INTRIGUES OF FRANCE AT THE COURT OF MADRID.

While the French king cajoled William with this negotiation, the marquis d’Harcourt, his ambassador to Spain, was engaged in a game of a different nature at Madrid. The queen of Spain, suspecting the designs of France, exerted all her interest in behalf of the king of the Romans, to whom she was nearly related. She new-modelled the council, bestowed the government of Milan on prince Vaudemont, and established the prince of Hesse Darmstadt as viceroy of Catalonia. Notwithstanding all her efforts, she could not prevent the French minister from acquiring some influence in the Spanish councils. He was instructed to procure the succession of the crown for one of the dauphin’s sons, or at least to hinder it from devolving upon the emperor’s children. With a view to give weight to his negotiations, the French king ordered an army of sixty thousand men to advance towards the frontiers of Catalonia and Navarre, while a great number of ships and galleys cruised along the coast, and entered the harbours of Spain. Harcourt immediately began to form his party; he represented that Philip IV. had no power to dispose of his crown against the laws of nature and the constitution of the realm; that, by the order of succession, the crown ought to descend to the children of his daughter in preference to more distant relations; that if the Spaniards would declare in favour of the dauphin’s second son, the duke of Anjou, they might train him up in the manners and customs of their country. When he found them averse to this proposal, he assured them that his master would approve of the electoral prince of Bavaria rather than consent to the succession’s devolving upon a son of the emperor. Nay, he hinted that if they would choose a sovereign among themselves, they might depend upon the protection of his most christian majesty, who had no other view than that of preventing the house of Austria from becoming too formidable to the liberties of Europe. The queen of Spain, having discovered the intrigues of this minister, conveyed the king to Toledo, on pretence that the air of Madrid was prejudicial to his health. Harcourt immediately took the alarm. He supposed her intention was to prevail upon her husband in his solitude to confirm the last will of his father; but his doubts were all removed when he understood that the count de Harrach, the Imperial ambassador, had privately repaired to Toledo. He forthwith took the same road, pretending to have received a memorial from his master with a positive order to deliver it into the king’s own hand. He was given to understand that the management of foreign affairs had been left to the care of cardinal Corduba at Madrid, and that the king’s health would not permit him to attend to business. The purport of the memorial was, an offer of French forces to assist in raising the siege of Ceuta in Barbary, which the Moors had lately undertaken; but this offer was civilly declined. Harcourt, not yet discouraged, redoubled his efforts at Madrid, and found means to engage cardinal Portocarrcro in the interests of his master. In the meantime Louis concluded an alliance with Sweden, under the pretext of preserving and securing the common peace by such means as should be adjudged most proper and convenient. During these transactions king William was not wanting in his endeavours to terminate the war in Hungary, which had raged fifteen years without intermission. About the middle of August, lord Paget and Mr. Colliers, ambassadors from England and Holland, arrived in the Turkish camp near Belgrade, and a conference being opened under their mediation, the peace of Carlowitz was signed on the twenty-sixth day of January By this treaty, the emperor remained in possession of all his conquests; Caminieck was restored to the Poles; all the Morea, with several fortresses in Dalmatia, were ceded to the Venetians; and the czar of Muscovy retained Azoph during a truce of two years: so that the Turks by this pacification lost great part of their European dominions. The cardinal primate of Poland, who had strenuously adhered to the prince of Conti, was prevailed upon to acknowledge Augustus; and the commotions in Lithuania being appeased, peace was established through all Christendom.

In the beginning of December the king arrived in England, where a new parliament had been chosen and prorogued on account of his majesty’s absence, which was prolonged by contrary winds and tempestuous weather. His ministry had been at very little pains to influence the elections, which generally fell upon men of revolution-principles, though they do not seem to have been much devoted to the person of their sovereign; yet their choice of sir Thomas Lyttleton for speaker, seemed to presage a session favourable to the ministry. The two houses being convened on the sixth day of December, the king in his speech observed that the safety, honour, and happiness of the kingdom would in a great measure depend upon the strength which they should think proper to maintain by sea and land. He desired they would make some further progress in discharging the national debt; contrive effectual expedients for employing the poor; pass good bills for the advancement of trade, and the discouragement of profaneness; and act with unanimity and despatch. The commons of this new parliament were so irritated at the king’s presuming to maintain a greater number of troops than their predecessors had voted, that they resolved he should feel the weight of their displeasure. They omitted the common compliment of an address; they resolved that all the forces of England, in English pay, exceeding seven thousand men, should be forthwith disbanded; as also those in Ireland exceeding twelve thousand; and that those retained should be his majesty’s natural born subjects. A bill was brought in on these resolutions and prosecuted with peculiar eagerness, to the unspeakable mortification of king William, who was not only extremely sensible of the affront, but also particularly chagrined to see himself disabled from maintaining his Dutch guards and the regiments of French refugees, to which he was uncommonly attached. Before the meeting of the parliament, the ministry gave him to understand that they should be able to procure a vote for ten or twelve thousand, but they would not undertake for a greater number. He professed himself dissatisfied with the proposal, observing that they might as well disband the whole as leave so few. The ministers would not run the risk of losing all their credit by proposing a greater number; and, having received no directions on this subject, sat silent when it was debated in the house of commons.

Such was the indignation of William, kindled by this conduct of his ministry and his parliament, that he threatened to abandon the government, and had actually penned a speech to be pronounced to both houses on that occasion; but he was diverted from this purpose by his ministry and confidants, and resolved to pass the bill by which he had been so much offended. Accordingly, when it was ready for the royal assent, he went to the house of peers, where having sent for the commons, he told them that although he might think himself unkindly used in being deprived of his guards, which had constantly attended him in all his actions; yet, as he believed nothing could be more fatal to the nation than any distrust or jealousy between him and his parliament, he was come to pass the bill according to their desire.

At the same time, for his own justification, and in discharge of the trust reposed in him, he declared that in his own judgment the nation was left too much exposed; and that it was incumbent upon them to provide such a strength as might be necessary for the safety of the kingdom. They thanked him in an address for this undeniable proof of his readiness to comply with the desires of his parliament. They assured him he should never have reason to think the commons were undutiful or unkind; for they would on all occasions stand by and assist him in the preservation of his sacred person, and in the support of his government, against all his enemies whatsoever. The lords presented an address to the same effect; and the king assured both houses he entertained no doubts of their loyalty and affection. He forthwith issued orders for reducing the army to the number of seven thousand men, to be maintained in England under the name of guards and garrisons; and hoping the hearts of the commons were now mollified, he made another effort in favour of his Dutch guards, whom he could not dismiss without the most sensible regret. Lord Ranelagh was sent with a written message to the commons, giving them to understand that the necessary preparations were made for transporting the guards who came with him into England, and that they should embark immediately, unless out of consideration to him, the house should be disposed to find a way for continuing them longer in the service; a favour which his majesty would take very kindly. The commons, instead of complying with his inclination, presented an address, in which they professed unspeakable grief that he should propose anything to which they could not consent with due regard to the constitution which he had come over to restore, and so often hazarded his royal person to preserve. They reminded him of the declaration, in which he had promised that all the foreign forces should be sent out of the kingdom. They observed, that nothing conduced more to the happiness and welfare of the nation than an entire confidence between the king and people, which could no way be so firmly established as by intrusting his sacred person with his own subjects, who had so eminently signalized themselves during the late long and expensive war. They received a soothing answer to this address, but remained firm to their purpose, in which the king was fain to acquiesce; and the Dutch guards were transported to Holland. At a time when they declared themselves so well pleased with their deliverer, such an opposition in an affair of very little consequence savoured more of clownish obstinacy than of patriotism. In the midst of all their professions of regard, they entertained a national prejudice against himself and all the foreigners in his service. Even in the house of commons, his person was treated with great disrespect in virulent insinuations. They suggested that he neither loved nor trusted the English nation; that he treated the natives with the most disagreeable reserve, and chose his confidants from the number of strangers that surrounded him; that after every session of parliament, he retired from the kingdom to enjoy an indolent and inglorious privacy with a few favourites. These suggestions were certainly true. He was extremely disgusted with the English, whom he considered as malicious, ignorant, and ungrateful, and he took no pains to disguise his sentiments.