magined
that they had found in the Life of James (ii. 574, 575.) proof that the
story of the secret article was true. The passage on which they relied
was certainly not written by James, nor under his direction; and the
authority of those portions of the Life which were not written by him,
or under his direction, is but small. Moreover, when we examine this
passage, we shall find that it not only does not bear out the story of
the secret article, but directly contradicts that story. The compiler
of the Life tells us that, after James had declared that he never would
consent to purchase the English throne for his posterity by surrendering
his own rights, nothing more was said on the subject. Now it is quite
certain that James in his Memorial published in March 1697, a Memorial
which will be found both in the Life (ii. 566,) and in the Acts of the
Peace of Ryswick, declared to all Europe that he never would stoop to so
low and degenerate an action as to permit the Prince of Orange to
reign on condition that the Prince of Wales should succeed. It follows,
therefore, that nothing can have been said on this subject after March
1697. Nothing therefore, can have been said on this subject in the
conferences between Boufflers and Portland, which did not begin till
late in June.

Was there then absolutely no foundation for the story? I believe that
there was a foundation; and I have already related the facts on which
this superstructure of fiction has been reared. It is quite certain
that Lewis, in 1693, intimated to the allies through the government
of Sweden, his hope that some expedient might be devised which would
reconcile the Princes who laid claim to the English crown. The expedient
at which he hinted was, no doubt, that the Prince of Wales should
succeed William and Mary. It is possible that, as the compiler of the
Life of James says, William may have "show'd no great aversness" to this
arrangement. He had no reason, public or private, for preferring his
sister in law to his brother in law, if his brother in law were bred a
Protestant. But William could do nothing without the concurrence of the
Parliament; and it is in the highest degree improbable that either he or
the Parliament would ever have consented to make the settlement of the
English crown a matter of stipulation with France. What he would or
would not have done, however, we cannot with certainty pronounce. For
James proved impracticable. Lewis consequently gave