Mordaunt, Oxford, Dorset, Lovelace, and others; whilst the gallant foreigner Schomberg was made master of the ordnance.
The admiralty, the treasury, and the great seal were all put into commission; which, though this enabled the king to distribute his favours to a greater number of his adherents, yet it disquieted internally the chief leaders, who hoped for the influence and emolument of those offices individually in their own hands. At the head of the commissioners of the great seal was placed the sound old lawyer Sir John Maynard.
Whilst the leaders, therefore, were deeply disappointed, all aspirants to favour were extremely jealous of the three staunch Dutch adherents of William, Bentinck, Auverquerque, and Zuleystein, whom William kept about him with a very natural feeling, for they had been faithful to him through all his arduous struggles in his own country, and were now, indeed, almost the only men in whom he could put implicit confidence. The main thing in which Danby, Halifax, Nottingham, and Shrewsbury agreed was in complaining that William did not make them his confidants, but preferred the secret advice of Bentinck, whom he soon made earl of Portland, and the counsel of Sidney, whom he created lord Sidney. William had but too much cause for keeping the knowledge of his thoughts and intentions from those around him, for many amongst his privy councillors and chief ministers would have betrayed them at once to the exiled monarch. Danby had been heard to say, even after James had quitted England, that if he would only abandon his priests, he might come back again; and others besides Churchill were in regular traitorous correspondence with James's court. With all William's caution, not a thing was discussed in his council but was immediately transmitted to St. Germain's.
To his trusty countrymen already mentioned William gave profitable offices near his person. His great friend Bentinck was made groom of the stole, with five thousand pounds a year; Auverquerque, minister of the horse; and Zuleystein had charge of the robes. The earl of Devonshire, perhaps the most disinterested man in the whole party, was made lord steward; Dorset, lord chamberlain; Mordaunt was placed at the head of the treasury; Delamere was chancellor of the exchequer, and also sat at the treasury board with Godolphin, Sir Henry Capel, and Richard Hampden. The new judges were Pollexfen, chief justice of the common pleas; Sir John Holt, chief justice of the King's Bench; Sir Robert Atkins, chief baron, Powell, who had been dismissed for his upright conduct in the trial of the bishops, was restored to the bench; Treby was attorney-general, and Somers solicitor-general.
These arrangements being made, on the 18th of February William, for the first time, addressed the two houses of parliament. It is remarkable that the very first subject which he introduced to them was a demand for liberal supplies to carry on the war on the continent—a topic which never ceased to be heard in our parliaments from the moment that a foreign king became seated on the throne till the conclusion of the great war of the French revolution. One of the most serious inconveniences of the rule of a continental dynasty in the country has since then till our own time been the mingling up of ourselves with the questions of continental politics, and the accumulation of the enormous debt with which this country is now burthened. The national debt of England at the moment of William's ascent of the English throne was merely nominal, consisting chiefly of the sum unpaid by Charles I. to the London merchants, when he so fraudulently closed the exchequer in 1672; but, by our present entanglement with the affairs of Holland, and afterwards with Hanover, after the accession of the house of Hanover, it continued to grow till our habit of meddling on the continent became confirmed, and reached its climax in the contest with Buonaparte, with a burden of eight hundred millions of our money.
This amongst all the alleged mischiefs of William's accession was the real and cardinal mischief. It is true that the ambition of Louis XIV. demanded a check, and the nation was in a temper to afford the means for it; but had not William of Orange been also king of England, we should have contented ourselves with assailing France from our proper element, the ocean, and should have escaped the costly habit of becoming a party to every continental quarrel. William's great argument was the protestant interest both here and abroad—a very paramount interest, which could now be very conveniently prosecuted with English money and English arms. This was one of the chief adjuncts of William's ambition to reach the throne of England. His whole life had been spent in the unequal contest with Louis of France, and he now trusted to cope effectually with him through English money and English valour. His heart lay in this object far more than in the glory of ruling the English people—amongst whom he was always a stranger, from whom he was constantly receiving troubles and annoyances, which nothing would have taught him to endure but his darling scheme of repressing and punishing the unprincipled aggressions of the Grande Monarque.
William reminded them, too, that their domestic affairs would demand serious attention, and especially the condition of Ireland, where a strong feeling was known to exist for the fallen dynasty, through the interests of the catholic religion. He exhorted them moreover to take immediate measures for securing the despatch of business. This alluded to the settlement of the great question, whether the convention could continue to sit legally after the deposition of the monarch who had called it. The question had been debated in the council, and now, on the king's retiring, the lords immediately laid on the table of the house a bill declaring the convention a valid parliament. It was speedily carried and sent down to the commons; but there it excited a warm debate. The whigs were vociferous for it; the tories, who believed that the calling of a new parliament would be in their favour, were as vehemently against it. The depositions of Edward II. and Richard II. were referred to and strongly argued upon: but the case in point was the convention which recalled Charles II., and continued to sit and act long after. Sir John Maynard moreover contended that, as they were like men who found themselves in a trackless desert, it was not for them to stand crying, Where is the king's highway? but to take the track that would lead them out of it. That track was the precedent of
