BOOK V. France could never be reduced within due bounds, unless the English would enter as principals into 1702. the quarrel. This opinion was supported by the dukes of Somerset and Devonshire, the earl of Pembroke, and the majority of the council. A resolution was taken, therefore, in favor of war; which being communicated by the queen to the house of commons, the house returned their unanimous thanks, and assurances of assistance. The earl of Rochester, highly offended that his counsels were rejected, withdrew to his seat in sullen discontent; and a message, after an interval of some months, being sent to him from the queen, commanding him to repair to his government of Ireland, he insolently declared, "that he would not go if the queen would give him the country." The earl then waited upon her majesty, and in great wrath desired leave to resign his employments; which was readily granted, and the viceroyalty of that kingdom immediately conferred upon the duke of Ormond. On the day prefixed, the confederate courts solemnly proclaimed war against France in their respective capitals, to the great astonishment of Louis XIV., who, on receiving the intelligence from his first minister, the marquis de Torcy, gave way to unusual emotions of anger; and throwing from him the Dutch declaration with great violence, he protested, "that messieurs the Dutch merchants should one day BOOK V. repent of their audacity." The beneficial effects of the last message of king William to parliament, relative to an union of the two kingdoms, now began to appear; and the queen having, in her speech, joined in recommending to the two houses to consider of the proper methods of accomplishing an object so important and desirable, a bill was brought into the house of commons to empower her majesty to nominate commissioners to treat with Scotland for that purpose; which, notwithstanding the perverse opposition of several of the virulent tories, passed both houses by a great majority, and received the royal assent. The discretion of the present ministers appeared in an order of council, directing the princess Sophia to be publicly prayed for, as next in succession to the crown and a report having been industriously propagated, that the late king had formed a design of excluding her present majesty from the throne, the dukes of Somerset and Devonshire, and the lords Marlborough, Jersey, and Albemarle, who had the inspection of the king's papers, were interrogated by the house of peers as to this point; and they unanimously declaring that nothing relative to such design was to be found, the house voted the report false, villainous and scandalous. And in reply to an address of 1702. 1702. BOOK V. the house upon the subject, the queen declared, "that she would order the attorney general to prosecute the authors and publishers of this false report.". Impious Notice also was taken by the house of peers of a sermon preached by one Dr. Binckes before the lower house of convocation on the thirtieth of January, in which a detestable and impious parallel was drawn between the sufferings of Christ and those of the blessed martyr; and a decided preference given to the latter. "If," says this Christian divine, "with respect to the dignity of the person, to have been king of the Jews was what ought to have secured our Saviour from violence; here is also one not only born to a crown, but actually possessed of it. He was not only called king by some, and at the same time derided by others for being so called, but he was acknowledged by all to be a king. He was not just dressed up for an hour or two in purple robes, and saluted with a Hail, king! but the usual ornaments of majesty were his customary apparel; his subjects owned him to be their king; and yet they brought him before a tribunal, they judged him, they condemned him.-Our Saviour's declaring that his kingdom was not of this world,' might look like a sort of renunciation of his temporal sovereignty, but here was indisputable right of sovereignty :-both by the laws of GoD and man. He was the reigning 6 1702. prince and the Lord's anointed; and yet, in de- BOOK V. spite of all law human and divine, he was by direct force of arms, and the most daring methods of a flagrant rebellion and violence, deprived at once of his imperial crown and life." After some debate the lords voted, that there were expressions in the said sermon which gave just scandal and offence to all Christian people; and it was ordered that this resolution be communicated to his diocesan, the bishop of Litchfield and Coventry, in order to his being proceeded against in the ecclesiastical court. The business of the session being happily terminated, the queen, on the 25th of May 1702, prorogued the parliament in an excellent speech, expressing her constant wish, "that no differences of opinion among those that were equally affected to her service might be the occasion of heats and animosities among themselves. I shall," said she," be very careful to preserve and maintain the act of toleration, and to set the minds of all my people at quiet." Scotland. At the demise of the late king, the govern- Affairs of ment of Scotland was entirely in the hands of the whigs; the earl of Marchmont being lord chancellor, the earl of Melville president of the council, the duke of Queensberry lord privy seal, the earls of Seafield and Hyndford joint secretaries of state, aud the earl of Selkirk lord register. 1702. BOOK V. On the accession of the queen, the tory and Jacobite faction were much elated, flattering themselves that, in consideration of their zeal for episcopacy, to which they well knew the queen's devoted attachment, they should now be the favored and governing party. The funds allotted for the support of the army being nearly expired, it was absolutely necessary to hold a session of parliament in the course of the summer. An act having passed in Scotland, as well as in England, to continue the existing parliament six months subsequent to the death of the king; after several adjournments, it was accordingly convened on the 9th of June (1702), the duke of Queensberry being appointed high commissioner. But before any proceedings could take place, the duke of Hamilton, and the party of which he was the head, protested against the legality of the meeting his grace reading a paper containing the grounds and reasons of their dissent, to the following purport: "Forasmuch as by the fundamental laws and constitution of this kingdom all parliaments do dissolve by the death of the king or queen, except in so far as innovated by the 17th act of the 6th session of king William's parliament last in being at his decease, to meet and act what should be needful for the defence of the true protestant religion as now by law established, and maintaining the succession to the crown, |