Page:Cassell's Illustrated History of England vol 4.djvu/197

.]  were for the most part revolutioners; they only opposed government on the score of their own grievances; and the Jacobites, whilst they resolved to bring in the prince of Wales, were willing to regard the queen for the present as regent in his behalf.

The parliament opened with a bill for acknowledging her majesty's entire right and title to the throne, and denouncing the penalties of treason against any one calling her title in question. This was carried after some debate, the anti-revolutioners even acceding to it. But when the earl of Hume introduced a motion for the supply, the marquis of Tweeddale immediately moved that a bill, embodying securities for the liberties and religion of the nation after the decease of her majesty and the heirs of her body, should take precedence of all other questions. It was in vain that the duke of Queensberry promised that, the moment the supplies were granted, the question of the national securities should be gone into. The opposition knew that their strength lay in preventing the supplies, and persisted. The marquis of Athol introduced a bill for the security of the kingdom after her majesty's decease; the duke of Argyll introduced another to ratify the revolution and all its acts; and Andrew Fletcher of Saltoun introduced a third to limit the succession after the queen's decease. The earl of Rothes went still further, and proposed a law forbidding any future king or queen of Scotland making war without consent of parliament. If no supplies were to be granted till half these measures were obtained, there was little hope of any subsidies from Scotland in this reign. All these bills were suffered to lie on the table, and the parliament proceeded to pass an act for the maintenance of the true protestant religion and the presbyterian church, as well as one introduced by the duke of Argyll, confirming the first parliament of king William and all its acts.

No sooner were these acts passed than the marquis of Athol again brought forward his bill for the security of the kingdom, transferring the appointment of a successor to parliament. The question was debated with furious vehemence, and the most unsparing abuse of each other by different parties, but it was at length carried by a majority of fifty-nine votes. The commissioner was called on to give it his assent; but, before he gave any answer, the earl of Marchmont, on the 6th of September, introduced a bill for settling the crown on the princess Sophia of Hanover and her issue. As this was utterly opposed to the security bill, it was received with a perfect howl of execration, even by those who were favourable to the Hanoverian succession. Fletcher of Saltoun proposed that no person whatever should be allowed to succeed till they had consented that all offices and places, civil and military, as well as pensions, should be granted, not by the crown, but by parliament; and that the successor should be nominated by a majority of parliament, and his council and administration be appointed by parliament too. This, it was truly observed, would reduce the monarchy to a republic. Cries of liberty or subsidies were raised. Fletcher pressed his motion, and other members declared that, rather than grant subsidies till their liberties were secured, they would fight out their rights with the sword. To such a pitch of excitement did the members proceed that the commissioner deemed it necessary to provide for his own safety. He ordered the foot-guard to be kept in readiness, and posted a guard at the eastern gate of the city. Still he was in great personal danger as he passed to and from the house; and, finding that no subsidy could be obtained, he prorogued parliament on the 12th of October. The duke had been deserted amid these contentions by most of his colleagues. The ministers and the queen, to strengthen his party, now proceeded to confer dignities on such as appeared inclined to support the government. The marquises of Athol and Douglas were created dukes; lord Tarbat was made earl of Cromarty; the viscounts Stair and Roseberry were also made earls. Lord Boyle became earl of Glasgow; James Stuart, of Bute, earl of Bute; Charles Hope, of Hopetoun, earl of Hopetoun; John Crawford, of Kilbirnie, viscount Garnock; and Sir James Primrose viscount Primrose.

In Ireland the duke of Ormonde had been received with great favour. He was regarded as the champion of protestantism, and it was, therefore, expected that he would screen the protestant assumptions, and encourage the appropriation of catholic estates. The commons appointed Allen Broderick speaker, and addressed the queen and the lord-lieutenant, complaining that they had been misrepresented as being desirous of becoming independent of England, which they denied, asserting that they held Ireland to be annexed to the crown of England for ever. But they expressed their resentment against the commissioners Trenchard, Langford, and Hamilton, who had exposed the lavish grants of the forfeited lands by the late king, as having misrepresented and traduced them. They accused them of having, at the same time that they objected to the proceedings of the former trustees, themselves sold the best of the forfeited estates to the Sword-blade Company of England, and they expelled from their house John Asgill, the agent of this company, who had offered to lend money to the public in Ireland, provided parliament passed an act confirming their purchase. The Sword-blade Company disclaimed having given Asgill any authority for such a proposal; and when the Irish parliament called him to account for his false statement, he pleaded his privilege as a member of the English parliament. The parliament then proceeded to make known a host of numerous protestant grievances to her majesty, though the catholics, had they been allowed to speak, could have produced a still more formidable catalogue. To rid himself of the endless subject of complaint, the duke of Ormonde, having obtained the necessary supplies, with a hundred and fifty thousand pounds to make up former deficiencies, made haste to close the session. This was not effected, however, before a committee had been appointed to examine the state of the public accounts, which discovered one hundred thousand pounds falsely set down as a debt against the nation, and took measures to trace out the authors of the fraud, who proved to be dependents of the duke of Ormonde himself. They then passed an act abolishing pensions to the amount of seventeen thousand pounds a year, made provision for half pay, and enacted a severe law against the growth of popery, ordering that all estates of catholics should be equally divided amongst the children, notwithstanding any settlement to the contrary, unless they on whom they were settled came in, took the oaths, and communicated with the church