and Mr. Baron Turton: "Mr. Speaker, his majesty has been pleased to send this bill, intituled, An Act for the King and Queen's most gracious, general, and free pardon, which the Lords have passed and accepted, nemine contradicente, and now send it down to this House." To the honor of the Commons, the roar of opposition was hushed; not a voice was raised against the healing measure, and the bill was immediately carried through all the forms of the House. Out of this act of grace or amnesty were excepted by name thirty-one individuals, of whom the most noted were the Marquis of Powis, the lords Huntingdon, Sunderland, Dover, Melfort, and Castlemaine; the bishops of Durham and St. David's; the judges Herbert, Withens, Jenner, and Holloway; Sir Roger l'Estrange; Colonel Lundie, the false governor of Londonderry; Father Petre, the Jesuit; and George Lord Jeffreys, deceased. [That firebrand had gone out like a snuff, in the Tower, where he died of disease on the 19th of April, 1689.] After they had returned the bills to the Lords, the Commons took exception to the words nemine contradicente in their lordships' message as something that might be constructed into an attempt to overawe them, it having never been usual for either House, in their intercourse with the other, to intimate by what number any bill had passed. A committee of the Commons was appointed to search precedents and draw up reasons, to be offered at a conference, by way of protest; but, on the very next day, William went down to the Lords, and, having witnessed the passing of the Act of Grace, in the usual form,' put an end to the session. 1 An act of grace or pardon is signed by the king before it is submit ted to the parliament; and, having thus received the royal assent in its first stage, is passed by the clerk of the parliament saying, not from the king to the parliament, but from the parliament to the king, "Les prelats, seigneurs, et commons, en ce present parliament assemblées, au nom de touts vos autres subjects, remercient tres humblement votre majesté, et prient à Dieu vous donner en santé bone vie et longue." (The prelates, Lords, and Commons, in this present parliament assembled, in the name of all your other subjects, most humbly thank your majesty, and pray to God to grant you, in health and wealth, long to live.) The act is not in the form of a common statute: the present, for instance, begins-"The king and queen's most excellent majesties, taking into their serious consideration, &c., are well pleased and contented that it be enacted by authority of this present parliament, and be it enacted by authority of the same," &c. It is peculiar, also, to such a bill that it is only read once in each House, and that, although it may be rejected, it can not be amended. The present Act of Grace was far too good and mild to be the act of any faction or party. Many, both Whigs and Tories, of those who had voted for it in parliament, criticised it afterward without mercy. That ultra-Whig, Lord Delamere (now Earl of Warrington), who had been engaged with Shaftesbury, with Russell, with Algernon Sidney, with Monmouth-who had been implicated in every movement and confederacy-complained bitterly of this "free pardon without regard to exemplary justice, for those treasons and murders, and other high crimes committed before the Revolution." He said that his majesty had been duped by the Tories, who "not only deceived the king of the great forfeitures and fines that ought in justice to have borne some part of the charge of his expedition hither; but had set all their party at least upon even ground with the most innocent sufferers for their country, to be preferred to all sorts of magistracies and authorities, and saved from making reparation to multitudes whom they had oppressed, under color of authority, in the two last reigns." His lordship, who, in settling this revolution, would have sown the seeds of several others, by driving one half of the country to desperation, says that he had heard many of the Tories laugh at the weakness and credulity of the king, and at the formal exception of the thirty-one persons that were not the greatest criminals; that time showed that all those persons who did not embark in after rebellions were in fact admitted into the indemnity. "No pro Twelve days after the prorogation, William left London for Ireland; and, on the 14th of June, he landed at Belfast with a force not very considerable in point of number, but perfect in discipline, appointment, spirit, and devotion to his cause. It included English, Scots, Dutch, Danes, and French; and, when it was joined to Schomberg's forces, and the Protestant volunteers that flocked in from various parts of Ireland, it made up an army of 30,000 men. In the ten months that Schomberg had held the chief command little had been done toward the reduction of that unhappy island. On his first landing, he took Belfast, Carrickfergus, Newry, and Dundalk; but, at the latter place he was brought to a stand by De Rosen, and, about the middle of September, James came up in person with the remainder of his army, and obliged the old marshal to intrench himself at and round about Dundalk. The Jacobites endeavored to force him to a battle, but they failed in their attempts. On the 27th of September, Schomberg wrote to William, that the best thing he could do was, to lie there on the defensive; and, on the 12th of October, he says, in the same spirit, "If your majesty was well informed of the state of our army, and that of our enemy, the nature of the country, and the situation of the two camps, I do not believe you would incline to risk an attack. If we do not succeed, your majesty's army would be lost without resource. I make use of that term, for I do not believe, if it was once put into disorder, that it could be reëstablished." On the other side, De Rosen would not venture an attack upon Schomberg's positions and intrenchments, and, as the bad weather set in, King James retired to Ardee and fortified himself there. Schomberg's forces lay, for the most part, out upon cold, wet ground, and suffered severely. There were two or three insignificant affairs of outposts, and Sligo was taken by the Catholics. On the 8th of November, James returned to Dublin, after which Schomberg quitted his intrenchments and retired to better winter-quarters. In the beginning of February, James's natural son, the Duke of Berwick, who had some of the qualities of a good soldier, made an attack upon the advanced position of Schomberg, at Belturbet; but he was worsted and nearly killed in the action, having his horse shot under him. In the month of May, Charlemont, a place of great strength, which had 2 cess," says his lordship, with a horror which we can not share with him, "has issued against any of them, not a penny of their estates, nor one hair of their heads hath been touched; and several of them have even since sat in the House of Lords as our legislators."-Impartial Inquiry. On the other hand, the Jacobites complained that, while King James had been punished in the extreme, the men by whose advice and ministry he had acted were allowed to pass scot-free. "These men, I say, at least some of them, were not only suffered to escape punishment, but were highly preferred and rewarded, even by your good King William; than wh.ch I challenge any one to give an instance either of greater iniquity or deeper hypocrisy."-Dialogue of the Times, as quoted by Ralph. 1 Dalrymple, Appendix. "His army was grievously afflicted with the country's disease, and so overrun with lice that vast numbers of them died, especially the English-not only common men, but officers, as Mr Wharton, son to the lord of that name, Sir Edward Deering, Sir Henry Ingolsby, Gore Barrington, Sir George Erwin, and others; Sir George Hewitt, Lord Droghedagh, Lord Roscommons, and others, were very ill."-Life of James. 66 hall, and had so recommended himself to her good graces, that Mary d'Este, "not knowing but he might be as great a general as he affected to appear," and, "perhaps, with a view of doing an agreeable thing to Madame de Maintenon, in whose good esteem he was at that time," got him appoint been bravely defended by Sir Teague O'Regan, some clothes for James's army. De Rosen having was forced by famine to surrender to the Protes- retired in despair or disgust, these French troops tants. And, by this time, the English fleet, which were intrusted to the Count de Lauzun, who, on had been so long skulking, or retreating before the his arrival in Ireland, assumed the chief command French, began to do something: they scoured St. of the whole army. Lauzun had assisted and acGeorge's Channel, carried provisions to Schom-companied James's queen in her flight from Whiteberg's half-famished troops, and took the only manof-war James had, out of the very road of Dublin, where it lay at anchor. But," in the words of the Jacobite memoir of that king's life, these misfortunes at home were nothing in comparison to the disappointment he met with from the court of France, whence all hope of succor was to come:ed to this command.' But Lauzun was incompethere were no endeavors nor industry wanting in the queen to represent the necessity of transporting the Irish army into England, and making that the seat of war, where it was hoped the conjunction of the king's friends would soon so augment his force as to make the English weary of resisting God and their duty, when they found the miseries of war brought to their own doors; besides the incapacity Ireland was in of maintaining such an army as would be necessary to oppose the mighty force England was preparing to send over. This seemed strange to some people, considering how plentiful a country Ireland is; but the enemy was master of all Ulster, and the Catholics, who quitted it upon Schomberg's landing brought such prodigious flocks of cattle with them as ate up the greatest part of the grass and meadows of the other provinces, and destroyed even a great share of the corn too; the county of Louth, the best corn country in Ireland, together with that of Meath, Leitrim, and Sligo, were ruined with incursions; the great stocks of cattle, sheep, &c., being in the hands of Protestants, and many of them fying into England, they had been embezzled, and those that stayed were ruined in great measure by the Rapparees; this brought such scarcity, that there was neither corn nor meal to feed the army any considerable time, no cloth to clothe them, nor leather for shoes or saddles, and the brass money put an absolute stop to importation; so that the army must either be transported out of Ireland, or all necessaries for its subsistence imported from France, as also an additional number of troops proportionable to the vast preparations England was making; but the court of France seemed deaf to all these representations; the French officers and ambassadors in Ireland had sent such desponding relations from thence, that, though they could not but see the great advantage of such a diversion, yet the improbability of success made them averse from venturing more succors than what was absolutely Decessary to keep the war alive." This absolute dependency upon France showed the hopelessness of James's cause, and prevented many from joining it, that were otherwise well disposed toward him. The complaints, moreover, and the throwing the whole blame upon France, are characteristic of the fallen king and his faction. Louis was, as we have seen, in the greatest difficulties himself, and to him the war in Ireland was, and could be. nothing but a temporary diversion. Yet he now sent over 6000 men, some money, and tent and arrogant; he was constantly quarreling 3 2 It is added "The queen, on the other hand, finding her solicita tions so fruitless, would have pawned the remainder of her jewels to buy necessaries, she having sent a great sum of money into Ireland al ready, which had been raised that way, but the king writ to her that that night, was " Westminster;" and, at about twelve o'clock, William rode, with torches, quite through his army. He then retired to his tent in calm expectation of the morrow. That day of slaughter soon dawned-it was the 1st of July, and the weather was beautifully clear. The générale was beat in the camp before day, and, as soon as the sun was up, Schomberg and General Douglas moved with the right wing toward Slane. The Irish, by a corresponding movement, brought their left wing to Slane; but the English dashed into the river and forded it there. The wretched James had already sent off his baggage and all his cannon but six toward Dublin; and his left wing, after a smart fight, retreated before the horse, foot, and artillery of Douglas, who, with little loss, got a firm footing on the right bank of the Boyne.. Nearly at the same time, William made an attack on the pass at Old Bridge, and the Dutch Blue Guards, beating a march till they got to the water's edge, went in eight or ten abreast, and waded across with the water above their girdles. When they got into the middle of the stream they were saluted with a terrible peal by the Irish, who had lined the houses, hedges, and breast works, on the other side; but the Dutchmen went on, got a footing on the bank, formed in two lines, and soon drove the Irish from their intrench au excellent position on the right bank. On the 30th, William reached the Boyne, and found his enemies encamped along the river in two strong lines. He, however, resolved to force the passage on the morrow, and rode along the left bank to reconnoiter. While engaged in this service, the enemy brought two field-pieces to bear upon him, and, at the first shot they killed a man and two horses that were very near him. This ball was presently followed by another, that had like to put a period to William's own life; for this second ball, having first grazed on the bank of the river, rising en ricochet, slanted on the king's right shoulder, took out a piece of his coat and tore the skin and flesh, and afterward broke the head of a gentleman's pistol. Lord Coningsby rode up to his majesty and clapped his handkerchief on the wound; but William said, coolly, that it needed not-that the ball should have come nearer to do him harm. But the enemy, on the opposite side of the river, seeing that he stooped in his saddle, and that there was some disorder among those who attended him, joyfully concluded that he was killed, and this false report was conveyed with wonderful rapidity to Dublin, from Dublin to Paris, and from Paris to every capital in Europe.' The rapturous joy felt by his enemies, and the grief and despair of his friends, were alike tributes to the merits of Will-ments. The Blue Guards, then advancing into the iam, or proofs of how much was considered to de- open fields, were set upon furiously by the Irish pend upon his person. In the mean time, having horse; but they stood close and firm, and, as other got his flesh-wound dressed, he continued on horse-regiments came up to their assistance, the Irish reback nearly the whole of that day. About nine at tired. At another point, the Irish horse, who benight he called his officers together, and declared haved very gallantly, drove a body of Danes and of that he would pass the river on the morrow. French Protestants back into the river. Old Schomgave orders that every soldier should be providedberg, perceiving this disorder, and that the French with a good stock of ammunition, that all should be ready to march at break of day, and that every man should wear a green bough or sprig in his hat, to distinguish him from the enemy, who wore pieces of white paper as cockades. The watchword of He 1 In Paris, where the news of William's death arrived in the middle of the night, there was wonderful readiness in rejoicing: the churchbells were instantly set ringing, and bonfires lighted in the streets The aggressions of Louis XIV. had, however, so cooled the religious zeal of the ultra Catholic courts of Madrid and Vienna, that in those capi concern, anxiety, joy, or fear can bring being on me almost at once, at esty once again happy in seeing and having so near a prospect of tals they mourned for the death of the heretic. At Rome the intelligence of William being killed and that of James being defeated seem to have arrived together, and Melfort was greatly embarrassed. On the 12th of August he writes from Rome to James's queen :-" All that least by near succeeding fits, your majesty can not blame me if I long to be freed of them by a full confirmation of the success in Ireland and the death of the Prince of Orange, that the king is safe, and your maj Whitehall.... As soon as the confirmation of this new Herod, the Prince of Orange, his death shall come, all that is to be expected from this will be immediately done, and my longer stay here will be need less. . . . It is impossible to imagine the falsehoods spread abroad by the allies' ministers here, who go through the town offering great wagers that the French had greater losses at Fleury than the allies, and that their fleet is totally defeated. But to us, who are sure of the contrary, it is some joy to see the mean shifts they are put to. Would to God we were as sure of the usurper's death and of the victory in Ireland, of which, with the utmost impatience, we expect the confirmation from Ireland-for from Versailles it seems to come directly enough hither. I have only the letters of the 17th July, so that I want those of the 10th of that month, and those of the 24th, and that, notwith standing others have got letters of that date, which brought the news of the total defeat in Ireland of the king's forces, and his flight, which had broken my heart if that of the death of Orange had not come before."-Sir Henry Ellis's Collection. Protestants were left much exposed, and without a commander, passed the river himself, in order to lead them. Pointing to the French papists in James's ranks, he exclaimed to his Huguenots, "Allons, Messieurs, voilà vos persécuteurs;" but he had scarcely said the words, when he was slain, being shot through the neck by a flying party of James's horse-guards, or, "through a fatal mistake," by some of his own men.1 When James was already edging off to the Dublin road, William crossed the river, and, drawing his sword, not without pain, his arm being stiff from the wound he had received the day before, he marched at the head of the Inniskilliners and Dutch guards toward the enemy's center, which, though somewhat confused, was as yet unbroken. Once, if not twice, William was driven back and put in imminent danger by the Irish horse and the French troops of Lauzun; but the Inniskilliners performed most manfully, Schomberg's horse came up, General Ginckel made some brilliant charges; and, in the end, James's army was beaten, right, left, and center, and pushed off the field. James himself had got through the defile of Duleck with the van of his left wing, and was marching for Dublin without any care for his rear; but Tyrconnel and Lauzun, with some horse and 1 Another account is, that Schomberg was "said to be killed by Sir Charles O'Toule, an exempt of the guards, as he was passing the ford.” -Life of James. The poor Irish, smarting under defeat, and forgetting other considerations, said, with some humor, that if the English would only change kings with them they would be glad to fight the battle of the Boyne over again. They and their French allies had lost about 1500 men in the battle and retreat, and among them some persons of note, as Lord Dugan, the Earl of Carlingford, Fitzgerald, Sir Neal O'Neal, the Marquis d'Hoquincour, Colonel Casanova, &c. Driven from the Boyne, they resolved to make a stand on the Shannon, where the standard of James still floated over the strong walls of Athlone and Limerick. Drogheda, at the mouth of the Boyne, surrendered the day after this victory, and on the 3d of July, the Duke of Ormond, with nine troop of horse, secured Dublin for King William, who, on the 4th, marched that way with his whole army, and on the 8th rode in a triumphant manner into that capital, where the Protestants, and for the same sort of reasons, were as joyful as the papists had been the year before at the arrival of King James. He went directly to the MEDAL STRUCK TO COMMEMORATE THE BATTLE OF THE BOYNE. The King seen crossing the River at the head of his Troops. the French infantry, faced about and defended that | pass, till five of the six pieces of artillery and the broken regiments were got through. If the conquerors had been a little more active they might have made James a prisoner in the pass. From Duleck the Jacobites retreated in pretty good order to the Neal, another defile, the enemy following without pressing upon them at all, and, at nightfall, giving over the pursuit. But that panic fear which had seized the new troops pursued them still; and, as soon as it began to grow dark, the greater part of the Irish foot dispersed, many of them having thrown down their arms and deserted before: but the French still kept in a body and retreated in good order. The flying James got to Dublin that night; but he no longer considered himself safe there, and, traveling all night, he got to Duncannon about sunrise, and there embarked for France with a very slender retinue. Attempts have been made to give a different coloring to his conduct; but a cool examination of facts enforces the impression that he really ended as a coward an enterprise which he had begun and conducted like a block-cathedral church of St. Patrick, now again restored head.1 we had the fear that all was lost in Ireland; immediately after, we had bidiness asked me if it was possible that any cathedral had sung the 1 On the 19th of August we find Melfort writing to Mary of Este: "Never was anybody so tossed with contrary passions as I have been nce the time I heard of his majesty's arrival into France; for then an excess of joy to hear that Orange and Schomberg were killed, and their troops beaten again. The rage to be triumphed over by the Spanards, who affirm the Prince of Orange alive, Ireland his," &c. It appears, from these interesting letters, that the joy of King William's alles was extreme, and that a Te Deum was sung in the cathedral of Vienna for his victory on the Boyne. Melfort told the pope, "The difference of the spirit which actuates us, and that of the House of Austria! We were glad that Christianity gained, though from those that fought against our enemies: while they sung the Te Deum for the church's having lost a kingdom, and a heretic's victory. But I hoped that God, in his good time, would put a stop to these impieties. His Te Deum for Orange's victory: I told him that I had their own printed news for it, at which his holiness seemed horribly scandalized. Thus ended this audience, by which your majesty will see how far the so they think he is alive."-Sir H. Ellis's Collection. But the plain truth is, that William all along had a strong party among the cardials and princes of the church, who regarded him as the best ally of ther allies, the emperor and the King of Spain, who had been so seriously injured and humiliated by Louis XIV. Nay, that arrogant sovereign, a few years before, had insulted the pope's predecessor, Alexder VIL, in the midst of the holy city, in the very shadow of the ance mighty Vatican, in consequence of some insult which had been ofered by the populace of Rome to the Duke of Crequy, a French am warmth which appeared at the news of the usurper's death is cooled to the Protestant faith, and returned thanks for his victory. On the 9th he marched away with part of his army southward, detaching General Douglas with another body to besiege Athlone. William reduced Waterford, Dungarvon, and other places in that neighborhood without difficulty; but Douglas was obliged to raise the siege of Athlone by the movements of the bold and skillful Sarsfield. Nor was William himself more successful when he came to Limerick, where the Jacobites had concentrated the mass of their forces, and were commanded or instructed by French officers and engineers well skilled in the art of defending places, William invested Limerick on the 9th of August, lost part of his battering train which was coming up on the 11th, got some great guns from Waterford on the 17th, and opened a breach; was repulsed from the breach on the 18th, with a narrow escape from bassador. And, besides, the great principle of the papal court was to check in Italy the progress of the French, who more than once flattered themselves with the hope of becoming masters of the entire peninsula. There are reasons for believing that, when the Prince of Orange came over to expel his most Catholic father-in-law, he brought some of the pope's money with him to help him in that undertaking. a cannon-ball; made fresh batteries and advanced his trenches, breached the walls in other places, and carried the covered way or counterscarp on the 26th; but, after effecting a lodgment, his men were again driven back with great loss, and on the 30th he raised the siege, to hasten back to England, where his presence had been several times much wanted. While he was fighting on the Boyne and Shannon, the French fleet had agreed to sail up the Thames, to give countenance and assistance to the Jacobites, who had engaged to rise in London, seize Queen Mary, and reproclaim the legitimate sovereign, who, on his part, had promised to leave the war in Ireland to be managed by his generals, and to hasten to London with a part of his forces. A squadron of French galleys was to have landed some troops at Torbay, and then the whole French fleet united was to have prevented William's return from Ireland. But, though the scheme was well laid- though some of William's naval commanders were ready to betray him-and though the Jacobites in London plotted might and main,' the grand project fell to the ground because (among other reasons) the French fleet could not obtain or maintain the mastery of the narrow seas, and because 1 At this moment, according to Burnet, the militia was raised, suspected persons were secured, and the cry of the people was so much in favor of the new government, that the Jacobites, all England over, were glad to keep out of the way, lest they should be torn to pieces. On the 14th of July, a fortnight after the fight at Beachy Head, Queen Mary issued proclamations for apprehending the earls of Litchfield, Aylesbury, and Castlemaine; the lords Montgomery, Preston, and Bellasis; Sir Edward Hales, Sir Robert Hamilton, and ten or twelve others, mostly officers Our friend Pepys, the amusing diarist, had been sent prisoner to the Gate-House on the 25th of June, upon an accusation, which we can believe was very well founded, of having sent information to the French about the state of the English navy James would not trust himself among his English subjects. But, had it not been for the Dutch fleet, the French might have ridden in triumph in the Thames and Medway, even as the Dutch themselves had done in the year 1667. On the 30th of June, the day before the battle of the Boyne, eightytwo men of war, bearing the flag of Louis, encountered a united fleet of English and Dutch off Beachy Head. The Dutch, who were in the vau, fought bravely, and were as bravely seconded by some of the English; but the rest of the English shirked the action as much as they possibly could. The Dutch lost two admirals and a considerable number of men, and were obliged to sink several of their vessels, to prevent their capture. The English that engaged did not fare much better; but several ships under our flag had neither given nor received a single shot. The French, however, had suffered so much in the battle, which lasted from morning till evening, that they were glad to seek the shelter of their own coast. It was suspected that the English officer in command, Admiral Herbert-now, through the gratitude of William for services rendered at the Revolution, Earl of Torrington, had gone back to the interests of King James. He was afterward brought to trial and acquitted, being even praised by some for his caution and prudence in avoiding fighting at Beachy Head, and so sparing the fleet.' But, whatever 1 William, however, dismissed him from his service, promoted his rival Russell, and would never again admit Herbert into his presence. Lord Nottingham, then the only secretary of state, ascribed the miscarriage at Beachy Head expressly to the treachery of Herbert, who was accused either of treachery or cowardice by the whole Dutch fleet. On the 22d of July a French squadron got into Torbay, where they landed about a thousand men, who burned a village and some fishing |