Volume III Part 33 (1/2)

[Footnote 408: See Grey's Debates, and the Commons' Journals from March to July. The twelve categories will be found in the journals of the 23d and 29th of May and of the 8th of June.]

[Footnote 409: Halifax MS. in the British Museum.]

[Footnote 410: The Life and Death of George Lord Jeffreys; Finch's speech in Grey's Debates, March 1. 1688/9.]

[Footnote 411: See, among many other pieces, Jeffreys's Elegy, the Letter to the Lord Chancellor exposing to him the sentiments of the people, the Elegy on Dangerfield, Dangerfield's Ghost to Jeffreys, The Humble Pet.i.tion of Widows and fatherless Children in the West, the Lord Chancellor's Discovery and Confession made in the lime of his sickness in the Tower; Hickeringill's Ceremonymonger; a broadside ent.i.tled ”O rare show! O rare sight! O strange monster! The like not in Europe! To be seen near Tower Hill, a few doors beyond the Lion's den.”]

[Footnote 412: Life and Death of George Lord Jeffreys,]

[Footnote 413: Tutchin himself gives this narrative in the b.l.o.o.d.y a.s.sizes.]

[Footnote 414: See the Life of Archbishop Sharp by his son. What pa.s.sed between Scott and Jeffreys was related by Scott to Sir Joseph Jekyl.

See Tindal's History; Echard, iii. 932. Echard's informant, who is not named, but who seems to have had good opportunities of knowing the truth, said that Jeffreys died, not, as the vulgar believed, of drink, but of the stone. The distinction seems to be of little importance. It is certain that Jeffreys was grossly intemperate; and his malady was one which intemperance notoriously tends to aggravate.]

[Footnote 415: See a Full and True Account of the Death of George Lord Jeffreys, licensed on the day of his death. The wretched Le n.o.ble was never weary of repeating that Jeffreys was poisoned by the usurper.

I will give a short pa.s.sage as a specimen of the calumnies of which William was the object. ”Il envoya,” says Pasquin ”ce fin ragout de champignons au Chancelier Jeffreys, prisonnier dans la Tour, qui les trouva du meme goust, et du mmee a.s.saisonnement que furent les derniers dont Agrippine regala le bon-homme Claudius son epoux, et que Neron appella depuis la viande des Dieux.” Marforio asks: ”Le Chancelier est donc mort dans la Tour?” Pasquin answers: ”Il estoit trop fidele a son Roi legitime, et trop habile dans les loix du royaume, pour echapper a l'Usurpateur qu'il ne vouloit point reconnoistre. Guillemot prit soin de faire publier que ce malheureux prisonnier estoit attaque du'ne fievre maligne; mais, a parler franchement, i1 vivroit peutestre encore s'il n'avoit rien mange que de la main de ses anciens cuisiniers.”--Le Festin de Guillemot, 1689. Dangeau (May q.) mentions a report that Jeffreys had poisoned himself.]

[Footnote 416: Among the numerous pieces in which the malecontent Whigs vented their anger, none is more curious than the poem ent.i.tled the Ghost of Charles the Second. Charles addresses William thus:

”Hail my blest nephew, whom the fates ordain To fill the measure of the Stuart's reign, That all the ills by our whole race designed In thee their full accomplishment might find 'Tis thou that art decreed this point to clear, Which we have laboured for these fourscore year.”]

[Footnote 417: Grey's Debates, June 12 1689.]

[Footnote 418: See Commons' Journals, and Grey's Debates, June 1. 3. and 4. 1689; Life of William, 1704.]

[Footnote 419: Barnet MS. Harl. 6584.; Avaux to De Croissy, June 16/26 1689.]

[Footnote 420: As to the minutes of the Privy Council, see the Commons'

Journals of June 22. and 28., and of July 3. 5. 13. and 16.]

[Footnote 421: The letter of Halifax to Lady Russell is dated on the 23d of July 1689, about a fortnight after the attack on him in the Lords, and about a week before the attack on him in the Commons.]

[Footnote 422: See the Lords' Journals of July 10. 1689, and a letter from London dated July 11/21, and transmitted by Croissy to Avaux. Don Pedro de Ronquillo mentions this attack of the Whig Lords on Halifax in a despatch of which I cannot make out the date.]

[Footnote 423: This was on Sat.u.r.day the 3d of August. As the division was in Committee, the numbers do not appear in the journals. Clarendon, in his Diary, says that the majority was eleven. But Narcissus Luttrell, Oldmixon, and Tindal agree in putting it at fourteen. Most of the little information which I have been able to find about the debate is contained in a despatch of Don Pedro de Ronquillo. ”Se resolvio” he says, ”que el sabado, en comity de toda la casa, se trata.s.se del estado de la nation para representarle al Rey. Emperose por acusar al Marques de Olifax; y reconociendo sus emulos que no tenian partido bastante, quisieron remitir para otro dia esta motion: pero el Conde de Elan, primogenito del Marques de Olifax, miembro de la casa, les dijo que su padre no era hombre para andar peloteando con el, y que se tubiesse culpa lo acabasen de castigar, que el no havia menester estar en la corte para porta.r.s.e conforme a su estado, pues Dios le havia dado abundamente para poderlo hazer; conque por pluralidad de votes vencio su partido.” I suspect that Lord Eland meant to sneer at the poverty of some of his father's persecutors, and at the greediness of others.]

[Footnote 424: This change of feeling, immediately following the debate on the motion for removing Halifax, is noticed by Ronquillo,]

[Footnote 425: As to Ruvigny, see Saint Simon's Memoirs of the year 1697: Burnet, i. 366. There is some interesting information about Ruvigny and about the Huguenot regiments in a narrative written by a French refugee of the name of Dumont. This narrative, which is in ma.n.u.script, and which I shall occasionally quote as the Dumont MS., was kindly lent to me by the Dean of Ossory.]

[Footnote 426: See the Abrege de la Vie de Frederic Duc de Schomberg by Lunancy, 1690, the Memoirs of Count Dohna, and the note of Saint Simon on Dangeau's Journal, July 30, 1690.]

[Footnote 427: See the Commons' Journals of July 16. 1689, and of July 1. 1814.]

[Footnote 428: Journals of the Lords and Commons, Aug. 20. 1689; London Gazette, Aug, 22.]

[Footnote 429: ”J'estois d'avis qu', apres que la descente seroit faite, si on apprenoit que des Protestans se fa.s.sent soulevez en quelques endroits du royaume, on fit main ba.s.se sur tous generalement.”--Avaux, July 31/Aug 10 1689.]

[Footnote 430: ”Le Roy d'Angleterre m'avoit ecoute a.s.sez paisiblement la premiere fois que je luy avois propose ce qu'il y avoit a faire contre les Protestans.”--Avaux, Aug. 4/14]

[Footnote 431: Avaux, Aug. 4/14. He says, ”Je m'imagine qu'il est persuade que, quoiqu'il ne donne point d'ordre sur cela, la plupart des Catholiques de la campagne se jetteront sur les Protestans.”]