The Bravest of the Brave | Page 5

his late apprentice was on
the point of leaving he would not have interfered with his intention; but
as he had peremptorily ordered that his name was not to be mentioned
before him, and as Mrs. Anthony had no motive in approaching the
forbidden subject, the mayor remained in ignorance that Jack was about
to depart on a distant voyage.
One day, on going down to the town hail, he found an official letter
waiting him; it was an order from government empowering justices of
the peace to impress such men as they thought fit, with the only
restriction that men entitled to vote for members of parliament were
exempted. This tremendous power had just been legalized by an act of
parliament. A more iniquitous act never disgraced our statutes, for it
enabled justices of the peace to spite any of their poorer neighbors
against whom they had a grudge, and to ship them off to share in the
hardships of Marlborough's campaign in Germany and the Low
Countries, or in the expedition now preparing for Spain.
At that time the army was held in the greatest dislike by the English
people. The nation had always been opposed to a standing force, and it
was only now that the necessities of the country induced them to
tolerate it. It was, however, recruited almost entirely from reckless and
desperate men. Criminals were allowed to commute sentences of
imprisonment for service in the army, and the gates of the prisons were
also opened to insolvent debtors consenting to enlist. But all the efforts
of the recruiting sergeants, aided by such measures as these, proved
insufficient to attract a sufficient number of men to keep up the armies
at the required strength.
Pressing had always existed to a certain extent; but it had been carried
on secretly, and was regarded as illegal. Therefore, as men must be had,
the law giving justices the authority and power to impress any men they
might select, with the exception of those who possessed a vote for

members of parliament, was passed with the approval of parties on both
sides of the House of Commons.
There was indeed great need for men. England had allied herself with
Austria and Holland in opposition to France, the subject of dispute
being the succession to the crown of Spain, England's feelings in the
matter being further imbittered by the recognition by Louis XIV of the
Pretender as King of England. Therefore, although her interests were
not so deeply engaged in the question as to the succession to the throne
of Spain as were those of the continental powers, she threw herself into
the struggle with ardor.
The two claimants to the throne of Spain were the Archduke Charles,
second son of Leopold, Emperor of Austria, and Philip, Duke of Anjou,
a younger grandson of Louis. On the marriage of the French king with
Maria Theresa, the sister of Charles II of Spain, she had formally
renounced all claims to the succession, but the French king had
nevertheless continued from time to time to bring them forward. Had
these rights not been renounced Philip would have had the best claim to
the Spanish throne, the next of kin after him being Charles of Austria.
During the later days of the King of Spain all Europe had looked on
with the most intense interest at the efforts which the respective parties
made for their candidates. Whichever might succeed to the throne the
balance of power would be destroyed; for either Austria and Spain
united, or France and Spain united, would be sufficient to overawe the
rest of the Continent. Louis XIV lulled the fears of the Austrian party
by suggesting a treaty of partition to the Dutch states and William the
Third of England.
By this treaty it was agreed that the Archduke Charles was to be
acknowledged successor to the crowns of Spain, the Indies, and the
Netherlands; while the dauphin, as the eldest son of Maria Theresa,
should receive the kingdom of Naples and Sicily, with the Spanish
province of Guipuscoa and the duchy of Milan, in compensation of his
abandonment of other claims. When the conditions of this treaty
became known they inspired natural indignation in the minds of the
people of the country which had thus been arbitrarily allotted, and the
dying Charles of Spain was infuriated by this conspiracy to break up
and divide his dominion. His jealousy of France would have led him to
select the Austrian claimant; but the emperor's undisguised greed for a

portion of the Spanish empire, and the overbearing and unpleasant
manner of the Austrian ambassador in the Spanish court, drove him to
listen to the overtures of Louis, who had a powerful ally in Cardinal
Portocarrero, Archbishop of Toledo, whose influence was all