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appointed day had passed. The Master of Stair,' William's chief minister in Scotland, thought this an excellent opportunity to show the Highlanders that the Government could punish as well as reward, and asked William's leave to destroy Maclan's clan, on the plea that they had, like most other Highland clans, been guilty in past time of acts of brigandage and murder. William gave his assent, writing that it would be good to 'extirpate that set of thieves.'

7. The Massacre of Glencoe. 1692.-The Master of Stair proceeded to execute, in a peculiarly treacherous manner, the order which he had obtained. He sent into Glencoe a party of soldiers, who gave out on their arrival that they had come as friends. They lived with the clansmen, ate at their tables, joked, and played at cards with them. On the morning of February 13, 1692, whilst it was still dark, the soldiers surrounded the huts of those very men with whom they had been making merry the evening before. They then dragged many of them out of their beds and murdered them, firing at such as fled. Not a few, indeed, succeeded in making their escape, but the mountains on either side of the glen were lofty and rugged, and most of those who took refuge in them died of cold and hunger amidst the rocks and the snow. When the tale was told at Edinburgh the Scottish Parliament broke out into indignation, and William had to dismiss the Master of Stair from office. It was the first time that the Lowland Scotch had shown compassion for Highlanders. Hitherto they had always treated them as a wild and savage race of plunderers for whom there was no mercy.

8. The Siege of Londonderry. 1689.-In Ireland William had to deal with something like national resistance. On March 12 James, bringing with him some French officers, landed at Kinsale. Tyrconnel had ready for him an ill-equipped and ill-disciplined Irish army. To the native Irish James was still the lawful king, whose title was unaffected by anything that an English Parliament could do. To the English and Scottish colonists he was a mere usurper, the enemy of their creed and nation. The northern Protestants, chased from their homes with outrage, took refuge in Enniskillen and Londonderry. In Londonderry the governor, Lundy, prepared to surrender, but when James arrived with his army the inhabitants took the defence into their own hands and closed the gates in his face. The besiegers strictly blockaded

1 In Scotland, the eldest sons of lords and viscounts were known by the title of Master.

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JAMES II. IN IRELAND

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the town by land and threw a boom across the river Foyle, so that no food might enter from the sea. The defenders were before long reduced to feed on horse-flesh, and they had not much of that. From the top of the cathedral they could see ships which William had sent to their relief, but the ships lay inactive for weeks. Men who had been well off were glad to feed on the flesh of dogs, and even to gnaw hides in the hope of getting nourishment out of them. At last, on July 30, three of the ships moved up the river. One of them dashed at the boom and broke it, though she was herself driven on shore by the recoil. The tide, however, rose and floated her off. The whole store of food was borne safely to the town, and Londonderry was saved. James and his Irish army marched away. On the day of his retreat an Irish force was defeated at Newtown Butler by the Protestants of Enniskillen.

9. The Irish Parliament. 1689.-On May 7, whilst James was before Londonderry, the Irish Parliament met at Dublin. The House of Commons was almost entirely composed of native Irish, and the Parliament passed an Act annulling all the English confiscations since 1641. The lands taken by force in times past were to be restored to the Irish owners or their heirs. Those English, however, who had acquired Irish confiscated lands by purchase were to be compensated, and to find money for this compensation an Act of Attainder was passed against about 2,000 of William's partisans. As most of them were out of harm's way, but little blood was likely to be shed, though a great deal of property would change owners. A considerable part of Irish land having been confiscated by the English authorities during the past forty years, this proceeding did not appear in Ireland to be as outrageous as it would have seemed in a settled country like England.

10. Schomberg sent to Ireland. 1689.-Once more England and Ireland were brought into direct antagonism. Not only did Protestant Englishmen sympathise deeply with the wrongs of their countrymen in Ireland, whilst they were unable to perceive that the Irish had suffered any wrongs at all, but they could not fail to see that if James established himself in Ireland, he would next attempt, with French help, to establish himself in England. As it had been in Elizabeth's reign so it was now. Either England must conquer Ireland, or Ireland would be used by a foreign nation to conquer England. Accordingly, in August, Schomberg-who had been a French marshal, but, being a Protestant, had resigned his high position after the Revocation of the Edict of Nantes (see p. 638) rather than renounce his

faith-was sent by William with an English army to Carrickfergus. The weather was bad, and the arrangements of the commissariat were worse, so that disease broke out among the soldiers, and nothing serious was done during the remainder of the year.

II. The Bill of Rights and the Dissolution of the Convention Parliament. 1689—1690.—In England, the Convention Parliament had passed a Bill of Rights, embodying the demands of the former Declaration of Rights (see p. 647). Since then it had grown intractable. The Whig majority had forgotten the services rendered by the Tories against James, and, treating them as enemies, was eager to take vengeance on them. When, therefore, a Bill of Indemnity was brought in, the Whigs excepted from it so many of the Tory leaders on the ground that they had supported the harsh acts of the last two kings, that William, who cared for neither party, suddenly prorogued Parliament and then dissolved it.

12. Settlement of the Revenue. 1690,-A new Parliament, in which the majority was Tory, met on March 20, 1690, and by confining to four years their grant of nearly half the revenue of the Crown, put a check upon any attempt of a future king to make himself absolute. Subsequently the grant became annual; after which no king could avoid summoning Parliament every year, as he could not make himself financially independent of the House of Commons. The supremacy of Parliament was thus, as far as law could do it, practically secured. Finally, an Act of Grace' gave an indemnity to all excepting a few persons, to whom no harm was intended as long as they abstained from attacking the Government.

13. The Conquest of Ireland. 1690-1691. On June 14, 1690, William landed at Carrickfergus. On July 1, he defeated James at the battle of the Boyne. Schomberg was killed, and James fled to Kinsale, where he embarked for France. William entered Dublin in triumph, and, marching on through the country, on August 8 laid siege to Limerick. Wet weather set in and caused disease amongst the besiegers, whilst the Irish general, Sarsfield, sweeping round them, destroyed the siege guns on their way to batter the walls. William for the time abandoned the attack and returned to England. In 1691 a Dutch general, Ginkell, was placed in command of the English army. Under him were Mackay, who had been defeated at Killiecrankie, and Ruvigny, a

1An Act of Grace was similar to an Act of Indemnity, except that it originated with the king, and could only be accepted or rejected, not amended by the Houses.

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French Protestant refugee. Thus commanded, William's troops took Athlone on June 30, and on July 12 destroyed the Irish army at Aughrim. Limerick was again besieged, and, on October 3, it capitulated. All officers and soldiers who wished to go to France were allowed to emigrate. To the Irish Catholics were granted such privileges in the exercise of their religion as they had enjoyed in the reign of Charles II., when there had been a connivance at the exercise of the Roman Catholic worship so long as it was not obtrusive. The Irish Parliament, however, representing now the English colony alone, called for persecuting measures, and William had to govern Ireland, if he was to govern Ireland at all, in accordance with its wishes. Limerick became deservedly known amongst the Irish as the City of the violated treaty.'

14. War with France. 1689-1690.-In the meantime, whilst William was distracted by foes in his own kingdom, Louis had been doing his best to get the better of his enemies. In 1689 the allies were able to make head against him without any decisive result. In 1690 Louis sent his best Admiral, Tourville, to sweep the Channel and invade England whilst William was away in Ireland. Off Beachy Head Tourville was met by a combined English and Dutch fleet. In the battle which followed, the English Admiral, Herbert, who had lately been created Lord Torrington, kept, probably through mere mismanagement, his own ships out of harm's way, whilst he allowed his Dutch allies to expose themselves to danger. Under these circumstances Tourville gained the victory, whilst in the Netherlands the French Marshal, Luxembourg, defeated the allied armies at Fleurus. Though William had been for some time unpopular in England as a foreigner, yet the nation now rallied round him as the enemy of the French. Tourville sailed down the Channel, and asked a fisherman with whom he came up what he thought of King James. "He is a very worthy gentleman, I believe," was the reply, "God bless him." Tourville then asked the fisherman to take service on board his ship. "What? I," answered the man, "go with the French to fight against the English? Your honour must excuse me; I could not do it to save my life." Thousands of Englishmen who were indifferent to the claims of James or William would have nothing to say to James because he had put himself under the protection of the French.

15. Disgrace of Marlborough. 1691-1692. Churchill, who had been created Earl of Marlborough by William, had won distinction as a soldier both in Ireland and in the Netherlands. Both as an

Englishman and as a soldier he was offended at the favour shown to foreigners by William. Dutchmen and Frenchmen were promoted over the heads of English officers. Dutchmen filled the most lucrative posts at court, and were raised to the English peerage. It was, perhaps, natural that William should advance those whom he knew best and trusted most, but in so doing he alienated a great number of Englishmen. Men high in office doubted whether a government thus constituted could last, and, partly because they were personally disgusted, partly because they wished to make themselves safe in any event, entered into communication with James, and promised to support his claims, a promise which they intended to keep or break as might be most convenient to themselves. Marlborough went further than any. In 1691, he offered to move an address in the House of Lords, asking William to dismiss the foreigners, assuring James that, if William refused, the army and navy would expel him from England; and he also induced the Princess Anne to put herself in opposition to her sister, the Queen. On this William deprived Marlborough of all his offices.

16. La Hogue, Steinkirk, and Landen. 1692-1693.—Amongst those who had offered their services to James was Admiral Russell, a brother of the Lord Russell who had been beheaded (see p. 626). He was an ill-tempered man, and being dissatisfied in consequence of some real or fancied slight, told a Jacobite agent that he was willing to help James to regain the throne. Yet his offer was not without limitation. "Do not think," he added, "that I will let the French triumph over us in our own sea. Understand this, that if I meet them I fight them; ay, though His Majesty himself should be on board." Russell kept his word as far as the fighting was concerned. When in 1692 a French fleet and army were made ready for the invasion of England, he met the fleet near the Bay of La Hogue and utterly defeated it. His sailors followed up their victory and set on fire the greater number of the French ships, though they lay under the protection of batteries on shore. The French navy, indeed, was not swept from the sea, but the mastery had passed into the hands of the English. No further attempt was made by the French in this war to invade England, and Louis, intent upon victories on shore, took little trouble to maintain his navy. On land Louis still had the superiority. In 1692, the year of the English victory at La Hogue, his army took Namur, and defeated the allies at Steinkirk with William at their head. In 1693 the French won another victory at Neerwinden, or, according to another name sometimes given to the battle, at Landen.

17. Beginning of the National Debt. 1692.-After both these

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