A.C. 1688. fult them on the prefent posture of affairs. They Burnet. A. C. 168c. He is invited to take upon him fer the ad min ftra tion of affairs in accordingly affembled at the appointed time, and adjourned to the houfe of commons: there, after fome debates upon the authority by which they had been convened, they drew up and prefented an addrefs to the prince, defiring he would take upon himfelf the charge of the adminiftration till the meeting of the convention, which they begged he would convoke for the twenty-fecond day of January. The prince affured them he would comply with their advice, and concur with them in every meafure that fhould be judged neceffary for the good of the kingdom. Being thus invefted with the fupreme authority, he ordered Barillon the French ambaffador to quit the kingdom immediately. Next day he received the communion in the manner practifed in the church of England. He published a proclamation, authorifing all pro-. testants who had public employments, to continue in the exercife of them till the meeting of the convention he difmiffed all the catholic officers from the army; and at the fame time he releafed the earl of Feverfham, at the defire of the queen dowager. The Scottish bishops had fent an addrefs to the king, declaring their abhorrence of the invasion threatened by the prince of Orange: but his defign was extremely agreeable to the generality of people in that kingdom, who profeffed the prefbyterian Scotland. religion. The retreat of James was no fooner known at Edinburgh, than the chancellor of the kingdom refigned the great feal, and retired from that capital: then the populace affembling, infulted not only the catholics, but likewife the favourers of epifcopacy. They demolished chapels and plundered houfes; fo that the bifhops were obliged to fly with the utmoft precipitation, while many noble men men and others of that country repaired to Lon- A. C. '.689. don, to obferve the progrefs of the prince, and conform themselves to the conduct of the English nation. Those the prince affembled at St. James's, to the number of thirty lords and fourfcore gentlemen, whofe advice he demanded with regard to the affairs of Scotland. From thence they repaired to Whitehall, and having chosen the duke of Hamilton their prefident, deliberated upon the antwer they should make to the prince of Orange. The earl of Arran propofed an addrefs to the king, defiring he would return to Scotland and convoke a parliament but this propofal was unanimously rejected. They befought the prince to affume the reins of government in Scotland, and convoke the ftates of that kingdom for the fourteenth day of March; and they received nearly the fame anfwer which he had made to the English. Tyrconnel The fettlement of Ireland was a tafk of much Writes to greater difficulty. Tyrconnel commanded an army conne compofed of papifts, and it could not be imagined that he would voluntarily fubmit to the prince's orders: yet as the lords and commons of England had intreated the prince to regulate the affairs of that kingdom, and he had received an address from the proteftant inhabitants, he could not help taking fome notice of their interest. He wrote a letter to Tyrconnel, requiring him to fubmit to the regulations that fhould be made in England. Colonel Hamilton undertook to deliver this letter, and inforce it in fuch a manner that the earl would submit; but, far from performing his promife, he encouraged him to fet the prince at defiance. It was at this juncture, that the archbishop of Canterbury, who had hitherto stood neuter, went, accompanied with eight other prelates, to make a tender of their fervices to the prince, and fubfcribed T 2 1 收 A. C. 1689. fcribed the affociation: at the fame time he was complimented by ninety prefbyterian minifters, who went in a body to pay their refpects, and were civilly received. While the nation was employed in chufing reprefentatives, William fent for the princefs; but fhe was for fome time detained by a hard froft, which had locked up the harbours in Holland. Meeting of the conven tion. The convention meeting on the twenty-fecond day of January, each houfe chose a speaker; and then the prince's letter to both was read to this effect: That he had complied with their defires in re-establishing the peace and public fafety of the kingdom, and now it was their business to fecure their religion, laws, and liberties upon a certain foundation. He obferved, that the dangerous fituation of the proteftants in Ireland required immediate relief, and that, except a difunion among themselves, nothing could be more fatal to foreign connections than a delay in their deliberations; the States-general would have immediate occafion for the troops they had furnished, as well as for the fpeedy affiftance of the English, against a powerful enemy with whom they were at war: he perfuaded himself, that befides the obligation of treaties, they would be ready to affift the Dutch as proteftants and friends, who had expreffed fuch ardour for the preservation of the English conftitution. The two houfes immediately prefented an address to the prince, in which they acknowledged, that, under God, the nation was indebted to him for its deliverance. They approved of his adminiftration; and begged he would continue to manage the affairs of government, until they fhould have occafion to prefent another addrefs; and they promifed to pay the utmost deference to all the contents of his letter. They ordained a day of thankf 4 giving giving for the happy deliverance of the nation; A. C. 1689and the bishops, by command of the upper-house, inferted in the service of the day, a particular prayer for the prince of Orange. The king had written a letter to his privy-counfellors, nearly in the terms of the paper he had left at Rochester, and defiring their advice in the prefent conjuncture. It was printed and published by his direction; but as he received no anfwer from those to whom it was addreffed, he fent a letter to each houfe of the convention; in which he promised, on the word of a king, to grant a general indemnity, even to those who had betrayed him, excepting a very few whom he could not with fafety forgive: but the two houfes refused to examine the contents. On the twenty-eighth day of January, Mr. Dolben, in the lower houfe, undertook to prove that the throne was vacated by the king's defertion. After a debate that lafted feveral hours, The comthey voted, by a great majority, that king James II. mons vote having endeavoured to fubvert the conftitution of that king James had the kingdom, by breaking the original contract abdicated betwixt king and people; and having, by the ad- the throne. vice of jefuits and other wicked perfons, violated the fundamental laws, and withdrawn himself out of the kingdom, had abdicated the government; and that the throne was thereby vacant : and that experience had fhewn, a proteftant kingdom could not fubfift under the government of a popish fovereign. As the elections had run in the old channel, without being exposed to any undue influence, almoft all the reprefentatives of the boroughs were prefbyterians, who had now refumed their former principles of rejecting the right of hereditary fucceffion. But in the houfe of peers the intereft of the tories was confiderable. They T3 A.C. 1689. They now refumed thofe maxims of government, which they had depofited when they found themfelves threatened with immediate flavery. Both parties had by this time forgot the coalition, and their former animofity revived. Disputes in the upper houte. The lords, without acquiefcing in the vote of the commons, began to confider in what manner the government fhould be fettled, fuppofing the throne was actually vacant. The earls of Rochefter and Nottingham, leaders of the tory party, propofed that the line of fucceffion fhould be preferved, and a regent appointed during the king's life, as if James was actually in a state of lunacy. They produced a recent inftance of this expedient in Portugal, where, after the depofition of Alphonfo VI. his brother Don Pedro had been appointed regent of the kingdom. The marquis of Hallifax fpeaker of the house, and the earl of Lanby, who headed the oppofite party, expatiated upon the difficulties, the confufion, and civil diforders, that would probably attend a regency, opposed by that very prince in whofe name it must operate. The tories urged, that the election of one king would form a precedent which would produce fucceffive contefts for the throne; fo that the peace of the nation would be continually interrupted, and the monarchy degenerate into a turbu lent republic: befides, it would be expofed to inceffant danger, from the pretenfions of him who would claim the crown by the right of fucceffion; whereas fhould this be preferved intire, the administration would one day fall into the hands of the true heir; and then all difputes and disorders would naturally cease. The whigs infifted upon the original contract, by which the people were intitled to take arms against oppreffion, and expel a tyrant from the throne. They explained the abfurdity |