against Sidney, Cornish, and Alice Lisle were annulled. In spite of the
opinion of the judges that the sentence on Titus Oates had been against
law the Lords refused to reverse it, but even Oates received a pardon
and a pension. The Whigs however wanted not merely the redress of wrongs
but the punishment of the wrong-doers. Whig and Tory had been united
indeed by the tyranny of James; both parties had shared in the
Revolution, and William had striven to prolong their union by joining
the leaders of both in his first Ministry. He named the Tory Earl of
Danby Lord President, made the Whig Earl of Shrewsbury Secretary of
State, and gave the Privy Seal to Lord Halifax, a trimmer between the
one party and the other. But save in a moment of common oppression or
common danger union was impossible. The Whigs clamoured for the
punishment of Tories who had joined in the illegal acts of Charles and
of James, and refused to pass the Bill of General Indemnity which
William laid before them. William on the other hand was resolved that no
bloodshed or proscription should follow the revolution which had placed
him on the throne. His temper was averse from persecution; he had no
great love for either of the battling parties; and above all he saw that
internal strife would be fatal to the effective prosecution of the war.

[Sidenote: The Jacobites.]

While the cares of his new throne were chaining him to England the
confederacy of which he was the guiding spirit was proving too slow and
too loosely compacted to cope with the swift and resolute movements of
France. The armies of Lewis had fallen back within their own borders,
but only to turn fiercely at bay. Even the junction of the English and
Dutch fleets failed to assure them the mastery of the seas. The English
navy was paralysed by the corruption which prevailed in the public
service, as well as by the sloth and incapacity of its commander. The
services of Admiral Herbert at the Revolution had been rewarded with the
earldom of Torrington and the command of the fleet; but his indolence
suffered the seas to be swept by French privateers, and his want of
seamanship was shown in an indecisive engagement with a French squadron
in Bantry Bay. Meanwhile Lewis was straining every nerve to win the
command of the Channel; the French dockyards were turning out ship after
ship, and the galleys of the Mediterranean fleet were brought round to
reinforce the fleet at Brest. A French victory off t