be the first consideration, and not a person merely standing next in the course of birth. This doctrine was ably urged by Toland in a treatise on the subject. He contended that we had a right to impose what restrictions we please on persons to whom we present the crown voluntarily and out of our own good will; that we might have done it to our vast advantage in admitting William and Mary; that the case was now still more open to us; and that we ought not to accept any member of the houses of Hanover or Brandenburg without insisting on their first renouncing their foreign possessions. "For," said he, "if our crown should fall upon either of those families, they will fall under mighty temptations to enlarge their dominions beyond sea, in order to make the communication betwixt their old and new dominions more speedy and easy. This the house of Hanover may attempt by falling down upon the Elbe and the Weiser, and swallowing up Hamburg, Bremen, Verden, &c.; and the house of Brandenburg might do the like, falling down the same rivers and the Rhine. All these things, how remote and chimerical soever they may seem at present, ought to be considered." If they had been considered and provided against, the very ends foreseen would have been prevented during the reigns of the Georges, and this country would have been spared much trouble, bloodshed, and many millions of money.
William naturally regarded the restrictions which were introduced with the greatest mortification, for, indeed, they were every one of them severe censures on his own conduct; but he passed the bill without venturing on any remarks.
Still more offensive was this measure to the popish princes who were nearer in blood to the throne of England than the electress of Hanover. The duchess of Savoy, the sole daughter of Henrietta, the daughter of Charles I., was the next in succession to James and his issue, and she ordered count Maffie, the duke of Savoy's ambassador, to make a strong protest against the abrogation of her claim, though that was already sufficiently done by the Bill of Rights, which cut off all papists whatever. This might, notwithstanding, have occasioned some embarrassment had the duke of Savoy still continued the faithful ally of England; but this very moment he had entered into alliance with France and Spain on condition that the king of Spain should marry his youngest daughter without dowry, but engaging for himself to command the allied army in Italy, and to furnish eight thousand infantry and two thousand horse, in consideration of a monthly subsidy of fifty thousand crowns.
The house of Hanover, though overjoyed to have obtained the reversion of the crown of England on such easy terms, pretended to consider the restrictions introduced as diminishing the value of the gift. Their agent talked largely of the princes of Hanover as "this great family." He informed the English court that "this great family" was already determined to show their zeal for England; that they were marching five thousand men to the frontiers of Holland for its defence against the French—as if the defence of Holland and England were synonymous; but in the same breath insinuated that "this great family" "could not make bricks without straw;" which meant that "this great family" was very poor, and must be paid for defending England—that is, Holland. Here was a striking practical proof of the necessity of the additional restrictions which Toland and many others had contended for. The old electress immediately became a person of immense consideration; the court of Hanover became a sort of second English court; all the poor principalities of Germany, which before paid little attention to them, were now assiduous in paying court to "this great family," and Sophia wrote to her friends that her son George "gave himself the airs of a sovereign."
During these transactions negotiations were going on at the Hague betwixt 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 Newport and Ostend, which should be given up to king William as cautionary towns, and in Luxembourg, 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 both 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, how-
