There had been much contention as to the time at which the new system of procedure in cases of high treason should come into operation; and the bill had once been lost in consequence of a dispute on this point.  Many persons were of opinion that the change ought not to take place till the close of the war.  It was notorious, they said, that the foreign enemy was abetted by too many traitors at home; and, at such a time, the severity of the laws which protected the commonwealth against the machinations of bad citizens ought not to be relaxed.  It was at last determined that the new regulations should take effect on the twenty-fifth of March, the first day, according to the old Calendar, of the year 1696.

On the twenty-first of January the Recoinage Bill and the Bill for regulating Trials in cases of High Treason received the royal assent.  On the following day the Commons repaired to Kensington on an errand by no means agreeable either to themselves or to the King.  They were, as a body, fully resolved to support him, at whatever cost and at whatever hazard, against every foreign and domestic foe.  But they were, as indeed every assembly of five hundred and thirteen English gentlemen that could by any process have been brought together must have been, jealous of the favour which he showed to the friends of his youth.  He had set his heart on placing the house of Bentinck on a level in wealth and splendour with the houses of Howard and Seymour, of Russell and Cavendish.

Some of the fairest hereditary domains of the Crown had been granted to Portland, not without murmuring on the part both of Whigs and Tories.  Nothing had been done, it is true, which was not in conformity with the letter of the law and with a long series of precedents.  Every English sovereign had from time immemorial considered the lands to which he had succeeded in virtue of his office as his private property.  Every family that had been great in England, from the De Veres down to the Hydes, had been enriched by royal deeds of gift.  Charles the Second had carved ducal estates for his bastards out of his hereditary domain.  Nor did the Bill of Rights contain a word which could be construed to mean that the King was not at perfect liberty to alienate any part of the estates of the Crown.  At first, therefore, William’s liberality to his countrymen, though it caused much discontent, called forth no remonstrance from the Parliament.  But he at length went too far.  In 1695 he ordered the Lords of the Treasury to make out a warrant granting to Portland a magnificent estate in Denbighshire.  This estate was said to be worth more than a hundred thousand pounds.  The annual income, therefore, can hardly have been less than six thousand pounds; and the annual rent which was reserved to the Crown was only six and eightpence.  This, however, was not the worst.  With the property were inseparably connected extensive royalties, which the people of North Wales could not patiently see in