full of zeal in the matters of religion; he raised above two hundred new churches in his dominions; he was weak, and much in the power of his ministers and flatterers: but was so apt to hearken to whispers, that he changed twice the whole set of his ministry: his assuming the title of a king, and his affecting an extraordinary magnificence in his court, brought a great charge on himself, and on all about him, which made him a severe master to his subjects, and set him on many pretensions, chiefly those relating to the prince of Frizeland, which were not thought well grounded. He was succeeded in his dignity by his son, who had hitherto appeared to affect a roughness of behaviour, and seemed fond of his grenadiers, not only beyond all other military men, but beyond all men whatsoever he seemed to have a warlike inclination; but what he will prove, now that he is on the throne, must be left to time *.

The appearances of a new war between the Turk and the czar varied so often, that it was doubtful in what it might end: the king of Sweden used all possible means to engage the Turk in it; but he threw himself, by his intractable obstinacy, into great dangers: the party at the Porte that opposed the war, studied to get rid of that king, and of his importunities. Orders were sent him to march back into his kingdom: and they undertook to procure him a safe passage to it; but he treated the person that was sent with this message with great insolence, and fortified himself, as well as he could, with the Swedes that were about him, and resolved to defend himself. A force much superior to his was brought against him; but he maintained himself so resolutely in his house, that some hundreds of those who attacked him were killed: the Turks upon that set fire to the house, whereupon he was forced to surrender, and was put under a guard, and most of his Swedes were sold for slaves; he was carried to a house near Adrianople, but not suffered to come to court only the Sultan disowned the violence used to his person. In the mean while, the czar shipped an army from Petersburgh, that landed in Finland: the Swedes were not able to stand before him; every place, as he advanced, submitted to him; and he was now master of Abo, the capital of Finland, and of that whole province. Steinbock, with his army, maintained himself in Tonningen, as long as their provision lasted: but, all supplies being carefully stopped, he was forced at last to deliver up himself and his army prisoners of war; and these were the best troops the Swedes had, so that Sweden was struck with a general consternation; to this distracted state has that furious prince abandoned his own kingdom. And there I must leave it, to return to our own affairs.

After a long expectation we at last knew, that on the thirteenth of March the treaty of peace between England, France, and the States was signed upon this, the parliament was opened on the ninth of April. The queen in her speech told the two houses, that she had now concluded a peace, and had obtained a further security for the protestant succession, and that she was in an entire union with the house of Hanover; she asked of the commons, the necessary supplies, and recommended to both houses, the cultivating the arts of peace, with a reflection upon faction. Upon this speech, a debate arose in the house of lords, concerning some words, that were moved to be put in the address, (which of course was to be made to the queen) applauding the conditions of the peace, and the security for the protestant succession this was opposed, since we did not yet know what the conditions of the peace were, nor what that security was; all that appeared was, that the pretender was gone out of France into the Barrois, a part of Lorrain, for which that duke did homage to the crown of France. An address of congratulation was agreed to, but without any approbation of the peace. The house of commons observed the same caution in their address. But upon this, a new set of addresses ran through the nation, in the usual strains of flattery and false eloquence. The parliament sat above a month before the articles of peace (and of a treaty of commerce, made at that same time) were laid before thein. It was given out, that, until the ratifications were exchanged, it was not proper to publish them; but when that was done, they were communicated to both houses, and printed.

By the treaty of peace, the French king was bound to give neither harbour nor assistance to the pretender, but acknowledged the queen's title and the protestant succession, as it was

* He became Frederic the Great, or the Mad, for both designations are applicable. See his own "Memoirs of the House of Brandenburg.”

settied by several acts of parliament: Dunkirk was to be razed in a time limited, within five months, after the ratification; but that was not to be begun, until an equivalent for it was put in the hands of France. Newfoundland, Hudson's Bay, and St. Christopher's were to be given to England; but Cape Breton was left to the French, with a liberty to dry their fish on Newfoundland: this was the main substance of the articles of peace. The treaty of commerce settled a free trade, according to the tariff in the year 1664, excepting some commodities, that were subjected to a new tariff in the year 1699, which was so high, that it amounted to a prohibition: all the productions of France were to come into England under no other duties but those that were laid on the same productions from other countries; and when this was settled, then commissaries were to be sent to London, to agree and adjust all matters relating to trade: the treaty of commerce with Spain was not yet finished. As for the allies, Portugal and Savoy were satisfied; the emperor was to have the duchy of Milan, the kingdom of Naples, and the Spanish Netherlands: Sicily was to be given to the duke of Savoy, with the title of king: and Sardinia, with the same title, was to be given to the elector of Bavaria, in lieu of his losses: the States were to deliver up Lisle, and the little places about it: and, besides the places of which they were already possessed, they were to have Namur, Charleroi, Luxemburg, Ypres, and Newport: the king of Prussia was to have the Upper Guelder, in lieu of Orange, and the other estates, which the family had in Franche Comté: this was all that I think necessary to insert here, with relation to our treaty: the emperor was to have time to the first of June, to declare his accepting of it. It did not appear what equivalent the king of France was to have for Dunkirk: no mention was made of it in the treaty; so the house of commons made an address to the queen, desiring to know what that equivalent was. Some weeks passed before they had an answer; at last the queen by a message said, the French king had that equivalent already in his own hands; but we were still in the dark as to that, no further explanation being made of it. As to Newfoundland, it was thought that the French settling at Cape Breton, instead of Placentia, would be of great advantage to thein with relation to the fishery, which is the only thing that makes settlements in those parts of any value. The English have always pretended, that the first discovery of Newfoundland being made in Henry the Seventh's time, the right to it was in the crown of England. The French had leave given them in king Charles the First's time to fish there, paying tribute, as an acknowledgment of that licence: it is true, they carried this much further, during the civil wars; and this grew to a much greater height in the reign of king Charles the Second; but in king William's time, an act of parliament passed, asserting the right of the crown to Newfoundland, laying open the trade thither to all the subjects of Great Britain, with a positive and constant exclusion of all aliens and foreigners: these were the reflections on the treaty of peace; but there were more important objections made to the treaty of commerce. During king Charles the Second's reign, our trade with France was often and loudly complained of, as, very prejudicial to the nation; there was a commission appointed in the year 1674, to adjust the conditions of our commerce with that nation, and then it appeared, in a scheme that was prepared by very able merchants, that we lost every year a million of money by our trade thither. This was then so well received, that the scheme was entered into the journals of both houses of parliament, and into the books of the custom-house: but the court at that time favoured the interests of France so much, preferably to their own, that the trade went still on until the year 1678, when the parliament laid, upon all French commodities, such a duty as amounted to a prohibition, and was to last for three years, and to the end of the next session of parliament: at the end of the three years, king Charles called no more parliaments; and that act was repealed in king James's parliaments: but, during the whole last war, high duties were laid on all the productions and manufactures of France; which by this treaty were to be no higher charged, than the same productions from other countries. It was said that, if we had been as often beaten by the French, as they had been by us, this would have been thought a very hard treaty; and if the articles of our commerce had been settled, before the duke of Ormond was ordered to separate his troops from the confederates, the French could not have pretended to draw us into such terms as they had insisted on since that time, because we put ourselves into their power. We were engaged, by our treaty with Portugal,

that their wines should be charged a third part lower than the French wines; but if the duties were, according to this treaty of commerce, to be made equal, then considering the difference of freight, which is more than double from Portugal, the French wines would be much cheaper; and the nation generally liking them better, by this means we should not only break our treaties with Portugal, but if we did not take off their wines, we must lose their trade, which was at present the most advantageous, that we drove any where: for, besides a great vent of our manufactures, we brought over yearly great returns of gold from thence; four, five, and six hundred thousand pounds a-year. We had brought the silk manufacture here to so great perfection, that about three hundred thousand people were maintained by it. For carrying this on, we brought great quantities of silk from Italy and Turkey, by which people in those countries came to take off as great quantities of our manufactures; so that our demand for silk had opened good markets for our woollen goods abroad, which must fail, if our manufacture of silk at home should be lost; which, if once we gave a free vent for silk stuffs from France among us, must soon be the case; since the cheapness of provisions and of labour in France, would enable the French to undersell us, even at our own markets. Our linen and paper manufactures would likewise be ruined by a free importation of the same goods from France. These things came to be so generally well understood, that even, while flattering addresses were coming to court from all parts of the island, petitions came from the towns and counties concerned in trade, setting forth the prejudice they apprehended from this treaty of commerce. The ministers used all possible arts to bear this clamour down; they called it faction, and decried it with a boldness, that would have surprised any, but those who had observed the methods they had taken for many years to vent the foulest calumnies, and the falsest misrepresentations possible. But the matter came to be so universally apprehended, that it could not be disguised.

The house of commons gave an aid of two shillings in the pound, though the ministers hoped to have carried it higher; but the members durst not venture on that, since a new election was soon to follow the conclusion of the session: they went next to renew the duty on malt, for another year; and here a debate arose, that was kept up some days in both houses of parliament, whether it should be laid on the whole island: it was carried in the affirmative, of which the Scots complained heavily, as a burden that their country could not bear: and whereas it was said, that those duties ought to be laid equally on all the subjects of the United Kingdom, the Scots insisted on an article of the union, by which it was stipulated, that no duty should be laid on the malt in Scotland during the war, which ought to be observed religiously. They said, it was evident, the war with Spain was not yet ended; no peace with that crown was yet proclaimed, nor so much as signed: and though it was as good as made, and was every day expected, yet it was a maxim in the construction of all laws, that odious matters ought to be strictly understood, whereas matters of favour were to be more liberally interpreted. It was farther said on the Scotch side, that this duty was, by the very words of the act, to be applied to deficiencies during the war: so this act was, upon the matter, making Scotland pay that duty during the war, from which the articles of the union did by express words exempt them. A great number of the English were convinced of the equity of these grounds, that the Scots went on; but the majority was on the other side. So, when the bill had passed through the house of commons, all the Scots of both houses met together, and agreed to move for an act, dissolving the union; they went first to the queen, and told her how grievous and indeed intolerable this duty would be to their country, so that they were under a necessity to try, how the union might be broken. The queen seemed uneasy at the motion; she studied to divert them from it, and assured them that her officers should have orders to make it easy to them. This was understood to imply that the duty should not be levied; but they knew this could not be depended on : so the motion was made in the house of lords, and most of the lords of that nation spoke to it: they set forth all the hardships, that they lay under since the union; they had no more a council in Scotland; their peers at present were the only persons in the whole island, that were judged incapable of peerage by descent; their laws were altered in matters of the highest importance, particularly in matters of treason; and now an imposition was to

• There must be one cipher too many here. Burnet unquestionably intended to write 30,000.

be laid on their malt, which must prove an intolerable burden to the poor of that country, and force them to drink water. Upon all these reasons they moved for liberty to bring in a bill, to dissolve the union, in which they would give full security, for maintaining the queen's prerogative, and for securing the protestant succession. This was opposed with much zeal by the ministers, but was supported by others; who, though they did not intend to give up the union, yet thought it reasonable to give a hearing to this motion, that they might see how far the protestant succession could be secured, in case it should be entertained; but the majority were for rejecting the motion: when the malt-bill was brought up to the lords, there was such an opposition made to it, that fifty-six voted against it, but sixty-four were for it, and so it passed.

The matter of the greatest consequence in this session was, a bill for settling the commerce with France, according to the treaty, and for taking off the prohibitions and high duties, that were laid on the productions of France. The traders in the city of London, and those in all the other parts of England were alarmed, with the great prejudice this would bring on the whole nation. The Turkey company, those that traded to Portugal and Italy, and all who were concerned in the woollen and silk manufactures, appeared before both houses, and set forth the great mischief, that a commerce with France, on the foot of the treaty, would bring upon the nation; while none appeared on the other side, to answer their arguments, or to set forth the advantage of such a commerce. It was manifest, that none of the trading bodies had been consulted in it; and the commissioners for trade and plantations had made very material observations on the first project, which was sent to them for their opinion and afterwards, when this present project was formed, it was also transmitted to that board by the queen's order, and they were required to make their remarks on it; but Arthur Moor, who had risen up, from being a footman without any education, to be a great dealer in trade, and was the person of that board in whom the lord treasurer confided most, moved that they might first read it every one apart, and then debate it; and he desired to have the first perusal : so he took it away, and never brought it back to them, but gave it to the lord Bolingbroke, who carried it to Paris, and there it was settled. The bill was very feebly maintained by those who argued for it; yet the majority went with the bill until the last day; and then the opposition to it was so strong, that the ministers seemed inclined to let it fall: but it was not then known, whether this was only a feint, or whether the instances of the French ambassador, and the engagements that our ministers were under to that court, prevailed for carrying it on. It was brought to the last step; and then a great many of those, who had hitherto gone along with the court, broke from them in this matter, and bestirred themselves so effectually, that when it came to the last division, one hundred and eighty-five were for the bill, and one hundred and ninety-four were against it: by so small a majority was a bill of such great importance lost. But the house of commons, to soften the ill constructions that might be made of their rejecting this bill, made an address to the queen, in which they thanked her for the peace she had concluded, and for the foundation laid for settling our commerce; and prayed her to name commissaries to regulate and finish that matter.

To this the queen sent an answer, of a singular composition: she said, she was glad to see they were so well pleased with the treaty of peace and commerce that she had made, and assured them that she would use her best endeavours to see all the advantages that she had stipulated for her subjects performed. This was surprising, since the house of commons had sufficiently showed, how little they were pleased with the treaty of commerce, by their rejecting the bill that was offered to confirm it; and this was insinuated in their address itself: but it was pleasantly said, that the queen answered them, according to what ought

Mr. Speaker Onslow says, "Mr. Moor had very extraordinary talents, with great experience and knowledge of the world, very able in parliament, and capable of the highest parts of business, with a manner in it, and indeed in his general deportment, equal almost to any rank. He knew every body, and could talk of every body, which made his conversation a sort of history of the age. He was generous and magnificent; wrote and spoke

accurately and politely; but his figure was awkward and disadvantageous. If," continues Mr. Onslow, who knew him intimately, "if he had raised himself by a course of virtue, he would have justly been deemed one of the greatest among those who have wrought their own fortunes. But, vendidit hic auro patriam-to Spain, at least, if not to France, in our commercial transactions at the peace of Utrecht."-Oxford ed. of this work.

to have been in their address, and not according to what was in it; besides it was observable, that her promise to maintain what was already stipulated, did not at all answer the prayer of their address. This was all that passed in this session of parliament with relation to the peace. It was once apprehended, that the ministers would have moved for an act, or at least for an address, approving the peace; and upon that I prepared a speech, which I intended to make on the subject: it was the only speech that I ever prepared beforehand; but since that matter was never brought into the house, I had no occasion to make it; yet I think proper to insert it here, that I may deliver down my thoughts of this great transaction to posterity.

"My lords, this matter now before you, as it is of the greatest importance, so it may be seen in very different lights; I will not meddle with the political view of it; I leave that to persons who can judge and speak of it much better than I can: I will only offer to you what appears to me, when I consider it, with relation to the rules of morality and religion; in this I am sure I act within my proper sphere. Some things stick so with me, that I could have no quiet in my conscience, nor think I had answered the duty of my function, if I did not make use of the freedom of speech, that our constitution and the privileges of this house allow me: I am the more encouraged to do this, because the bringing those of our order into public councils, in which we have now such a share, was originally intended for this very end, that we should offer such considerations, as arise from the rules of our holy religion, in all matters that may come before us. In the opening my sense of things, I may be forced to use some words that may perhaps appear severe: I cannot help it, if the nature of these affairs is such, that I cannot speak plainly of them in a softer strain: I intend not to reflect on any person; and I am sure I have such a profound respect for the queen, that no part of what I may say, can be understood to reflect on her in any sort: her intentions are, no doubt, as she declares them to be, all for the good and happiness of her people; but it is not to be supposed that she can read long treaties, or carry the articles of them in her memory so if things have been either concealed from her, or misrepresented to her, she can do no wrong; and, if any such thing has been done, we know on whom our constitution lays

the blame.

"The treaties that were made some years ago with our allies are in print; both the grand alliance, and some subsequent ones: we see many things in these that are not provided for by this peace; it was in particular stipulated, that no peace should be treated, much less concluded, without the consent of the allies. But, before I make any observations on this, I must desire you will consider how sacred a thing the public faith, that is engaged in treaties and alliances, should be esteemed.

"I hope I need not tell you, that even heathen nations valued themselves upon their fidelity, in a punctual observing of all their treaties, and with how much infamy they branded the violation of them: if we consider that, which revealed religion teaches us to know, that man was made after the image of God, the God of all truth, as we know who is the father of lies; God hates the deceitful man, in whose mouth there is no faithfulness. In that less perfect religion of the Jews, when the Gibeonites had, by a fraudulent proceeding, drawn Joshua and the Israelites into a league with them, it was sacredly observed; and the violation of it, some time after, was severely punished. And, when the last of the kings of Judah shook off the fidelity, to which he had bound himself to the king of Babylon, the prophet thereupon said with indignation, shall he break the oath of God, and prosper? The swearing deceitfully is one of the worst character; and he who swears to his own hurt, and changes not, is among the best. It is a maxim of the wisest of kings, that the throne is established by righteousness. Treaties are of the nature of oaths; and when an oath is asked to confirm a treaty, it is never denied. The best account that I can give of the disuse of adding that sacred seal to treaties is this:

"The popes had for some ages possessed themselves of a power, to which they had often recourse, of dissolving the faith of treaties, and the obligation of oaths: the famous, but fatal story of Ladislaus, king of Hungary, breaking his faith to Amurath, the Turk, by virtue of a papal dispensation, is well known. One of the last public acts of this sort was, when pope Clement the Seventh absolved Francis the First, from the treaty made and sworn to at