CHAPTER IV.
False Information against the Earl of Marlborough, the Bishop of Rochester, and others..... Sources of National Discontent..... Dissension between the Queen and the Prince’s Anne of Denmark..... The House of Lords vindicate their Privileges in behalf of their imprisoned Members..... The Commons present Addresses to The King and Queen..... They acquit Admiral Russel, and resolve to advise his Majesty..... They comply with all the Demands of the Ministry..... The Lords present an Address of Advice to the King..... The Dispute between the Lords and Commons concerning Admiral Russel..... The Commons address the King..... They establish the Land tax and other Impositions..... Burnet’s Pastoral Letter burned by the Hangman..... Proceedings of the Lower House against the Practice of kidnapping Men for the Service..... The two Houses address the King on the Grievances of Ireland ..... An Account of the Place-bill, and that for triennial Parliaments..... The Commons petition his Majesty that he would dissolve the East India Company..... Trial of Lord Mohan for Murder..... Alterations in the Ministry..... The king repairs to the Continent, and assembles the Confederate Army in Flanders..... The French reduce Huy..... Luxembourg resolves to attack the Allies..... who are defeated at Landen..... Charleroy is besieged and taken by the Enemy..... Campaign on the Rhine..... The Duke of Savoy is defeated by Catinat in the Plain of Marsaglia..... Transactions in Hungary and Catalonia..... Naval Affairs..... A Fleet of Merchant Ships under Convoy of Sir George Rooke attacked, and partly destroyed by the French Squadrons ..... Wheeler’s Expedition to the West Indies..... Benbow bombards St. Maloes..... The French King has recourse to the Mediation of Denmark..... Severity of the Government against the Jacobites..... Complaisance of the Scottish Parliament..... The King returns to England, makes some Changes in the Ministry, and opens the Session of Parliament..... Both Houses inquire into the Miscarriages by Sea..... The Commons grant a vast Sum for the Services of the ensuing Year..... The King rejects the Bill against free and impartial Proceedings in Parliament; and the Lower House remonstrates on this Subject..... Establishment of the Bank of England..... The East India Company obtain a now Charter..... Bill for a general Naturalization dropped..... Sir Francis Wheeler perishes in a Storm..... The English attempt to make a Descent in Camaret Bay, but are repulsed with Loss..... They bombard Dieppe, Havre-de-Grace, Dunkirk, and Calais..... Admiral Russel sails for the Mediterranean, relieves Barcelona, and winters at Cadiz..... Campaign in Flanders..... The Allies reduce Huy..... The Prince of Baden passes the Rhine, but is obliged to repass that River..... Operations in Hungary..... Progress of the French in Catalonia..... State of the War in Piedmont..... The King returns to England..... The Parliament meets..... The Bill for Triennial Parliaments receives the Royal Assent..... Death of Archbishop Tillotson and of Queen Mary..... Reconciliation between the King and the Princess of Denmark.
WILLIAM AND MARY, 1688—1701.
THE EARL OF MARLBOROUGH, BISHOP OF ROCHESTER, &c, FALSELY ACCUSED.
While king William seemed wholly engrossed by the affairs of the continent, England was distracted by domestic dissension, and overspread with vice, corruption, and profaneness. Over and above the Jacobites, there was a set of malcontents whose number daily increased. They not only murmured at the grievances of the nation, but composed and published elaborate dissertations upon the same subject. These made such impressions upon the people, already irritated by heavy burdens, distressed in their trade, and disappointed in their sanguine expectations, that the queen thought it necessary to check the progress of those writers by issuing out a proclamation offering a reward to such as would discover seditious libellers. The earl of Marlborough had been committed to the Tower on the information of one Robert Young, a prisoner in Newgate, who had forged that nobleman’s hand-writing, and contrived the scheme of an association in favour of king James, to which he affixed the names of the earls of Marlborough and Salisbury, Sprat, bishop of Rochester, the lord Cornbury, and sir Basil Firebrace. One of his emissaries had found means to conceal this paper in a certain part of the bishop’s house at Bromley in Kent, where it was found by the king’s messengers, who secured the prelate in consequence of Young’s information. But he vindicated himself to the satisfaction of the whole council; and the forgery of the informer was detected by the confession of his accomplice. The bishop obtained his release immediately and the earl of Marlborough was admitted to bail in the court of king’s bench.