Page:Cassell's Illustrated History of England vol 4.djvu/311

A.D. 1712.] side as well as in the river; that the barriers of Savoy, the Netherlands, and Prussia, should be made satisfactory to the allies. The electoral dignity was to be acknowledged in the house of Hanover.

The house of commons received the speech with enthusiasm, and carried up an address of thanks in a body. Very different, however, was the reception of the speech in the house of lords. Lord Wharton proposed that in the address they should declare themselves against a separate peace, and the duke of Marlborough supported that view. He said that for a year past the measures pursued were directly opposed to her majesty's engagement with the allies, had sullied the glories of her reign, and would render our name odious to all nations. Lord Strafford, who had come over from the Hague purposely to defend the government policy, and his own share in it at Utrecht, asserted that the opposition of the allies would not have been so obstinate had they not been encouraged by a certain member of that house who corresponded with them, and stimulated them by assurances that they would be supported by a large party in England. This blow aimed at Marlborough called up lord Cowper, who directed his sarcasm against Strafford on the ground of his well-known illiterate character, observing that the noble lord had been so long abroad that he had forgotten not only the language but the constitution of his country; that according to our laws it could never be a crime in an individual to correspond with its allies, but that it was a crime to correspond, as certain persons did, with the common enemy, unknown to the allies, and to their manifest prejudice. The amendment of lord Wharton, however, was rejected, and the protest, entered against its rejection by twenty peers and bishops, was voted violent and indecorous, and erased from the journal. The matter was carried to such a degree of heat, that the protest was printed and widely circulated, to the great indignation of the ministers, who endeavoured to discover the printer and publisher, in order to punish them, but in vain. The house of commons, however, took the opportunity to retaliate on the whig bishop, Dr. Fleetwood, of St. Asaph, something of the treatment of the whigs on Dr. Sacheverel. They ordered the preface to certain sermons, which he had recently published, and in which he had extolled the former ministry at the expense of the present, to be burnt by the common hangman, which was done accordingly, and they presented an address to the queen, expressing their sense of the insult which had been offered to her by the printing and publishing of the letter of remonstrance sent by the States-General to her majesty. It went on to declare that the house would support her majesty against faction both at home and abroad. In this violent tone of the opposing parties on the question of the peace, the parliament was prorogued on the 8th of July, when the queen asserted that both houses had approved her scheme of the peace, notwithstanding the strenuous opposition, and that they had gone no further than a general vote of confidence. The conflicting spirit excited by this topic extended over the whole kingdom; the whigs showed everywhere much discontent, but the tory corporations, including that of Loudon, sent up addresses approving of the queen's conduct.

Notwithstanding these addresses and the confident tone of the queen's speech, the funds fell, and there was a general dissatisfaction at the conditions of the proposed pacification. In order to stimulate the proceedings and excite a jealousy of the Dutch, St. John professed to discover that they were secretly negotiating themselves with France, and urged that, if we did not take care, they would have the management of the negotiations and not her majesty. Lord Strafford hastened back to the Hague, and from thence to Utrecht, where he proposed a cessation of arms, which was rejected by the allies. He then went on to the army, where the duke of Ormonde was in a situation of the utmost difficulty. He had received orders from government, in consequence of the clamour in parliament, to support prince Eugene at the siege of Quesnoy, which he had invested on the 8th of June, and in consequence he had appeared before the place with such forces as threatened speedily to reduce it. At the same time he had received from the marquis de Torcy a copy of the articles of peace signed by him, and from the marquis of Villars the most bitter remonstrances on his conduct, which he did not hesitate to declare most perfidious and disgraceful. On the other hand, prince Eugene, who did not find the English forces, notwithstanding their presence, rendering any active service, was equally irritated by his proceedings. Ormonde could but reply to each party that such were his orders, and leave the government to bear the ignominy of it. To extricate themselves from the just censures on this dishonourable policy, St. John instructed Ormonde to demand from Villars the surrender of Dunkirk, which, it was asserted, must be put into the hands of the queen's troops, as a pledge that France would perform all that she had promised, before there could be a cessation of hostilities.

The French hastened to comply with this condition, on the understanding that Ormonde would immediately draw off his troops from Quesnoy; and the duke was obliged to announce to prince Eugene that he was under this necessity, in consequence of the terms agreed upon betwixt France and England; in fact, that he must cease all opposition to the French. Ormonde, therefore, not only gave the command for the retirement of the English troops, but also of all those belonging to the German princes which were in British pay. Eugene and the Dutch field deputies protested most indignantly against this proceeding, and the mercenary troops themselves refused to follow Ormonde. In vain did he endeavour to move the officers of those troops; they despised the conduct of England in abandoning the advantageous position at which they had arrived for terminating the war gloriously, and releasing the common enemy of Europe from his just punishment to gratify party spirit in England. "Up to this point," says Cunningham, "these mercenaries had punctually obeyed orders; but now, when they were required to separate from the allied army, the men made answer to their own officers that they would obey the duke of Ormonde in everything else except in this single point, in which the common safety and their own honour were in the utmost danger; that in this particular instance they could not be prevailed upon by any promises or threatenings to follow him without the commands of their respective sovereigns, and they would rather perish than desert their allies."