Yet the allies had not been able to prevent the French from taking Mons in 1691, Namur in 1692, Charleroy in 1693.  If the English troops were withdrawn, it was certain that Ostend, Ghent, Liege, Brussels would fall.  The German Princes would hasten to make peace, each for himself.  The Spanish Netherlands would probably be annexed to the French monarchy.  The United Provinces would be again in as great peril as in 1672, and would accept whatever terms Lewis might be pleased to dictate.  In a few months, he would be at liberty to put forth his whole strength against our island.  Then would come a struggle for life and death.  It might well be hoped that we should be able to defend our soil even against such a general and such an army as had won the battle of Landen.  But the fight must be long and hard.  How many fertile counties would be turned into deserts, how many flourishing towns would be laid in ashes, before the invaders were destroyed or driven out!  One triumphant campaign in Kent and Middlesex would do more to impoverish the nation than ten disastrous campaigns in Brabant.  It is remarkable that this dispute between the two great factions was, during seventy years, regularly revived as often as our country was at war with France.  That England ought never to attempt great military operations on the Continent continued to be a fundamental article of the creed of the Tories till the French Revolution produced a complete change in their feelings.476 As the chief object of William was to open the campaign of 1694 in Flanders with an immense display of force, it was sufficiently clear to whom he must look for assistance.

In the third place, the Whigs were the stronger party in Parliament.  The general election of 1690, indeed, had not been favourable to them.  They had been, for a time, a minority; but they had ever since been constantly gaining ground; they were now in number a full half of the Lower House; and their effective strength was more than proportioned to their number; for in energy, alertness and discipline, they were decidedly superior to their opponents.  Their organization was not indeed so perfect as it afterwards became; but they had already begun to look for guidance to a small knot of distinguished men, which was long afterwards widely known by the name of the junto.  There is, perhaps, no parallel in history, ancient or modern, to the authority exercised by this council, during twenty troubled years, over the Whig body.  The men who acquired that authority in the days of William and Mary continued to possess it, without interruption, in office and out of office, till George the First was on the throne.