Page:Cassell's Illustrated History of England vol 4.djvu/187

A.D. 1702.] revolutioners and the opposition. The queen, on announcing to the privy council of that kingdom her accession, authorised them to issue a proclamation, permitting all officers of state and magistrates to continue to retain and exercise their offices as under the late king, until new commissions should be issued, in accordance with an act passed in the late reign. But the opposition contended that the queen had not yet taken the coronation oath properly; that it ought not to have been tendered by the twelve Scottish counsellors who happened to be in London, but by persons specially appointed for that purpose by the privy council, or the parliament of Scotland. The Scottish ministry, consisting of the duke of Queensbury, the earls of Marchmont, Melvil, Seafield, Hyndford, and Selkirk, who were all of revolutionary principles, were desirous that, in accordance with the act passed in the late reign, the present parliament should continue in existence for six months from the death of the late king. But the queen having deferred the meeting of the parliament by successive adjournments for three months after his death, the opposition, headed by the duke of Hamilton, contended that the parliament had expired. The duke of Hamilton, accompanied by a great number of noblemen, including the marquis of Tweeddale, the earls Marshall and Rothes, went up to London and laid their views before the queen, but the council advised Anne that Scotland was in too excited a state to venture yet on calling a new parliament. The parliament of Scotland accordingly commenced its sittings on the 9th of June, the duke of Queensbury being named high commissioner. The duke of Hamilton and his party declared their conviction of her majesty's rightful ascent of the throne, and their determination to defend her person and rights to the utmost; but they still contended that the present parliament was no lawful parliament. Having read a paper to that effect, he and seventy-nine other members withdrew.

The rest of the estates, however, continued to sit, and the duke of Queensbury produced a letter from her majesty, assuring them of her resolve to maintain the rights, religion, liberties, and laws; informing them that she had declared war against France, exhorted them to provide a sufficient number of forces to assist in maintaining the peace of the kingdom and its power abroad, and to take into consideration the union of the two nations. Committees were therefore formed to carry out the royal wishes, for settling controverted elections, and for preparing a suitable answer to the queen. The opposition, however, made another attempt to enforce their views, by sending lord Blantyre to her majesty with a counter-address; but she refused to receive it, and wrote again to the parliament, assuring them that she would maintain their authority against all opponents. The parliament, encouraged by this assurance, acted with increased vigour. They expelled Sir Alexander Bruce for reflecting on the presbytery, and the lord advocate prosecuted the faculty of advocates for passing a vote in favour of the protest of the opposition. The whole nation was in a ferment. Parliament then passed a number of acts, one recognising the royal authority, another adjourning the court of session, a third declaring the present parliament legal, a fourth in security of the presbyterian church, a fifth for a land tax, and a sixth enabling her majesty to appoint commissioners for settling the union.

The earl of Marchmont, in an excess of zeal, brought in a bill to abjure the pretended prince of Wales; but in this he was not supported by his colleagues, and on the 30th the high commissioner adjourned the parliament.

We may now turn our attention to the progress of the war. When the States-General received the news of the death of William, they were struck with the utmost consternation. They appeared to be absolutely paralysed with terror and dismay. There was much weeping, and amid vows and embraces they passed a resolution to defend their country with their lives. The arrival of the address of the queen of England to her privy council roused their spirits, and this was followed by a letter from the earl of Marlborough, addressed to the pensionary Fagel, assuring the States of the queen's determination to continue the alliance and assistance against the common enemy. The queen herself addressed to the States a letter confirming these assurances, and dispatched it by Mr. Stanhope, who was again appointed ambassador at the Hague. Marlborough himself, who left England on the 12th of May to assume his foreign command, arriving directly afterwards in the character not only of commander-in-chief of the British forces, with a salary of ten thousand pounds a year, but of ambassador extraordinary and plenipotentiary, assured the States that the queen of England was resolved to maintain all the alliances, and resist the encroachments of the French in the same spirit as the late king.

War had been going on some time on the Rhine before Marlborough arrived there, and still longer before he was prepared to join in it. In Germany many negotiations had been going on to induce the petty states to act as contingents of the empire, or to keep them from joining the French against their own nation. The house of Brunswick had engaged to bring to the allied army ten thousand men; Prussia had engaged to co-operate, and Saxe-Gotha and Wolfenbuttel to abandon the French. The electors of Bavaria and Cologne, who had, most traitorously to the empire, aided France in her attempts to enslave Germany, pretended now to stand neuter, but the neutrality was hollow, and the position of affairs in Poland effectually prevented the northern powers of Germany sending much assistance to the allies in Flanders. Charles XII., still pursuing the elector of Saxony as king of Poland, threatened to invade Saxony. He marched first to Warsaw, and ordered the cardinal-primate to summon a diet to choose another king, and Augustus, the Saxon king, posted himself at Cracow. This position of affairs overawed Prussia, and beyond the Alps the condition of Savoy and Milan, where the French were strong, all tended to prevent a full concentration of force in the Netherlands against France.

The position of the contending forces on the Rhine and in the Netherlands was this. The prince of Saarbruck, at the head of twenty-five thousand men, Dutch, Prussians, and Badenese, was besieging Kieserwerth. Athlone and Cohorn were covering the siege of Kieserwerth, Athlone (Ginckell) lying between the Rhine and the Meuse, Cohorn with ten thousand at the mouth of the Scheldt. On the other hand, Tallard, with thirteen thousand men on the opposite side of