Lord Somers at once entered into the king’s policy. While taking no office himself, he advised Lord Galway to urge upon Lord Sunderland to accede to the general wish, and to reconsider his determination to remain in private life. It appears, however, from a memorandum, docqueted “Lord Sunderland’s Advice to Lord Somers,” that Sunderland would consent to no more than that Lord Gahvay might say publicly that he was on a mission from his Majesty to desire Lords Somers and Sunderland to come to the king, but that Lord Sunderland would not change his mind. What his mind was he briefly expressed in a letter to Lord Somers, dated December 17th. But the fullest explanation is given in the following paper, addressed to Lord Galway:—
“Lord Sunderland does earnestly request Lord Galway, Lord Somers, and all his friends not to think of him, but to act as if he was not in the world. If he were worth having, I would say that there is no way but to forget him, which was desired so often, as you know, at the beginning. But after all the clutter has been made, if he should just now engage in business, it would be pretending to miracles which he is very unfit for. Lord Godolphin has convinced Lord Sunderland that what was thought of being done by the House of Lords, cannot; so that it must fall as being vain. Every letter that Lord Sunderland receives, to persuade him that he is necessary, contributes to the fixing him here; for he is in no way capable of answering those expectations of furthering what is fit, and hindering what is not. If there had been less bustle made about him, as was earnestly desired, he would have been ready to have complied by this time; but while he was to be stared upon he cannot engage. The king has a plain way to follow, and cannot fail if he pleases; and yet he will not do those things which his own judgment leads him to, and which Lord Galway said he had resolved. Wnen the king has put his atfairs into some order, Lord Sunderland may perhaps be of some use; and as soon as that is, he will desire to be sent for as much as he now desires to be forgot. Lord Sunderland can say nothing but what he did to Lord Gahvay, only that he thinks no more of Lord Godolphin, nor of the House of Lords, yielding to those who are best judges.”
The Earl of Galway had now the satisfaction of knowing that William was receiving the inestimable counsels of Lord Somers. His Majesty returned to England on the 4th November, and acting on the Ex-Chancellor’s advice, he dissolved parliament on the 11th, having previously dismissed the French ambassador.
As to the election of a new parliament, Lord Macaulay has recorded: “Nothing did more harm to the Tory candidates than the story of Poussin’s (the French Ambassador’s) farewell supper, we learn from their own acrimonious invectives, that the unlucky discovery of the three members of Parliament at the Blue Posts cost thirty honest gentlemen their seats.” Macaulay had said a little before: “This supper-party was during some weeks the chief topic of conversation. . . . These then were the true English patriots, the men who could not endure a foreigner, the men who would not suffer His Majesty to bestow a moderate reward on the foreigners who had stormed Athlone, and turned the flank of the Celtic Army at Aughrim. It now appeared that they could be on excellent terms with a foreigner, provided only that he was the emissary of a tyrant, hostile to the liberty, the independence, and the religion of their country.” The king met his new parliament on December 31st. On that day he delivered his memorable “last speech,” which was written for him by Lord Somers. But death brings this section to an abrupt termination. King William III. died on the 21st February 1702, aged fifty-one.
Sec. 10. — The Earl of Galway’s Private Life during the beginning of Queen Anne’s Reign.
Lord Galway retired from the government of Ireland with a pension of £1000 a-year. This is mentioned in the Appendix to the Irish House of Commons’ Journal of 1702, with the note, “He has no other place or pension from the Crown.” His Irish estate had been sold by Government Commissioners to the London Hollow Sword Blade Company; and he had now to seek a home. Among English counties, Hampshire alone had homelike attractions for him. There Lady Russell and an attached circle of relations and acquaintances had residences, where they often lived. He accordingly became the tenant[1] of the mansion-house of Rookley, in the parish of Crawley, near Winchester, and only a few miles from Stratton House. After a laborious and stormy manhood, he, at the age of fifty-four, now settled in the
- ↑ From a phrase in Lady Russell’s Letters, I concluded that he had bought the Rookley estate, until a correspondent obligingly informed me that the name of Lord Galway does not appear in any of the deeds or law-papers in the possession of the present proprietor, which date back as far as 1670. I find that Thomas Hobbs, Doctor of Physic, made his will in 1697, appointing Lord Somers, Sir John Hawles, and John Lilly of Clifford’s Inn, gent., his executors, and offering his wife as a jointure house either his town house in Lincoln’s Inn Fields, or Rookley in Hampshire. (Proved 20 Oct. 1698. )
