242

CHAPTER IX.

AFTER fruitlessly hunting this boar of the forest, game of the first head, the Commons condescended to chase such small deer as a lustring company. They had been smuggling on an extensive scale; and, for their complicated frauds, would have been deservedly punished by a court of quarter-sessions with fine and imprisonment, and perhaps the pillory, but were not worthy of such a dignified prosecution. On the 16th of May, 1698, Sir Rowland Gwyn, who gained great reputation, as Vernon declares, “by ferreting out these rogues," reported from a committee of inquiry such accumulated acts of smuggling, that an impeachment was immediately voted. Our manufactures were then truly in their puling infancy. It was stated, as an aggravation of the guilt of these parties, chiefly foreigners, that they had reduced the number of looms in England from between 4 and 500 to 168, scarcely so many as are now employed by a second-rate manufacturer in a single mill. Goudet, Longueville, and six others were charged with having carried on a traffic with France during the late war, and maintained a correspondence with several persons in France, and given intelligence; with having caused to be imported great Ellis's Correspondence.

MEMOIRS OF THE HOUSE OF COMMONS. 243

quantities of goods and commodities of the growth, product, and manufacture of France; with having exported great quantities of wool, and conveyed privily divers criminals out of the kingdom. Other charges anticipated the custom-house frauds of modern times.

"Wholesome laws having been made, that no person should presume to deal in black alamodes or lustrings, not having the mark or seal on them used for foreign goods at the custom-house, or the seal and mark used by the lustring company, they, for the more easy vending and uttering the alamodes and lustrings, which they had so fraudulently imported from France, did make and counterfeit divers seals and marks, in imitation of the seals and marks used for foreign goods at the custom-house, and did affix several of such counterfeit seals and marks to divers pieces of alamodes and lustrings imported from France."

An order was made that these poor knaves should be tried at the bar of the House of Lords, and the Commons requested that a place might be selected and set apart for the managers of the impeachment; but to this the Lords, in their jealousy of innovation on established usage, demurred, stating that the committees appointed to manage the evidence had always come to the bar of the House without any other provision; and that they intended to proceed in the usual manner. A conference having been granted, the Earl of Rochester said that "the consenting to any one innovation might occasion further disputes; and, whereas the Commons have instanced that, in the trials of the Earl of Strafford and the Lord Viscount Stafford, they had a convenient place appointed for

Journals, vol. xii.

their managers, their Lordships must observe that both these trials were for high treason, and in Westminster Hall. But in all trials for misdemeanor there is not one precedent in their books that the House of Commons have ever, till this time, asked what they have desired on this occasion, and therefore their Lordships do insist on their resolution."

The Commons retired in high displeasure, and the disputes between the two Houses ran so high on this point of etiquette, that the preliminaries of a trumpery prosecution had nearly produced a serious rupture. Neither House could forget the era of the rebellion. In the mind of the Upper House especially, there lay fixed a troubled remembrance-sedet altá mente repostum-that their adjournment for a day had lasted eleven years, and they would not abate one jot of their pretensions. The Commons yielded, and resolved to be present as a committee, even though no place were reserved, "in regard the matter was of great consequence to the trade of the kingdom." Finding their hope of escape by a quarrel and enforced prorogation abortive, seven of the parties spared all further difficulty of ceremonial, and pleaded guilty. Longueville alone demanded a trial, and, in consequence, escaped, Parliament being dissolved, before it could find leisure to investigate his case. The House, on the 4th July, 1697, demauded judgment, which consisted in fines merely, varying in amount, the highest on Goudet being £1500 and no more, so little necessity was there for wresting this fraud from the cognizance of the ordinary tribunals; but party strife leavened the case.

• These smugglers might have been Irish Rapparees, so full of bulls was their disguised correspondence. They wrote, that the cart

In their next assault the Commons soared a higher flight, and attempted to strike down a more noble quarry-the Lord Chancellor Somers. Deformed, as their proceedings were with factious virulence and party hate, disfigured and disgraced, as the impeachment undoubtedly was, by haste and inconsistency, and passion, futile as it proved in its immediate consequences, a great constitutional lesson has been taught by the prosecution—the responsibility of ministers of the Crown. The halo of a great name cannot so far deceive as to induce us to join in the vulgar notion that the charge was wholly frivolous, and dictated solely by personal spleen. The history may be shortly told, and our readers shall form their judgFrom his retreat at Loo, the king planned the first partition treaty of the possessions of Spain; the death of Charles II., without children, being then in immediate prospect. It was well intentioned, to restrain the formidable pretensions of France beyond the Pyrenees, but ill-judged and disastrous. According to the severe commentary of Lord Bolingbroke,d "without the knowledge of the King of Spain, we disposed of his inheritance; without the consent of the Emperor, and in concert with the adverse party, we settled the rights contested between the houses of Austria and Bourbon; and we engaged to make this partition good by arms." Even had the policy of this partition treaty been less questionable than it was, it

ment.

could not set out because of contrary winds,' meaning the fleet. The proper names in their cipher are more happily chosen: the Duke of Leeds figures as Mr. Hosier, the Earl of Nottingham as Mr. Justice Fagg, Lord Godolphin as the Monkey, and Lord Churchill as the Jew.

Letters on History.

ought to have been discussed by the cabinet, and not blindly adopted. The king wrote to his Chancellor, in the arbitrary style of a dictator sending instructions to be obeyed, not questioned. After mentioning the inclination of France to an agreement, he adds, "If it be fit this negotiation should be carried on, there is no time to be lost, and you will send me the full powers under the great seal, with the names in blank, to treat with Count Tallard." He gives a reason for this haste. "According to all intelligence, the King of Spain cannot outlive the month of October, and the least accident may carry him off any day."

Lord Somers' reply betrayed those apprehensions which his sagacity could not fail to suggest, subdued by a too courtier-like acquiescence in the royal pleasure. He hints dislike in every line, and concludes"I humbly beg your majesty's pardon that these thoughts are so ill put together: these waters (he wrote from Tunbridge Wells) are known to discompose, and disturb the head, so as almost totally to disable one from writing. I should be extremely troubled if my absence from London has delayed the dispatch of the commission one day. You will be pleased to observe that two persons (as the commission is drawn) must be named in it, but the powers may be executed by either of them. I suppose your majesty will not think it proper to name commissioners that are not English or naturalized, in an affair of this nature. I pray God give your majesty honour and success in all your undertakings."

Thus, in compliance with the king's suggestive letter, without any direct, positive, command, the Chancellor affixed the great seal to a blank commission, with full powers, without any lawful warrant, not