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James now resolved to return to the capital. He sent Lord Feversham to the prince, who was now at Windsor, to propose a personal conference; but the envoy was placed under arrest, on the pretext of his having come without a passport. The king on reaching London, was received with every demonstration of popular joy: the crowds shouted, the bells were rung, and the bonfires were kindled, in the usual manner. Next day he held a court, met his council, and exercised other acts of sovereignty. But the prince and his council had decided that James should not remain at Whitehall; and the following evening Count Solms came with a body of the Dutch guards, and, having occupied St. James', led them to Whitehall. Lord Craven, who commanded the English guards, was preparing to resist; but James, knowing opposition to be useless, repressed the ardour of the veteran of eighty, and the Dutch guards took the place of the English. A little before midnight the king went to rest, but he had not been long asleep when he was waked to receive the lords Halifax, Shrewsbury, and Delamere, who were come with a message from the prince. He had them admitted. They told him it was the prince's wish that, for the safety of his person, he should go to Ham House in Surrey, where he would be attended by his own guards, and that he must depart at ten in the morning, as the prince would arrive by noon. James objected to Ham, as damp and cold, and proposed Rochester. They departed, and returned at nine next morning with the requisite permission.

JAMES II LEAVES ENGLAND FOREVER (1688 A.D.)

At noon the king took leave of the nobility and entered the royal barge, and went down the river, followed by a party of the Dutch guards in boats. The assembled crowds viewed with mournful looks this final departure of their sovereign, a captive in the hands of foreigners. James slept that night at Gravesend, and next day came to Rochester, where he remained for four days, deliberating on his further course. His friends in general urged him not to think of quitting the kingdom, as it was the very course his enemies seemed to wish him to adopt; for, though the front of the house in which he resided was guarded, the rear was neglected. He sent, offering to place himself in the hands of the prelates, if they would answer for his safety; but they declined so delicate a charge. He then resolved on flight, to which he was moreover urged by a letter from the queen; and, having written a declaration explanatory of his motives, and informed some friends of his design, he went to bed as usual. After midnight he rose, and, with his natural son the duke of Berwick and three other persons, he went out through the garden. A fishing smack had been hired to convey him to France, but the weather was so rough that he could not reach it. He got on board the Eagle fire-ship, where he was received with all marks of respect by the crew, and next morning he embarked in the smack. On Christmas Day he landed at Ambleteuse in Picardy, and he hastened to join his queen at St. Germain. His reception by Louis was cordial and generous.

As the reign of this ill-judging prince had now reached its close, we will here insert his character as drawn in true but more favourable colours than one might have expected by the pen of Bishop Burnet k: "He was a prince that seemed made for greater things than will be found in the course of his life, more particularly of his reign. He was esteemed in the former parts of his life a man of great eourage, as he was, quite through it, a man of great application to business. He had no vivacity of thought, invention or expression, but he had a good judgment where his religion or his education gave him not a bias, which

[1688 A.D.] it did very often. He was bred with strange notions of the obedience due to princes, and came to take up as strange ones of the obedience due to priests. He was naturally a man of truth, fidelity and justice, but his religion was so infused in him and he was so managed in it by his priests, that the principles which nature had laid in him had little power over him when the concerns of his church stood in the way. He was a gentle master, and was very easy to all who came near him, yet he was not so apt to pardon as one ought to be that is the viceregent of that God who is slow to anger and ready to forgive. He had no personal vices but of one sort; he was still wandering from one amour to another; yet he had a real sense of sin, and was ashamed of it. In a word, if it had not been for his popery, he would have been, if not a great, yet a good prince."

THE INTERREGNUM; THE CONVENTION PARLIAMENT (1689 A.D.)

To resume our narrative. At two o'clock on the day of the king's departure from the capital, the prince of Orange came to St. James. All classes crowded to do him homage. He summoned the lords spiritual and temporal to meet on the 21st, to consider the state of the nation. They came on the appointed day, to the number of about seventy: five lawyers, in the absence of the judges, were appointed to assist them. It was proposed that they should previously sign the Exeter Association: the temporal peers, with four exceptions, subscribed; the prelates, all but Compton, refused. Next day (the 22nd) they met in the house of peers, and, having chosen Lord Halifax their speaker, issued an order for all papists, except householders and some others, to remove ten miles from London. On Christmas Day they resolved that the prince should be requested to take on him the administration 1 of all public affairs till the 22nd of January, and to issue letters for persons to be elected to meet as a convention on that day. The following day all those who had served in any of the parliaments of Charles II, and were in town, with the aldermen and fifty common-council-men, waited on the prince by invitation, and thence went to the house of commons, where next day they voted an address similar to that of the peers. The prince accepted the charge, and issued the letters of summons for the convention. Next day, being Sunday, he received the sacrament according to the rites of the Church of England. On the 22nd of January, 1689, the memorable convention met. A joint address of thanks, praying him to continue the administration of affairs was presented to the prince. After a few days' necessary delay, the commons entered on the great question of the state of the nation; and it was resolved, "That king James II having endeavoured to subvert the constitution of the kingdom by breaking the original contract between king and people; and, by the advice of jesuits and other wicked persons, having violated the fundamental laws, and having withdrawn himself out of this kingdom, has abdicated the government, and that the throne is thereby become vacant." Next day it was resolved, "That it hath been found by experience to be inconsistent with the safety and welfare of this Protestant kingdom to be governed by a popish prince." It is remarkable that this is the very principle of the Exclusion Bill which had brought such odium on its supporters.

In the lords, this last vote was unanimously agreed to, but various questions arose on the former. The first was, supposing the throne vacant, whether they would have a regent or a king. It was decided in favour of the [The so-called Interregnum is usually dated from December 23rd, 1688, to February 13th

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latter by a majority of only two. It was then carried, that there was an original contract between king and people. For the word "abdicated" they substituted "deserted"; and they struck out the clause declaring the throne to be vacant, as it was maintained that the crown devolved to the princess of Orange. To these amendments the commons refused to agree. Two conferences took place between committees of the houses, which terminated in the lords giving way to the firmness of the commons; the cogent motive was political necessity. The wholesome regard for the forms of the constitution certainly involved the whigs in apparent absurdity, for the word "abdicated" it was acknowledged was used in an improper sense; "deserted" was in truth no better, but it sounded softer; the proper word was "forfeited," but all parties shrank from employing it.

The throne being vacant, the next question was, by whom it should be filled. The young prince of Wales was passed over by common consent; for his birth should be previously inquired into; and should his legitimacy be proved, as there was no doubt but that he would be brought up a Catholic, it would be necessary to appoint a Protestant regent, and then the strange appearance might be presented of a succession of kings with the rights and title of the crown, and of regents exercising all its power. The simple course seemed to be to make the princess of Orange queen; but the prince signified his dislike of that; the princess had also strongly expressed her disapprobation of it. c

William, who had carefully abstained from everything that might have borne the appearance of effort to influence the late elections, observed the same silent and cautious neutrality in regard to the deliberations of the two houses when assembled. But when the points adverted to had been debated for some time with much warmth, and with little prospect of any desirable issue, the prince sent for Halifax, Shrewsbury, and Nottingham, and told them that he wished to have avoided making any disclosure of his own sentiments in relation to the matters which were now occupying so much of the public attention, but that he thought it might expedite affairs, and prevent mischiefs, to inform them that he could not accept the office of regent, nor take any share in the English government merely by courtesy, as the husband of the princess ["he would not hold anything by apron-strings"]; that the condition indispensable was that sovereignty should be vested in his person; that, should it be the pleasure of the parliament to come to some other settlement, he should not oppose its proceedings, but willingly return to Holland and meddle no more with English affairs; that, whatever others might think of a crown, it was no such thing in his eyes but that he could be well content without it.

This manly avowal - in present circumstances the only one that became him was made with the intention of its being generally known. It conduced to the settlement which followed. The contest about words had led to learned conferences between the two houses, in which the commons prevailed, and the throne was at length declared "vacant." The way was thus prepared for the Declaration of Right (February 12th, 1689), proclaiming William and Mary as conjoint sovereigns, the administration, to prevent distractions, being placed singly in the prince.

It may be added, also, that the former was chargeable with a violence of conduct towards the representatives of the people that cannot be urged against the latter; and that he manifested a less doubtful inclination to rule without the intervention of parliaments. The contest, therefore, which has rendered the year 1688 so memorable, was the same that had been maintained, with greater violence indeed, but also with greater intelligence, and a much larger

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measure of public spirit, in 1641; in both cases the same great principles were involved, and the same character, in many of its leading features, was observable in the men who filled the throne.

Nor was this right of parliament to alter the succession the most remarkable or the most important doctrine involved in the revolution thus accomplished, inasmuch as this had been often asserted, and sometimes exercised, in the course of English history. The main principle and effect of this proceeding resulted, as a consequence, from its great act in relation to the throne, viz., the practical subjection of the king to the laws, instead of the total, or even partial, subjection of the laws to the king. It at once annihilated the doctrines of divine right and non-resistance, and says, "brought into easy and undisturbed practice those ancient rights and liberties, which the Plantaganets had attempted in vain to subvert, which the Tudors had often been allowed to trample upon, and which the Stuarts sacrificed their throne to destroy."

MACAULAY'S REVIEW OF THE DECLARATION OF RIGHT, AND THE REVOLUTION

The commons wisely determined to postpone all reforms till the ancient constitution of the kingdom should have been restored in all its parts, and forthwith to fill the throne without imposing on William and Mary any other obligations than that of governing according to the existing laws of England. In order that the questions which had been in dispute between the Stuarts and the nation might never again be stirred, it was determined that the instrument by which the prince and princess of Orange were called to the throne, and by which the order of succession was settled, should set forth, in the most distinct and solemn manner, the fundamental principles of the constitution. This instrument, known by the name of the Declaration of Right, was prepared by a committee, of which Somers was chairman. The fact that the low born young barrister was appointed to so honourable and important a post in a parliament filled with able and experienced men, only ten days after he had spoken in the house of commons for the first time, sufficiently proves the superiority of his abilities. In a few hours the declaration was framed and approved by the commons. The lords assented to it with some amendments of no great importance.

The declaration began by recapitulating the crimes and errors which had made a revolution necessary. James had invaded the province of the legislature; had treated modest petitioning as a crime; had oppressed the church by means of an illegal tribunal; had, without the consent of parliament, levied taxes and maintained a standing army in time of peace; had violated the freedom of election, and perverted the course of justice. Proceedings which could lawfully be questioned only in parliament had been made the subjects of prosecution in the King's Bench. Partial and corrupt juries had been returned: excessive bail had been required from prisoners: excessive fines had been imposed: barbarous and unusual punishments had been inflicted: the estates of accused persons had been granted away before conviction. He, by whose authority these things had been done, had abdicated the government. The prince of Orange, whom God had made the glorious instrument of delivering the nation from superstition and tyranny, had invited the estates of the realm to meet and to take counsel together for the securing of religion, of law, and of freedom.

The lords and commons, having deliberated, had resolved that they would first, after the example of their ancestors, assert the ancient rights and liber

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ties of England. Therefore it was declared that the dispensing power, lately assumed and exercised, had no legal existence; that, without grant of parliament, no money could be exacted by the sovereign from the subject; that, without consent of parliament, no standing army could be kept up in time of peace. The right of subjects to petition, the right of electors to choose representatives freely, the right of parliaments to freedom of debate, the right of the nation to a pure and merciful administration of justice according to the spirit of its own mild laws, were solemnly affirmed. All these things the convention claimed, in the name of the whole nation, as the undoubted inheritance of Englishmen. Having thus vindicated the principles of the constitution, the lords and commons, in the entire confidence that the deliverer would hold sacred the laws and liberties which he had saved, resolved that William and Mary, prince and princess of Orange, should be declared king and queen of England for their joint and separate lives, and that, during their joint lives, the administration of the government should be in the prince alone. After them the crown was settled on the posterity of Mary, then on Anne and her posterity, and then on the posterity of William.

On the morning of Wednesday, the 13th of February, the court of Whitehall and all the neighbouring streets were filled with gazers. The magnificent banqueting house, the masterpiece of Inigo, embellished by masterpieces of Rubens, had been prepared for a great ceremony. The walls were lined by the yeomen of the guard. Near the northern door, on the right hand, a large number of peers had assembled. On the left were the commons with their speaker, attended by the mace. The southern door opened: and the prince and princess of Orange, side by side, entered, and took their place under the canopy of state.

Both houses approached bowing low. William and Mary advanced a few steps. Halifax on the right, and Powle on the left, stood forth; and Halifax spoke. The convention, he said, had agreed to a resolution which he prayed their highnesses to hear. They signified their assent; and the clerk of the house of lords read, in a loud voice, the Declaration of Right. When he had concluded, Halifax, in the name of all the estates of the realm, requested the prince and princess to accept the crown.

William, in his own name and in that of his wife, answered that the crown was, in their estimation, the more valuable because it was presented to them as a token of the confidence of the nation. "We thankfully accept," he said, "what you have offered us." Then, for himself, he assured them that the laws of England, which he had once already vindicated, should be the rules of his conduct, that it should be his study to promote the welfare of the kingdom, and that, as to the means of doing so, he should constantly recur to the advice of the houses, and should be disposed to trust their judgment rather than his own.

These words were received with a shout of joy which was heard in the streets below, and was instantly answered by huzzas from many thousands of voices. The lords and commons then reverently retired from the banqueting house and went in procession to the great gate of Whitehall, where the heralds and pursuivants were waiting in their gorgeous tabards. All the space as far as Charing Cross was one sea of heads. The kettle-drums struck up; the trumpets pealed: and garter king-at-arms, in a loud voice, proclaimed the prince and princess of Orange king and queen of England, charged all Englishmen to pay, from that moment, faith and true allegiance to the new sovereigns, and besought God, who had already wrought so signal a deliverance for our church and nation, to bless William and Mary with a long and happy reign.