making the King a mere Doge, propose to restrain him from dealing
according to his pleasure with his parks and his castles, his
fisheries and his mines. After the Restoration, under the
government of an easy prince, who had indeed little disposition
to give, but who could not bear to refuse, many noble private
fortunes were carved out of the property of the Crown. Some of
the persons who were thus enriched, Albemarle, for example,
Sandwich and Clarendon, might be thought to have fairly earned
their master's favour by their services. Others had merely amused
his leisure or pandered to his vices. His mistresses were
munificently rewarded. Estates sufficient to support the highest
rank in the peerage were distributed among his illegitimate
children. That these grants, however prodigal, were strictly
legal, was tacitly admitted by the Estates of the Realm, when, in
1689, they recounted and condemned the unconstitutional acts of
the kings of the House of Stuart. Neither in the Declaration of
Right nor in the Bill of Rights is there a word on the subject.
William, therefore, thought himself at liberty to give away his
hereditary domains as freely as his predecessors had given away
theirs. There was much murmuring at the profusion with which he
rewarded his Dutch favourites; and we have seen that, on one
occasion in the year 1696, the House of Commons interfered for
the purpose of restraining his liberality. An address was
presented requesting him not to grant to Portland an extensive
territory in North Wales. But it is to be observed that, though
in this address a strong opinion was expressed that the grant
would be mischievous, the Commons did not deny, and must
therefore be considered as having admitted, that it would be
perfectly legal. The King, however, yielded; and Portland was
forced to content himself with ten or twelve manors scattered