[197] Life of James, ii. 558.
[198] The debt at the king's death amounted to £16,394,702, of which above three millions were to expire in 1710. Sinclair's Hist. of Revenue, i. 425 (third edition).
Of this sum £664,263 was incurred before the revolution, being a part of the money of which Charles II. had robbed the public creditor by shutting up the exchequer. Interest was paid upon this down to 1683, when the king stopped it. The legislature ought undoubtedly to have done justice more effectually and speedily than by passing an act in 1699, which was not to take effect till December 25, 1705; from which time the excise was charged with three per cent. interest on the principal sum of £1,328,526, subject to be redeemed by payment of a moiety. No compensation was given for the loss of so many years' interest. 12 & 13 W. 3, c. 12, § 15; Sinclair, i. 397; State Trials, xiv. 1 et post. According to a particular statement in Somers Tracts, xii. 383, the receipts of the exchequer, including loans, during the whole reign of William, amounted to rather more than £72,000,000. The author of the "Letter to the Rev. T. Carte," in answer to the latter's "Letter to a Bystander," estimates the sums raised under Charles II., from Christmas 1660 to Christmas 1684, at £46,233,923. Carte had made them only £32,474,265. But his estimate is evidently false and deceptive. Both reckon the gross produce, not the exchequer payments. This controversy was about the year 1742. According to Sinclair, Hist. of Revenue, i. 309, Carte had the last word; but I cannot conceive how he answered the above-mentioned letter to him. Whatever might be the relative expenditure of the two reigns, it is evident that the war of 1689 was brought on, in a great measure, by the corrupt policy of Charles II.
[199] Davenant, "Essay on Ways and Means." In another of his tracts (vol. ii. 266, edit. 1771) this writer computes the payments of the state in 1688 at one shilling in the pound of the national income; but after the war at two shillings and sixpence.
[200] Godfrey's "Short Account of Bank of England," in Somers Tracts, xi. 5; Kennet's Complete Hist. iii. 723; Ralph, 681; Shrewsbury Papers; Macpherson's Annals of Commerce, A.D. 1697; Sinclair's Hist. of Revenue.
[201] "Nor is it true that the sea was neglected; for I think during much the greater part of the war which began in 1689 we were entirely masters of the sea, by our victory in 1692, which was only three years after it broke out; so that for seven years we carried the broom. And for any neglect of our sea affairs otherwise, I believe, I may in a few words prove that all the princes since the Conquest never made so remarkable an improvement to our naval strength as King William. He (Swift) should have been told, if he did not know, what havoc the Dutch had made of our shipping in King Charles the Second's reign; and that his successor, King James the Second, had not in his whole navy, fitted out to defeat the designed invasion of the Prince of Orange, an individual ship of the first or second rank, which all lay neglected, and mere skeletons of former services, at their moorings. These this abused prince repaired at an immense charge, and brought them to their pristine magnificence." "Answer to Swift's Conduct of the Allies," in Somers Tracts, xiii. 247.
[202] Dalrymple has remarked the important consequences of this bold measure; but we have learned only by the publication of Lord Shrewsbury's Correspondence, that it originated with the king, and was carried through by him against the mutinous remonstrances of Russell. See pp. 68, 104, 202, 210, 234. This was a most odious man; as ill-tempered and violent as he was perfidious. But the rudeness with which the king was treated by some of his servants is very remarkable. Lord Sunderland wrote to him at least with great bluntness. Hardwicke Papers, 444.
[203] The peace of Ryswick was absolutely necessary, not only on account of the defection of the Duke of Savoy, and the manifest disadvantage with which the allies carried on the war, but because public credit in England was almost annihilated, and it was hardly possible to pay the army. The extreme distress for money is forcibly displayed in some of the king's letters to Lord Shrewsbury. P. 114, etc. These were in 1696, the very nadir of English prosperity; from which, by the favour of Providence and the buoyant energies of the nation, we have, though not quite with an uniform motion, culminated to our present height (1824).
If the treaty could have been concluded on the basis originally laid down, it would even have been honourable. But the French rose in their terms during the negotiation; and through the selfishness of Austria obtained Strasburgh, which they had at first offered to relinquish, and were very near getting Luxemburg. Shrewsbury Correspondence, 316, etc. Still the terms were better than those offered in 1693, which William has been censured for refusing.
[204] Moyle now published his "Argument, showing that a standing army is inconsistent with a free government, and absolutely destructive to the constitution of the English monarchy" (State Tracts, ii. 564); and Trenchard his "History of Standing Armies in England." Id. 653. Other pamphlets of a similar description may be found in the same volume.