to Darien, on the Isthmus of Panama. He represented in glowing terms to his countrymen the splendour of the country, where Nature produced her fruits little assisted by the labour of man, and the almost certain wealth that would accrue to Scotland. Paterson predicted that the whole trade with India would be diverted from its existing channels and pass across the Isthmus of Panama. The scheme created the greatest enthusiasm throughout Scotland. Everyone was anxious to obtain shares in the company which was formed. Two ships were fitted out, and the Darien Company obtained a charter from William's representatives, the government in Scotland. The expedition failed, as it was sure to fail, seeing that the settlers knew nothing of the climate or of the country in which they were to settle. It failed utterly and entirely. Many fell victims to disease and starvation; a few escaped with their lives. This failure brought the ill-will of Scotland against William; the attempt roused the ill-will of England, jealous for her Indian trade, as well as the fierce anger of Spain.

Moreover, the English people did not want to interfere in the affairs of Spain. They were tired of fighting, and on that account hostile to the policy of William. A House of Commons had been

Opposition

to William in England.

returned, pledged to a considerable reduction of the army, and determined to secure that in the English army there should be no foreigners. William's favourite Dutch regiment, the Blue Guards, had to leave England. There was also indignation against William because he had granted to his Dutch friends estates that had been forfeited to the Crown. The opposition to the king had, indeed, been carried so far that he threatened to resign the crown, and had actually written the speech with which he should resign it, a speech which is still extant. Fortunately he never carried out this threat;

but the conduct of the Spaniards, singling him out for their indignation about the Partition Treaties, shows that his power was not the same three years after as it had been when the Peace of Ryswick was signed. The Spaniards knew well the humiliation which the Parliament was inflicting on him.

The ruling classes in Spain, whose one great thought was how to keep the vast monarchy together, found it necessary to select one of the two claimants, The will of and selected the more powerful. There were Charles II. two parties at the Spanish Court, the larger and more earnest party in favour of the French succession, and another in favour of the House of Austria. But the French party prevailed. When the event so long expected at last took place, and King Charles died, it was found that he had recently signed a will, by which he left his kingdom undivided to Philip, Duke of Anjou, the second son of the dauphin. William was in no position to resist. Lewis, bound neither by his oaths of renunciation nor by the sacredness of treaties, without hesitation permitted his grandson to accept the inheritance; and the temper in which he did so was well illustrated by the speech with which he is said to have dismissed him to take up his crown-Il n'y a plus de Pyrénées- The Pyrenees exist no longer.' Philip went to Spain, where he was crowned, and quietly received by the people as Philip V.

Philip V.

of Spain.

It would seem as if Lewis were going to have his own way; and if he had been careful neither to offend the people of England, nor to alarm the Dutch,

Lewis makes three mistakes.

it is more than possible that there would have been no war. William, and the leading statesmen of Holland, might have felt indignation at the undoing of their work, and might have given their sympathies to the Archduke Charles. But they were powerless, until

Lewis committed a series of mistakes, which brought the war upon him. (1.) When Philip went to Spain, his grandfather, by letters patent, reserved his right of succession to the French Crown. By this the fear of a union between the two countries was increased. (2.) King Lewis put French garrisons into towns of the Spanish Netherlands, showing that he regarded those towns as now so closely united with France, that he might treat them as his own. He even proposed that the Netherlands should be ceded to him, as his government was so much nearer and more convenient than that of Spain. By this the fears of the Dutch were excited. But, however strongly William might feel this, the English people were still indifferent. (3.) When James II., the exiled King of England, died at St. Germains, Lewis, visiting him on his death-bed, was moved to promise that he would recognise his son as the King of England. On the death of James, his son James, usually known as the Old Pretender, was, with all due formality, recognised at Versailles ; and the English people were at last aroused. The English ambassador was recalled from France; the French ambassador quickly received orders to leave London. The Parliament that had grudged supplies to William was dissolved. Amid the greatest excitement, another was elected, giving a large majority to the friends of William, and the country in many ways was now as eager as it had previously been disinclined for war.

The Grand Alliance of the Hague.

For such an occasion as this William had waited. However much he might deplore that the peace of Europe should once more be broken-although he knew that his own health was feeble, and that he could not live much longer, the stern purpose of his life did not desert him. That purpose had been opposition to the growing power of Lewis. Since the death of King Charles he had laboured to excite

The

resistance to France among the European powers. backwardness of the English had tied his hands; but now, through the chivalrous folly or insolence of Lewis, this difficulty had been removed. The league of the European powers, known as the Grand Alliance, was revived, the objects of which were to place the Archduke Charles on the throne of Spain, and to keep down the power of France. It declared first, that France was not to retain the Netherlands, nor to acquire the West Indies, and secondly, that the Crowns of France and Spain were never to be united.

Death of William. A.D. 1702.

But the Grand Alliance was no sooner formed than its creator died. William had never been a strong man, he had suffered from many complaints, and was hardly ever free from asthma. His indomitable spirit had carried him through scenes of toil and fatigue which would have brought even strong men low. His restless energy and his unceasing work had at last worn him out. All his doctors told him to prepare for death, and indeed he was ready for it. 'You know,' he said to a friend, that I never feared death; there have been times when I should have wished it; but, now that this great new prospect is opening before me, I do wish to stay here a little longer.' He was riding on his favourite horse Sorrel in Hamptoncourt Park, when the horse stumbled upon a mole-hill. The king was thrown, and broke his collar-bone. An illness ensued, which ended in a fever, and the fever proved fatal.

Character.

About the character of William the Third many a battle has been fought. His name has been made a cry wherewith to rouse animosities which are better left at peace. As no man is perfect, so in William's government, doubtless, mistakes may be found perhaps they deserve even a harsher name.

But

the service that he rendered to England is undoubted and priceless, and it was not well repaid. During his later years his life was embittered by opposition from the English, who no longer felt the pressing need of his services against Stuart tyranny. He was constantly reproached with favouring his foreign friends. Would Englishmen have thought better of him if he had left his old and faithful friends unrewarded?

A European statesman.

It is not, however, only or chiefly as an English king that William is to be judged-rather as a European statesman. As our fathers fought against Napoleon to preserve the liberties of Europe, and therewith our own, so William, from his earliest years to his death-bed, held constantly before him the one thought, how best to keep the power of France within bounds. Germany had been left so divided at the peace of Westphalia that there was no one great State in Europe which could resist Lewis. The only chance was an alliance: but for an alliance it was necessary that there should be some one to propose and to maintain it; one who could humour this ally, and persuade that; one who, penetrated with the greatness of the cause, could forgive petty insults, and by his own warmth make up for the coldness of others. Such an one was William.

Though William died, his work lived on. The machine, it has been said, was put together on true principles, and it continued in motion, though the masterworkman was gone.

CHAPTER II.

LEWIS XIV.

IT is impossible to understand any period of history without bearing in mind the character of the earlier