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TARDY CONCESSIONS OF JAMES.

163 been fixed as their deliverer from tyranny. But he had de- Ch.14 layed taking any decisive measures until the misgovernment A. D. and encroachments of James had driven the nation to the 1688. borders of frenzy. He now obtained the consent of the States General to the meditated invasion of England, and made immense preparations, which were carefully concealed from the spies and agents of James. They did not escape, however, the scrutinizing and jealous eye of Louis XIV., who remonstrated with the English monarch on his blindness and self-con- Blindfidence, and offered to lend him assistance. But the infatuated ness of King would not believe his danger, and rejected the proffered King. aid of Louis with a spirit which ill accorded with his former servility and dependence.

Nor was he aroused to a sense of his danger until the Declaration of William appeared, setting forth his tyrannical acts, a document supposed to have been written by Bishop Burnet, the intimate friend of the Prince of Orange. Then he made haste to fit out a fleet; and thirty ships of the line were put under the command of Lord Dartmouth. An army of forty thousand men the largest that any King of England had ever commanded- was also sent to the seaboard; a force more than sufficient to repel a Dutch invasion.

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Concessions of all kinds were now freely made. The Court Tardy of High Commission was abolished; the charter of the City sions of of London was restored. The Bishop of Winchester, as visitor James. of Magdalen College, was permitted to make any reforms he pleased. But it was too late. Whigs and Tories, Dissenters and Churchmen, were alike ready to welcome their Dutch deliverer. Nor had James any friends on whom he could rely. His prime minister, Sunderland, was in treaty with the conspirators, and waiting to betray him. Churchill, who held one of the highest commissions in the army, and who was under great obligations to the King, was ready to join the standard of William. Jeffreys, the lord chancellor, was indeed true to his allegiance, but his crimes were past all forgiveness, -his services, if offered, would have been spurned.

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INVASION OF ENGLAND BY WILLIAM OF ORANCE.

Ch. 14 On the 29th of October, 1688, the armament of William A. D. put to sea; and after some delay, owing to unfavorable winds, 1688. disembarked without opposition on the 5th of November, at Brixham, near Torbay, in Devonshire. On the 6th the army advanced to Newton Abbot, and, on the 9th, reached Exeter; which, in company with Schomburg, he entered in triumph. The procession marched to the cathedral, the Te Deum was sung, and Burnet preached a sermon.

Critical position of Wil

Thus far all things had been favorable, and William was fairly established on English ground.

Still his affairs were precarious. He was an invader, and the slightest repulse would have been dangerous to his inliam. terests. James was yet a King, and had the control of the army, the navy, and the treasury, Further, he was a legitimate King, whose claims were undisputed. More than all, he was the father of a son, and that son, notwithstanding the efforts of the Protestants to represent him as a false heir, was indeed the Prince of Wales. William had no claim to the throne so long as that Prince was living. Nor had the nobles and gentry flocked to his standard as he had anticipated. It was nearly a week before a single person of rank or consequence joined him. The Earl of Devonshire was in the south, and Churchill had still the confidence of his Sovereign. The forces of the King were greatly superior to his own; and James had it in his power to make concessions, which would have satisfied a great part of the nation.

His

successes

But William had not miscalculated, nor had he studied in vain, the character of James, or the temper of the English people.

He was not long doomed to suspense. In a few days, Lord Cornbury, colonel of a regiment, and son of the Earl of Clarendon, deserted the King. Churchill soon followed, the first general officer that ever in England abandoned his colors. The Earl of Bath, who commanded at Plymouth, placed himself at the Prince's disposal, with the fortress which he was intrusted to guard. The invading army swelled in numbers and

FLIGHT OF THE KING.

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importance. Devonshire raised the standard of rebellion. Ch.14 London was in a ferment. James could only make prepara-A. D. tions for ignominious flight. On the 11th of December he 1688. left London, with the intention of embarking at Sheerness, but was detained by the fishermen on the coast. By an order from James the Lords, he was, however, set at liberty, and returned to the from capital. William, nearly at the same time, reached London, London. and took up his quarters at St. James's Palace. Jeffreys, the infamous instrument of James's tyranny, was discovered at Wapping, in the disguise of a sailor, committed to the Tower, and died. Several Catholic priests were also arrested, and their chapels and houses destroyed.

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Meanwhile, Parliament assembled, and deliberated on the Parliastate of affairs. Various propositions were made and rejected. The King fled a second time, and the throne was declared bles. vacant. Bnt the crown was not immediately offered to the Prince of Orange, although addresses were made to him as a national benefactor. Many were in favor of a regency; others were for placing the Princess Mary on the throne, and giving to William, during her life, the title of King, and such a share of the administration as she might choose to yield to him.

But William had risked everything for a throne, and nothing less than the crown of England would now content him. He gave the convention to understand that, much as he esteemed his wife, he would never accept a subordinate and precarious place in her Government; that unless he were offered the crown for life, he should return to Holland.

tions

It was accordingly settled by Parliament, that he should Condihold the regal dignity conjointly with his wife, but that the imposed whole power of the Government should be placed in his hands. upon The Princess Mary willingly acceded, being devoted to her husband, and unambitious for herself.

Thus was consummated the English Revolution of 1688. Of all revolutions, this proved the most beneficent. It closed the long struggle of one hundred and fifty years. The celebrated act of settlement, known as the Declaration of

William

166

A. D.

settle

ment.

CONSUMMATION OF THE REVOLUTION.

Ch. 14 Rights, by which the Prince of Orange was called to the throne, simply recapitulated the crimes and errors of James, 1688. and re-asserted the ancient rights and liberties of England. It affirmed that the dispensing power had no legal existence; Act of that no money could be raised without a grant of Parliament; and that no army could be kept up in time of peace without its consent; it asserted the right of electors to choose their representatives, the right of Parliament to freedom of debate, and the right of the nation to a pure and merciful administration of justice. William accepted the crown on the conditions proposed, and swore to rule by the laws; an oath which he never violated.

REFERENCES.-Macaulay's, Hume's, Hallam's, and Lingard's "Histories;" Sir William Temple's Works; Mackintosh's "Cause of the Revolution of 1688;" Fox's "History of James II. ;" Burnet's "History of his Own Times;" "Pictorial History of England."

FRANCE UNDER LOUIS XIV.

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CHAPTER XV.

LOUIS XIV. OF FRANCE.

A. D.

XIV.

THE long reign of Louis XIV. commemorates the triumph, Ch.15 in France, of despotic principles, the complete suppression of popular interests, and the almost entire absorption of national 1643 ones in the personal aggrandizement of the monarch. Philo- to sophers, poets, prelates, generals, and statesmen, during this 1715. reign were regarded only as the satellites of the King. He Louis was the central orb around which every other light revolved, and to contribute to his glory was the one object of national ambition. He was, emphatically, the State. A man who, in the eye of contemporaries, was so great, so rich, so powerful, and so absolute, claims special notice. It is the province of history to record great influences, from whatever quarter they may come.

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Louis XIV. was born in 1639, and he died in 1715. These seventy-six years may be divided into three periods: the first during his minority, when the country was nominally governed by his mother, Anne of Austria, as regent, but in reality by Cardinal Mazarin, her prime minister, who followed out the Characpolicy and principles of Cardinal de Richelieu. The second teristperiod pertains to the ministry of Colbert, whom Mazarin, his when dying, recommended to his youthful master,—a period of prosperity and glory, when Louis realized all that Richelieu had aimed to secure, and when the French Bourbon monarchy reached its culminating point. The third period is memorable for a great reaction in the national prosperity; when unfortunate wars ended in national shame, when palace and court

reign.

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