APPENDIX. 1. CORRESPONDENCE BETWEEN LOUIS XIV. AND M. BARILLON. M. BARILLON TO THE KING. December 7th, 1684, at London. I RECEIVED your Majesty's dispatch of December the first. I have begun the execution of the order which your Majesty gives me concerning my Lord Halifax. There happened here, not long since, an affair, which has already given an opportunity to the Duke of York and the other ministers of taking active measures for entirely discrediting him, and with some hope of success. The King of England gave the government of New Eng land to Colonel Kirk, who had been previously governnor of Tangier. King James had before that established by letters patent, there, a company which, with an almost Sovereign and independent authority governed the countries comprized under the government of New England. The privileges of that company were annulled in the King's bench; and his Britannic Majesty became repossessed of the power to give the government a new form, and to establish new laws, under which the inhabitants of those countries are henceforth to live. This occasioned a deliberation in the privy council. It was carefully investigated whether the same government which is established in England b should be introduced there, or whether the inhabitants of those regions should be subjected to the orders of a governor and council who should possess all the authority, with out being bound to observe any other rules but those which should be prescribed to them from hence. My Lord Halifax chose to maintain with vehemence that it was unquestionable, the same laws under which they live in England ought to be established in a country inhabited by Englishmen. He expatiated at full length on this head, and forgot not one of those reasons which are calculated to prove that an absolute government is neither so happy nor so stable as that which is tempered by laws and sets bounds to the authority of the prince. He exaggerated the inconveniences of the Sovereign power, and plainly declared that he could never like to live under a King who should have it in his power to take at pleasure the money out of his pocket. This discourse was strongly withstood by all the other ministers, and without examining the question whether one form of government in general is better than another, they maintained that his Britannic Majesty could and ought to govern countries, so far distant from England, in the way which should appear to him best calculated to maintain the country in the state in which it is, and to augment its forces and wealth. It was, therefore, resolved, that the Governor and council should not be subjected to convene assemblies of the whole country in order to lay taxes and regulate other important matters, but that the governor and council should act as they should deem it proper, being accountable only to his Britannic Majesty. This business is perhaps not very important in itself; but the Duke of York availed himself of it to show the King of England how inconvenient it is to retain in the secrets of his affairs a man so much opposed to the interests of royalty as my Lord Halifax. The Lady Portsmouth has the same design, and my Lord Sunderland could not desire any thing more eagerly. They both think they can succeed in a little time. * The Duke of York confidently told me that the King his brother had determined to send him, next spring, to Scotland on a journey of three weeks in order to convene the parliament there, without which the estates of those who are declared rebels cannot be confiscated; that his journey will last nearly as long as the court remains at New-market, that meanwhile he thought he ought to give me early information thereof, well knowing that his enemies would endeavour to give this journey an air of disgrace, though at the bottom, it is a new mark of the confidence and friendship the King his brother has for him. The Marquis of Huntley, chief of the house of Gordon, has been made a Duke, and the Marquis of Queensberry likewise; This latter is of the house of Douglas, and great treasurer of Scotland. It is not a matter of little consequence that the Marquis of Huntley who is a Catholic has been made a Duke. THE KING TO M. BARILLON. Versailles, December 13, 1684; The reasonings of Lord Halifax, on the manner of goyerning New-England, little deserve the confidence which the King of England places in him, and I am not surprized to hear that the Duke of York called the King his brother's attention to the consequences thereof. I am also induced to think, that what that prince is to do in Scotland, will not change at all the situation of affairs in England, and I am glad to know that it is rather a mark of the confidence which the King his brother has in him, than a design to remove him from his councils. London, 21st December, 1684. * Barillon says, the Dutches of Portsmouth tells him the King waited till Halifax gave him some further pretext, for dismissing him, but that he represented to them the danger of delay. They had no apprehensions of Halifax's altering his conduct, and regaining the King's confidence. M. BARILLON TO THE KING. 25th December, 1684, at London. The King of England seems to me to be as ill pleased as he ever was with the Prince of Orange's conduct. M. Zitters handed the former a letter from the latter, by which he assures him in general terms, that he considers himself as very unhappy for having lost his favour, well knowing that he had done nothing that ought to displease him. M. Zitters added thereto, that the Prince of Orange was very much grieved that his enemies had been able to prepossess his Britannic Majesty's mind to such a degree against him, though his conscience does not upbraid him with having done any thing that could be against his wishes or intentions. The King of England gave me to understand, his answer to M. Zitters was, that the Prince of Orange made a fool of him as well as M. Zitters, by charging him to say things which he knows to have no foundation at all; that the Prince of Orange had no enemies at his court who could take an interest in injuring him, but that he had himself done every thing in his power to effect it, since he *This is printed from a note in Mr. Fox's hand writing. |