him to take on himself provisionally the administration of the government; the other recommended that he should, by circular letters subscribed with his own hand, invite all the constituent bodies of the kingdom to send up representatives to Westminster. At the same time, the peers took upon themselves to issue an order banishing all papists, except a few privileged persons, from London and the vicinity.*

The Lords presented their addresses to the prince on the following day, without waiting for the issue of the deliberations of the Commoners whom he had called together. It seems, indeed, that the hereditary nobles were disposed at this moment to be punctilious in asserting their dignity, and were unwilling to recognize a co-ordinate authority in an assembly unknown to the law. They conceived that they were a real House of Lords. The other chamber they despised as only a mock House of Commons. William, however, wisely excused himself from coming to any decision till he had ascertained the sense of the gentlemen who had formerly been honored with the confidence of the counties and towns of England.†

The Commoners who had been summoned met in Saint Stephen's Chapel, and formed a numerous assembly. They placed in the chair Henry Powle, who had represented Cirencester in several Parliaments, and had been eminent among the supporters of the Exclusion Bill.

Addresses were proposed and adopted similar to those which the Lords had already presented. No difference of opinion appeared on any serious question; and some feeble attempts which were made to raise a debate on points of form were put down by the general contempt. Sir Robert Sawyer declared that he could not conceive how it was possible for the prince to administer the government without some distinguishing title, such as Regent or Protector. Old Maynard, who, as a lawyer, had no equal, and who

Halifax's Notes; Lansdowne MS., 255; Clarendon's Diary, Dec. 24, 1688; London Gazette. + Citters, 1688.

Dec. 25
Jan 4

was also a politician versed in the tactics of revolutions, was at no pains to conceal his disdain for so puerile an objection, taken at a moment when union and promptitude were of the highest importance. "We shall sit here very long," he said, "if we sit till Sir Robert can conceive how such a thing is possible;" and the assembly thought the answer as good as the cavil deserved.*

The resolutions of the meeting were communicated to the prince. He forthwith announced his determination to comply with the joint request of the two councils which he had called, to issue letters summoning a convention of the estates of the realm, and, till the Convention should meet, to take on himself the executive administration.†

He had undertaken no light task. The whole machine of government was disordered. The justices of the peace had abandoned their functions. The officers of the revenue had ceased to collect the taxes. The army which Feversham had disbanded was still in confusion, and ready to break out into mutiny. The fleet was in a scarcely less alarming state. Large arrears of pay were due to the civil and military servants of the crown; and only forty thousand pounds remained in the Exchequer. The prince addressed himself with vigor to the work of restoring order. He published a proclamation by which all magistrates were continued in office, and another containing orders for the collection of the revenue.‡ The new modeling of the army went rapidly on; many of the noblemen and gentlemen whom James had removed from the command of the English regiments were reappointed. A way was found of employing the thousands of Irish soldiers whom James had brought into England. They could not safely be suffered to remain in a country where

* The objector was designated in cotemporary books and pamphlets only by his initials, and these were sometimes misinterpreted. Eachard attributes the cavil to Sir Robert Southwell; but I have no doubt that Oldmixon is right in putting it into the mouth of Sawyer.

History of the Desertion: Life of William, 1703; Citters,
London Gazette, Jan. 3, 7, 1688.

Dec. 28

1688.

Jan. 7

they were objects of religious and national animosity. They could not safely be sent home to re-enforce the army of Tyrconnel. It was therefore determined that they should be sent to the Continent, where they might, under the banners of the house of Austria, render indirect but effectual service to the cause of the English Constitution and of the Protestant religion. Dartmouth was removed from his command, and the navy was conciliated by assurances that every sailor should speedily receive his due. The city of London undertook to extricate the prince from his financial difficulties. The common council, by a unanimous vote, engaged to find him two hundred thousand pounds. It was thought a great proof, both of the wealth and of the public spirit of the merchants of the capital, that, in forty-eight hours, the whole sum was raised on no security but the prince's word. A few weeks before James had been unable to procure a much smaller sum, though he had offered to pay higher interest, and to pledge valuable property.*

In a very few days, the confusion which the invasion, the insurrection, the flight of James, and the suspension of all regular government had produced was at an end, and the kingdom wore again its accustomed aspect. There was a general sense of security. Even the classes which were most obnoxious to public hatred, and which had most reason to apprehend a persecution, were protected by the politic clemency of the conqueror. Persons deeply implicated in the illegal transactions of the late reign not only walked the streets in safety, but offered themselves as candidates for seats in the Convention. received not ungraciously at St. James's. released from arrest, and was permitted to office for which he was qualified, that of keeping the bank at the queen dowager's basset table. But no body of

Mulgrave was Feversham was resume the only

* London Gazette, Jan. 10, 17, 1688; Luttrell's Diary; Legge Papers ; Citters, Jan.,,, 1689; Ronquillo, Jan. 1,

Feb. 23
Mar. 5

; Consultation of

men had so much reason to feel grateful to William as the Roman Catholics. It would not have been safe to rescind formally the severe resolutions which the peers had passed against the professors of a religion generally abhorred by the nation; but, by the prudence and humanity of the prince, those resolutions were practically annulled. On his line of march from Torbay to London, he had given orders that no outrage should be committed on the persons or dwellings of papists. He now renewed those orders, and directed Burnet to see that they were strictly obeyed. A better choice could not have been made; for Burnet was a man of such generosity and good nature, that his heart always warmed toward the unhappy; and, at the same time, his known hatred of popery was a sufficient guarantee to the most zealous Protestants that the interests of their religion would be safe in his hands. He listened kindly to the complaints of the Roman Catholics, procured passports for those who wished to go beyond sea, and went himself to Newgate to visit the prel ates who were imprisoned there. He ordered them to be removed to a more commodious apartment, and supplied with every indulgence; he solemnly assured them that not a hair of their heads should be touched, and that, as soon as the prince could venture to act as he wished, they should be set at liberty. The Spanish minister reported to his government, and, through his government, to the pope, that no Catholic need feel any scruple of conscience on account of the late revolution in England; that, for the danger to which the members of the true Church were exposed, James alone was responsible, and that William alone had saved them from a sanguinary persecution.*

* Burnet, i., 802; Ronquillo, Jan. 3, Feb., 1689. The originals of these dispatches were intrusted to me by the kindness of the late Lady Hol land and of the present Lord Holland. From the latter dispatch I will quote a very few words: "La tema de S. M. Britanica á seguir imprudentes consejos perdió á los Catolicos aquella quietud en que les dexó Carlos segundo. V. E. asegure á su Santidad que mas sacaré del Principe para los Catolicos que pudiera sacar del Rey."

There was, therefore, little alloy to the satisfaction with which the princes of the house of Austria and the sovereign pontiff learned that the long vassalage of England was at an end. When it was known at Madrid that William was in the full career of success, a single voice in the Spanish council of state faintly expressed regret that an event which, in a political point of view, was most auspicious, should be prejudicial to the interests of the true Church.* But the tolerant policy of the prince soon quieted all scruples, and his elevation was seen with scarcely less satisfaction by the bigoted grandees of Castile than by the English Whigs.

With very different feelings had the news of this great revolution been received in France. The politics of a long, eventful, and glorious reign had been confounded in a day. England was again the England of Elizabeth and of Cromwell; and all the relations of all the states of Christendom were completely changed by the sudden introduction of this new power into the system. The Parisians could talk of nothing but what was passing in London. National and religious feeling impelled them to take the part of James. They knew nothing of the English Constitution. They abominated the English Church. Our revolution appeared to them, not as the triumph of public liberty over despotism, but as a frightful domestic tragedy, in which a venerable and pious Servius was hurled from his throne by a Tarquin, and crushed under the chariot wheels of a Tullie. They cried shame on the traitorous captains, execrated the unnatural daughters, and regarded William with a mortal loathing, tempered, however, by the respect which valor, capacity, and success seldom fail

* On December 13, 1688, the Admiral of Castile gave his opinion thus: "Esta materia es de calidad que no puede dexar de padecer nuestra sagrada religion ó el servicio de V. M.; porque, sí el Principe de Orange tiene buenos succesos, nos aseguraremos de Franceses, pero peligrará la religion." The council was much pleased on February 18 by a letter of the prince, in which he promised "que los Catolicos que se portaren con prudencia no sean molestados, y gocen libertad de conciencia, por ser contra su dictamen el forzar ni castigar por esta razon á nadie."