Page:Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition, v. 8.djvu/373

Rh WAR OF THE SPANISH SUCCESSION.] N G L A N D 353 ie Act Settle eat. .&amp;gt;rma- &amp;gt;n of e and Jiaiice, n of me. irlbo- igh s
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inal rmity, V. of Spain. William saw clearly that such predominance of France in Europe would lead to the development of pretensions unbearable to other states. But the House of Commons did not see it, even when the Dutch garrisons were driven by French troops out of the posts in the Spanish Netherlands which they had occupied for many years (1701). William had prudently done all that he could to con ciliate the Tory majority. In the preceding year (1700) he had given office to a Tory ministry, and he now (1701) gave his assent to the Act of Settlement, which secured the succession of the crown to the house of Hanover to the exclusion of all Roman Catholic claimants, though it imposed several fresh restrictions on the prerogative. William was indeed wise in keeping his feelings under control. The country sympathized with him more than the Commons did, and when the House imprisoned the gentlemen deputed by the freeholders of Kent to present a petition asking that its loyal addresses might be turned into bills of supply, it simply advertised its weakness to the whole country. The reception of this Kentish petition was but a fore taste of the discrepancy between the Commons and the nation, which was to prove the marked feature of the middle of the century now opening. For the present the House was ready to give way. It requested the king to enter into alliance with the Dutch. William went yet further in the direction in which he was urged. He formed an alliance with the emperor as well as with the States General to prevent the union of the crowns of France and Spain, and to compel France to evacuate the Netherlands. An unexpected event came to give him all the strength he needed. James II. died, and Lewis acknowledged his son as the rightful king of England. Englishmen of both parties were stung to indignation by the insult. William dissolved parliament, and the new House of Commons, Tory as it was by a small majority, was eager to support the king. It voted men and money according to his wishes. England was to be the soul of the Grand Alliance against France. But before a blow was struck William was thrown from his horse. He died on March 8, 1702. &quot;The man,&quot; as Burke said of him, &quot;was dead, but the Grand Alliance survived in which King William lived and reigned. &quot; Upon the accession of Anne, war was at once commenced. The Grand Alliance became, as William would have wished, a league to wrest the whole of the Spanish dominions from Philip, in favour of the Austrian archduke Charles. It found a chief of supreme military and diplomatic genius in the duke of Marlborough. His victory at Blenheim (1704) drove the French out of Germany. His victory of Rarnillies (170G) drove them out of the Netherlands. In Spain, Gibraltar was captured by Ilooko (1704) and Barcelona by Peterborough (1705). Prince Eugene relieved Turin from a French siege, and followed up the blow by driving the besiegers out of Italy. At home Marlborough, caring nothing for politics, at first gave his support to the Tories, whose church policy was regarded with favour by the queen. Their efforts were directed towards the restriction of the Toleration Act within narrow limits. Many dissenters had evaded the Test Act by partaking of the communion in a church, though they subsequently attended their own chapels. An Occasional Conformity Bill, imposing penalties on those who adopted this practice, twice passed the Commons (1702, 1703), but was rejected by the House of Lords, in served in a nobler manner in 1704 by the abandonment of first-fruits and tenths by the queen for the purpose of raising the pittances of the poorer clergy. In 1707 a piece of legislation of the highest value was carried to a success ful end. The Act of Union, passed in the parliaments Union of England and Scotland, joined the legislature of the two with kingdoms and the nations themselves in an indissoluble Sc bond. The ministry in office at the time of the passing of the United Act of Union had suffered important changes since the Whig commencement of the reign. The Tories had never been ns earnest in the prosecution of the war as the Whigs ; and Marlborough, who cared above all things for the prosecution of the war, gradually replaced Tories by Whigs in the ministry. His intention was doubtless to conciliate both parties by admitting them both to a share of power ; but the Whigs were determined to have all or none, and in 1708 a purely Whig ministry was formed to support the war as the first purely Whig ministry had supported it in the reign of William. The years of its power were the years of the victories of Oudenarde (1708) and of Malplaquet (1709), bringing with them the entire ruin of the military power of Lewis. Such successes, if they were not embraced in the spirit Growing of moderation, boded no good to the Whigs. It was unpopu- known that even before the last battle Lewis had been ^ iy ol ready to give up his grandson, and that his offers had been vhjgs. rejected because he would not consent to join the allies in turning him out of Spain. A belief spread in England that Marlborough wished the endless prolongation of the war for his own selfish ends. Spain was far away, and, if the Netherlands were safe, enough had been done for the interests of England. The Whigs were charged with refusing to make peace when an honourable and satis factory peace was not beyond their reach. As soon as the demand for a vigorous prosecution of the war relaxed, the Whigs could but rely on their domestic policy, in which they were strongest in the eyes of posterity but weakest in the eyes of contemporaries. It was known that they looked for the principle on which the queen s throne rested to the national act of the Revolution rather than to the birth of the sovereign as the daughter of James II., whilst popular feeling preferred, however inconsistently, to attach itself to some fragment of hereditary right. What was of greater consequence was that it was known that they were the friends of the dis senters, and that their leaders, if they could have had their way, would not only have maintained the Toleration Act, but would also have repealed the Test Act. In 1709 a sermon preached by Dr Sacheverel denounced toleration and the right of resistance in tones worthy of the first days of the Restoration. Foolish as the sermon was, it was but the reflection of folly which was widely spread amongst the rude and less educated classes. The Whig leaders unwisely took up the challenge and impeached Sacheverel. The Lords condemned the man, but they condemned him to an easy sentence. His trial was the signal for riot. Dissent ing chapels were sacked to the cry of High Church and Sacheverel. The queen, who had personal reasons for dis liking the Whigs, dismissed them from office (1710), and a Tory House of Commons was elected amidst the excite- Tory rnent to support the Tory ministry of Harlcy and St John, ministry After some hesitation the new ministry made peace Peace of with France, and the treaty of Utrecht, stipulating for Utrecht, the permanent separation of the crowns of France and Spain, and, assigning Milan, Naples, and the Spanish Netherlands to the Austrian claimant, accomplished all that could reasonably be desired, though the abandon ment to the vengeance of the Spanish Government of our Catalan allies, and the base desertion of our Continental confederates on the very field cf action, brought dishonour on the good name of England. The Commons gladly welcomed the cessation of the war. The approval of the vnr. 45
 * which the Whig element predominated. The church was