who on or before a particular day should take the oath of allegiance to William.

It happened that a certain Highland chief, Macdonald of Glencoe, had mistaken the day of taking the oath, and his enemy, the earl of Breadalbane, represented to the king, that Macdonald's misapprehension was a defiance of the royal authority. William accordingly granted a warrant of military execution both against Macdonald himself and his whole clan. A party of the Campbells was sent to Glencoe, and there fell like butchers on the unarmed and unsuspecting Macdonalds.

Nearly forty persons were massacred at Glencoe. The rest made their escape, but many who escaped for the present perished afterwards from the inclemency of the season, or by famine, or died of grief. This horrible outrage caused a general detestation of William's government, and was the beginning of a long series of troubles and sorrows in Scotland. The king tried to exculpate himself by saying that he had signed the fatal warrant in the hurry of business, without being aware of its full purport.

William, who had gone to the continent A. D. 1691. soon after his return from Ireland, now actively engaged in a war with France. Many of the Protestant states of Germany had joined Holland in a war against France. William took on himself the command of the allied army; and, only making occasional visits to England, spent nearly the whole of the next three years on the continent. Flanders was the chief seat of the war; and in the conduct of it prince Eugene of Savoy, the earl of Marlborough, and the duke of Schomberg (son of the veteran who was killed in Ireland,) greatly distinguished themselves.

He pre

Louis XIV. made another attempt to ef A. D. 1692. fect the restoration of James II. pared a numerous fleet for the invasion of England; but it

Who misunderstood the condition of pardon, and who misrepresented his motives?

Who executed the massacre of Glencoe ?

Did William justify himself for the massacre of Glencoe ?

Who carried on a continental war in 1681, and for some years following?

was completely defeated off La Hogue by the combined fleets of the English and Dutch.

Queen Mary, who during her husband's absences from England had the chief conduct of the government, endeared herself much to the nation, acting on many occasions with great firmness and judgment, and at the same time with great mildness. She died of the small-pox Dec. 28, 1694, and was very sincerely lamented.

William was in England at the time of the queen's death, an event which greatly grieved him. He soon after went again to the continent, and passed another year there in fighting the battles of the allies. The Jacobites at home were still constantly on the watch for any opportunity to disturb the government, and many plots were laid for assassinating him; but the mass of the people were steady to their allegiance.

A general peace was made, called the A. D. 1697. peace of Ryswick, by which the continent of Europe was for a short time restored to tranquillity: but towards the conclusion of William's reign an alliance was agreed upon between the emperor, the king of England, and the Dutch, which led soon afterwards to a renewal of the war. William was engaged in making active preparations, when an accident put a sudden end to his life.

On the 21st of February, 1702, as the king was riding to Hampton Court, from Kensington, his horse fell with him, and he was thrown with so much violence that he broke his collar-bone. From the consequences of this ac cident he never recovered, but on March the 8th, he expired, in the 52d year of his age, and the fourteenth of his reign. After his death, a ring containing some of the late queen's hair was found fastened by a black riband round his arm. He married Mary, eldest daughter of James II., and left no children.

King James II. died at St. Germain's a few months be

When did queen Mary die?

Did William wholly possess the love of his subjects?

Did the peace of Ryswick effectually preserve peace in Europe?
By what accident did William lose his life?

Whom did the parliament pronounce successor to William III.?

L

fore William; and his son James Francis was proclaimed king of England by Louis. At William's accession the English parliament had set the claims of James totally aside, and had settled the succession, after William and Mary, and in the event of their leaving no children, on the princess Anne and her children.

William and Mary having no children, and the duke of Gloucester, the only surviving child of the princess Anne, having died in the latter part of William's reign, a new act was passed in 1701, settling the crown, on failure of the direct line, on the electress Sophia and her Protestant descendants.

Sophia was daughter of the queen of Bohemia, electress palatine, and was grand-daughter of James I. She married the duke, afterwards elector of Hanover, a Protestant prince of the house of Brunswick. The duchess of Savoy, who was daughter of Henrietta, youngest daughter of Charles I., protested, as being in a nearer line of succession, against this settlement; but her claims were unattended to, both she and her children being Catholics.

William appropriated the park and palace at Greenwich as a hospital for disabled seamen. The bank of England was established in this reign. The expenses of the king's foreign wars had occasioned a continual drain for money, and he first burdened the country with a national debt, the foundation of what is called the public funds.

The national debt is an exceeding large sum of money, amounting at the present time in England, to many hundred millions of pounds sterling-a debt which has been incurred at different times by government, which has borrowed money from private persons to pay the army and defray other expenses, and that money, still unpaid, is due

In failure of the direct line, who was to succeed the princess Anne? Who protested against the succession of the house of Brunswick to the throne of England?

Who founded Greenwich hospital?

When was the bank of England established?

What is the national debt of a country?

to the lenders or their heirs. These receive in return perpetual annuities; or else payment is due to persons who have acquired a portion of those annuities from those who actually lent the money: for these annuities have been divided and subdivided, sometimes into very small portions, and have been sold and resold over and over again.

The most famous military man of William's time was John, duke of Marlborough. His family name was Churchill; and his father had some inferior place in the court of Charles II. Young Churchill entered the army at twelve years old, and was engaged in active service nearly the whole of his life, which proved a long one.

Churchill was made earl of Marlborough by William, who had a high value for him, and appreciated his great abilities. Indeed, he was a man of such an extraordinary military genius, that it is said so skilful a commander had not been seen in England since the days of the Black Prince.

Who was the great warrior of William's and Anne's reign?

Was Marlborough's genius compared with that of any other war rior?

On the death of William, Anne succeeded peaceably to the crown. She was then in the thirty-ninth year of her age she had married, in 1683, George, son of Frederick III., king of Denmark, and had many children, who all died in their infancy, except one son, prince George. This young prince lived to be eleven years old. His death caused the most bitter grief of his parents, specially to his mother, who after that event never regained her former vivacity. Anne had a good natural capacity, but it had been very little cultivated. Her temper was mild and ob

liging.

The undivided administration of government was vested in the queen, prince George having no greater dignities in the state than those of generalissimo of the queen's forces, and of lord high admiral. He was a man, indeed, who

What were Queen Anne's domestic circumstances, and her personal character?

Had prince George of Denmark any royal function in England?