The History of England from the Accession of James II, Vol. 4

T >> Thomas Babington Macaulay >> The History of England from the Accession of James II, Vol. 4

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Half way between Delft and the Hague is a village named Ryswick;
and near it then stood, in a rectangular garden, which was
bounded by straight canals, and divided into formal woods, flower
beds and melon beds, a seat of the Princes of Orange. The house
seemed to have been built expressly for the accommodation of such
a set of diplomatists as were to meet there. In the centre was a
large hall painted by Honthorst. On the right hand and on the
left were wings exactly corresponding to each other. Each wing
was accessible by its own bridge, its own gate and its own
avenue. One wing was assigned to the Allies, the other to the
French, the hall in the centre to the mediator.804 Some
preliminary questions of etiquette were, not without difficulty,
adjusted; and at length, on the ninth of May, many coaches and
six, attended by harbingers, footmen and pages, approached the
mansion by different roads. The Swedish Minister alighted at the
grand entrance. The procession from the Hague came up the side
alley on the right. The procession from Delft came up the side
alley on the left. At the first meeting, the full powers of the
representatives of the belligerent governments were delivered to
the mediator. At the second meeting, forty-eight hours later, the
mediator performed the ceremony of exchanging these full powers.
Then several meetings were spent in settling how many carriages,
how many horses, how many lacqueys, how many pages, each minister
should be entitled to bring to Ryswick; whether the serving men
should carry canes; whether they should wear swords; whether they
should have pistols in their holsters; who should take the upper
hand in the public walks, and whose carriage should break the way
in the streets. It soon appeared that the mediator would have to
mediate, not only between the coalition and the French, but also
between the different members of the coalition. The Imperial
Ambassadors claimed a right to sit at the head of the table. The
Spanish Ambassador would not admit this pretension, and tried to
thrust himself in between two of them. The Imperial Ambassadors
refused to call the Ambassadors of Electors and Commonwealths by
the title of Excellency. "If I am not called Excellency," said
the Minister of the Elector of Brandenburg, "my master will
withdraw his troops from Hungary." The Imperial Ambassadors
insisted on having a room to themselves in the building, and on
having a special place assigned to their carriages in the court.
All the other Ministers of the Confederacy pronounced this a most
unjustifiable demand, and a whole sitting was wasted in this
childish dispute. It may easily be supposed that allies who were
so punctilious in their dealings with each other were not likely
to be very easy in their intercourse with the common enemy. The
chief business of Earlay and Kaunitz was to watch each other's
legs. Neither of them thought it consistent with the dignity of
the Crown which he served to advance towards the other faster
than the other advanced towards him. If therefore one of them
perceived that he had inadvertently stepped forward too quick, he
went back to the door, and the stately minuet began again. The
ministers of Lewis drew up a paper in their own language. The
German statesmen protested against this innovation, this insult
to the dignity of the Holy Roman Empire, this encroachment on the
rights of independent nations, and would not know any thing about
the paper till it had been translated from good French into bad
Latin. In the middle of April it was known to every body at the
Hague that Charles the Eleventh, King of Sweden, was dead, and
had been succeeded by his son; but it was contrary to etiquette
that any of the assembled envoys should appear to be acquainted
with this fact till Lilienroth had made a formal announcement; it
was not less contrary to etiquette that Lilienroth should make
such an announcement till his equipages and his household had
been put into mourning; and some weeks elapsed before his
coachmakers and tailors had completed their task. At length, on
the twelfth of June, he came to Ryswick in a carriage lined with
black and attended by servants in black liveries, and there, in
full congress, proclaimed that it had pleased God to take to
himself the most puissant King Charles the Eleventh. All the
Ambassadors then condoled with him on the sad and unexpected
news, and went home to put off their embroidery and to dress
themselves in the garb of sorrow. In such solemn trifling week
after week passed away. No real progress was made. Lilienroth had
no wish to accelerate matters. While the congress lasted, his
position was one of great dignity. He would willingly have gone
on mediating for ever; and he could not go on mediating, unless
the parties on his right and on his left went on wrangling.805

In June the hope of peace began to grow faint. Men remembered
that the last war had continued to rage, year after year, while a
congress was sitting at Nimeguen. The mediators had made their
entrance into that town in February 1676. The treaty had not been
signed till February 1679. Yet the negotiation of Nimeguen had
not proceeded more slowly than the negotiation of Ryswick. It
seemed but too probable that the eighteenth century would find
great armies still confronting each other on the Meuse and the
Rhine, industrious populations still ground down by taxation,
fertile provinces still lying waste, the ocean still made
impassable by corsairs, and the plenipotentiaries still
exchanging notes, drawing up protocols, and wrangling about the
place where this minister should sit, and the title by which that
minister should be called.

But William was fully determined to bring this mummery to a
speedy close. He would have either peace or war. Either was, in
his view, better than this intermediate state which united the
disadvantages of both. While the negotiation was pending there
could be no diminution of the burdens which pressed on his
people; and yet he could expect no energetic action from his
allies. If France was really disposed to conclude a treaty on
fair terms, that treaty should be concluded in spite of the
imbecility of the Catholic King and in spite of the selfish
cunning of the Emperor. If France was insecure, the sooner the
truth was known, the sooner the farce which was acting at Ryswick
was over, the sooner the people of England and Holland,--for on
them every thing depended,--were told that they must make up
their minds to great exertions and sacrifices, the better.

Pembroke and Villiers, though they had now the help of a veteran
diplomatist, Sir Joseph Williamson, could do little or nothing to
accelerate the proceedings of the Congress. For, though France
had promised that, whenever peace should be made, she would
recognise the Prince of Orange as King of Great Britain and
Ireland, she had not yet recognised him. His ministers had
therefore had no direct intercourse with Harlay, Crecy and
Cailleres. William, with the judgment and decision of a true
statesman, determined to open a communication with Lewis through
one of the French Marshals who commanded in the Netherlands. Of
those Marshals Villeroy was the highest in rank. But Villeroy was
weak, rash, haughty, irritable. Such a negotiator was far more
likely to embroil matters than to bring them to an amicable
settlement. Boufflers was a man of sense and temper; and
fortunately he had, during the few days which he had passed at
Huy after the fall of Namur, been under the care of Portland, by
whom he had been treated with the greatest courtesy and kindness.
A friendship had sprung up between the prisoner and his keeper.
They were both brave soldiers, honourable gentlemen, trusty
servants. William justly thought that they were far more likely
to come to an understanding than Harlay and Kaunitz even with the
aid of Lilienroth. Portland indeed had all the essential
qualities of an excellent diplomatist. In England, the people
were prejudiced against him as a foreigner; his earldom, his
garter, his lucrative places,
his rapidly growing wealth, excited envy; his dialect was not
understood; his manners were not those of the men of fashion who
had been formed at Whitehall; his abilities were therefore
greatly underrated; and it was the fashion to call him a
blockhead, fit only to carry messages. But, on the Continent,
where he was judged without malevolence, he made a very different
impression. It is a remarkable fact that this man, who in the
drawingrooms and coffeehouses of London was described as an
awkward, stupid, Hogan Mogan,--such was the phrase at that
time,--was considered at Versailles as an eminently polished courtier
and an eminently expert negotiator.806 His chief recommendation
however was his incorruptible integrity. It was certain that the
interests which were committed to his care would be as dear to
him as his own life, and that every report which he made to his
master would be literally exact.

Towards the close of June Portland sent to Boufflers a friendly
message, begging for an interview of half an hour. Boufflers
instantly sent off an express to Lewis, and received an answer in
the shortest time in which it was possible for a courier to ride
post to Versailles and back again. Lewis directed the Marshal to
comply with Portland's request, to say as little as possible, and
to learn as much as possible.807

On the twenty-eighth of June, according to the Old Style, the
meeting took place in the neighbourhood of Hal, a town which lies
about ten miles from Brussels, on the road to Mons. After the
first civilities had been exchanged, Boufflers and Portland
dismounted; their attendants retired; and the two negotiators
were left alone in an orchard. Here they walked up and down
during two hours, and, in that time, did much more business than
the plenipotentiaries at Ryswick were able to despatch in as many
months.808

Till this time the French government had entertained a suspicion,
natural indeed, but altogether erroneous, that William was bent
on protracting the war, that he had consented to treat merely
because he could not venture to oppose himself to the public
opinion both of England and of Holland, but that he wished the
negotiation to be abortive, and that the perverse conduct of the
House of Austria and the difficulties which had arisen at Ryswick
were to be chiefly ascribed to his machinations. That suspicion
was now removed. Compliments, cold, austere and full of dignity,
yet respectful, were exchanged between the two great princes
whose enmity had, during a quarter of a century, kept Europe in
constant agitation. The negotiation between Boufflers and
Portland proceeded as fast as the necessity of frequent reference
to Versailles would permit. Their first five conferences were
held in the open air; but, at their sixth meeting, they retired
into a small house in which Portland had ordered tables, pens,
ink and paper to be placed; and here the result of their labours
was reduced to writing.

The really important points which had been in issue were four.
William had at first demanded two concessions from Lewis; and
Lewis had demanded two concessions from William.

William's first demand was that France should bind herself to
give no help or countenance, directly or indirectly, to any
attempt which might be made by James, or by James's adherents, to
disturb the existing order of things in England.

William's second demand was that James should no longer be
suffered to reside at a place so dangerously near to England as
Saint Germains.

To the first of these demands Lewis replied that he was perfectly
ready to bind himself by the most solemn engagements not to
assist or countenance, in any manner, any attempt to disturb the
existing order of things in England; but that it was inconsistent
with his honour that the name of his kinsman and guest should
appear in the treaty.

To the second demand Lewis replied that he could not refuse his
hospitality to an unfortunate king who had taken refuge in his
dominions, and that he could not promise even to indicate a wish
that James would quit Saint Germains. But Boufflers, as if
speaking his own thoughts, though doubtless saying nothing but
what he knew to be in conformity to his master's wishes, hinted
that the matter would probably be managed, and named Avignon as a
place where the banished family might reside without giving any
umbrage to the English government.

Lewis, on the other side, demanded, first, that a general amnesty
should be granted to the Jacobites; and secondly, that Mary of
Modena should receive her jointure of fifty thousand pounds a
year.

With the first of these demands William peremptorily refused to
comply. He should always be ready, of his own free will, to
pardon the offences of men who showed a disposition to live
quietly for the future under his government; but he could not
consent to make the exercise of his prerogative of mercy a matter
of stipulation with any foreign power. The annuity claimed by
Mary of Modena he would willingly pay, if he could only be
satisfied that it would not be expended in machinations against
his throne and his person, in supporting, on the coast of Kent,
another establishment like that of Hunt, or in buying horses and
arms for another enterprise like that of Turnham Green. Boufflers
had mentioned Avignon. If James and his Queen would take up their
abode there, no difficulties would be made about the jointure.

At length all the questions in dispute were settled. After much
discussion an article was framed by which Lewis pledged his word
of honour that he would not favour, in any manner, any attempt to
subvert or disturb the existing government of England. William,
in return, gave his promise not to countenance any attempt
against the government of France. This promise Lewis had not
asked, and at first seemed inclined to consider as an affront.
His throne, he said, was perfectly secure, his title undisputed.
There were in his dominions no nonjurors, no conspirators; and he
did not think it consistent with his dignity to enter into a
compact which seemed to imply that he was in fear of plots and
insurrections such as a dynasty sprung from a revolution might
naturally apprehend. On this point, however, he gave way; and it
was agreed that the covenants should be strictly reciprocal.
William ceased to demand that James should be mentioned by name;
and Lewis ceased to demand that an amnesty should be granted to
James's adherents. It was determined that nothing should be said
in the treaty, either about the place where the banished King of
England should reside, or about the jointure of his Queen. But
William authorised his plenipotentiaries at the Congress to
declare that Mary of Modena should have whatever, on examination,
it should appear that she was by law entitled to have. What she
was by law entitled to have was a question which it would have
puzzled all Westminster Hall to answer. But it was well
understood that she would receive, without any contest, the
utmost that she could have any pretence for asking as soon as she
and her husband should retire to Provence or to Italy.809

Before the end of July every thing was settled, as far as France
and England were concerned. Meanwhile it was known to the
ministers assembled at Ryswick that Boufflers and Portland had
repeatedly met in Brabant, and that they were negotiating in a
most irregular and indecorous manner, without credentials, or
mediation, or notes, or protocols, without counting each other's
steps, and without calling each other Excellency. So barbarously
ignorant were they of the rudiments of the noble science of
diplomacy that they had very nearly accomplished the work of
restoring peace to Christendom while walking up and down an alley
under some apple trees. The English and Dutch loudly applauded
William's prudence and decision. He had cut the knot which the
Congress had only twisted and tangled. He had done in a month
what all the formalists and pedants assembled at the Hague would
not have done in ten years. Nor were the French plenipotentiaries
ill pleased. "It is curious," said Harlay, a man of wit and
sense, "that, while the Ambassadors are making war, the generals
should be making peace."810 But Spain preserved the same air of
arrogant listlessness; and the ministers of the Emperor,
forgetting apparently that their master had, a few months before,
concluded a treaty of neutrality for Italy without consulting
William, seemed to think it most extraordinary that William
should presume to negotiate without consulting their master. It
became daily more evident that the Court of Vienna was bent on
prolonging the war. On the tenth of July the French ministers
again proposed fair and honourable terms of peace, but added
that, if those terms were not accepted by the twenty-first of
August, the Most Christian King would not consider himself bound
by his offer.811 William in vain exhorted his allies to be
reasonable. The senseless pride of one branch of the House of
Austria and the selfish policy of the other were proof to all
argument. The twenty-first of August came and passed; the treaty
had not been signed.

France was at liberty to raise her demands; and she did so. For
just at this time news arrived of two great blows which had
fallen on Spain, one in the Old and one in the New World. A
French army, commanded by Vendome, had taken Barcelona. A French
squadron had stolen out of Brest, had eluded the allied fleets,
had crossed the Atlantic, had sacked Carthagena, and had returned
to France laden with treasure.812 The Spanish government passed
at once from haughty apathy to abject terror, and was ready to
accept any conditions which the conqueror might dictate. The
French plenipotentiaries announced to the Congress that their
master was determined to keep Strasburg, and that, unless the
terms which he had offered, thus modified, were accepted by the
tenth of September, he should hold himself at liberty to insist
on further modifications. Never had the temper of William been
more severely tried. He was provoked by the perverseness of his
allies; he was provoked by the imperious language of the enemy.
It was not without a hard struggle and a sharp pang that he made
up his mind to consent to what France now proposed. But he felt
that it would be utterly impossible, even if it were desirable,
to prevail on the House of Commons and on the States General to
continue the war for the purpose of wresting from France a single
fortress, a fortress in the fate of which neither England nor
Holland had any immediate interest, a fortress, too, which had
been lost to the Empire solely in consequence of the unreasonable
obstinacy of the Imperial Court. He determined to accept the
modified terms, and directed his Ambassadors at Ryswick to sign
on the prescribed day. The Ambassadors of Spain and Holland
received similar instructions. There was no doubt that the
Emperor, though he murmured and protested, would soon follow the
example of his confederates. That he might have time to make up
his mind, it was stipulated that he should be included in the
treaty if he notified his adhesion by the first of November.

Meanwhile James was moving the mirth and pity of all Europe by
his lamentations and menaces. He had in vain insisted on his
right to send, as the only true King of England, a minister to
the Congress.813 He had in vain addressed to all the Roman
Catholic princes of the Confederacy a memorial in which he
adjured them to join with France in a crusade against England for
the purpose of restoring him to his inheritance, and of annulling
that impious Bill of Rights which excluded members of the true
Church from the throne.814 When he found that this appeal was
disregarded, he put forth a solemn protest against the validity
of all treaties to which the existing government of England
should be a party. He pronounced all the engagements into which
his kingdom had entered since the Revolution null and void. He
gave notice that he should not, if he should regain his power,
think himself bound by any of those engagements. He admitted that
he might, by breaking those engagements, bring great calamities
both on his own dominions and on all Christendom. But for those
calamities he declared that he should not think himself
answerable either before God or before man. It seems almost
incredible that even a Stuart, and the worst and dullest of the
Stuarts, should
have thought that the first duty, not merely of his own subjects,
but of all mankind, was to support his rights; that Frenchmen,
Germans, Italians, Spaniards, were guilty of a crime if they did
not shed their blood and lavish their wealth, year after year, in
his cause; that the interests of the sixty millions of human
beings to whom peace would be a blessing were of absolutely no
account when compared with the interests of one man.815

In spite of his protests the day of peace drew nigh. On the tenth
of September the Ambassadors of France, England, Spain and the
United Provinces, met at Ryswick. Three treaties were to be
signed, and there was a long dispute on the momentous question
which should be signed first. It was one in the morning before it
was settled that the treaty between France and the States
General should have precedence; and the day was breaking before
all the instruments had been executed. Then the
plenipotentiaries, with many bows, congratulated each other on
having had the honour of contributing to so great a work.816

A sloop was in waiting for Prior. He hastened on board, and on
the third day, after weathering an equinoctial gale, landed on
the coast of Suffolk.817

Very seldom had there been greater excitement in London than
during the month which preceded his arrival. When the west wind
kept back the Dutch packets, the anxiety of the people became
intense. Every morning hundreds of thousands rose up hoping to
hear that the treaty was signed; and every mail which came in
without bringing the good news caused bitter disappointment. The
malecontents, indeed, loudly asserted that there would be no
peace, and that the negotiation would, even at this late hour, be
broken off. One of them had seen a person just arrived from Saint
Germains; another had had the privilege of reading a letter in
the handwriting of Her Majesty; and all were confident that Lewis
would never acknowledge the usurper. Many of those who held this
language were under so strong a delusion that they backed their
opinion by large wagers. When the intelligence of the fall of
Barcelona arrived, all the treason taverns were in a ferment with
nonjuring priests laughing, talking loud, and shaking each other
by the hand.818

At length, in the afternoon of the thirteenth of September, some
speculators in the City received, by a private channel, certain
intelligence that the treaty had been signed before dawn on the
morning of the eleventh. They kept their own secret, and hastened
to make a profitable use of it; but their eagerness to obtain
Bank stock, and the high prices which they offered, excited
suspicion; and there was a general belief that on the next day
something important would be announced. On the next day Prior,
with the treaty, presented himself before the Lords justices at
Whitehall. Instantly a flag was hoisted on the Abbey, another on
Saint Martin's Church. The Tower guns proclaimed the glad
tidings. All the spires and towers from Greenwich to Chelsea made
answer. It was not one of the days on which the newspapers
ordinarily appeared; but extraordinary numbers, with headings in
large capitals, were, for the first time, cried about the
streets. The price of Bank stock rose fast from eighty-four to
ninety-seven. In a few hours triumphal arches began to rise in
some places. Huge bonfires were blazing in others. The Dutch
ambassador informed the States General that he should try to show
his joy by a bonfire worthy of the commonwealth which he
represented; and he kept his word; for no such pyre had ever been
seen in London. A hundred and forty barrels of pitch roared and
blazed before his house in Saint James's Square, and sent up a
flame which made Pall Mall and Piccadilly as bright as at
noonday.819

Among the Jacobites the dismay was great. Some of those who had
betted deep on the constancy of Lewis took flight. One
unfortunate zealot of divine right drowned himself. But soon the
party again took heart. The treaty had been signed; but it surely
would never be ratified. In a short time the ratification came;
the peace was solemnly proclaimed by the heralds; and the most
obstinate nonjurors began to despair. Some divines, who had
during eight years continued true to James, now swore allegiance
to William. They were probably men who held, with Sherlock, that
a settled government, though illegitimate in its origin, is
entitled to the obedience of Christians, but who had thought that
the government of William could not properly be said to be
settled while the greatest power in Europe not only refused to
recognise him, but strenuously supported his competitor.820 The
fiercer and more determined adherents of the banished family were
furious against Lewis. He had deceived, he had betrayed his
suppliants. It was idle to talk about the misery of his people.
It was idle to say that he had drained every source of revenue
dry, and that, in all the provinces of his kingdom, the peasantry
were clothed in rags, and were unable to eat their fill even of
the coarsest and blackest bread. His first duty was that which he
owed to the royal family of England. The Jacobites talked against
him, and wrote against him, as absurdly, and almost as
scurrilously, as they had long talked and written against
William. One of their libels was so indecent that the Lords
justices ordered the author to be arrested and held to bail.821