Commons permitted against his partition treaties with Louis XIV., relative to the Spanish monarchy, and the charges brought against his ministers, imbittered the latter period of his life.

4. THE DARIEN EXPEDITION.-Some events took place in Scotland which threatened to create war between the two countries though they were under one monarch. The Scots, seeing that the English had enriched themselves with foreign trade, wished to follow their example, and to possess colonies like their neighbours. An ingenious man named Patterson, who was the founder of the Bank of England, suggested that they should form a large partnership, to be called "The Company trading to Africa and the Indies," which was in some measure to resemble the East India Company. The company was embodied by an act of the Scottish parliament, and many English people took shares in it; but the English merchants, and especially the East India Company, believing that it would hurt their interests, stirred up the Houses of Lords and Commons of England against it, and prevailed on the king to discountenance it. This only made the Scots pursue it more eagerly, and they subscribed to it four hundred thousand pounds,-a sum in those days thought inconceivably great for so poor a country.

A.D.}

1696.

3d Nov.

Thus provided with money, the company proposed to create a colony, and they fixed on the narrow neck of land between the great continents of North and South America, as a fit place for its establishment, believing that they would there secure a connexion with the trade conducted with both sides of the New World. To this place the company despatched a colony, which settled itself on a peninsula stretching out from the isthmus of Darien, and which they named after their 1698. own country" Caledonia.” Their first landing had every appearance of prosperity, but they mismanaged their business, and quarrelled among themselves. Their friends in Scotland, not knowing how much a new colony requires assistance from home, neglected them. The Spanish government maintained that the territory of Darien belonged to themselves, and they threatened to exterminate the settlers. The English colonies were nearly as hostile, for they would neither give nor sell provisions to the Scots at Darien, and when some of these, driven to despair, sailed for Jamaica, they were received as enemies. The company sent out other vessels and more colonists, but they fared no better; and in the end,

336 FROM THE REVOLUTION TO THE DEATH OF WILI IAM III.

with bitterness of heart, the Scottish nation were compelled to give up their attempt to possess a colony and enjoy a foreign trade, knowing that it was the commercial jealousy of England that compelled them to resign their projects. The disappointment sank deep in their hearts, and a hatred of England began to grow stronger every day.

The vast continental projects of the king, and the difficulties he encountered from the contending interests in his dominions, were too much for his frame to endure; for he was not naturally robust, and only the keenness and energy of his spirit supported him through the perils and difficulties of his career. While riding from Kensington to Hampton Court, his horse, having started, fell under him, and his collar-bone was broken. 8th March He died not many days after the accident, in the fifty-second year of his age.

1702.

During this reign parliament neglected no opportunity of claiming and upholding their rights; and their want of affec tion towards William saved those national liberties which might have perished under a king more beloved by his subjects. He was somewhat too fond of war, and did not sufficiently protect and encourage literature and the arts. Dryden, Newton, and Locke, are almost the only great literary and scientific names that shed any lustre upon this reign.

EXERCISES.

1. What is remarkable in the arrangement made for the succession to the crown? How often had the succession to be altered? Where was resistance offered to the revolution settlement? What occurred at Edinburgh Castle? Describe the career of Graham of Claverhouse. What were the chief occurrences in the war in Ireland?

2. What plan was taken to gain over the Highland chiefs? Who undertook to bribe them? What was the nature of the proclamation issued to them? Describe the manner in which Macdonald of Glencoe acted? How was the massacre perpetrated?

3. What effort did Louis XIV. make for the restoration of James? What treaty put an end to the war with France? What measure relating to parliament did William require to consent to? What was done in relation to his troops? How was the succession to the throne settled? 4. What project was formed in Scotland? Who was at the head of it? What body felt a jealousy towards it? Where was the new colony estab lished? What was the conduct of the English government towards it? What was the consequence of this conduct? What caused King William death?

CHAPTER XXX.

HOUSE OF STEWART.

ANNE, A. D. 1702-1714.

New Ministry-Renewal of War with France-Marlborough's SuccessesThe Occasional Conformity Bill-Battle of Blenheim-Capture of Gibraltar-The Union of England and Scotland-Battles of Ramillies, Oudenarde, and Malplaquet-Mrs Masham-Dr Sacheverel-New Tory Ministry-Peace of Utrecht-Church of Scotland.

1. ALL parties joyfully hailed the accession of Anne, who was then in her thirty-eighth year. She almost immediately went down to the parliament, declared her resolution to maintain the protestant religion and succession, and to prosecute the measures concerted by the late king, "the great support not only of these kingdoms, but of all Europe.'

The queen's inclination for the party in favour of high monarchical principles was manifest from the appointment of her ministers. Lord Rochester, her uncle, was continued lord-lieutenant of Ireland; Lord Nottingham was secretary of state; the Marquis of Normanby got the privy-seal; Marlborough was decorated with the order of the garter, named captain-general of the English forces at home and abroad, and master of the ordnance; Godolphin was made lord high treasurer, being in reality prime minister; and the queen's husband, Prince George of Denmark, still occupied his seat in the House of Peers as Duke of Cumberland, and was named generalissimo and lord high admiral.

In the year 1701, a grand alliance had been formed between England, Holland, and the Empire, to prevent the union of France and Spain, the king of the latter country, Charles II., having bequeathed his crown to Philip of Anjou, grandson of Louis XIV. Anne having declared her intention to maintain the treaties concluded by the late king, Marlborough was appointed generalissimo of the allied troops, and immediately opened the campaign. In a very short time he captured Venloo, Ruremonde, Stevenswaert, and Liege, reduced Spanish Gueldres, and drove the French across their own frontiers. The allies were less successful in Germany and

Italy against Villars and Vendôme, and the combined fleets were compelled to return into port. But they soon had their revenge. Sir George Rooke having learned that the West Indian plate fleet was lying at Vigo, under the protection of a French squadron, sailed to that harbour, landed the Duke of Ormond, who at the head of 3000 men took a castle which commanded the entrance of the port, and after a sharp action succeeded in bringing off ten men of war, eleven galleons, and seven million pieces of eight. Other treasures to the amount of fourteen millions were sunk in the bay. Marlborough on his return home was raised to the dukedom, and parliament thanked him for his services (1702).

Although the queen on her accession had promised to protect the nonconformists, the predominant party resolved to expel them from every public employment. They brought in the notorious "Occasional Conformity Bill," the professed object of which was to prevent hypocrisy in religion and danger to the church, but its real aim was to repeal the toleration act. By this bill, all who took the sacrament and test oath as qualifications for office, and afterwards frequented any meeting for religious worship not according to the liturgy and practice of the church of England, were to be disabled from holding any employment then or thereafter, and were liable to heavy fines. The Commons passed the bill by a large majority; but so many alterations and modifications were introduced into it by the Lords that it was lost. Prince George himself, an occasional conformist, voted for the measure, although he kept a Lutheran chapel and Lutheran chaplains; and it is important to observe, that one of its introducers was the famous St John, afterwards Lord Bolingbroke, originally a dissenter, but who, having now no religion at all, willingly adopted any plans of intolerance and persecution that favoured the views of his party.

2. The campaign of 1704 was ruinous to France. Prince Eugene and Marlborough, after uniting their forces in Germany, gaining many partial successes, and ravaging Bavaria, gave battle to the French near the village of Blenheim (13th August). There Marshall Tallard was utterly defeated; the loss of the Franco-Bavarian army in killed and prisoners exceeded 35,000 men, while the allies lost not more than 12,000. For this brilliant victory the duke was rewarded by the gift of the manor of Woodstock, and the palace of Blenheim was erected for him at the national expense.

The Archduke Charles, or, as he was now called, King Charles of Spain, was conveyed to Portugal by a fleet under the command of Admiral Rooke. In Lisbon he was received with royal honours, and he shortly after attempted the bold enterprise of invading Spain; but was soon driven back across the frontiers by the Duke of Berwick. This title will be recognised as connected with England and Scotland, although it then belonged to a Spanish grandee in the service of the King of Spain. The duke was the natural son of James II., by Arabella Churchill, Marlborough's sister, so that here we have two great commanders on opposite sides who were not only born British subjects, but nearly related to each other. Meanwhile Rooke, who had on board a body of land forces under the command of the Prince of HesseDarmstadt, resolved to make an attempt upon Gibraltar, at that time very insufficiently garrisoned. The soldiers were disembarked on the isthmus to intercept all communication with Spain, and, after a tremendous cannonading, the English effected a landing on the South Mole Head, upon which this strong fortress surrendered.

3. THE UNION.-The danger of a war between England and Scotland showed the statesmen of Queen Anne's reign how desirable it would be to unite the two countries, so that they should not only have one monarch, but one legislature and government; for as long as each had a parliament and ministry, their interests were separate, and no one could tell how long they would be kept in peace. The Scots were deeply exasperated by the conduct of the English government towards their favourite Darien scheme, a state of feeling much increased by the following incident. A ship belonging to the Darien Company was seized, on the ground of its infringing the privileges of the English East India Company. The Scots retaliated by capturing an English vessel, commanded by one Captain Green, in the Firth of Forth. Some things mentioned by the sailors of this vessel led the Scots, who were strongly prejudiced against them, to charge them with committing piracy and murder; and rather to throw defiance at England than to do justice, Captain Green and part of his crew were charged with these crimes before the A.D. Court of Admiralty in Edinburgh, found guilty, and 1704. hanged.

Nearly at the same time the Scots parliament, who had not fixed the succession to the crown, were rather imperiously

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