of the
National Debt, as the mass of these loans to the State came to be
called, gave a new security against the return of the Stuarts whose
first work would have been the repudiation of the claims of the lenders
or as they were termed the "fundholders."

[Sidenote: The Whig Ministry.]

The evidence of the public credit gave strength to William abroad as at
home. In 1694 indeed the army of 90,000 men which he commanded in the
Netherlands did no more than hold the French successfully at bay; but
the English fleet rode triumphant in the Channel, ravaged and alarmed
the coast of France, and foiled by its pressure the attack of a French
army on Barcelona. The brighter aspect of affairs abroad coincided with
a new unity of action at home. The change which Sunderland counselled
was quietly carried out. One by one the Tory Ministers had been replaced
by members of the Junto. Russell went to the Admiralty; Somers was
named Lord Keeper; Shrewsbury, Secretary of State; Montague, Chancellor
of the Exchequer. Even before this change was completed its effect was
felt. The House of Commons took a new tone. The Whig majority of its
members, united and disciplined, moved quietly under the direction of
their natural leaders, the Whig Ministers of the Crown. It was this
which enabled William to face the shock which was given to his position
by the death of Queen Mary at the end of 1694. It had been provided
indeed that on the death of either sovereign the survivor should retain
the throne; but the renewed attacks of the Tories under Nottingham and
Halifax on the war and the Bank showed what fresh hopes had been raised
by William's lonely position. The Parliament however, whom the king had
just conciliated by assenting at last to the Triennial Bill, went
steadily with the Ministry; and its fidelity was rewarded by triumph
abroad. In September 1695 the Alliance succeeded for the first time in
winning a great triumph over France in the capture of Namur. The king
skilfully took advantage of his victory to call a new Parliament, and
its members at once showed their temper by a vigorous support of the
measures necessary for the prosecution of the war. The Houses indeed
were no mere tools in William's hands. They forced him to resume the
prodigal grants of lands which he had made to his Dutch favourites, and
to remove his Ministers in Scotland who had aided in a wild project for
a Scotch colony on the Isthmus of Darien. They claimed a right to