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composed of citizens would render such an army unnecessary for the security of the nation.

James's great aims were the institution of a standing army, the obtaining of the dispensing power, and of ecclesiastical supremacy. By the dispensing power he would be enabled to suspend the operation of any statute, and thus, without nominally abrogating laws, which could only be done by the legislature, he would be able, whenever he pleased, to set any Act of Parliament aside. The assumption of ecclesiastical supremacy again would place the Protestant Church at his disposal. He began, accordingly, to confer benefices on Roman Catholics, and to induct them into the Universities in violation of the Test Act and the University Charters. He removed judges from the bench to put in their place others of a pliable character, and he revived the Court of High Commission, a court instituted to try heretics, which had been abolished by the Parliamentarians along with the Star-Chamber, as two of the most arbitrary institutions of former times. Monks and nuns now taking heart, began to appear publicly in their monastic costume. Riots in consequence broke out in several parts of the country, but in no place with such violence as in Edinburgh, where the mob rose and attacked a Popish Chapel that had been fitted up in the chancellor's house. The students joined the mob in rescuing a prisoner. The troops, being resisted, fired on the people, and several were killed. A deputation went from the Scotch Privy Council to London, but neither threats nor negotiations could induce the Lords of Articles to agree to the persecution of Covenanters, or to accord more to Papists than undisturbed worship in private. James at length substituted his own arbitrary will for that of the Council. Ireland, at the same time, Popish ascendency was completely established, to the great terror of the Protestant minority; and in order to overawe the general discontent, James formed a camp at Hounslow, in the vicinity of London.

In

James now turned for aid towards the dissenters, whom, by a Declaration of Toleration, he included in his abrogation of all reli

A.D. 1688.]

ACT OF INDULGENCE.

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gious tests; and thinking he had won them over to connivance at his subversion of the laws, proceeded to break up the corporate bodies, to supply the old members with electors, through whom he hoped to pack a Parliament subservient to his wishes.1 The dissenters, however, showed no inclination to receive benefits at the cost of the fundamental laws of the country; and when James ordered the Protestant clergy to read his Act of Indulgence from their pulpits, they were encouraged in their refusal to obey this illegal demand by the dissenters themselves, who, regarding the declaration as an infringement of the authority of Parliament, accepted only with hesitation the liberty it conceded to them.

On the 18th May 1688, the prelates met at the Archiepiscopal Palace of Lambeth, and drew up a petition to the king, beseeching him not to force the clergy to violate their consciences by compelling them publicly to read the Declaration of Indulgence. The petition was signed by the primate and six bishops, and was laid before the king by the bishops in person. James rejected the petition, calling it in his wrath a standard of rebellion; but in the eyes of the nation the Clergy by this resolute act rose higher in estimation. On the 8th June, the seven bishops were summoned before the king in council, and then committed to the Tower. As they proceeded to the water's edge, where lay the barges for their conveyance, they were accompanied by prayers and acclamations. These were renewed on the river, which was swarming with boats crowded with people filled with enthusiastic admiration of their heroic pastors. The same feelings became converted into exultation on the following 29th, when the bishops were acquitted, by a jury, of the charge of libel cast on their petition.

On the same day an invitation, signed by several Peers, was addressed to William Prince of Orange, assuring him that he need only land in England, at the head of his troops, to be supported by the whole country. William, beside being married to Mary, eldest daughter of James II., was himself grandson of Charles the

1 The city members of Parliament, it is necessary to state, were at that time elected by the corporate bodies alone.

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ARRIVAL OF WILLIAM PRINCE OF ORANGE. [A.D. 1688.

First, and known to be a wise, tolerant prince,—as a warrior hardly inferior to the greatest captains of the age, and as a statesman, surpassing all those of his time. The disgust of the nation infecting the army, James alienated it entirely by bringing over his Irish soldiers as alone worthy of reliance.

At length, on the 5th November, William landed at Torbay and marched to Exeter, his banner bearing for inscription the "Protestant Religion and Liberties of England." James's adherents quickly fell away, including his own daughter the Princess Anne,— a circumstance which drew forth the exclamation, "God help me ; my own children have forsaken me!" It was not till the 22d December 1688 that James fled the kingdom for France, to which he had previously sent his wife (Mary of Este) and child. The interval had been filled up with attempts at negotiation with the Prince of Orange, which his own faithlessness brought to nought.

William had advanced to London, and now summoned a Parliament at St. James's, which was composed-the House of Lords, of those peers present in London, and the Commons, of such members as had sat in the House existing at the death of Charles II. Both Houses calling on him to undertake the government, he summoned a convention, pending whose decision regarding the Crown he assumed the executive administration. The convention met on the 3d January 1689, and having declared the throne vacant, after much consideration agreed to offer the Crown to William and Mary conjointly, the heir-apparent being the Princess Anne, daughter of James II. The Commons, at the same time, wisely drew up a Declaration of Rights, in which they affirmed the illegality of royal dispensation or suspension of laws, the right of petition, of free representation, and of free parliamentary debate, the impartial impannelling of juries, and of pure administration of the law. Mary, the amiable and admirable wife of William, arriving at Greenwich on the 12th February 1689, they were both proclaimed next day.

COTEMPORARY SOVEREIGNS AND EVENTS.

Cotemporary Sovereigns and Events.-France: Louis XIV. Revocation of the Edict of Nantes (1685).

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Russia: Peter the Great.

During this epoch physical science made great progress under Galileo, Newton, Boyle, &c. The French Academy was founded by Richelieu (1635). The great literary names were Locke, and Dryden, in England; and on the Continent, Descartes, Pascal, Leibnitz, Bossuet, Corneille, Molière, Racine. The great painters were Rubens, Vandyke, Rembrandt, the Teniers, Claude of Lorraine, Poussin, Guido, Domenichino, Salvator Rosa, Murillo, and Velasquez.

Questions.-1. How did James II. show his despotic tendency and his religious opinions at the very commencement of his reign? 2. Write an account of the rebellion of Monmouth and Argyle. 3. What were James's three great objects; and what arbitrary acts did he perform? 4. What was the object of the Declaration of Indulgence and how was it received by the Nonconformists on the one hand, and the bishops on the other? 5. What step did the peers take; and what became of James II.? 7. What was the Declaration of Rights?

:

SEVENTH EPOCH.

A.D. 1689-1714.

COALITION IN SUPPORT OF THE LIBERTIES OF EUROPE, CIVIL AND RELIGIOUS, AGAINST THE ASSAULTS OF LOUIS XIV., FORMED BY WILLIAM, AND CARRIED TRIUMPHANTLY INTO EFFECT BY THE ARMS OF THE DUKE OF MARLBOROUGH AND THE ALLIES OF

ENGLAND UNDER QUEEN ANNE (1714).

[Addison, Steele, and Pope, flourished during this Epoch.]

1. William III. and Mary.1

A.D. 1689-1702.

THE CONVENTION BECOMES A PARLIAMENT THE ACT OF TOLERATION-COALITION AGAINST FRANCE-JAMES II. IN IRELAND, AND HIS DEFEAT THE ACT OF SETTLEMENT.

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THE Convention, having settled the succession to the Crown,

William III. m. Mary, daughter of James II. was turned into a Parliament Factions continued to be so busily at work that the Habeas Corpus Act had for a time to be suspended. A meeting at Ipswich led to a law for trying offences in the ranks, which was the first Mutiny Bill. William, notwithstanding his sterling worth, soon began to lose popularity. His manners were cold and reserved, his state of health compelled retirement, he could not speak the language with facility, and his foreign favourites excited jealousy. But

1 Mary died December 1694.

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