Page:Cassell's Illustrated History of England vol 4.djvu/55

A.D. 1690.] was already lying at Portsmouth with his squadron when William reached London; and sailing thence on the 18th, he landed at Cork on the 21st of September, with five thousand men. The duke of Würtemberg there joined him with his four thousand Danes, together making a strong force, but which was in danger of becoming paralysed by the German duke insisting on taking the chief command on account of his superior rank. Marlborough was not a man willingly to resign any position which was likely to do him honour; but he consented to share the command, taking it on alternate days. With him he had also the duke of Grafton, one of Charles II.'s illegitimate sons, who had fallen under suspicion of leaning to his uncle James, but, to prove his loyalty to William, came out as a volunteer. Cork was vigorously attacked, and in forty-eight hours it capitulated. The garrison, betwixt four and five thousand men, surrendered as prisoners, and Marlborough promised to use his endeavours to obtain the favour of William for both them and the citizens. He forbade his troops to plunder, but was obliged to use force to repel the hordes of wild people who rushed in and began ransacking the catholics. The duke of Grafton fell in the attack.

Without losing a day, Marlborough sent forward his cavalry to Kinsale to demand its surrender, and followed with his infantry. The Irish set fire to the town, and retired into two forts, the Old Fort and the New Fort. The English, however, managed to put out the fire, and, Marlborourgh arriving, invested the forts, and took the Old Fort by storm, killing nearly five hundred men, who refused all surrender. The garrison of the New Fort, after seeing Marlborough prepared to storm that too, yielded on condition that they might go to Limerick. They were twelve hundred strong. In this fort was found abundance of provisions, a thousand barrels of wheat, and eighty pipes of claret. Having executed this mission, and secured the two forts for the king, Marlborough re-embarked, and reached London again in little more than a month from the day that he sailed from Portsmouth. William, astonished at the rapidity of this success, declared that there was no officer living who had seen so little service, who was so qualified for a general as Marlborough. The English people went still further, and declared that their countryman had achieved more in a single month than the king's Dutch favourites in two campaigns.

Soon after Marlborough's return, William received another proof of the estimation of his rising fortunes on the continent. Affairs there had not progressed during the summer. The battle of Fleurus had been lost, and the allies had lost the brave duke of Lorraine; but the imperious treatment of Louis XIV. had compelled Amadeus, duke of Savoy, to declare against him and for the allies; and at the end of October an envoy extraordinary from Amadeus arrived at Whitehall to congratulate William on his successful termination of his great enterprise, which insured the liberties of Europe, and had emboldened himself to declare for the allies.

On the 2nd of October William opened the new session of parliament. He was received with the warmest demonstrations of attachment. He had shown himself strong, and James had shown himself weak. The country had been alarmed by the menace of invasion, and all parties were disposed to rally round the monarch who gave them every promise of security and pre-eminence. In his speech he paid the highest tribute to the bravery of the army, and declared that, had his affairs allowed him to have begun the campaign earlier, he should have been able to clear the whole country of the enemy. In order to do that in the ensuing campaign, and to put a check on the too conspicuous designs of the French, it would be necessary to grant liberal supplies. He reminded them of the dishonour which had befallen our flag, and of the necessity of promptness in parliament to enable him to wipe away this stain, and to secure the reputation and the liberties of England by crushing the efforts of the king of France. "Whoever goes about to obstruct your application to these matters," he said, "preferably to all others, can neither be my friends nor the kingdom's."

His speech was received with loud acclamations. Thanks were voted for his achievements in Ireland, and to the queen for her able administration during his absence; and the commons proceeded to vote supplies on a scale which had yet no example. The army was fixed at sixty-nine thousand men, of which twelve thousand were to consist of cavalry. The navy was to consist of twenty-eight thousand men; and the cost of the whole, including ordnance, was estimated at four million pounds. In return for this unprecedented force and unprecedented allowance for it, the commons demanded that they appoint a commission of nine to examine and bring forward the accounts; the commissioners to be all members of their own house. The proposition was acceded to without opposition by both the peers and the king, and a bill, including the appointment of the commissioners, was prepared and passed. On the 15th of November a bill received the royal assent for doubling the excise on beer, ale, and other liquors; and on the 20th of December another bill passed for granting certain duties upon East India goods, wrought silks, and other merchandise; and a second bill for increasing the duties on wine, vinegar, and tobacco.

In considering the ways and means, the commons proposed, as they had laid so many burdens on themselves, that the persons of all those who had been engaged in the rebellion in Ireland should be attained, and their estates confiscated, and the proceeds be applied to the discharge of the expenses of the war; and they brought in and passed a bill for that purpose. But the lords did not appear disposed to sanction so wholesale a confiscation of the estates of all the catholics of Ireland, as this would have amounted to; nor could it be very acceptable to the king, though they proposed to place a considerable portion of the forfeitures at his disposal. The lords allowed the bill to lie on their table, notwithstanding several urgent reminders from the commons, and so eventually it dropped. This must have been what William particularly desired, for it was contrary to his natural clemency to let loose the fiends of party fury after the sufficiently deadly evils of war, and it was contrary to his promises to many who had submitted on assurances of impunity; and having got the chief supplies which he wanted, he sought to shorten the session as much as possible, by telling the parliament that, by a certain day, it was necessary for him to leave for Holland on important affairs. Yet, after the liberal votes of the commons, still keeping in memory the disgrace of the navy, he added that, if some annual provision could be made