XX.

leaders. For they still called themselves Whigs, and CHAP. generally vindicated their Tory votes by arguments grounded on Whig principles.*

From this view of the state of parties in the House of Commons, it seems clear that Sunderland had good reason for recommending that the administration should be entrusted to the Whigs. The King, however, hesitated long before he could bring himself to quit that neutral position which he had long occupied between the contending parties. If one of those parties was disposed to question his title, the other was on principle hostile to his prerogative. He still remembered with bitterness the unreasonable and vindictive conduct of the Convention Parliament at the close of 1689 and the beginning of 1690; and he shrank from the thought of being entirely in the hands of the men who had obstructed the Bill of Indemnity, who had voted for the Sacheverell clause, who had tried to prevent him from taking the command of his army in Ireland, and who had called him an ungrateful tyrant merely because he would not be their slave and their hangman. He had once, by a bold and unexpected effort, freed himself from their yoke; and he was not inclined to put it on his neck again. He personally disliked Wharton and Russell. He thought highly of the capacity of Caermarthen, of the integrity of Nottingham, of the diligence and financial skill of Godolphin. It was only by slow degrees that the arguments of Sunderland, backed by the force of circumstances, overcame all objections.

1693.

On the seventh of November 1693 the Parliament Meeting of

The anomalous position which Harley and Foley at this time occupied is noticed in the Dialogue between a Whig and a Tory, 1693. "Your great P. Fo-y," says the Tory, "turns cadet, and carries arms under the General of the West Saxons. The two Har-ys, father

and son, are engineers under the late
Lieutenant of the Ordnance, and
bomb any bill which he hath once
resolv'd to reduce to ashes." Sey-
mour is the General of the West
Saxons. Musgrave had been Lieu-
tenant of the Ordnance in the reign
of Charles the Second.

CHAP.

XX.

1693.

Parliament.

Debates about the

naval mis.

met; and the conflict of parties instantly began. William from the throne pressed on the Houses the necessity of making a great exertion to arrest the progress of France on the Continent. During the last cainpaign, he said, she had, on every point, had a superiority of force; and it had therefore been found impossible to cope with her. His allies had promised to increase their armies; and he trusted that the Commons would enable him to do the same.*

The Commons at their next sitting took the King's speech into consideration. The miscarriage of the carriages. Smyrna fleet was the chief subject of discussion. The cry for inquiry was universal: but it was evident that the two parties raised that cry for very different reasons. Montague spoke the sense of the Whigs. He declared that the disasters of the summer could not, in his opinion, be explained by the ignorance and imbecility of those who had charge of the naval administration. There must have been treason. It was impossible to believe that Lewis, when he sent his Brest squadron to the Straits of Gibraltar, and left the whole coast of his kingdom from Dunkirk to Bayonne unprotected, had trusted merely to chance. He must have been well assured that his fleet would meet with a vast booty under a feeble convoy. As there had been treachery in some quarters, there had been incapacity in others. The State was ill served. And then the orator pronounced a warm panegyric on his friend Somers. "Would that all men in power would follow the example of my Lord Keeper! If all patronage were bestowed as judiciously and disinterestedly as his, we should not see the public offices filled with men who draw salaries and perform no duties." It was moved and carried unanimously, that the Commons would support their Majesties, and would forthwith proceed to investigate the causes of the disaster in the Bay of * Lords' and Commons' Journals, Nov. 7. 1693.

Lagos.*
The Lords of the Admiralty were directed to
produce a great mass of documentary evidence. The
King sent down copies of the examinations taken be-
fore the Committee of Council which Mary had ap-
pointed to inquire into the grievances of the Turkey
merchants. The Turkey merchants themselves were
called in and interrogated. Rooke, though too ill to
stand or speak, was brought in a chair to the bar, and
there delivered in a narrative of his proceedings. The
Whigs soon thought that sufficient ground had been
laid for a vote condemning the naval administration,
and moved a resolution attributing the miscarriage of
the Smyrna fleet to notorious and treacherous mis-
management. That there had been mismanagement
could not be disputed; but that there had been foul
play had certainly not been proved. The Tories pro-
posed that the word "treacherous" should be omitted.
A division took place; and the Whigs carried their
point by a hundred and forty votes to a hundred and
three. Wharton was a teller for the majority.†

It was now decided that there had been treason, but not who was the traitor. Several keen debates followed. The Whigs tried to throw the blame on Killegrew and Delaval, who were Tories: the Tories did their best to make out that the fault lay with the Victualling Department, which was under the direction of Whigs. But the House of Commons has always been much more ready to pass votes of censure drawn in general terms than to brand individuals by name. A resolution clearing the Victualling Office was proposed by Montague, and carried, after a debate of two days, by a hundred and eighty eight votes to a hundred and fifty two. But when the victorious party brought forward a motion inculpating the admirals, the Tories

* Commons' Journals, Nov. 13. ber 17. 1693. 1693; Grey's Debates.

Commons' Journals, Nov. 22 † Commons' Journals, Novem- 27. 1693; Grey's Debates.

CHAP.

XX.

1693.

CHAP.
XX.

1693.

Russell
First Lord

miralty.

came up in great numbers from the country, and, after a debate which lasted from nine in the morning till near eleven at night, succeeded in saving their friends. The Noes were a hundred and seventy, and the Ayes only a hundred and sixty one. Another attack was made a few days later with no better success. The Noes were a hundred and eighty five, the Ayes only a hundred and seventy five. The indefatigable and implacable Wharton was on both occasions teller for the minority.*

In spite of this check the advantage was decidedly of the Ad- with the Whigs. The Tories who were at the head of the naval administration had indeed escaped impeachment: but the escape had been so narrow that it was impossible for the King to employ them any longer. The advice of Sunderland prevailed. A new Commission of Admiralty was prepared; and Russell was named First Lord. He had already been appointed to

Retirement

ham.

the command of the Channel fleet.

His elevation made it necessary that Nottingham of Notting should retire. For, though it was not then unusual to see men who were personally and politically hostile to each other holding high offices at the same time, the relation between the First Lord of the Admiralty and the Secretary of State, who had charge of what would now be called the War Department, was of so peculiar a nature that the public service could not be well conducted without cordial cooperation between them; and between Nottingham and Russell such cooperation was not to be expected. "I thank you," William said to Nottingham," for your services. I have nothing to complain of in your conduct. It is only from necessity that I part with you." Nottingham retired with dig nity. Though a very honest man, he went out of office much richer than he had come in five What were then considered as the legitimate emolu

years

before.

* Commons' Journals, Nov. 29. Dec. 6. 1693; L'Hermitage, Dec. T. 1693.

XX.

1693

ments of his place were great: he had sold Kensington CHAP. House to the Crown for a large sum; and he had probably, after the fashion of that time, obtained for himself some lucrative grants. He laid out all his gains in purchasing land. He heard, he said, that his enemies meant to accuse him of having acquired wealth by illicit means. He was perfectly ready to abide the issue of an inquiry. He would not, as some ministers had done, place his fortune beyond the reach of the justice of his country. He would have no secret hoard. He would invest nothing in foreign funds. His property should all be such as could be readily discovered and seized.*

bury re

During some weeks the seals which Nottingham had Shrewsdelivered up remained in the royal closet. To dispose fuses office. of them proved no easy matter. They were offered to Shrewsbury, who of all the Whig leaders stood highest in the King's favour: but Shrewsbury excused himself, and, in order to avoid further importunity, retired into the country. There he soon received a pressing letter from Elizabeth Villiers. This lady had, when a girl, inspired William with a passion which had caused much scandal and much unhappiness in the little Court of the Hague. Her influence over him she owed not to her personal charms, for it tasked all the art of Kneller to make her look tolerably on canvass,-not to those talents which peculiarly belong to her sex, for she did not excel in playful talk, and her letters are remarkably deficient in feminine ease and grace, but to powers of mind which qualified her to partake the cares and guide the counsels of statesmen. To the end of her life great politicians sought her advice. Even Swift, the shrewdest and most cynical of her contemporaries, pronounced her the wisest of women, and more than once sate, fascinated by her conversation, from

L'Hermitage, Sept. T., Nov. 7. 1693.