When this extraordinary Bill was sent up to the Lords, it was not expected to pass there without much opposition and cutting down. There was, in fact, an evident reluctance there, as well as in the Commons, to enter on the question. Many lords absented themselves, and others, as the Marquis of Normanby, the Earls of Huntingdon and Plymouth, and the Lords Guildford and Jeffreys, opposed it. Burnet attempted to move some amendments; but some lords crying out "No amendments! no amendments!" none were further attempted, and the Bill was sent down to the Commons as it went up.
Had such a sweeping Bill as this passed the Houses some years ago, William would have refused to ratify it, as he refused so long to ratify the Triennial Bill. Certainly it was from beginning to end the most trenchant piece of censure on his conduct.
During these transactions negotiations were going on at the Hague between England, France, Holland, and Spain. Mr. Stanhope, Envoy Extraordinary to the States-General, was empowered to treat, in union with Holland, for a continuation of the peace on certain conditions. These conditions were, that Louis should withdraw all his troops from the Spanish Netherlands, and engage to send no fresh ones into any of the Flemish towns; that no troops but native-born troops of Flanders or Spain should be kept there, except in Nieuport and Ostend, which should be given up to king William as cautionary towns, and in Luxemburg, Namur, and Mons, which should be garrisoned by the States-General, for the security of their frontiers, but without prejudice to the rights and revenues of the Crown of Spain; that no towns in the Spanish Netherlands, nor any port belonging to Spain, should be given up to or exchanged with France on any pretence whatever; that the subjects of England should enjoy the same liberties and privileges as they did on the demise of the late king of Spain, and in as ample a manner as the French or any other nation, in all parts of the Spanish dominions, whether by land or sea; that the Emperor should be invited to join, and that any other princes or States who desired to unite for the preservation of the peace of Europe should be admitted to the treaty.
D'Avaux, the French Minister, received these demands with an air of the utmost astonishment, and declared that they could not have been higher if his master had lost four successive battles. That the French troops would be removed from Flanders as soon as Spain could send forces to replace them, he said was certain; but for the rest of the Articles, he could only send them to Versailles for the consideration of the king. Louis expressed the utmost indignation at these demands, which he declared to be most insolent, and could only be put forward by William with a desire to provoke a war. He said that he would renew the treaty of Ryswick, which was all that could be reasonably expected. In fact, though the demands were no more than were necessary for the security of Holland, William, knowing the nature of Louis, and that he was now at the head of France, Spain, and a great part of Italy, could not seriously have expected that he would accede to them. Perhaps William intended him to reject them, as that would furnish a good casus belli, and would enable him to rouse the spirit of the English people to a martial tone. Accordingly he communicated the refusal of the French Court to accede to the terms offered; but the Commons, feeling that the object was to engage them in support of a Continental Congress, which might lead them into another war more oppressive than the former one, they thanked his Majesty in an address for his communication, but called for copies of the Partition Treaty, that they might inform themselves on the precise terms agreed upon in that treaty with France. The Tories, however much they might be disposed to maintain the same course themselves, would by no means omit the opportunity of damaging the Whig Ministers who had been concerned in that business. They had already agreed to send ten thousand men to the aid of the States-General in support of the treaty of 1677, and they now set to work to establish by this inquiry a plea against Lord Somers, Portland, and the others engaged in the treaty.
The Lords, not to be behind, also called for copies of the two treaties. They appointed a Committee to examine them, and placed Nottingham, a thorough Tory, in the chair. There was a sprinkling of Whigs in the Committee to give it an air of fairness, and a strong contest went on between the two parties. On the fourth resolution, that there were no instructions in writing given to the Plenipotentiaries of England, and that, if verbal orders were given, they were given without being submitted to the Council, Portland, who had been almost the sole manager of these treaties, in conjunction with William, by permission of the king informed them that he had, by the king's order, laid the matter before six of the king's Ministers—namely, Pembroke, Marlborough, Lonsdale, Somers, Halifax, and Secretary Vernon. These lords then endeavoured to excuse themselves by admitting that, the Earl of Jersey having read the first treaty to them, they had objected to various particulars, but being informed that the king had already carried the matter as far as possible, and could get no better terms, and that, in fact, everything was settled, they had nothing for it but to desist from their objections. Various protests were entered against the resolutions in Committee, but the Report, when brought up, was to this effect:—That the lords spiritual and temporal had found, to their great sorrow, that the treaty made with the French king had been very prejudicial to the peace and safety of Europe; that it had probably given occasion to the late king of Spain to make his will in favour of the Duke of Anjou; that the sanction of France having possession of Sicily, Naples, several ports in the Mediterranean, the province of Guipuzcoa, and the Duchy of Lorraine, was not only very injurious to the interests of Europe, but contrary to the pretence of the treaty itself, which was to prevent too many territories being united under one crown; that it appeared that this treaty never was submitted to the consideration of the Council, or the Committee of the Council [in our phrase, the Cabinet], and they prayed his Majesty in future to take the advice of his natural-born subjects, whose interest and natural affection to their country would induce them to seek its welfare and prosperity. This last observation was aimed at Portland.
The Ministers, such as were admitted to the secret of the treaty, as well as the king, had undoubtedly violated the Constitution; and had the Tories been honest, they might have rendered essential service to the country by punishing them. But their object was too apparently to crush Portland and Somers, and to let the rest go, whom they quietly passed over. The new Lord Keeper carried up the address to the king, but the members at large, not relishing the unpleasant office, took care not to accompany him, and he found himself at the palace almost alone. Two or three of the lords-in-waiting were all that served to represent the House of Peers. On its being read, William endeavoured to conceal his chagrin, and merely replied that the address contained matter of grave moment, and that he would always take care that all treaties should be made so as to contribute to the honour and safety of England.
The debates in the Commons were in the meantime still more vehement on the same subject. Sir Edward Seymour declared that the Partition Treaty was as infamous as a highway robbery, and Howe went further, denouncing it as a felonious treaty; an expression which so exasperated the king that he protested, if the disparity of condition between him and that member had not been too great, he would have demanded satisfaction by his sword. These discussions in the two Houses excited out of doors a general condemnation of the treaty, and threw fresh odium on the Government.
On the last day of March a message was communicated to both Houses by Secretary Hedges, that no further negotiation appeared possible with France, from its decided rejection of the terms offered, and its continuing to concede only the renewal of the treaty of Ryswick. The Commons, instead of an immediate answer, adjourned to the 2nd of April, and then resolved unanimously to desire his Majesty to carry on the negotiations with the States-General, and take such measures as should conduce to the safety of the kingdom. In reply to two resolutions from the States-General, and a memorial presented by their envoy in England, which the king laid before them, they assured him that they would support him, supplying the twenty ships and ten thousand men which they were bound to find by the treaty of 1677. This gave no sanction to any negotiations for a fresh alliance with the Powers formerly combined against France; and William was deeply mortified, but he merely thanked them for their assurances of aid, and informed them that he had sent orders to his Ambassador at the Hague still to endeavour to come to terms with France and Spain.
On the 19th of April the Marquis de Torcy handed to the Earl of Manchester, at Paris, a letter from the new king of Spain to the king of England, announcing his accession to the throne, and expressing a desire to cultivate terms of friendship with him. This announcement had been made long before to the other European Powers, and it might well have been doubted whether William would now acknowledge his right. To do that was to admit the validity of the late king of Spain's will, and there could then be no real reason to refuse the conditions of the treaty of Ryswick. William was from this cause in a state of great perplexity; but the Earl of Rochester and the new Ministers urged him to reply and admit the Duke of Anjou's right. The States-General had already done it, and, in fact, unless England and the old allies of the Emperor were prepared to dispute it with efficient arms, it was useless to refuse. Accordingly, after a severe struggle with himself, William wrote to "the Most Serene and Potent Prince, Brother, and Cousin," congratulating him on his happy arrival in his kingdom of Spain, and expressing his assurance that the ancient friendship between the two Crowns would remain inviolate, to the mutual advantage and prosperity of the two nations. With this was certainly ended every right of England to dispute the possession of all the territories and dependencies of the Spanish monarch by the new king; and there could be no justifiable cause of war with France until she attempted to renew her hostilities to neighbouring peoples.
Whilst affairs were in this position abroad, the anxiety of William was increased to the utmost by the war which was waging between the two rival factions in Parliament. In endeavouring to damage the Whigs to the utmost, the Tories damaged and tortured the king, who was sufficiently miserable with the prospects on the Continent and his fast-failing health. The Commons now determined to impeach Portland and Somers on the ground of their concern in the second Partition Treaty, contrary to the constitutional usages of the country. To procure fresh matter against Somers and Orford, the pirate, Captain Kidd, was brought from Newgate, where he was now lying, and examined at the bar of the House; but nothing was got thereby. In the case of Portland and Montague there were additional charges in reference to the grants and dilapidations of the royal revenue for which they were said to be answerable.