be said of the proceedings in the Netherlands, and less of those in Spain, including the fatal battle of Almanza; but the most was made of the attack upon and the bombardment of Toulon. But the speech promised renewed vigour in every quarter, and called for augmented supplies. The deficiencies of military and naval action—for we had also suffered a considerable defeat at sea from the celebrated French admiral, Du Guai Trouin, off the Lizard Point, in which two ships of the line were taken and a third blown up—were endeavoured to be covered by dwelling on the happy event of the union.
The commons in their address seized on this salient point of congratulation, and declared it a mark of the Divine goodness that her majesty had been made the glorious instrument of this happy union, which would so strengthen the kingdom as to make it a terror to all its enemies. They spoke with great confidence of repairing the disasters of the last year, and promised to stand by her till she had recovered the whole Spanish monarchy. In the lords, however, masters did not go so smoothly. Lord Wharton moved that, before addressing the crown, they should appoint a committee of inquiry into the state of the nation. He dwelt strongly on the depression of trade, the great scarcity of money, and the gross mismanagement of the navy. In this he was supported by lord Somers, who, with Wharton, was desirous to get the incapable prince of Denmark removed from the admiralty, and to drive the tories Harley and St. John from office. The tories, who were blinded by their equal eagerness to ruin the duke of Marlborough, lord Godolphin, and the whigs generally, not perceiving the drift of Wharton and Somers, supported this motion, and it was carried. A day was then fixed for receiving a deputation from the sheriffs and merchants of London, who complained of the losses at sea for want of cruisers and convoys; and there was only too much truth in the complaint, which they supported by plenty of evidence.
The report of the committee was sent to the lord-admiral, and an official reply in the usual style, smoothing over the complaints, was returned by him. The tories then endeavoured to lay the blame on the ministry, but this was overruled. The commons went into a similar inquiry with little better result, for the head of the admiralty was too near to the crown for the inquiry to be properly pushed. They, however, passed a bill for the better protection of the commerce of the kingdom. They prepared another bill for abolishing the Scottish act of security; and as the Scottish privy council, which was to sit only till the meeting of the British parliament, displayed no haste in terminating its own existence, they passed a bill, which Somers had prepared and carried in thelords, for formally putting an end to that council, and establishing only one council for the whole kingdom.
When the queen gave her assent to these bills, she recommended an increase in the aids and auxiliaries granted to the king of Spain and the duke of Savoy. This produced a debate in the house of lords. Lord Peterborough, the only man who had done anything distinguished in the Spanish war, and who could have done wonders there if he had been properly encouraged, had, on the contrary, been coldly looked upon at court, in consequence of the complaints which the imbecile king Charles had made of him, for Peterborough had been very free in expressing his indignation as to the miserable management of the war. The queen had refused to see him, and he now demanded a parliamentary inquiry into his conduct. Accordingly, the question was entertained in both houses. The whole of his military proceedings, his negotiations for funds to support the war in Spain, and his disposal of the remittances furnished from home, were passed under review, and he produced such vouchers for his justification, both of living witnesses and original papers, that he was triumphantly acquitted by the prevailing sense of both houses, and the subject was dropped, though without proceeding to any formal resolution.
The earl of Rochester and lord Haversham, as well as other tory peers, declared the military genius displayed by lord Peterborough to be inferior to that of no general of the age, and they made some sharp reflections on the conduct of the earl of Galway. There can, indeed, be little doubt that the brilliant military genius of the earl of Peterborough was sacrificed to that of Marlborough. The court, where Marlborough's influence yet prevailed, and the whole body of the whigs, with whom Marlborough was now allied, studiously kept Peterborough in the background. If he had been supported in Spain by armies even far inferior to those which Marlborough commanded in the Netherlands, he would have overrun all Spain, driven out the French, and finished the war in a few months. But finding himself left destitute of the necessary means, and exposed to the senseless opposition of the wretched Charles and his Austrian friends, he gave up the command, and could afterwards only witness the mismanagement of the war without any power to alter it. He now contended that they ought to contribute nine shillings in the pound rather than to make peace on any terms; and he offered to return to Spain and serve even under the earl of Galway, so that the war were but carried on in Spain with proper spirit. But his advice was quietly ignored. The earls of Rochester and Nottingham recommended that the campaign for one season in the Netherlands should be maintained merely on the defensive, in order to send twenty thousand men to Catalonia; but this, of course, Marlborough opposed with all his power. He contended that every man would be required in the Netherlands in order to retain the towns they had gained, and that any failure there would rouse the opposition party in Holland, which was already too strong, and was complaining heavily of the expenses of the war. Being asked by Rochester then, how troops were to be found for Spain and Savoy, he assured the house that measures were already concerted for raising the army under the duke of Savoy to forty thousand men, and also for sending powerful reinforcements to Spain. This finished the debate, and the lords now joined with the commons in an affectionate address to her majesty, declaring that the only means of obtaining an honourable peace was the entire recovery of Spain. To support these assurances by deeds, the commons voted the enormous sum of six millions for the supplies.
The queen, encouraged by this display of loyal support, wrote to the emperor, proposing that the chief command in Spain should be conferred on prince Eugene; but with this the court of Vienna did not think fit to comply, but sent
