The stubbornness of Fenwick soon received an explanation. His wife had managed to corrupt Goodman, the second witness against him. An annuity of five hundred pounds had been offered him to abscond, accompanied by the menace of assassination if he refused. He consented to flee, and was accompanied by an agent, named O'Brien, to St. Germains. Fenwick now believed himself safe, as no man could be condemned on a charge of high treason upon the evidence of one witness. But the vengeance of his enemies was not thus to be defeated. Sir John might have recollected how often the end in such cases had been secured by a Bill of Attainder. Fenwick himself had been a zealous advocate for such a Bill against Monmouth. When it became known that Goodman was spirited away, the exasperation of the Commons was extreme. On the 6th of November Russell vehemently demanded of the House that it should examine and decide whether the accused parties were guilty or not. Before proceeding to extremities the Commons, however, called Sir John before them, and offered to intercede with the king on his behalf if he made a full and immediate confession. But he would not consent to become the informer against his own party, and was remanded. It was then resolved, by a hundred and seventy-nine votes to sixty-one that a Bill of Attainder should be brought in. The two parties put forth all their strength, and the Bill was not carried till the 26th. For twenty days the eloquence and influence of the House were in violent agitation. The Tories were seen contending for the liberty of the subject, which they had so often overridden by such bills, and the Whigs as vehemently pressed on the measure as they had formerly denounced similar ones when directed against those of their own party.
During the debates the depositions of Goodman made before the Grand Jury, fully implicating Sir John in the conspiracy, were laid before the House in support of the evidence of Porter. Goodman's absence was proved, to the satisfaction of the House, to be owing to the inducements and exertions of Fenwick's friends; and two of the grand jurymen were examined, and detailed the evidence received by them from Goodman on his examination, fully agreeing with that sent in in writing. Some petty jurymen, also, who had decided the case of another conspirator, confirmed this evidence. The Commons had proof enough of his guilt, though it might want the legal formality of two direct witnesses.
In the Lords the Earl of Monmouth made an adroit movement in favour of Sir John. He defended him warmly, at the same time that he sent to him in prison, through the Duchess of Norfolk, his cousin, a scheme for defeating his enemies. He advised him to maintain the truth of his confession, to declare that he derived his information from high quarters, and to beg the king to demand of the Earls of Portland and Romney whether the information in their possession against the noblemen implicated did not correspond with his own; the king, moreover, should be urged to lay before Parliament the evidence on which he had suddenly dismissed Marlborough, and any letters intercepted on their way from St. Germains to these parties. This would have been a thunderbolt to the Government, and Monmouth awaited in exultation its effect. But Sir John disappointed him. He feared to exasperate further the king and his judges the Lords, to whom the accused belonged, and did not take the hint. Monmouth, incensed, then turned against him himself. Marlborough exerted himself with all his power to condemn him, even getting the Prince of Denmark to go and vote against him. The bishops remained, and voted, eight of them, against the passing of the Bill. Burnet and Tenison, however, both spoke and voted for it, with little regard to the practice that the prelates should take no part in advocating measures of blood. The Lords Godolphin and Bath, though both amongst those accused by Fenwick, voted in his favour, and Shrewsbury absented himself from the debate. The Duke of Devonshire, too, to whom he had carried his confession, voted against the Bill. Sir John offered to make a full disclosure on condition of receiving a full pardon, but this was not accorded him, and he refused further confession on any other terms. At length, on the 27th of December, the Bill was carried, but only by a majority of seven—sixty-eight votes to sixty-one. Forty-one lords, including eight bishops, entered a protest on the journal against the decision.
Unfortunately for Monmouth, the friends of Sir John were so incensed at his turning round against him, that the Earl of Carlisle, Lady Fenwick's brother, produced to the House the papers which he had sent to Sir John in prison, and stated the censures on the king with which he had accompanied them. A tempest suddenly burst over his head, of indescribable fury. The Whigs were exasperated at his endeavouring to sacrifice Russell and Shrewsbury to save Fenwick, and the Tories at his endeavouring to sacrifice Marlborough and Godolphin, and at his treacherously deserting Sir John for not following his advice. He was committed to the Tower, deprived of all his places, and his name erased from the list of privy councillors.
Parliament having passed this Act, adjourned for the Christmas holidays, and every exertion was made to obtain a pardon for Sir John. His wife threw herself at the feet of William, but he only replied that he must consult his ministers before he could give an answer. On the 11th of January, 1697, he put his signature to the Bill. When Parliament met again she presented a petition to the House of Lords, praying them to intercede with the king to commute the sentence to perpetual banishment, but without success. On the 28th of January Fenwick was conducted to execution on Tower Hill. On the scaffold he delivered to the sheriff a sealed paper, in which he complained of the irregularity of the proceeding against him, denied any participation in the plan of assassination, but confessed his attachment to James, and his belief in the right of the Prince of Wales after him.
After an abortive attempt to pass a Bill establishing a property qualification for the Commons, another to put the press again under the licensing system, and another to abolish those dens of protected crime, the Savoy and Whitefriars, Parliament was prorogued on the 16th of April.
Whilst this desperate conflict had been going on between Whig and Tory in England, in Scotland a most useful measure had passed the Scottish Parliament, namely, an Act establishing a school and schoolmaster in every parish, and to this admirable Act it is that Scotland owes the superior intelligence of its working classes. At the same time the rigid bigotry of the clergy perpetrated one of the most revolting acts in history. A youth of eighteen, named Thomas Aikenhead, had picked up some of the sceptical notions of Hobbes and Tindal, and was arrested, tried, and hanged for blasphemy between Leith and Edinburgh. It was in vain that he expressed the utmost repentance for his errors, the ministers were impatient for his death, and he died accordingly, to the disgrace of the Presbyterian Church and the whole country.
William embarked for Holland on the 26th of April, having before his departure made several promotions. To the disgust of many, Sunderland was appointed one of the Lords Justices and Lord Chamberlain. The Protestants wondered that a man who had apostatised when there was a Popish king, should find such favour with a Presbyterian one; and the honourable-minded that a man who had stooped to so many dirty acts and arts should be thus exalted by a prince of sober morals. But William's only excuse was that his ministers were so bad that there was little to choose in their principles, and that he employed them not for their virtues but their abilities. Russell was rewarded for running down Fenwick with the title of Earl of Orford; the Lord Keeper Somers was elevated to the full dignity of Lord Chancellor, and created Baron Somers of Evesham. Montague was made First Lord of the Treasury, in place of Godolphin; Lord Wharton, in addition to his post of Comptroller of the Household, was appointed Chief Justice in Eyre, south of the Trent; and his brother, Godwin Wharton, became a Lord of the Admiralty.
The campaign in Flanders was commenced by the French with an activity apparently intended to impress upon the Allies their ample ability to carry on the war, although, in fact, never had France more need of peace. Its finances were exhausted, its people were miserable; but far more than the sufferings of his subjects to Louis were the ambitious projects which he was now particularly cherishing. John Sobieski, the brave deliverer of Vienna from the Turks, the King of Poland, was dead, and Louis was anxious to place the Prince of Conti on the throne of that kingdom. He had, however, a still more weighty motive for peace. The King of Spain, the sickly and imbecile Charles II., was fast hastening to the tomb. He was childless; no provision was made by the Spanish Government for filling the throne, and Louis of France was watching for his death. Louis himself was married to the elder sister of the Spanish king, and the Dauphin was thus next in succession, but the marriage had been attended by a renunciation of rights. The question was one of great intricacy; and we will postpone for the present a discussion of the rights of the Dauphin and the rival claimants—the Archduke Charles and the Electoral Prince. But if the throne of Spain fell vacant during the alliance, the Allies, and William amongst them, would support the Emperor's claims. Accordingly, it was to the interest of the Emperor to prolong the war, and to the interest of Louis to end it.
