Page:Cassell's Illustrated History of England vol 4.djvu/172

158 one may see that it might be so by being grossly abused, as such grants always have been, and that he had never advised on the partition treaties but once, and that then he spoke his sentiments freely.

The lords now gave notice that they would proceed with the trials of the accused nobles, beginning with that of lord Somers first, as the commons had proposed, and called on the commons to make good their charge. On the other hand, the commons, still insisting on their right to have a voice in regulating the trials, made an order that no member of their house should appear at the pretended trial of the lord Somers. Notwithstanding, the lords gave notice that they would proceed on the 17th of June to the trial of Somers in Westminster Hall. The commons refused to attend, declaring that they were the only judges, and that the evidence was not yet prepared. This produced a violent debate in the lords, where the tory ministers supported their party in the commons; but the order for the trial was carried, followed by strong protests against it. On the day of the trial the lords sent a message to the commons to inform them that they were going to the hall, and the commons not appearing there, the lords again returned to their own house, and settled the question to be put; and again returning to Westminster Hall, the question was then put:—"That John lord Somers be acquitted of the articles of impeachment exhibited by the house of commons, and all things therein contained; and that the impeachment be dismissed." This was carried by a majority of thirty-five.

The commons, greatly enraged, passed a resolution that the lords had refused justice to the commons; that they had done their best to overturn the right of impeachment inherent in the house of commons, and to render impeachments impossible in future; that all the ill consequences which might attend the delay of supplies for the preservation of the public peace and the maintenance of the balance of Europe, would lie upon them, who, to secure impunity for their crimes, had endeavoured to create a breach betwixt the two houses. The lords replied by informing them that they had acquitted lord Somers, and had appointed the next Monday for the trial of the earl of Orford; that unless the commons prosecuted their charge against lord Haversham before the close of the session, they should adjudge him innocent; and they threw back on the commons the responsibility of the delays on the trials and the supplies, adding that their late votes reflected most unfoundedly on the justice and honour of the peers. They went on, and on the 23rd of June the articles of impeachment against the earl of Orford were read in Westminster Hall, and the commons not attending, he was in like manner acquitted; and on the following day those against the earls of Portland and Halifax were similarly dealt with, together with that of the duke of Leeds (Danby), which had lain seven years, and which they seized this opportunity to make an end of. The charge against lord Haversham, not being prosecuted by the commons, was dismissed too. Both houses ordered a narrative of these proceedings. They had arrived at a pitch of mutual animosity which appeared likely to endure for a long time; and the prosecutions of the commons, which might otherwise have taught a salutary lesson to both the crown and the rapacity of ministers, failed because they were too obviously based, not on patriotism. but on faction. The whigs recovered a great deal of their popularity by the evidently interested attacks of their opponents; and the commons perceiving that they had incurred the odium of the nation at large instead of its gratitude, they now endeavoured to regain their ground by pandering to the war-spirit against Franco which showed itself, and voted two million seven hundred thousand pounds for the service of the year, and thirty thousand seamen. They did not terminate the session, however, without another contest with the lords. They nominated a commission to examine the state of the public accounts. The lords altered the bill, and the commons rejected the alterations, and the king put an end to the renewed cavil by closing the session.

It had been a miserable session to the king. His health continued to fail, and, amid his endeavours to conceal the decay of his constitution, that his allies might not be discouraged, he had found his favourite minister violently attacked, himself by no means spared, and the session almost wholly wasted in party feud. It had, however, passed the succession bill, and now, to his agreeable surprise, voted him unexpectedly liberal supplies, and sanctioned his forming alliances against France. He now lost no time in appointing a regency; and gave the command of the ten thousand troops sent to Holland to Marlborough — an appointment, however despicable the man, the very best he could have made in a military point of view. At the commencement of July ho sailed for Holland, accompanied by the earls of Carlisle, Romney, Albemarle, general Auverquerque, and others, and landed on the 3rd of the month. The Scotch troops voted had arrived in Holland before him, and the ten thousand men from England and Ireland were just arriving, so that William appeared again amongst his countrymen at the head of a respectable army of his new subjects. When he presented himself, however, before the States-General the day after his arrival, his appearance was such as to create great alarm in all that saw him. In his energies they put the almost only trust of effectual resistance to France, and he was clearly fast sinking, he was wasted, pale, and haggard. The last session of parliament and the fierce dissensions which had been carried on betwixt the factions of whig and tory, neither of which looked to anything but the indulgence of their own malice, had done more to wear him out than a dozen campaigns. He might well declare that that had been the most miserable year of his existence. What strength he had left, however, he devoted unshrinkingly to the great object of his existence, the war for the balance of power. He expressed his great joy to be once more amongst his faithful countrymen; and, in truth, he must have felt it like a cordial, for around him in England he saw nothing but unprincipled strife of parties, none of which he could sincerely attach to his own person, in the moral integrity of none of which he could establish in his own mind any confidence. He told the States that he had hoped, after the peace of Ryswick, to have been able to pass his remaining days in repose, but that the changes which had taken place in Europe were such as no man could see the end of. He was still resolved, he said, notwithstanding this, to pursue the great object of the peace of Europe with unremitting zeal, whether it was to be achieved by negotiation or war; and he assured them of the active support of