The History of England, from the Accession of James the Second - Volume 4 by Thomas Babington Macaulay (well read books txt) 📕

the Short History of the Last Parliament, 1699; Narcissus Luttrell's Diary; the newspapers of 1696 passim, and the letters of L'Hermitage passim. See also the petition of the Clothiers of Gloucester in the Commons' Journal, Nov. 27. 1696. Oldmixon, who had been himself a sufferer, writes on this subject with even more than his usual acrimony.

FN 704 See L'Hermitage, June 12/22, June 23/July, 3 June 30/July 10, Aug 1/11 Aug 28/Sept 7 1696. The Postman of August 15. mentions the great benefit derived from the Exchequer Bills. The Pegasus of Aug. 24. says: "The Exchequer Bills do more and more obtain with the public; and 'tis no wonder." The Pegasus of Aug. 28. says: "They pass as money from hand to hand; 'tis observed that such as cry them down are ill affected to the government." "They are found by experience," says the Postman of the seventh of May following, "to be of extraordinary use to the merchants and traders of the City of London, and all other parts of the kingdom." I will give one specimen of the unmetrical and almost unintelligible doggrel which the Jacobite poets published on this subject:-

"Pray, Sir, did you hear of the late proclamation, Of sending paper for payment quite thro' the nation? Yes, Sir, I have: they're your Montague's notes, Tinctured and coloured by your Parliament votes. But 'tis plain on the people to be but a toast, They come by the carrier and go by the post."

FN 705 Commons' Journals, Nov. 25. 1696.

FN 706 L'Hermitage, June 2/12. 1696; Commons' Journals, Nov. 25.; Post-man, May 5., June 4., July 2.

FN 707 L'Hermitage, July.3/13 10/20 1696; Commons' Journals, Nov. 25.; Paris Gazette, June 30., Aug. 25.; Old Postmaster, July 9.

FN 708 William to Heinsius, July 30. 1696; William to Shrewsbury, July 23. 30. 31.

FN 709 Shrewsbury to William, July 28. 31., Aug. 4. 1696; L'Hermitage, Aug. 1/11

FN 710 Shrewsbury to William, Aug 7. 1696; L'Hermitage, Aug 14/24.; London Gazette, Aug. 13.

FN 711 L'Hermitage, Aug.18/28. 1696. Among the records of the Bank is a resolution of the Directors prescribing the very words which Sir John Houblon was to use. William's sense of the service done by the Bank on this occasion is expressed in his letter to Shrewsbury, of Aug. 24/Sept 3. One of the Directors, in a letter concerning the Bank, printed in 1697, says: "The Directors could not have answered it to their members, had it been for any less occasion than the preservation of the kingdom."

FN 712 Haynes's Brief Memoires; Lansdowne MSS. 801. Montague's friendly letter to Newton, announcing the appointment, has been repeatedly printed. It bears date March 19. 1695/6.

FN 713 I have very great pleasure in quoting the words of Haynes, an able, experienced and practical man, who had been in the habit of transacting business with Newton. They have never I believe, been printed. "Mr. Isaac Newton, public Professor of the Mathematicks in Cambridge, the greatest philosopher, and one of the best men of this age, was, by a great and wise statesman, recommended to the favour of the late King for Warden of the King's Mint and Exchanges, for which he was peculiarly qualified, because of his extraordinary skill in numbers, and his great integrity, by the first of which he could judge correctly of the Mint accounts and transactions as soon as he entered upon his office; and by the latter-I mean his integrity-he set a standard to the conduct and behaviour of every officer and clerk in the Mint. Well had it been for the publick, had he acted a few years sooner in that situation." It is interesting to compare this testimony, borne by a man who thoroughly understood the business of the Mint, with the childish talk of Pope. "Sir Isaac Newton," said Pope, "though so deep in algebra and fluxions, could not readily make up a common account; and, whilst he was Master of the Mint, used to get somebody to make up the accounts for him." Some of the statesmen with whom Pope lived might have told him that it is not always from ignorance of arithmetic that persons at the head of great departments leave to clerks the business of casting up pounds, shillings and pence.

FN 714 "I do not love," he wrote to Flamsteed, "to be printed on every occasion, much less to be dunned and teased by foreigners about mathematical things, or to be thought by our own people to be trifling away my time about them, when I am about the King's business."

FN 715 Hopton Haynes's Brief Memoires; Lansdowne MSS. 801.; the Old Postmaster, July 4. 1696; the Postman May 30., July 4 , September 12. 19., October 8,; L'Hermitage's despatches of this summer and autumn, passim.

FN 716 Paris Gazette, Aug. 11. 1696.

FN 717 On the 7th of August L'Hermitage remarked for the first time that money seemed to be more abundant.

FN 718 Compare Edmund Bohn's Letter to Carey of the 31st of July 1696 with the Paris Gazette of the same date. Bohn's description of the state of Norfolk is coloured, no doubt, by his constitutionally gloomy temper, and by the feeling with which he, not unnaturally, regarded the House of Commons. His statistics are not to be trusted; and his predictions were signally falsified. But he may be believed as to plain facts which happened in his immediate neighbourhood.

FN 719 As to Grascombe's character, and the opinion entertained of him by the most estimable Jacobites, see the Life of Kettlewell, part iii., section 55. Lee the compiler of the Life of Kettlewell mentions with just censure some of Grascombe's writings, but makes no allusion to the worst of them, the Account of the Proceedings in the House of Commons in relation to the Recoining of the Clipped Money, and falling the price of Guineas. That Grascombe was the author, was proved before a Committee of the House of Commons. See the Journals, Nov. 3o. 1696.

FN 720 L'Hermitage, June 12/22., July 7/17. 1696.

FN 721 See the Answer to Grascombe, entitled Reflections on a Scandalous Libel.

FN 722 Paris Gazette, Sept. 15. 1696,

FN 723 L'Hermitage, Oct. 2/12 1696.

FN 724 L'Hermitage, July 20/30., Oct. 2/12 9/10 1696.

FN 725 The Monthly Mercuries; Correspondence between Shrewsbury and Galway; William to Heinsius, July 23. 30. 1696; Memoir of the Marquess of Leganes.

FN 726 William to Heinsius, Aug 27/Sept 6, Nov 15/25 Nov. 17/27 1696; Prior to Lexington, Nov. 17/27; Villiers to Shrewsbury, Nov. 13/23

FN 727 My account of the attempt to corrupt Porter is taken from his examination before the House of Commons on Nov. 16. 1696, and from the following sources: Burnet, ii. 183.; L'Hermitage to the States General, May 8/18. 12/22 1696; the Postboy, May 9.; the Postman, May 9.; Narcissus Luttrell's Diary; London Gazette, Oct. 19. 1696.

FN 728 London Gazette; Narcissus Luttrell; L'Hermitage, June 12/22; Postman, June 11.

FN 729 Life of William III. 1703; Vernon's evidence given in his place in the House of Commons, Nov. 16. 1696.

FN 730 William to Shrewsbury from Loo, Sept. 10. 1696.

FN 731 Shrewsbury to William, Sept. 18. 1696.

FN 732 William to Shrewsbury, Sept. 25. 1696.

FN 733 London Gazette, Oct. 8. 1696; Vernon to Shrewsbury, October 8. Shrewsbury to Portland, Oct. 11.

FN 734 Vernon to Shrewsbury, Oct. 13. 1696; Somers to Shrewsbury, Oct. 15.

FN 735 William to Shrewsbury, Oct. 9. 1696.

FN 736 Shrewsbury to William, Oct. 11. 1696.

FN 737 Somers to Shrewsbury, Oct. 19. 1696.

FN 738 William to Shrewsbury, Oct. 20. 1696.

FN 739 Vernon to Shrewsbury, Oct. 13. 15.; Portland to Shrewsbury, Oct, 20, 1696.

FN 740 L'Hermitage, July 10/20 1696.

FN 741 Lansdowne MS. 801.

FN 742 I take my account of these proceedings from the Commons' Journals, from the despatches of Van Cleverskirke and L'Hermitage to the States General, and from Vernon's letter to Shrewsbury of the 27th of October 1696. "I don't know," says Vernon "that the House of Commons ever acted with greater concert than they do at present."

FN 743 Vernon to Shrewsbury, Oct. 29. 1696; L'Hermitage, Oct 30/Nov 9 L'Hermitage calls Howe Jaques Haut. No doubt the Frenchman had always heard Howe spoken of as Jack.

FN 744 Postman, October 24. 1696; L'Hermitage, Oct 23/Nov 2. L'Hermitage says: "On commence deja a ressentir des effets avantageux des promptes et favorables resolutions que la Chambre des Communes prit Mardy. Le discomte des billets de banque, qui estoit le jour auparavant a 18, est revenu a douze, et les actions ont aussy augmente, aussy bien que les taillis."

FN 745 William to Heinsius, Nov. 13/23 1696.

FN 746 Actes et Memoires des Negociations de la Paix de Ryswick, 1707; Villiers to Shrewsbury Dec. 1.11. 4/14. 1696; Letter of Heinsius quoted by M. Sirtema de Grovestins. Of this letter I have not a copy.

FN 747 Vernon to Shrewsbury, Dec. 8. 1696.

FN 748 Wharton to Shrewsbury, Oct. 27. 1696.

FN 749 Somers to Shrewsbury, Oct. 27. 31. 1696; Vernon to Shrewsbury, Oct. 31.; Wharton to Shrewsbury, Nov. 10. "I am apt to think," says Wharton, "there never was more management than in bringing that about."

FN 750 See for example a poem on the last Treasury day at Kensington, March 1696/7.

FN 751 Somers to Shrewsbury, Oct 31. 1696; Wharton to Shrewsbury, of the same date.

FN 752 Somers to Shrewsbury, Nov. 3. 1696. The King's unwillingness to see Fenwick is mentioned in Somers's letter of the 15th of October.

FN 753 Vernon to Shrewsbury, Nov. 3. 1696.

FN 754 The circumstances of Goodman's flight were ascertained three years later by the Earl of Manchester, when Ambassador at Paris, and by him communicated to Jersey in a letter dated Sept 25/Oct 5 1699.

FN 755 London Gazette Nov. 9. 1696; Vernon to Shrewsbury, Nov. 3.; Van Cleverskirke and L'Hermitage of the same date.

FN 756 The account of the events of this day I have taken from the Commons' Journals; the valuable work entitled Proceedings in Parliament against Sir John Fenwick, Bart. upon a Bill of Attainder for High Treason, 1696; Vernon's Letter to Shrewsbury, November 6. 1696, and Somers's Letter to Shrewsbury, November 7. From both these letters it is plain that the Whig leaders had much difficulty in obtaining the absolution of Godolphin.

FN 757 Commons' Journals, Nov. 9. 1696 - Vernon to Shrewsbury, Nov. 10. The editor of the State Trials is mistaken in supposing that the quotation from Caesar's speech was made in the debate of the 13th.

FN 758 Commons' Journals, Nov. 13. 16, 17.; Proceedings against Sir John Fenwick.

FN 759 A Letter to a Friend in Vindication of the Proceedings against Sir John Fenwick, 1697.

FN 760 This incident is mentioned by L'Hermitage.

FN 761 L'Hermitage tells us that such things took place in these debates.

FN 762 See the Lords' Journals, Nov. 14., Nov. 30., Dec. 1. 1696.

FN 763 Wharton to Shrewsbury, Dec. 1. 1696; L'Hermitage, of same date.

FN 764 L'Hermitage, Dec. 4/14. 1696; Wharton to Shrewsbury, Dec. 1.

FN 765 Lords' Journals Dec. 8. 1696; L'Hermitage, of the same date.

FN 766 L'Hermitage, Dec. 15/25 18/28 1696.

FN 767 Ibid. Dec. 18/28 1696.

FN 768 Lords' Journals, Dec. 15. 1696; L'Hermitage, Dec.18/28; Vernon to Shrewsbury, Dec. 15. About the numbers there is a slight difference between Vernon and L'Hermitage. I have followed Vernon.

FN 769 Lords' Journals, Dec. 18. 1696; Vernon to Shrewsbury, Dec. 19.; L'Hermitage, Dec 22/Jan 1. I take the numbers from