concessions which came too late. William landed in Torbay, Nov. 4, and was soon joined by the principal persons in the kingdom; among others, by the Princess Anne. When James was told of her flight, he exclaimed, “God help me! my own children are forsaking me." Finding himself unable to offer any effectual resistance, he tried to escape from the kingdom; but was recognized at Feversham, and brought back to London; where the people, who had so lately regarded him with mistrust, received him with acclamations. William ordered him to reside at Rochester, from which place he was able again to embark for France; and was cordially received by Louis XIV., who assigned him the palace of St. Germains as a residence.

On the king's flight a convention was assembled, by which it was declared that James had abdicated the government; and the crown was offered to William and Mary his wife, the daughter of James, jointly. They were proclaimed king and queen; but the royal power was declared to belong exclusively to William. In the event of their leaving no issue, the succession was settled on the Princess Anne and her children.

Such is the event which is known in history as the English Revolution. It resulted from the deep attachment of the English to their national Church and civil liberties; and it is impossible to look back on it without admiring the calmness and moderation with which the great men who brought about this change in the government accomplished their purpose.

CHAPTER XXXV.

WILLIAM III. AND MARY II.

William III. Born at the Hague. Buried in Westminster Abbey. Mary II. Born at St. James's. Buried in Westminster Abbey. Reigned (together) 5 years. From A.D. 1689 to A.D. 1694. William III. (alone) reigned 8 years. From A.D. 1694 to A.D. 1702.

Archbishops of Canterbury.

John Tillotson, A.D. 1691-1694. | Thomas Tenison, A.D. 1694-1715. THE prince who thus mounted the throne of England was one of the greatest men of the age. He had steadily opposed the ambitious designs of the King of France : and was

Ian able, though not often a successful general. He had a strong sense of religious duty, and was upright, and generally correct in his conduct; though not devoid of faults from which his high principles ought to have induced him to abstain. He was, however, tenderly attached to his queen, who conducted herself with much piety and wisdom in the =difficult duties which she had to discharge. William shared the cold and phlegmatic character which is usually ascribed to his countrymen; and his dry and unpleasant manners =contrasted unfavourably with that winning affability, to which the English had been accustomed in Charles, and which had engaged their affection to that monarch notwithstanding his many faults.

The limits of the royal prerogative were now defined and settled by the Bill of Rights, to which William gave his assent; embodying most of the points for which, even from the days of the Plantagenets, the country had been contending. The administration was in the hands of the Whigs, of whom the Earl of Shrewsbury, Lord Danby, and John Somers, were the chief. Danby, who had been minister to Charles II., and was impeached in that reign, became Duke of Leeds; and Somers was afterwards made Earl Somers and lord chancellor.

The oath of allegiance to William, which was now imposed, was declined by Archbishop Sancroft and several of the bishops, some of whom were the same men who had gone to the Tower rather than give way to James. These prelates were deprived of their sees; and many of the clergy for the same reason lost their benefices. This party among the clergy were called non-jurors'. However we may lament this division in the ecclesiastical body at such a time, it is impossible not to respect the conscientious and disinterested conduct of these prelates, who were content to suffer imprisonment for their resistance to James's illegal measures, and yet resigned their sees, rather than violate the oath of allegiance to that prince by which they

7 The non-juring bishops were, Sancroft, archbishop of Canterbury; Lloyd, bishop of Norwich; Turner, bishop of Ely; Frampton, bishop of Gloucester; Ken, bishop of Bath and Wells; White, bishop of Peterborough. They were deprived. Thomas, bishop of Worcester, and Lake, bishop of Chichester, were non-jurors also, but died before they could be deprived.

still thought themselves bound. Dr. Tillotson was made archbishop of Canterbury, and the see of Salisbury was conferred upon Dr. Burnet. The latter prelate became the historian of his own times. He was a man of active and busy disposition, and had some ability; but his contemporaries do not speak highly either of his political integrity, or of his character as a divine.

The crown of Scotland was settled on William and Mary by a Scottish convention. An insurrection in the Highlands, in favour of James, was headed by Lord Dundee, who gained a victory at the pass of Killiecrankie; but was killed in the battle, and his troops dispersed. Episcopacy now ceased to be recognized by the State in Scotland: the Presbyterian system became established as the general persuasion of that nation; and the cathedrals and parish churches were put into the hands of the Presbyterians. But the succession of bishops was still preserved amongst the remnant who valued that institution, and it survived, as we shall see, even severer trials which followed. It may here be mentioned, that the suppression of disaffection in the Highlands was attended some little time afterwards by an act of cruelty which has left a stain on William's memory. This was a massacre of the clan or family of M'Donald in the vale of Glenco. The king too hastily signed a paper to authorize the extermination of "that set of thieves," as he denominated the inhabitants of that valley, in his ignorance of the Highland character and system of clanship. The execution of this order was entrusted to M'Donald's hereditary enemy, and was effected with great treachery and cruelty. The party came in the guise of friendship, and was hospitably entertained by M'Donald for fifteen days, at the close of which a complete massacre of his family took place. Children were butchered as they clung to the knees of the soldiers, and M‘Donald was shot in the arms of his wife, who herself died in a state of distraction.

In Ireland the government of William was opposed with much determination. The people of that island were then, as now, generally members of the Church of Rome, and they received James, who landed at Kinsale (March 12, 1689), as their lawful king. In Ulster only could those who opposed Popery make head against him; and the city of Lon

donderry was distinguished by its heroic defence, and refusal to surrender, notwithstanding the sufferings of the people for want of food. The city was at length relieved by a supply of provisions from England, and James was compelled to raise the siege.

William crossed into Ireland with an army composed in great measure of Dutch troops, and at the battle of the Boyne (which James witnessed from a neighbouring eminence) completely overthrew that prince, who again withdrew to France. The war in Ireland was terminated by the reduction of Limerick, in 1691, when about 12,000 Irish passed over to France, and were taken into the pay of Louis.

The king throughout his reign employed his great increase of power in opposing the designs of the French monarch, and was continually engaged in wars in Flanders. A powerful fleet which James had collected by the aid of Louis, was defeated in a great battle at La Hogue, in 1692; and in 1695 the king succeeded in taking the city of Namur in the face of a French army of 100,000 men; an action by which he greatly enhanced his reputation. A peace, called the Peace of Ryswick, was concluded in 1697; and it was to discharge the expenses incurred in the war thus terminated, that money was first systematically borrowed by parliament; and the National Debt, which has been increasing ever since that time, first rose into importance. As the queen had died in 1694, and William had no children, the Princess Anne was heir by law to the crown. She had had several children, of whom the Duke of Gloucester only survived; and on the death of this young prince it became necessary to provide again for the succession by some legislative measure. The next heir of the ancient royal blood, not disabled by belonging to the Church of Rome, was Sophia, electress of Hanover, the daughter of the Queen of Bohemia, and therefore a grandchild of James I. An act called The Act of Settlement was passed, by which the crown was settled on this princess and her descendants, on the condition that they should not be members of the Church of Rome.

Though peace had been concluded with France, the affairs of Spain were likely to lead to a renewal of the war. Charles IV. of Spain had died without issue; and the chief

competitors for the crown were Charles, archduke of Austria, and Philip, a grandson of the French king. These princes were both descended from daughters of the royal house of Spain; and the states of Europe were generally favourable to the succession of Charles, from their mistrust of Louis XIV., and their fear of seeing the crowns of Spain and France on the same head. Louis, however, succeeded in obtaining from William a reluctant recognition of Philip as king of Spain; but when, on the death of James (which occurred in 1701), the court of France acknowledged the son of that prince as king of England, so strong a feeling of indignation was excited throughout the country, that large sums were placed at William's disposal for a renewal of the war. A bill was passed, requiring all persons to abjure the Pretender, (as the son of James was called,) and to swear allegiance to William, and his heirs, according to the Act of Settlement.

In the midst of this loyalty an accident occurred which deprived the nation of its king, at the time when, perhaps, he was more popular than at any former period. His horse fell with him as he was riding at Hampton Court, where he generally resided. His collar-bone was broken, and he died (March 8, 1702) of the fever which ensued on that injury. Some plots had been formed for the assassination of William during the latter years of his reign, and Sir John Fenwick was beheaded for his concern in the principal of these conspiracies. The management of affairs had latterly been entrusted to the Tories, and Lord Godolphin was treasurer at the time of William's death.

The bishops and clergy were not quite so devoted to their high calling as they should have been, nor was their office generally respected, during this and the two succeeding reigns. But it is worth mentioning that just before William's death the Church began in some sort to recognize its duty of missions to those who, though within her own borders, were heathens, or worse, and to the heathen in her foreign dependencies. Hence the origin of the Society for Promoting Christian Knowledge, and of the Society for Propagating the Gospel in Foreign Parts. Never was the former of these works more necessary. To the over-strictness of the Puritans, and the excesses of Charles II.'s court and time, had succeeded a disregard