had not caused and which he could not avert.  He must therefore request the Houses to present to him a bill providing for the government of the realm; he would pass that bill, and withdraw from a post in which he could no longer be useful, but he should always take a deep interest in the welfare of England; and, if what he foreboded should come to pass, if in some day of danger she should again need his services, his life should be hazarded as freely as ever in her defence.

When the King showed his speech to the Chancellor, that wise minister forgot for a moment his habitual self-command.  “This is extravagance, Sir,” he said:  “this is madness.  I implore your Majesty, for the sake of your own honour, not to say to anybody else what you have said to me.”  He argued the matter during two hours, and no doubt lucidly and forcibly.  William listened patiently; but his purpose remained unchanged.

The alarm of the ministers seems to have been increased by finding that the King’s intention had been confided to Marlborough, the very last man to whom such a secret would have been imparted unless William had really made up his mind to abdicate in favour of the Princess of Denmark.  Somers had another audience, and again began to expostulate.  But William cut him short.  “We shall not agree, my Lord; my mind is made up.”  “Then, Sir,” said Somers, “I have to request that I may be excused from assisting as Chancellor at the fatal act which Your Majesty meditates.  It was from my King that I received this seal; and I beg that he will take it from me while he is still my King.”

In these circumstances the ministers, though with scarcely the faintest hope of success, determined to try what they could do to meet the King’s wishes.  A select Committee had been appointed by the House of Commons to frame a bill for the disbanding of all the troops above seven thousand.  A motion was made by one of the Court party that this Committee should be instructed to reconsider the number of men.  Vernon acquitted himself well in the debate.  Montague spoke with even more than his wonted ability and energy, but in vain.  So far was he from being able to rally round him such a majority as that which had supported him in the preceding Parliament, that he could not count on the support even of the placemen who sate at the same executive board with him.  Thomas Pelham, who had, only a few months before, been made a Lord of the Treasury, tried to answer him.  “I own,” said Pelham, “that last year I thought a large land force necessary; this year I think such a force unnecessary; but I deny that I have been guilty of any inconsistency.  Last year the great question of the Spanish succession was unsettled, and there was serious danger of a general war.  That question has now been settled in the best possible way; and we may look forward to many years of peace.”  A Whig of still greater note and authority, the Marquess of Hartington, separated himself on this occasion from the junto.  The current was irresistible.  At last the voices of those who tried to speak for the Instruction were drowned by clamour.  When the question was put, there was a great shout of No, and the minority submitted.  To divide would have been merely to have exposed their weakness.