Page:Cassell's Illustrated History of England vol 4.djvu/128

---

a far more complete punishment on the heartless ambition of Louis, and thus prevented the speedy recurrence of the horrors they now hoped were for a long time at an end.

 

DEFEAT OF THE TURKS BY PRINCE EUGENE.

 

---

CHAPTER IV.

THE REIGN OF WILLIAM III. (Continued).

State of Parties—Standing Army reduced to Ten Thousand—A revenue for Life granted to the King—Fraudulent Endorsements of Exchequer Bills—Charter granted to the New East India Company—Proceedings against Molyneux' Book in Ireland—Portland resigns—William disowns the Scottish Company—Goes to Holland—First Treaty of Partition—Intrigues of France at Madrid—William obliged to dismiss his Dutch Guards—Expedition to Darien—Spanish Remonstrance against the Treaty of Partition—Inquiries into the Expedition of Captain Kidd, and into the Irish Forfeitures—New Charter of Old East India Company—Dismissal of Somers—Death of the Duke of Gloucester-Expedition to the Baltic—Second Treaty of Partition—Death of the King of Spain—France claims Spain on the Authority of the King's Will—Philip, Duke of Anjou, acknowledged King of Spain by the States-General—Commons and Court not friendly—Succession settled on the Princess Sophia of Hanover—William acknowledges the Duke of Anjou King of Spain—Impeachment of Portland, Oxford, Somers, and Halifax—Progress of Prince Eugene in Italy—Treaty of Alliance between the Emperor and the Maritime Power—Death of King James—Lotus acknowledges the Prince of Wales as King of England—Harmony restored betwixt the King and Parliament—Bill of Abjuration—Affairs of Ireland—Proposed union of Scotland and England—Death of King William.

William met his parliament on the 3rd of December. He congratulated it on the achievement of a peace, in which the confederates had accomplished all they had fought for—the repression of the ambitious attempts of France to bring under its yoke the rest of the kingdoms of the continent. She had been compelled to yield up everything which she had seized from the commencement of the war. But he reminded them that this had not been accomplished except at a heavy cost. They had supported him nobly in furnishing that cost, and he trusted they would not now be less prompt to discharge the remaining unpaid claims, and in taking measures to liquidate by degrees the debts incurred. He expressed his hope that they would provide him for life with a sufficient civil list to maintain the necessary dignity of the crown. Though the war was over, he reminded them that there were many reasons why the army and navy should yet be maintained on a respectable footing.

The commons voted him an address, in which they united in the congratulations on the restoration of peace, but passed over the subject of the army. William noticed the omission, and felt it deeply. Nobody was more aware than himself that, though they had bound France by the treaty of Ryswick, no bonds of that kind ever held Louis XIV. any longer than it suited his necessities or his schemes of aggrandisement. He observed that Louis still kept on foot his large armies, that he still retained the ex-king and his court at St. Germains in open violation of the treaty; and the circumstances of Spain, whose king was gradually dying childless, with Louis intently watching to pounce on his