At length the Duke of Shrewsbury has entirely declined taking any office, and has returned to Eyford. He affirms that it is solely in consequence of the feeble state of his health, which, in truth, is very bad, from spitting blood; but the world believes that he has refused to take office, because I would not agree to give the seals to Lord Wharton; these the Duke of Shrewsbury will keep, however, till after the session of Parliament, and thus the affair is secret for the present. They urge me to make Lord Wharton Lord Chamberlain, to which I am as little inclined as to making him Secretary of State. The Whigs pretend that they will not be satisfied, and that my affairs will not be concluded to my satisfaction in Parliament if I do not gratify him. You see how far they carry matters. As for the Earl of Sunderland, they say no more of him than if he were dead.* Now * 66 King William, as it has been seen by many passages of his letters, was very anxious for the return of the Earl of Sunderland, and could not bear being without him; no doubt because, as Burnet tells us, during the time of his credit, things had been carried on with more spirit and better success than before:" and, in fact, according to the same authority, after Sunderland's retirement the government fell into a feebleness and a disjointed state, which made his past services more dear to the King. Among the most ardent in the opposition offered by the Whigs to the return of this statesman was Lord Wharton, comptroller of the household, whom, for his hasty and indiscreet temper, and the freedom of his language, King William never liked, notwithstanding the eminent services Wharton had rendered at the Revolution. Lord Wharton was much regarded by the Whig leaders; to whom, says Speaker Onslow, "he was always firm, and of great use from his abilities, especially in Par that the king of Spain is a little better, they think that there is no longer any thing to apprehend; and liament." He had their entire confidence, and for this cause they were willing to give him the seals of Secretary of State in case the Duke of Shrewsbury withdrew, or that, if the Duke was persuaded to remain in office, Lord Wharton should receive the Staff of Chamberlain, which had been vacant since the retreat of the Earl of Sunderland. The King would not confer on Lord Wharton either of these posts. He had very recently refused to send him to Ireland as Lord Lieutenant, at which Lord Wharton and his friends had been very angry; and fearing they would become yet more dissatisfied, King William desired that the Duke of Shrewsbury would not let his determination to resign the Seals be known, being desirous that this matter should remain in suspense. "His Majesty," wrote Mr. Vernon to the Duke of Shrewsbury, April 18. O. S., "his Majesty approves that your Grace's going to Eyford be spoken of as done by his consent, as the best means for your recovering. The King is not without apprehension that your going away thus on a sudden, will be interpreted as if you were dissatisfied that Lord Wharton had not the Seals; and they will say that, in that case you would have been prevailed upon to take the White Staff." King William was much displeased when he learned that the Duke of Shrewsbury, sick of the cares and humiliations of a Court life, suffering of bad health, and vexed at not possessing the royal confidence, had determined to retire altogether, and to refuse both the Staff of Chamberlain and the Seals of Secretary. The obstinacy of William III. in forcing the Earl of Sunderland upon a ministry from whom that nobleman differed, and by whom he was hated, the fixed resolve of the Duke of Shrewsbury to retire in this delicate conjuncture, and the resolution of the King to exclude from the cabinet council the only man who had the approbation of the Whig leaders, were among the principal causes of the embarrassments which tormented King William during hislast days. Thomas, fifth Lord Wharton, was created Earl of Wharton in 1706; and Marquis of Wharton in 1714. 1 much fear that I shall receive some address to complete the disbanding of the troops, without considering that France is not reducing her army, and is making naval preparations. WILLIAM III. TO THE PENSIONARY HEINSIUS. Kensington, April 22. 1698. Last Tuesday's letters from Holland are not yet arrived. I expect them with great impatience, and hope to receive your answers to my letters from Newmarket, concerning the great affair of the Spanish succession, about which I have learnt nothing further: probably they wait in France for my answer. Since the news came that the king of Spain is better, people here begin to lay aside their fears again, and think there is nothing more to be apprehended. The humour of this nation is inconceivable, and how difficult it is to adopt positive measures. COUNT TALLARD TO LOUIS XIV. London, May 3. 1698. The Earl of Jersey is appointed ambassador to your Majesty; he is a very agreeable man, but has a very limited understanding. His wife is very clever she is a Catholic, and will accompany him.* * Barbara, daughter of the notorious William Chiffinch, closet-keeper to Charles II. It is taken amiss here that the King should send a person of our religion to France; but he had no choice, for he was the only man in England who was willing to go. He is one of the Lords Justices of Ireland, and he retains his office and salary. The Duke of Shrewsbury is extremely ill, and withdraws entirely from public affairs. He was in very high credit with the party in Parliament called Whigs, and will be a great loss to the King. It is not believed that the office of Secretary of State, held by the Duke of Shrewsbury, will be soon filled up, and it is thought that the elections for the new Parliament will be waited for to see what party will prevail in them, in order to fill the office with a member of the predominant party. THE EARL OF PORTLAND TO WILLIAM III. Paris, May 4. 1698. Since the last letter, which I had the honour of despatching to your Majesty, nothing has passed worth writing about. I set out on Tuesday the 24th, in the morning, for Versailles, intending to remain there some days. On the evening of the following day, I received your Majesty's letter of the 14-24th, from Newmarket, when I took an opportunity of speaking to M. de Pomponne and M. de Torcy respecting the proposals; but after that, up to Friday, the 2nd of this month, they had not received any letters from Count Tallard; and, therefore, as they did not know what had passed at the audience which he had at Newmarket, they could say nothing more than that they must wait for the arrival of his courier to know what had taken place there. I repeated to them what I had said before, insisting absolutely on the extension of the barrier of the Netherlands, on the places named in the Mediterranean, and, in general, on others in the West Indies, for the security of our commerce in both seas; and as the express from Count Tallard had been so long coming, and I had been four days at Versailles, and had said that I was preparing to return on Tuesday, I told the ministers that I would stop there if the King ordered me; but otherwise, I should be ready to return at his command, as soon as he would let me know. They replied, that by the letters of Count Tallard, he spoke in high terms of your Majesty; that you had well received the proposals, and even that you had not spoken in strong terms of Dunkirk, and of the places for the security of our commerce in the Mediterranean and the Indies, on which I did not fail absolutely to insist by repeated orders from your Majesty, taking what they said to me for an artifice to get out of me whether I had any orders to relax, which it will always be time enough to do, if your Majesty approves, since the matter is not urgent. They told me that your Majesty's principal difficulty arose from the proposal to give Milan to the duke of Savoy. I replied, that your Majesty had ridiculed the proposal, which could not have been made except for form's sake, or that the duke |