the continent, was disclosed to Portland. The design of the plot, for which Sir George Barclay [q. v.] had brought over a species of general sanction from St. Germain, and which had been joined by Sir John Fenwick [q. v.], and others, to the number of forty in all, was to fall upon the king at a ferry near Turnham Green on his way from Kensington to Richmond Park. Berwick, who had secretly arrived in London to superintend a plan of invasion, the progress of which James watched from Calais, on the detection of the assassination plot at once withdrew. The agitation in London was very great (Evelyn, Diary, 26 Feb.), and, while measures were quickly taken for the defence of the coast and Calais was bombarded (March), an association was formed for the defence of the king's person, and generally joined throughout the country, even in Lancashire. William showed perfect self-control in the course of the proceedings which followed, neither interfering with the course of justice, nor pursuing the charges of complicity made against Shrewsbury and others by Fenwick on his arrest (June 1696; see the earlier of the Vernon Letters, vol. i.). In the midst of these proceedings the king sailed for Holland (7 May). Before proroguing parliament he had used his power of veto once more, against a bill imposing a qualification of landed estate upon members of the House of Commons (10 April), but had assented to the bill embodying the futile tory scheme of a land bank (27 April).
The financial embarrassments which marked this year in England and the more serious distress in France hampered the combatants during the campaign of 1696; and William was further inclined towards peace, even if its conditions should fall short of the original programme of the ‘grand alliance,’ by the defection of Savoy (June); by the pacific tendencies at Amsterdam; by mistaken suspicions that the emperor desired a separate treaty (Klopp, vii. 258, 354); and possibly by a knowledge of the will of Charles II of Spain (afterwards destroyed) in favour of the electoral prince of Bavaria (ib. pp. 350, 419). In the summer and autumn of 1696 informal negotiations were carried on by his direction between Portland and Boufflers (see Grimblot, vol. i.). But his views remained unknown to his English advisers or to parliament and public; and when on 16 April 1697 he prorogued parliament, his speech (Kennet, iii. 734) dwelt on the firmness with which the financial difficulties had been met, and every mark of royal favour descended on the whig junto now in control of the government (Macaulay, chap. xxii.) When he returned to Holland (24 April) peace negotiations were on the point of being opened at Ryswyk (May); no military operations took place, and the peace of Ryswyk with France was actually concluded by England, the united provinces, and Spain on 10 Sept. (the emperor definitively acceded on 30 Oct.) So far as England was concerned, this peace secured, together with a mutual restoration of territories, a promise by Louis XIV not to support directly or indirectly the enemies of William (whom he thus recognised as king), whoever they might be; but it included no engagement for the banishment of James from France. The interests of the empire were only partially met; but a barrier treaty provided for the safety of the frontier, and a commercial treaty was arranged with France in the trade interests of the united provinces, his solicitude for which William was at no pains to conceal (Grimblot, i. 136).
No reference was made in the treaty to the question of the Spanish succession; but this omission little troubled William's English subjects, with whom the peace was genuinely popular. They accorded the king an excellent reception on his return to London on 16 Nov. (William to Heinsius, ap. Grimblot, i. 137; cf. Evelyn, Diary), and crowded to his court at Whitehall on Thanksgiving day on 2 Dec. (ib.) The fundamental misunderstanding between William and English public opinion, however, speedily manifested itself. In announcing the peace to parliament in his opening speech, on 3 Dec. (Kennet, iii. 740), he declared his conviction that England could not at present be safe without a land force. An agitation for disarmament had been in progress already before his return, and Harley's motion—carried on 10 Dec.—for a reduction of the army to five thousand, or with garrisons from eight to ten thousand, men, gave moderate expression to the general opinion. Sunderland, supposed to have supported the maintenance of the forces, was driven from office. William delayed the reduction, and a motion for vacating grants of crown lands made since the revolution was evaded (February). It was while thus at issue with his parliament that he engaged in negotiations with Louis XIV on the subject which occupied him above all others, viz. the Spanish succession.
William's relations with Louis had entered into a courteous stage; his ambassador, Portland, was politely received in France, although James still remained at St. Germain; a concession to protestant feeling was made in the matter of the principality of Orange (Carstares Papers, p. 573); and the
