Objectionable as many parts of the bill undoubtedly were, nobody who knew the House of Commons believed it to be possible to carry any amendment.  The King flattered himself that a motion for leaving at his disposal a third part of the forfeitures would be favourably received.  There can be little doubt that a compromise would have been willingly accepted twelve months earlier.  But the report had made all compromise impossible.  William, however, was bent on trying the experiment; and Vernon consented to go on what he considered as a forlorn hope.  He made his speech and his motion; but the reception which he met with was such that he did not venture to demand a division.  This feeble attempt at obstruction only made the impetuous current chafe the more.  Howe immediately moved two resolutions; one attributing the load of debts and taxes which lay on the nation to the Irish grants; the other censuring all who had been concerned in advising or passing those grants.  Nobody was named; not because the majority was inclined to show any tenderness to the Whig ministers, but because some of the most objectionable grants had been sanctioned by the Board of Treasury when Godolphin and Seymour, who had great influence with the country party, sate at that board.

Howe’s two resolutions were laid before the King by the Speaker, in whose train all the leaders of the opposition appeared at Kensington.  Even Seymour, with characteristic effrontery, showed himself there as one of the chief authors of a vote which pronounced him guilty of a breach of duty.  William’s answer was that he had thought himself bound to reward out of the forfeited property those who had served him well, and especially those who had borne a principal part in the reduction of Ireland.  The war, he said, had undoubtedly left behind it a heavy debt; and he should be glad to see that debt reduced by just and effectual means.  This answer was but a bad one; and, in truth, it was hardly possible for him to return a good one.  He had done what was indefensible; and, by attempting to defend himself, he made his case worse.  It was not true that the Irish forfeitures, or one fifth part of them, had been granted to men who had distinguished themselves in the Irish war; and it was not judicious to hint that those forfeitures could not justly be applied to the discharge of the public debts.  The Commons murmured, and not altogether without reason.  “His Majesty tells us,” they said, “that the debts fall to us and the forfeitures to him.  We are to make good out of the purses of Englishmen what was spent upon the war; and he is to put into the purses of Dutchmen what was got by the war.”  When the House met again, Howe moved that whoever had advised the King to return such an answer was an enemy to His Majesty and the kingdom; and this resolution was carried with some slight modification.