The war between France and the confederates—Holland, Austria, and Spain—had now spread all over Europe, both by land and sea. Louis poured his soldiers in torrents into the Netherlands, and excited insurrections in the dependencies of Spain. He managed to excite sedition against her in Sicily, and against Austria in Hungary. De Ruyter, the famous admiral, was despatched by the Prince of Orange to assist the Spaniards in Sicily, and was killed at Messina. On the other hand, Louis's great general, Turenne, was killed at the battle of Salzbach, on the Rhine. After his death, the Austrian general, Montecucculi, defeated the French repeatedly, and recovered Alsace. But Vauban, who introduced a new system of fortification, recovered the ascendency of Louis, by teaching the French how to defend towns. Louis maintained this enormous war at a cost which brought an immense burden on France, and laid the foundation of the great Revolution which horrified Europe. On the other hand, William of Orange manfully maintained the conflict under many disadvantages. His authority at home was often questioned; the governors of the Spanish Netherlands frequently crossed his plans, and his German allies frequently failed him. Yet reverse after reverse was not able to damp his spirit, or overcome his imperturbable tenacity of purpose. Charles, during this awful struggle of his nephew, was enjoying peace, but a most inglorious peace, purchased by the money of Louis, to allow him to destroy all the independent States of Europe. Not even the interests of his own subjects were protected. In the course of seven months fifty-three sail of merchantmen were captured by the French cruisers. The sufferers made loud complaints, and Charles promised to obtain restoration, but very little was ever obtained. He received his annual pension from Louis; and though he drew it through Chiffinch, his pander and man of the back stairs, the transaction was well known to his ministers Danby and Lauderdale, and his brother the Duke of York.

VIEW IN THE HAGUE: THE GEVANGENPOORT IN WHICH CORNELIUS AND JOHN DE WITT WERE IMPRISONED (1672).

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When he reassembled his Parliament on the 5th of February, 1677, the Country party, headed by Shaftesbury and Buckingham in the Lords, contended that the Parliament was legally at an end. That, by two statutes of Edward III., it was required that Parliaments should be held once a year, or oftener; and this Parliament having been prorogued for a period of fifteen months, had ceased to exist. But Lord Chancellor Finch truly replied, that by the Triennial Act of Charles I. the vacations were extended to three years. In the Commons there was also a motion for a dissolution, but it was postponed. The motion of Buckingham in the Lords to vote the present Parliament effete was negatived, and he, Salisbury, Shaftesbury, and Wharton, were ordered by the House to retract their illegal opinions, and beg pardon of the House and the king. They refused, and were committed to the Tower. The following day the motion for a dissolution in the Commons was lost by a minority of one hundred and forty-two to one hundred and ninety-three. Defeated in the attempt to break up this corrupt Pension Parliament, the Opposition in the Lords next endeavoured to secure the succession against a Catholic prince. Charles had no children but illegitimate ones, and James, therefore, was heir to the Crown. The Bill passed the Lords, and provided that on the demise of the king, the bishops should tender a declaration against Transubstantiation to the heir; and if he refused to take it, they should appoint to all bishoprics and benefices, and take charge of the education of the king's children; but the Commons rejected the Bill on the ground of the undue power which it conferred on the bishops; and they immediately threw out another Bill of the Peers for abolishing the punishment of death for Popish recusancy. The two Houses, however, agreed in abolishing the detestable writ De hæretico comburendo.

This Parliament has been accused of singular inconsistency in calling upon the king to declare war against France, in order to check that country in its ominous progress against Holland and the Netherlands, and yet refusing him money. A very valid plea for anxiously desiring the declaration of war, and yet shrinking from putting money into Charles's hands, might have been advanced had it been an honest Parliament. The nation saw with great discontent and humiliation the growing ascendency of France, the increase of Louis's navy, the expansion of his ambitious plans, the danger of Protestant Holland, and the despicable position into which England had fallen. It had fears of Popery, fears of absolutism through a standing army. There were dark rumours, though no direct proofs, of the king's secret league with France. Whilst they, therefore, would have willingly granted him money for a war with France, they dreaded to do it, knowing how it would go in folly, and believing how it would go to strengthen despotism. They did not leave him destitute; he had the excise, and they now granted six hundred thousand pounds for the building of new ships; but they took care to tie it up, by proper securities, to its legitimate purpose. How well they were justified was shown by the first use which the king made of the money now received from France. The bulk of it went to purchase votes in the House of Commons.

Unfortunately, this Parliament was little more honest than the king himself; it was receiving bribes on all sides. Dalrymple shows that Spanish, Dutch, German, and French money was freely distributed amongst the members. In 1673 three leaders of the Opposition in the Commons were bribed with six thousand pounds, to induce them to vote unusually large supplies, and they did it. They were now in the pay of all the chief contending countries in Europe. When they raised the cry of war on this occasion, the king expressed his readiness, but demanded six hundred thousand pounds at the least for the necessary expenditure. Thereupon Spain bribed the patriots to vote for it with twenty thousand pounds, and the King of France bribed them against war with a still larger sum. The proposal was thrown out, Louis having feed not only the Parliament but the ministers and the king. On receiving about two hundred thousand pounds from Louis, Charles adjourned Parliament on the 16th of April, and did not call it together again till the next January. Never, surely, had everything like principle or patriotism so thoroughly abandoned the nation. Soon after the adjournment, Buckingham, Salisbury, and Wharton, made their submission to the king, and were released; Shaftesbury held out seven months longer, and then followed their example.

During the recess the Prince of Orange came to England. Though William could place little dependence on the alliance of his uncle Charles, yet he could not be insensible that a marriage with Mary opened up a prospect towards the throne of England, and that an alliance between the two Protestant nations must mutually strengthen their position in Europe. He therefore began to cultivate the friendship of Danby, the Prime Minister, and then solicited the union which he had before declined. The overture was received with a coldness that the more sensibly impressed the prince with the political blunder which he had committed. He therefore humbled himself, and requested permission to make a visit to London and apologise for his past conduct and explain his future views. Charles not only resented William's refusal of his former offer, but he was jealous of his intrigues with the popular leaders; and though he did not forbid his coming, he stipulated that he should return before the meeting of Parliament. On the 9th of October he joined his uncle at Newmarket, and, having the services of Danby and Temple, Charles was soon persuaded to his marriage with the princess. James appeared at first averse from the connection, but he soon acquiesced; and whilst Charles boasted of having made this alliance to secure the religion of the nation, James took credit to himself from his consent, of proving how false were the suspicions which had been expressed of his intention to make changes in both the religion and the State. The marriage gave universal satisfaction, and during the festivities with which it was celebrated at Court, in November, 1677, William engaged the king in the project of a general peace. The following were the proposals arrived at by them, to be submitted to the different Powers: That Holland and France should mutually restore the conquests that they had made; that the Duchy of Lorraine should be restored to the duke, its rightful sovereign; and that France should keep possession of the places won from Spain, except Ath, Charleroi, Oudenarde, Courtrai, Tournai, Condé, and Valenciennes, which should be restored, and form a chain of fortresses between the new frontier of France and the old ones of Holland. Charles despatched Lord Feversham to lay the proposals before Louis; but the French king would not listen to them, and tidings reached William which caused him immediately to hasten home.

In spite of the season, the end of November, Louis had taken the field, according to his novel plan of winter campaign, and invested Guislain, which was expected to fall in a few days.

This decisive conduct on the part of Louis roused the wrath of Charles; he had adjourned Parliament from the 16th of April to the 15th of January. He expressed his surprise to Louis at the unreasonableness of his conduct, and despatched directions to Hyde, the ambassador at the Hague, to enter into a separate treaty with the States, on the model of the Triple Alliance, engaging not only to defend each other against all aggressors, but to continue to force the other parties to come to fair terms. Such a treaty was signed at the Hague on the 31st of December. Louis, on hearing of it, stopped the payment of Charles's pension, but at the same time he proposed, through Montagu, the English ambassador, a truce of twelve months, during which all might be arranged, and then he threw out a bait which he knew would be extremely tempting to Charles,—that if he could persuade his nephew to consent to the cession of Condé, Valenciennes, and Tournai, their full value should be paid to the king in bars of gold, concealed in bales of silk, and any sum that the Lord Treasurer might name in reward of his services should be remitted in diamonds and pearls. But both Danby and the Duke of York set their faces against any such disgraceful compromise; Danby remaining steady to his views of the danger of the French ascendency, and the duke being zealous for the interests of his new son-in-law, and in the hope of receiving the command of any auxiliary force sent from England to co-operate with Holland. At the duke's suggestion the English forces were recalled from the army of France, a strong squadron was sent to the Mediterranean to reinforce the fleet under Sir John Narborough, and the Port of Ostend was demanded from Spain as a depôt for the English army in Flanders.