THEY PASS AN ACT FOR ERECTING A TRADING COMPANY.
The committee of trade, in pursuance of the powers granted by the king to his commissioner, prepared an act for establishing a company trading to Africa and the Indies, empowering them to plant colonies, hold cities, towns, or forts, in places uninhabited, or in others with the consent of the natives; vesting them with an exclusive right, and an exemption for one-and-twenty years from all duties and impositions. This act was likewise confirmed by letters patent under the great seal, directed by the parliament, without any further warrant from the crown. Paterson, the projector, had contrived the scheme of a settlement upon the isthmus of Darien, in such a manner as to carry on a trade in the South Sea as well as in the Atlantic; nay, even to extend it as far as the East Indies: a great number of London merchants, allured by the prospect of gain, were eager to engage in such a company, exempted from all manner of imposition and restriction. The Scottish parliament likewise passed an act in favour of the episcopal clergy, decreeing, That those who should enter into such engagements to the king as were by law required, might continue in their benefices under his majesty’s protection, without being subject to the power of presbytery. Seventy of the most noted ministers of that persuasion took the benefit of this indulgence. Another law was enacted, for raising nine thousand men yearly to recruit the Scottish regiments abroad; and an act for erecting a public bank; then the parliament was adjourned to the seventh day of November.
PROCEEDINGS IN THE IRISH PARLIAMENT.
Ireland began to be infected with the same factions which had broke out in England since the revolution: lord Capel, lord-deputy, governed in a very partial manner, oppressing the Irish papists without any regard to equity or decorum. He undertook to model a parliament in such a manner that they should comply with all the demands of the ministry; and he succeeded in his endeavours by making such arbitrary changes in offices as best suited his purpose. These precautions being taken, he convoked a parliament for the twenty-seventh day of August, when he opened the session with a speech, expatiating upon their obligations to king-William, and exhorting them to make suitable returns to such a gracious sovereign. He observed, that the revenue had fallen short of the establishment; so that both the civil and military lists were greatly in debt; that his majesty had sent over a bill for an additional excise, and expected they would find ways and means to answer the demands of the service. They forthwith voted an address of thanks, and resolved to assist his majesty to the utmost of their power, against all his enemies, foreign and domestic. They passed the bill for an additional excise, together with an act for taking away the writ “De heretico comburendo;” another annulling all attainders and acts passed in the late pretended parliament of king James; a third to prevent foreign education; a fourth for disarming papists; and a fifth for settling the estates of intestates. Then they resolved, That a sum not exceeding one hundred and sixty-three thousand three hundred and twenty-five pounds, should be granted to his majesty; to be raised by a poll-bill, additional customs, and a continuation of the additional excise. Sir Charles Porter, the chancellor, finding his importance diminished, if not entirely destroyed, by the assuming disposition and power of the lord-deputy, began to court popularity by espousing the cause of the Irish against the severity of the administration, and actually formed a kind of tory interest which thwarted lord Capel in all his measures. A motion was made in parliament to impeach the chancellor for sowing discord and division among his majesty’s subjects; but being indulged with a hearing by the house of commons, he justified himself so much to their satisfaction, that he was voted clear of all imputation by a great majority. Nevertheless, they, at the end of the session, sent over an address, in which they bore testimony to the mild and just administration of their lord-deputy.
DISPOSITION OF THE ARMIES.
King William having taken such steps as were deemed necessary for preserving the peace of England in his absence, crossed the sea to Holland in the middle of May, fully determined to make some great effort in the Netherlands that might aggrandize his military character, and humble the power of France which was already on the decline. That kingdom was actually exhausted in such a manner that the haughty Louis found himself obliged to stand upon the defensive against enemies over whom he had been used to triumph with uninterrupted success. He heard the clamours of his people which he could not quiet; he saw his advances to peace rejected; and to crown his misfortunes, he sustained an irreparable loss in the death of Francis de Montmorency, duke of Luxembourg, to whose military talents he owed the greatest part of his glory and success. That great officer died in January at Versailles, in the sixty-seventh year of his age; and Louis lamented his death the more deeply, as he had not another general left in whose understanding he could confide. The conduct of the army in Flanders was intrusted to mareschal Villeroy, and Boufflers commanded a separate army though subject to the other’s orders. As the French king took it for granted that the confederates would have a superiority of numbers in the field, and was well acquainted with the enterprising genius of their chief, he ordered a new line to be drawn between Lys and the Scheld; he caused a disposition to be made for covering Dunkirk, Ypres, Tournay, and Namur; and laid injunctions on his general to act solely on the defensive. Meanwhile, the confederates formed two armies in the Netherlands. The first consisted of seventy battalions of infantry, and eighty-two squadrons of horse and dragoons, chiefly English and Scots, encamped at Ærseele, Caneghem, and Wouterghem, between Thield and Deynse, to be commanded by the king in person, assisted by the old prince of Vaudemont. The other army, composed of sixteen battalions of foot and one hundred and thirty squadrons of horse, encamped at Zellich and Hamme, on the road from Brussels to Dendermonde, under the command of the elector of Bavaria, seconded by the duke of Holstein-Ploen. Major-general Ellemberg was posted near Dixmuyde with twenty battalions and ten squadrons; and another body of Brandenburg and Dutch troops, with a reinforcement from Liege, lay encamped on the Mehaigne, under the conduct of the baron de Heyden, Lieutenant-general of Brandenburgh, and the count de Berlo, general of the Liege cavalry. King-William arrived in the camp on the fifth clay of July, and remained eight days at Ærseele. Then he marched to Bekelar, while Villeroy retired behind his lines between Menin and Ypres, after having detached ten thousand men to reinforce Boufflers, who had advanced to Pont d’Espieres; but he too retreating within his lines, the elector of Bavaria passed the Scheld and took post at Kirkhoven; at the same time the body under Heyden advanced towards Namur.