1689.--It was 1. The new Government and the Mutiny Act. unlikely that William would long be popular. He was cold and reserved, and he manifestly cared more for the struggle on the Continent than for the strife which never ceased between English parties. Yet he was sagacious enough to know that it was only by managing English affairs with firmness and wisdom that he could hope to carry England with him in his conflict with France; and he did his work so well that, though few of his new subjects loved him, most of them learned to respect him. As he owed his crown to the support of both parties, he chose his first ministers from both. In March his throne was exposed to some danger. The army was dissatisfied in consequence of the shabby part which UU III. it had played when called on to defend James II., and one regiment mutinied. Only the Dutch troops could be trusted, and it was by them that the mutiny was suppressed. The punishment of mutinous soldiers by courts martial had been forbidden by the Petition of Right (see p. 508). Parliament now passed a Mutiny Act, which authorised the maintenance of discipline by such courts for six months only. The Act has been since renewed from year to year, and as, if it dropped, the king would have no lawful means of maintaining discipline, Parliament thus maintains control over the army. 2. The Toleration Act and the Nonjurors. 1689.-Still more 1689 RELIGIOUS LIBERTY 651 important was the Toleration Act, which gave to Dissenters the legal right to worship publicly, on complying with certain formalities. From this toleration Unitarians and Roman Catholics were excluded. The great mass of Protestant Dissenters were well satisfied, and the chief cause of religious strife was thus removed. An attempt made to carry a Comprehension Bill (see pp. 598, 599), which was intended to attract Dissenters to the Church by altering the Prayer Book, ended in complete failure. All holders of office in Church and State were required to take the oaths of supremacy and allegiance to the new sovereigns. About 400 of the clergy with Archbishop Sancroft and six other bishops refused to swear. Their offices were conferred on others, and they, holding that they and those who continued to acknowledge them were the true Church, founded a body which, under the name of Nonjurors, continued to exist for more than a century. 6 3. Locke's Letters on Toleration. 1689.-The Toleration Act itself was in the main the fruit of the change which had taken place in the political circumstances of the nation since the Restoration. Men had had reason to be afraid of Roman Catholics, and were no longer afraid of Dissenters. Alongside of this political change, however, had grown up a change of opinion amongst the thinking men who had especial influence in the Whig party. In 1689 the philosopher Locke published his 'Letters on Toleration.' They were much less heroic than Milton's Areopagitica' (see p. 546), and instead of dwelling on the bracing effects of liberty on the human spirit, maintained the view that the State had no business to interfere with religious conviction. A Church, according to Locke, was 'a voluntary society of men joining themselves together of their own accord, in order to the public worshipping of God in such manner as they shall judge acceptable to Him and effectual to the salvation of their souls.' On such voluntary associations Royal Arms as borne by William III. the State had no right to impose penalties. 4. Establishment of Presbyterianism in Scotland. 1689.-In Scotland and Ireland William had to fight for his crown. In Scotland, before the Parliament met, the Episcopal clergy were 'rabbled,' that is to say, were driven from their parishes with insult and ill-usage by angry crowds. Parliament then declared James to have forfeited the crown and gave it to William and Mary. It also declared Presbyterianism to be the religion of the country. 5. Killiecrankie. 1689. To many of the nobles the establishment of a clergy which owed them no respect was distasteful, and some, of whom the most conspicuous were the Duke of Gordon and Viscount Dundee, who had till lately been known as Graham of Claverhouse (see p. 620), drew their swords for James. Gordon held out in Edinburgh Castle till June 13. Dundee, following the 1689-169 KILLIECRANKIE AND GLENCOE 653 example of Montrose (see p. 547), a Graham like himself, gathered the Highland clans around him. On July 27, he drew up his force on the flat ground at the head of the pass of Killiecrankie. William's general, Mackay, toiled up the steep hillside to attack him. His soldiers had been supplied with bayonets, a new French invention intended to make each soldier a pikeman as well as a musketeer. The invention had not yet been perfected, and the bayonets had to be fixed in the muzzles of the guns. When Mackay's men reached the top exhausted by the climb and the summer heat, they fired their shots, and then, seeing the Highlanders rushing upon them, fumbled with their bayonets. Before they could get them fixed the Highlanders, with their flashing broadswords, were upon them. Dundee had been killed by the first fire, but his men swept the lowland soldiers down the pass, leaping lightly over the rocks and slaying as they went. The Highlanders, caring more for plunder than for James, returned home to deposit their booty in safety. 6. The Pacification of the Highlands. 1691-1692.-The Highlanders were poor, and in 1691 a distribution of 15,000l. amongst the chiefs of the clans brought them one by one to submission. December 31 was announced as the last day on which the oaths acknowledging William would be accepted. By that 1, Bayonet as made in 1686. time all had resolved to give way; but one of the number, Maclan Glencoe, the head of a small clan, one of the many into which the Macdonalds were divided, took pride in being the last to submit, and made his appearance on the 31st. Unfortunately he by mistake came to a gentleman who had no authority to accept his oath, and when he reached a person who could accept it, the |