WILLIAM THE THIRD.

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and who probably held the courtier like doctrine that alady is not dishonoured by having been the paramour of aking. William was well pleased with the marriage,bestowed on the wife a portion of the old Crown propertyin Ireland, and created the husband a peer of Scotland bythe title of Earl of Orkney. Assuredly William wouldnot have raised his character by abandoning to poverty awoman whom he had loved, though with a criminal love.He was undoubtedly bound, as a man of humanity andhonour, to provide liberally for her; but he should haveprovided for her rather by saving from his civil list than byalienating his hereditary revenue. The four malecontentcommissioners rejoiced with spiteful joy over this dis-covery. It was in vain that the other three representedthat the grant to Lady Orkney was one with which theyhad nothing to do, and that, if they went out of their wayto hold it up to obloquy, they might be justly said to fly inthe King’s face. “ To fly in the King’s face! ” said one ofthe majority; “our business is to fly in the King’s face.Wo were sent here to fly in the King’s face.” With thispatriotic object a paragraph about Lady Orkney’s grantwas added to the report, a paragraph too in which the valueof that grant was so monstrously exaggerated that Williamappeared to have surpassed the profligate extravagance ofhis uncle Charles. The estate bestowed on the countesswas valued at twenty four thousand pounds a year. Thetruth seems to be that the income which she derived fromthe royal bounty, after making allowance for incumbrances