tyrant was now harmless, the bigot without power; but the poor old father was deserted in his utmost need, the confiding friend was deceived, the crowned and idolized king betrayed. Everybody left him. His son-in-law was advancing to dethrone him; his daughter Anne was in league with his daughter Mary; Anne's husband, a silly personage who is generally forgotten, but who was Prince George of Denmark, lived for many days in a transport of surprise, and still in doubt if such a thing was possible, went over to the Deliverer's camp; so did the generals, the soldiers, the courtiers, and, among the earliest, that same Lord Churchill whom he had raised to wealth and importance; and finally, having sent the queen and the ill-omened infant to Calais, and losing courage at every new manifestation of the national dislike, he disguised himself on the morning of the 11th of December, and after a variety of adventures, which lasted till the 23rd, made an ignominious escape from the kingdom he had attempted to enslave. The sceptres, which had felt the grasp of William the Conqueror and Robert Bruce, were exchanged for rosaries furnished to him by Père la Chaise, along with the wages he continued to receive from their master the King of France.

LANDMARKS OF CHRONOLOGY.

A.D.

1685. Accession of James II.

Conviction and punishment of
Titus Oates.

Invasion of the Duke of Mon

mouth. He is proclaimed king 1688. Trial and acquittal of the seven

at Taunton, and sets a sum of
£5000 on King James's head.
He is defeated, taken prisoner,
and executed.

Judge Jeffreys and his "Bloody
Assize."

1686. The new Court of Ecclesiastical

BOOK X.

HOUSE OF ORANGE NASSAU.

CHAPTER I.

WILLIAM THE THIRD AND MARY.

A.D. 1689 TO A.D. 1702.

CONTEMPORARY SOVEREIGNS.

FRANCE.-Louis XIV.

SPAIN. Charles II.; Philip V.
EMPEROR OF GERMANY.-Leopold.

POPES.-Alexander VIII.; Innocent XII.; Clement XI.

§ 1. Interregnum. Accession of William and Mary. Convention Parliament. Their resolutions declaring the throne vacant.-§ 2. Declaration of rights. William and Mary formally declared to be king and queen. § 3. State of public feeling and of parties.-§ 4. War declared against France. James sails from Brest with a French expedition against Ireland.-§ 5. Mutiny in the Church, and rising of a Scottish regiment in favour of King James. William's conciliatory measures. His difficulties. James lands at Dublin. His triumphant reception by the Irish Parliament.-§ 6. Battle of Killicrankie, in Scotland.- 7. Siege of Londonderry. King William lands at Carrickfergus, and takes the command of the forces in Ireland. Proceedings of the Irish Parliament against William and the Protestant cause. They repeal the Act of Settlement, and pass various obnoxious measures.-§ 8. Battle of the Boyne, and defeat of the Irish Catholics.-§ 9. Flight of James. Siege of Limerick, and return of William to England.-§ 10. Marlborough left in command of the British army.-§ 11. The war transferred to Flanders. Whigs and Tories, Jacobites and Nonjurors. Naval action with the French off Beachy Head.-§ 12. Energy of Queen Mary during the

absence of the king. Resolutions of Parliament in support of the king. § 13. Political difficulties by which the king is surrounded. - 14. Massacre of Glencoe, in Scotland. -§ 15. Battle of La Hogue, and destruction of the French fleet. 16. William's critical position. Death of Queen Mary.-§ 17. Successful operations at sea. Capture of Namur. Parliamentary measures in support of William. Act for triennial parliaments. Privilege of unlicensed Printing secured. Fresh issue of gold and silver coinage.-§ 18. Peace of Ryswick. Object of Louis XIV. to secure the Spanish throne to his own family. This intention opposed by King William.§ 19. Public feeling against the Roman Catholics. Protestant settlement for securing the succession to the throne.-§ 20. On the death of James II., Louis XIV. acknowledges his son, the Prince of Wales, as King of England. Exasperation of the British at the insult.— § 21. Illness and death of William. His noble character.

§ 1. THE interregnum lasted from the 11th of December, 1688, when James retired from London, to the 13th of February, 1689, when William and Mary accepted the conditions on which the throne was offered to them, and became king and queen. Greater things were done in those two months than in any period of our history. The nation took its affairs into its own hands, and in as calm a manner as if it were some ordinary matter of routine, displaced a dynasty from which it had suffered intolerable wrongs, and appointed another in whom it had perfect confidence. But a nation cannot perform any work except by its selected instruments, and all regular government seemed at an end. The king had fled, and in pitiful spite had thrown the great seal into the Thames as he crossed the river; no Parliament was sitting or had been summoned; and William was advised to get out of all these difficulties by claiming the kingdom by right of conquest, and appointing his own officers at once. But the Prince of Orange was a supporter of the laws, and resolved to give to the proceedings of the nation which had invited his aid the greatest solemnity the circumstances would allow. By the advice of the Lords, and the surviving members of the House of Commons which had sat in Charles the Second's time, together with the Lord Mayor and Aldermen of London, he summoned a Convention of the States of the Realm; and

A.D. 1688–1689.] ASSEMBLING OF THE CONVENTION. 649

this assembly, elected by the usual voters, but irregularly convoked in this great emergency, met on the 22nd of January. They resolved-That there was an original contract between king and people, and that James had broken it.

That he had endeavoured to subvert the constitution of the kingdom; and, by the advice of Jesuits and other wicked persons, having violated the fundamental laws, and having withdrawn himself out of the kingdom and deserted the government, that the throne was thereby become vacant.

§ 2. These resolutions were sufficient to do away for ever with the new-fangled theories of arbitrary power and unconditional obedience. But to make their assurance double for the future, they published a Declaration of Rights, in which they state,

That the pretended power of suspending the laws, or execution of laws, by royal authority, without the consent of Parliament, is illegal.

That the commission for erecting the late Court of Commissioners for Ecclesiastical Causes, and all other commissions and courts of the same nature, are illegal and pernicious.

That levying money by pretence of prerogative is illegal. That it is the right of subjects to petition the king, and all prosecutions or commitments for such petitioning is illegal. That the raising or keeping a standing army in time of peace, without consent of Parliament, is illegal.

That the subjects which are Protestant may have arms for their defence suitable to their condition.

That elections of members of Parliament ought to be free. That the freedom of speech, or debates, or proceedings, ought not to be questioned or impeached in any court or place out of Parliament.

That excessive bail ought not to be required, nor excessive fines imposed, nor unusual or cruel punishments inflicted. That jurors ought to be duly impanelled, and, in trials for high treason, should be freeholders.

That all grants or promises of fines and forfeitures of particular persons before conviction are illegal and void.

And that for the amending, strengthening, and preserving of the laws, Parliaments ought to be held frequently.

In conclusion, and to show their entire confidence that the Prince of Orange would perfect the deliverance so far advanced by him, and still preserve them from the violation of their rights, they resolve and declare "That William and Mary be, and be declared king and queen of England, France, and Ireland, and the dominions thereunto belonging." Scotland, in a similar convention, came to the same resolution; and when William, in answer to these offers of a strictly constitutional throne, said calmly and firmly, "We thankfully accept what you have offered us," not a man in all England doubted that the bargain was struck with perfect honesty on the part of the new sovereign, and that the laws and liberties of the three kingdoms were safe from royal assault.

WILLIAM AND MARY.

§ 3. MANY distinguished persons, who would have been pilloried and whipt at the cart's tail for the violence of their political opinions, if freedom of discussion had not been secured to them by the spirit of the Revolution, have been very severe on this great transaction, and have blamed it as sinking England to the level of the Venetian government—the ruling party a few noble families, the nominal chief an elective Doge. We are to remember that a few noble families were the only persons of influence who had the courage to throw themselves boldly into the national cause; they were also the only persons at that time who had position and authority enough to make terms with the elected king, or were personally interested in seeing that he stood true to the conditions of the contract. It was a matter of life and death to the Whigs that the