal, contrary to the course of law, and putting execution before judgment. Delaying proceedings on impeachments to blast the reputations of the accused without proving the charges, which is illegal, oppressive, destructive to the liberties of Englishmen, and a reproach to parliaments. In the same strain it criticised the attacks on the king's person, especially those of that "impudent rascal John Howe," who had said openly that his majesty had made a felonious treaty. Insinuating that the partition treaty was a combination to rob the king of Spain, when it was quite as just as to blow up one man's house to save that of his neighbour. The commons were admonished to mend their ways, as shown to them in the memorial, on pain of incurring the resentment of an injured nation; and the document concluded thus, "for Englishmen are no more to be slaves to parliament than to kings — our name is Legion, and we are many."

No sooner was this paper read, than the blustering commons were filled with consternation. They summoned all the members of the house by the sergeant-at-arms; anticipations of sedition and tumult were expressed, and an address to his majesty was drawn up in all haste, calling on him to take measures for the public peace. Howe, one of the noisiest men in the house, and accustomed to say very bold things, and other tory members, declared their lives in danger; others got away into the country, believing that "Legion" was on the point of attacking the parliament. A committee was appointed to sit permanently in the speaker's chamber, to take every means for averting a catastrophe, with power to call before them all persons necessary for throwing light on the danger, and to examine all papers. At length, however, as "Legion" did not appear, and all remained quiet, the house began to recover its senses; it began at the same time to dawn upon their apprehensions, that they had been hoaxed by some clever wag. This wag was universally believed to be no other than Daniel Defoe, the inimitable author of "Robinson Crusoe," and one of the shrewdest political writers of the time. Defoe had seen the hollowness of the tory faction, which, under the mask of patriotism, was pursuing only its own malice, and must have luxuriated in the terror into which he had thrown them.

In the midst of the affright of the commons the lords sent to remind them that though they had exhibited articles against Orford, they had exhibited none against the others accused, and that these noblemen were suffering from the delay in not being able to clear their characters. The commons, therefore, made haste to send up the charges against Somers. These charges were, his affixing the great seal to the carte blanche for the partition treaty, and afterwards to the treaty itself, and having made many unreasonable and exorbitant grants under it, especially of the forfeited estates in Ireland; of having himself received also great and unreasonable grants of manors, lands, tenements, &c.,besides an additional pension of four thousand pounds. To these charges Somers returned the usual ministerial pleas in