voluntarily place a grandson of Louis upon the throne, the marquis
de Torcy answered in writing, that his most christian majesty would by
no means listen to such a proposal; nay, when the emperor's minister
gave them to understand that his master was ready to begin a separate
negotiation with the court of Versailles, touching the Spanish
succession, Louis declared he could not treat on that subject without
the concurrence of his allies.

The nature of the partition-treaty was no sooner known in England, than
condemned by the most intelligent part of the nation. They first of all
complained, that such an important affair should be concluded without
the advice of parliament. They observed that the scheme was unjust,
and the execution of it hazardous; that in concerting the terms, the
maritime powers seemed to have acted as partizans of France; for the
possession of Naples and the Tuscan ports would subject Italy to
her dominion, and interfere with the English trade to the Levant and
Mediterranean; while Guipuscoa, on any future rupture, would afford
another inlet into the heart of the Spanish dominions; they, for these
reasons, pronounced the treaty destructive of the balance of power,
and prejudicial to the interest of England. All these arguments were
trumpeted by the malcontents, so that the whole kingdom echoed with the
clamour of disaffection. Sir Christopher Musgrave, and others of the
tory faction, began to think in earnest of establishing the succession
of the English crown upon the person of the prince of Wales. They are
said to have sent over Mr. Graham to St. Germain's with overtures to
this purpose, and an assurance that a motion would be made in the house
of commons, to pass a vote that the crown should not be supported in the
execution of the partition treaty. King William was not ignorant of the
censure he had undergone, and not a little alarmed to find himself so
unpopular among his own subjects. That he might be the more able
to bestow his attention effectually upon the affairs of England, he
resolved to take some measures for the satisfaction of the Scottish
nation. He permitted the parliament of that kingdom to meet on the
twenty-eighth day of October, and wrote a letter to them from his house
at Loo, containing an assurance that he would concur in every thing that
could be reasonably proposed for maintaining and advancing the peace and
welfare of their kingdom. He promised to give his royal assent to
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