Billeder på siden
PDF
ePub

A. D.

1688 Terra Firma and New Spain, &c. coming to St. Domingo, where is fixed the last appeal, or dernier refort, in all fuits at law for Spanish America, which therefore draws thither many people. This has proved an unlucky incident for England's neighbouring ifles; and fo much the rather, as the feeble state of Spain obliged that crown, at the treaty of Ryfwick, in the year 1697, to yield up to France, for ever, that noble part of Hifpaniola, of which they had, till then, violently poffeffed themselves.

1689

Conful Ker, in his before-mentioned Remarks on Germany, in the year 1688, obferves, "That perfecution has undone the famous imperial city of Cologne, as well as many others, "fo greatly decayed within one hundred years paft.-The Jefuits influence was such with its "magiftrates, as to prevail with them to banish all Protestants: thefe removed to Hamburg "and Amfterdam; whereby Cologne became fo difpeopled, that the houfes daily fell to ruin, "for want of inhabitants, and a great deal of corn and wine now grows within its walls, "where formerly were houfes." He fays, the parish of St. Martin, in Westminster, has twice the number of inhabitants that Cologne has, and yet Cologne contains as many parish churches, monafteries, and chapels, as there are days in the year. The like decay, he fays, is at Strafburg.

The English nation, as well as thofe of Scotland and Ireland, having, at this time, had their religious and civil liberties and free conftitution openly invaded and trampled on by King James the Second, in a moft flagrant manner, by the united voice of all true Proteftants and lovers of our national conftitution and laws, William, Prince of Orange, that King's nephew and fon-in-law, was invited over from Holland, to refcue us from thofe worst of evils, and was established on the throne of those free nations, whofe religious and legal constitutions were thereby fettled on more fure and firm foundations than ever they had been in any former - period whatever : which felicity of ours even foreigners have celebrated in their writings.Voltaire, a Frenchman and a Papift, in his Age of Louis the Fourteenth, gives the following remarks, viz. “This was the proper æra of English liberty.-The nation, represented by its Parliament, now fixed the so long contested bounds between the prerogative of the crown and the rights of the people.-They prescribed the terms of reigning to the Prince of Orange, "and chofe him for their fovereign, in conjunction with his confort Mary.

The establishment of this free confttiution, did moft certainly contribute, greatly, in its confequences, as it was natural to fuppofe and expect, to the increase and advancement of our commerce. This will, in part, be seen in King William's declaration of war against France, whither the unhappy abdicating King had retired for protection.

In the beginning of 1689, the Frince and Princefs of Orange were recognized by the convention of eftates, and the voice of the people, as King and Queen of thofe realms; and by an act of the convention of eftates of England, afterwards turned into an act of Parliament, cap. vi. a new form of a coronation-oath was prefcribed to be taken by them; whereby they, as all their fucceffors must do, "folemnly promised and swore on the gofpels, to govern their "people according to law :-To cause law and juftice, in mercy, to be executed in all their "judgments :-That, to the utmost of their power, they will maintain the laws of God, the true profeffion of the Gospel, and Proteftant Reformed Religion, eftablished by law; and "will preserve to the bishops and clergy of this realm, and to the churches committed to their "charge, all fuch rights and privileges as by law appertain unto them.”

Moreover, by a statute, cap. viii. of this first feffion, the tyrannical oaths of allegiance and fupremacy were abrogated; and in their stead were the two following substituted, viz.

[merged small][ocr errors]

& D.

1689 I. "I, A. B. do fincerely promise and fwear, that I will be faithful and bear true alle"giance to their Majefties:" And,

II. "I do, from my heart, abhor, deteft, and abjure, that damnable doctrine and position, "That Princes excommunicated or deprived by the Pope, or any authority of the See of «Rome, may be depofed or murdered by their fubjects, or any other whatsoever. And I do "declare, that no foreign Prince, perfon, prelate, ftate, or potentate, hath, or ought to “have, any jurisdiction, power, superiority, pre-eminence, or authority, ecclefiaftical or fpiritual, within this realm."

[ocr errors]

By an act of Parliament, cap. x. of this fame first feffion of the first year of King William and Queen Mary, it appearing, "That the revenue of hearth or chimney-money was grievous "to the people of England, by occafioning many difficulties and questions,—a great oppres-"fion to the poorer fort, and a badge of flavery upon the whole people; expofing every man's "house to be entered into and searched at pleasure, by perfons unknown to him." It was therefore abfolutely abolished for ever.

It then appeared, says the continuator of Rapin's History, vol. iii. p. 52, Notes, that the number of houses in England and Wales, foon after the restoration, was about one million two hundred and thirty thousand: and reckoning fix perfons, at a medium, to each house, it fixes the number of the people then to be feven millions three hundred and eighty thousand.

In the fame feffion, cap. xxii. it was enacted, "That when malt or barley is at one pound "four fhillings per quarter, or under; rye, at one pound twelve fhillings; and wheat, at two "pounds eight fhillings per quarter; then it shall not only be lawful to export the fame, but "the exporters fhall also receive the following bounties, viz. For malt or barley, per quarter, 46 two shillings and fix-pence; rye, three fhillings and fix-pence; wheat, five fhillings per quarter; without requiring any thing for customs or fees whatever; provided fecurity be "given for fuch corn's being legally landed beyond-sea, and that the fhip and its crew, in "which it shall be exported, be duly qualified according to the acts of navigation."

[ocr errors]

This was the first law for allowing any bounty on corn exported. which bounties have in general be en esteemed fo beneficial to the landed interest, by enabling tenants to pay their rents in years of plenty, that unless in years of fcarcity, when the current prices were higher than the above-named ones, it has been judged prudent to continue the fame. How much this bounty contributed to the improvement of husbandry, is too obvious to be difputed.— Yet fome are of opinion, that, inftead hereof, all the corn of plentiful years fhould by the public be purchased of the farmers, at a moderate price, to be laid up in granaries against a year of dearth. This would not only be a great help to our poor, in a year of fcarcity, but would bring foreign ships to purchase it at our price, and would alfo employ great numbers of our own thips, for fupplying other nations at higher rates, as is done in Holland. In other countries, fays a French author, the people pay their fovereign for leave to carry out their corn; but wifer England pays her people for exporting it.

As nothing tends more to the advancement of commerce and induftry, than the giving ease to fcrupulous confciences in the exercife of their religion, an act of the fame feffion, cap. xviii. was paffed, For exempting all their Majefties Proteftant fubjects, of the feveral denominations. diffenting from the church of England, from the penalties of certain laws: which, as its preamble fets forth, "might be an effectual means to unite their Majefties Proteftant subjects in “interest and affection."-Which legal toleration, fome wicked party-measures, at certain times, excepted, has generally anfwered the wife and good ends propofed by that law.

A. D.

1689 By cap. xxx. of the fame firft feffion aforefaid, the ftatute of the fifth year of King Henry the Fourth, cap. iv. Against the multiplying of Gold and Silver, was repealed; becaufe, fays the preamble," Since the making of the faid ftatute, men are arrived to great skill and perfec"tion in the art of refining metals, and of extracting gold and filver therefrom; but yet dare "not exercife their skill, for fear of incurring the felony of that ftatute, but do therefore ex"ercife their faid fkill in foreign parts, to the great detriment of the realm:-Provided, how"ever, that all the gold and filver fo to be extracted from other metals, be employed for "coinage in the King's mint, and no other way. Provided alfo, that henceforth no mine of copper, tin, iron, or lead, fhall hereafter be adjudged to be a royal mine, even although gold or filver may be extracted out of the fame."

[ocr errors]

The great injuftice and violences committed by King Louis the Fourteenth of France against England, Germany, Spain, and Holland, brought about a Grand Alliance of thofe four potentates in this fame year, for reducing that lawless monarch to reafon; the confequence whereof was an immediate declaration of war by each of them. That of King William of England, dated the feventh of May, 1689, after reciting Louis's unjust invasion and ravaging of the territories of his ally, the Emperor and Empire, as far as is relative to commercial concerns, was fummarily as follows, viz.

66

I. "That although it was not long before, that the French took out licences from the English governor of Newfoundland to fish on that coaft, paying tribute for fuch licences, "as an acknowledgement of the fole right of the crown of England to that ifland; yet, of late, "their encroachments on that ifland, and our subjects trade and fishery, have been more like "the invafions of an enemy, than becoming friends, who enjoyed the advantages of that trade only by permiffion.

66

II. "But that the French King fhould invade our Caribbee iflands, (St. Chriftopher's, &c.) and poffefs himself of our territories in New York and Hudfon's Bay, in a hostile manner, imprisoning fome, and murdering others of our fubjects, burning their houses, and feizing on their effects, are actions even not becoming an enemy.-Yet, at that very time, Louis, "far from declaring himself fo, was, by his minifters in England, foliciting a treaty of neutrality and good correfpondence in America."-(in the year 1686.)

III. "His proceedings, moreover, against our fubjects in Europe, are fo notorious, that we need not enlarge thereon: fuch as the countenancing the feizure of our fhips by his "privateers; his prohibiting a great part of our product and manufactures; and impofing ex"orbitant customs upon the reft; are fufficient evidences of his design to deftroy the trade and navigation upon which the wealth and fafety of this nation very much depend.

[ocr errors]

IV. "His difputing the right of the flag, inherent in the crown of England.

V. "His unchriftian perfecution of many of our English Protestant subjects in France, "for matters of religion, contrary to the laws of nations, and exprefs treaties; forcing "them to abjure their religion, by unusual cruelties; imprifoning fome of the mafters "and feamen of our merchant fhips, and condemning others to the gallies, on pretence "of having on board, either fome of his own miferable Proteftant fubjects, or their "effects.

VI. “ And, lastly, his endeavouring, for fome years paft, by infinuations and promises of "affiftance, to overthrow the government of England; and now, by open and violent me"thods, to invade Ireland, in fupport of our subjects in rebellion against us.”

A. D.

1689

This prohibition of commerce with France produced the good confequences of inducing the people of England to improve their old, and to invent feveral new manufactures, &c. which they formerly took of France; not a little to the detriment of that kingdom in the end.

In the declaration of Holland, amongst many other allegations against Louis; they affirm, First, That he had endeavoured, by all manner of ways, to ruin their navigation and "commerce, as well in Europe as elsewhere, by feizing of their ships and cargoes.

[ocr errors]

Secondly, By violently forcing even their fhips of war to be fearched, in a time of "found peace.

66

pro

Thirdly, By his new tolls and impofitions, hindering their subjects from selling their "manufactures and fifh in his country,-fo as it was become impoffible to continue their "trade to France, where their complaints were rejected with scorn.

[ocr errors]

Fourthly, Having begun a horrible perfecution of his own Protestant subjects, he had "therein involved the subjects of the States General, though only living in France, on account of commerce; parting wives from their husbands and children from their parents, &c."

[ocr errors]
[ocr errors]

The declaration of Spain, of the third of May this year, was in confequence of France's prior declaration of war against that crown, on the fifteenth of the preceding month, though deftitute of all juftice;-as alfo of his invading and ravaging the empire, and bringing the Turks to invade and ravage Hungary.

And that of the Emperor and Empire was much to the fame effect.

In the remarkable convention between the commiffioners of King William and those of the States of the United Netherlands, dated in August 1689, concerning their prohibition of commerce with France, it was ftipulated;

"I. That the fubjects of neither nation fhall be allowed to traffic to or with thofe of "France, either with fhips of their own or of any other nation. Neither shall they import "into either country any merchandize being the produce of the French King's dominions.

"II. If, during this war, the fubjects of any other potentate fhall have commerce with "France, or that their fhips are met with in their paffage thither, they fhall be feized and "condemned as lawful prize.

:

"III. The other potentates of Europe, at peace with France, fhall have due notification, "that if their fhips or veffels fhall be found at fea, before this notification shall have been "given, making their way to France, they fhall be obliged by the fhips of England and Hol"land forthwith to turn back and if failing from France, laden with French merchandize, "they fhall be obliged to fail back to France, and there leave the faid merchandize upon pain "of forfeiture. And in cafe the fhips of thofe Kings, Princes, and States, or their fubjects, "fhall, after the faid notification, be found at fea, and failing either towards the ports of "France, or returning from thence; they fhall be feized and forfeited, together with their cargoes, and shall be reputed good prize.

86

"IV. And as to the Princes and allies who are really at war with France, notification fhall "be given them, as aforefaid; and they fhall be defired at the fame time to concur with fuch

"methods as are fo conducive to the common intereft, and to give and execute fuch orders

[blocks in formation]
[blocks in formation]

"It is agreed, that in cafe either the one or the other party fhall be incommoded "or molefted, by reafon of the execution of this present treaty or any article thereof, his "Britannic Majefty King William and the Lords the States General, do promife and oblige "themselves to be guarantees for and to one another upon that account." General Collection of Treaties; first volume, fecond edition, p. 284-5-6, London, 1732.

Voltaire, in his Age of Louis XIV. obferves," that France was never in so flourishing a "condition as in the period from the death of Cardinal Mazarine to this war of 1689; contrary to the opinion of a certain author; who, it feems, had affirmed, that France, fince the year 1660, had funk in real value one thousand five hundred millions; the very con" trary whereof was true. Thus, adds he, in England, in the most flourishing times, papers"are continually coming out to prove, that the kingdom is undone." Which obfervation is extremely juft.

Although King Charles the Second, and his brother King James the Second, of England, had in their treaties with France generally ftipulated, that in cafe of any rupture between the two nations in Europe, the fubjects of both crowns in America fhould remain in a state of neutrality; yet, at the above-named grand revolution in England, the French broke through that agreement, by entering, in an hoftile manner, into the English pale at St. Chriftopher's Ifle, even before war was declared there between those two nations: and, although the English of that ifle had fent for fuccour from Barbadoes, after taking shelter in their fortreffles, yet they were neceffitated to furrender their part of that ifle to the French, in July 1689, and were. thereby obliged to retire to the neighbouring ifle of Nevis; to the great lofs of many mer-chants in London and Bristol.

Soon after which, the French drove the Hollanders out of their own ifland of Euftatia, in that neighbourhood.

It was in or about this year 1689, that the first convention was made, at London, between England and Spain, for supplying the Spanish West Indies with negro flaves, from the island of Jamaica.

66

About this time, (according to a quarto pamphlet, faid to be written by Mr. William Wood, a great undertaker of metals, in the year 1721, entitled, The State of the Copper and Brafs Manufacture in Great Britain, humbly offered to the Confideration of Parliament,) "the raising and refining of copper ore was revived in England, and chiefly in the county of "Cornwall, after having been loft or difufed ever fince the time of the Saxons; who, fays he, as well as the Danes, formerly made copper in England, as appears by the old mines "wrought by them in feveral counties: but, by reafon of the great quantities of thofe metals being imported from foreign parts, (on which high duties fhould have been laid) that valu"able branch of our product was dropped for many ages." Yet Gerard Malynes, in his LexMercatoria, published in 1622, obferves, that copper mines were then actually worked in many English counties: fo that Mr. Wood muft, in this refpect, be under an hiftorical miftake. Under the year 1399, we have likewife obferved, that fome authors relate, that, in King Richard the Second's reign, there was a copper mine found in Shropshire. Mr. Wood obferves," that formerly we had all our copper and brass from Sweden and Germany, though "now," viz. when he wrote, in the year 1721, "we are, in a great measure, fupplied from "our own mines. It was later, he fays, that the art was gained to England of converting copper into brafs."

[ocr errors]

Оп

« ForrigeFortsæt »