1694.

BOOK II. had engaged in an enterprise above their strength. General Tollemache, who survived some days, declared, "that he felt no regret at losing his life in the performance of his duty, but that it' was a great grief to him to have been betrayed. From whatever evidence he might form this conclusion, certain it is that his belief of treachery was but too well founded. On the 3d of May preceding, the earl of Marlborough had transmitted through the hands of colonel Sackville a letter to king James, communicating the whole design of this expedition, which the colonel in his dispatch to the earl of Melfort, then occupying no ostensible office at the court of St. Germaine's, desired "for the love of God might be kept a secret even from lord Middleton."-" It is only to-day," lord Marlborough declares, "I have learned the news I now write you; which is, that the bombketches, and the twelve regiments encamped at Portsmouth, with the two regiments of marines, all commanded by Tollemache, are destined for burning the harbour of Brest, and destroying all the men of war which are there. This will be a great advantage to England; but no consideration can prevent, or ever shall prevent me from informing you of all that I believe to be for your service; therefore, you may make your own use of this intelligence, which you may depend upon being exactly true. But I must conjure you,

for your own interest, to let no one know but the queen, and the bearer of this letter.

have endeavoured to learn this some time ago from admiral Russel; but he always denied it to me, though I am very sure that he knew the design for more than six weeks. This gives me a bad sign of this man's intentions. I shall be very well pleased to learn that this letter comes safe to your hands *.”

BOOK IL

1694.

Dieppe and

In order to remove the public depression occasioned by this disaster, lord Berkeley had orders to stretch over to the coast of France, and use every means in his power, consistent with the laws of war, for the annoyance of the enemy. Agreeably to his instructions, therefore, he sailed Bombard first to Dieppe, and threw a prodigious number ment of of bombs and carcases into the place, so that the Havre-detown was in a manner ruined and destroyed. From Dieppe the fleet directed its course towards Havre-de-Grace, which met with nearly the same fate. They then attempted Dunkirk and Calais; but the whole country being by this time alarmed, and prepared for defence, these attacks were attended with very imperfect success. A general

consternation however was excited, and some retaliation made for the horrid excesses committed by the French on the banks of the Rhine;

Macpherson's State Papers, vol. i. p. 487.

Grace.

BOOK II. which indeed was the only justifiable motive that 1694. could be assigned for so barbarous a mode of waging war.

Session of

Parlia ment.

The honor of the British flag was much more effectually maintained during this summer by admiral Russel, who rode triumphant in the Mediterranean; and after relieving Barcelona, and driving the French fleet into their ports, he received orders from England to winter with his whole fleet at Cadiz. On the appearance of this vast armament, consisting of 60 ships of the line, in the Mediterranean, the Italian powers of Venice and Tuscany thought proper to acknowledge the title of the king, which they had hitherto evaded and the duke of Savoy in all probability was prevented from concluding a separate treaty with France.

On the 9th of November 1694 the king landed at Margate, and was met by the queen at Rochester. Their progress to the metropolis was every where attended with loud acclamations. On the 12th the session of parliament was opened; and the king in his speech congratulated the house on the favorable posture of affairs by sea and land; and earnestly recommended to the commons to provide such supplies as might enable him to prosecute the war with vigor. Loyal addresses were returned, and supplies to the amount of five millions, at that time

It

1694.

Act pass

considered as an immense sum, readily granted. BOOK II. But, with the supply bills, the bill for the frequent meeting and calling of parliaments kept Triennial pace. It was prepared by order of the com- ed, mons, and brought in by Mr. Harley, a member of the house, now rising to great parliamentary eminence, on the 22d of November, and, in a few days passing the house, was sent up to the lords, who gave it their concurrence without any amendment; four days after which, December the 22d, the king, sensible of the impropriety of longer resisting the national will on this favorite point, gave it the royal assent. enacted, that a new parliament should be called every third year, and that the present parliament should be dissolved before the 25th of March 1696. This act was received by the nation with great joy, as the most satisfactory security ever yet obtained for the perpetuation of their rights and liberties. But unhappily, in the earnestness of their zeal for the acquisition of one great constitutional point, they entirely overlooked another; and it was not considered that the purity and equality of the national representation were of no less importance than the term of its duration-an oversight which the succeeding generations have had reason bitterly to lament, and which the most strenuous efforts of patriotism have not yet been able to repair.

BOOK II.

1694.

Death of

Archbishop Tillotson:

and of Sancroft.

At this period the church of England sustained a great loss, in the sudden death of its metropolitan, archbishop Tillotson, a prelate, who in a very difficult and critical situation had conducted himself with great wisdom, temper and moderation. He had a clear head, with a tender and compassionate heart; and, like his celebrated predecessor Cranmer, was a faithful and zealous friend, but a gentle, generous, and placable adversary. He was succeeded in his high office by Dr. Tennison bishop of Lincoln, a man highly respectable for understanding, piety and candor. Sancroft, the deprived metropolitan, had died some months before Tillotson-greater in his village retirement than on his archiepiscopal throne, which he appeared in the times in which he lived but ill qualified to fill. Though he could never conscientiously take the oaths to the new government, he discovered nothing of a factious or seditious spirit, and abstained from whatever had a tendency to violate the public peace. In a conference which during his last illness we are told he held with one of his conforming chaplains, it seems evident that he died in charity with all men. "You and I," said the dying prelate," have gone different ways in these late affairs; but I trust heaven's gates are wide enough to receiye us both. What I have done,