BOOK V. THE Nation turns its Eyes to the Prince of Orange. PART I 1688. URING a fucceffion of fuch difagreeable measures, almost all eyes in Britain were turned towards the Prince of Orange, whofe confort, the Lady Mary, was the VOL. II. A The nation turns its next Prince of eyes to the PART I. 1688. next heir to the Crown, and a Proteftant, and who was himself the preserver of his own country, the head of the Protestant interest in Christendom, and the affertor of the liberties of Europe, in oppofition to that power which was the hereditary enemy of England. The whigs were willing to feize liberty under any leader; and the tories deemed it not incompatible with their principles of obedience, to receive it from the hands of a Prince whose confort would in all probability, have a right to their future allegiance. The church of England was driven to despair; the diffenters found out at laft, that they were like to be made the forgers of their own chains. Many of James's friends began to think, that they had gone too far with him. Even Jeffreys hesitated, repented, and trembled *. Some indulged, fome changed, and some invented principles to vindicate their conduct; but almost all resolved on the conduct they were to follow. The birth of the Prince of Wales fet all these sparks in a flame. on. Men faw no end to their fears; and the happiness of their Sovereign, in this event, was looked upon as an entail of calamity on the natiJames, by avoiding to affemble his parliament, had put it out of the power of his people to recur to their conftitutional relief. Moft abhorred the thought of a civil war, because they recollected, that, in the time of Charles I. the nation, in defending itself against one master, had been fubjected to an hundred tyrants: But they thought that a foreign force, together with the pre * Reresby passim, and Clarendon's diary. Jeffreys, like all infolent men, was much a coward. One of Charles II.'s parliaments having attacked him, in order to oblige him to furrender his office of recorder of London, Charles offered him his protection, and even folicited him to make use of it. But Jeffreys in terrors refigned. Charles faid, with his ufual wit, " Jeffreys, I find, is not parliament-proof." North's Examen, P. 551. Book V. 1688. pretenfions of the Prince of Orange, to interpofe in the PARTI. settlement of a nation which was too apt, when left to itself, to run into confufion, might afford fecurity against tyranny on the one hand, and anarchy on the other. In one thing only the tories and whigs differed: The tories. intended no more by asking the protection of the Prince of Orange, than to procure a great parliamentary settlement for the fecurity of the national religion and laws : But the whigs, concealing their intentions in public, animated each other thus in private: "Parliamentary settle"ments and laws, in fupport of religion and liberty, they had in abundance: But of what avail were par"liaments and laws against a King, who confidered the "first only as inftruments of his convenience in reign"ing; and who afferted a right of difpenfing when he pleased with the last? There was an original contract "between the Prince and the fubject, by which the one 66 was bound to obferve the laws, and the other his al legiance. But James had broken his part of this con"tract: They were therefore free from their part of it "likewife. And the time was now ripe, in compliance "with the voice of the people, to oblige him to defcend "from that throne, from which by the voices of two fuc"ceffive Houses of Commons, he had already been exclu"ded." All these different parties carried their complaints to the Prince of Orange with the more freedom; because, although the reserved manner, which was natural to him, together with his opinion of the violence and variableness of the British in politics, made him cautious of speaking out his own fentiments; yet he was ever ready to hear the complaints of a people who, beyond all others, are impatient of misery; and who, even when happy, complain because they are not happier : And thefe manners gave an high opinion of his prudence to the BOOK V. PART I. the discontented part of the English, and that they were fafe in forming connections with him. 1689. Natural at this time between England and Holland. The English were at this time well disposed to connect connection their interefts with thofe of the Prince's countrymen. The fudden revocation of the edict of Nantes by Louis XIV. had revived the remembrance of those ties which, a century before, had united and fupported the civil and religious interests of England and Holland. And, when the English compared the revocation of the edict with the fucceeding conduct of James, they imputed both to a regular concerted plan between Louis and him, to destroy the Proteftant religion all over Europe. Inftead of endeavouring to wipe off the impreflions which the difcovery of Colman's letters had created, James had, during the last two years, managed his negotiations with France in a manner which confirmed thofe fufpicions. For although there were treaties between England and France, which provided for the security of English subjects refiding in the last of these countries; yet no fooncr was the edict of Nantes revoked, than dragoons were quartered upon the English merchants, to force them to change their religion, and they were not permitted to leave the kingdom. When James complained, of thefe things, the French court gave orders, that none of the English who were not naturalifed fhould be molested: But, as directions were at the fame time given, that the wives and children of those who had married French women, should be confidered as naturalised, the last part of the order made the firft of little ufe; and the wives and children were fent to prisons or to convents. Arts were ufed to rob of the benefit of the order, even the few who were entitled to it *. The French feized on the coafts of A letter from Sir William Trumball, the English ambaffador in France, to Lord Sunderland, December 19. 1685, in the paper-office, gives a curious inftance of this: |