184

HISTOEY OF ENGLAND.

CHAP.

XIX.

1693 .

Minisle-rial ar-range-ments.

been mischievous did not prove that another restriction would- be salutary. It by no means followed because one sovereignhad been ruined by being unable to get rid of a hostile Par-liament that another sovereign might not be ruined by beingforced to part with a friendly Parliament. To the great morti-fication of the ambassador, his arguments failed to shake theKing’s resolution. On the fourteenth of March the Commonswere summoned to the Upper House: the title of the TriennialBill was read; and it was announced, after the ancient form,that the King and Queen would take the matter into their con-sideration. The Parliament was then prorogued.

Soon after the prorogation William set out for the Con-tinent. It was necessary that, before his departure, he shouldmake some important changes. Pie was resolved not to discardNottingham, on whose integrity, a virtue rare among Englishstatesmen, he placed a well founded reliance. Yet, if Not-tingham remained Secretary of State, it was impossible toemploy Russell at sea. Russell, though much mortified, wasinduced to accept a lucrative place in the household; and twonaval officers of great note in their profession, Killegrew andDelaval, were placed at the Board of Admiralty and entrustedwith the command of the Channel Fleet. * These arrangementscaused much murmuring among the Whigs: for Killegrew andDelaval were certainly Tories, and were by many suspected ofbeing Jacobites. But other promotions which took place at thesame time proved that the King wished to bear himself evenlybetween the hostile factions. Nottingham had, during a year,been the sole Secretary of State. He was now joined with acolleague in whose society he must have felt himself very ill atease, John Trenchard. Trenchard belonged to the extremesection of the Whig party. He was a Taunton man, animatedby that spirit which had, during two generations, peculiarly* London Gazette, March 27. 1693.