A SHORT VIEW OF THE GROUNDS AND PRINCIPLES OF THE GLORIOUS REVOLUTION IN ENGLAND IN THE YEAR 1688.

THE following tract was published in the year 1807, as a Preface to a third edition of the celebrated Debates in the House of Commons in the month of October in the year 1680, on the Bill for excluding James Duke of York, the brother of the then reigning king, Charles the 2d, from the fucceffion to the Crown, upon the ground of his being a Papist, and likely, from the intolerant principles of the Popish religion, and his known zeal for its propagation, to make use of his power, when king, to re-establish that religion in England. And the preface fets-forth the conformity of his conduct four years after, when he had fucceeded peaceably to the crown, (and was poffeffed of the full power, and more than the full power, juftly belonging to it), to the apprehenfions entertained of his designs by the eminent Proteftant patriots, Sir Henry Capel, Sir William Jones, and others, who took the lead in those debates; that power having been employed by him throughout his whole reign in the boldeft and fierceft attempts to introduce the Popish religion into England, and to deftroy all the civil liberties of the nation. At last, by his violent measures he forced even the moft zealous fupporters of Monarchy in the kingdom, (who had, ever fince the restoration in 1660, been preaching-up the doctrines of paffive obedience and non-refiftance), to fufpend,

fufpend, for a time at leaft, their high principles of loyalty, and to wish to fee some stop put to the career of his tyranny. This general fentiment brought-on an invitation from fome few courageous noblemen and gentlemen to the Prince of Orange, to come-over to England to their affiftance with a fmall army;-not to conquer England, but to deliver it from arbitrary power, by obliging king James to call a free parliament to revive and confirm the extinguished laws and liberties of the nation, and the tottering Establishment of the Proteftant religion. And the Prince of Orange complied with this invitation, and was received by the greatest part of the nation with great joy and gratitude, and confidered as their Saviour and Deliverer. And, after some time, a meeting of the two houses of Parliament was obtained; but in an irregular manner and without the concurrence of king James: he being unwilling to authorize their meeting, and to confent to thofe acts of parliament which he knew they would foon propose to him for the preservation of the Protestant religion and the civil rights and liberties of the people. But no thoughts were entertained by either House of Parliament of proceeding against him as a criminal, for his mifgovernment, nor even of deposing him, but only of requiring him to confent to fuch new regulations as fhould be thought neceffary to prevent him from renewing his late attempts to destroy the Religion and Liberties of the Country. But this he would not fubmit to, and rather than do fo, chofe to retire into France and put himself under the protection of king Lewis the 14th, the notorious Perfecutor of his own Protestant subjects, and unjuft Invader of Holland and the other ftates in the neighbourhood of France, and general Disturber of the peace of Europe. This refolution

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refolution of abandoning England and retiring into France king James attempted twice to execute, and the fecond time with fuccefs. And then the two houses of Parliament, confidering this abandonment of his country at this critical time as a decifive proof that he was determined not to confent to refume the government of the kingdom upon the terms of his coronationoath, or fʊ as to be bound to govern it according to the Laws and Statutes of the kingdom, (upon which terms alone he had any right to govern it), did, after much deliberation and great debates on the fubje&, declare that he had thereby abdicated, or relinquifbed, the government, and that the throne was confequently vacant. And then, after further debates, they proceeded to fill that vacant place by electing their great Affiftant and Protector in this arduous bufinefs, William, Prince of Orange, (who was the nephew of king James, and grandson to king Charles the 1ft, and likewise husband to the Princefs Mary, king James's eldest daughter), and the Princefs Mary his wife, to be jointly King and Queen of England, in his ftead. And from the long debates on these two refolutions, and the fmall majorities of only two or three votes, by which they were carried, it feems next to certain that, if king James had chofen to continue in England and to confent to fuch new regulations as the parliament would have thought fufficient for the fecurity of the Proteftant religion and the civil rights and liberties of the nation against any future attempts of the Crown to overturn them, he would have been permitted to continue on the Throne. It was therefore king James's Obftinacy alone, and not the Ambition of the Prince of Orange, (as his enemies have often pretended), that broughtabout the change of the Sovereign of England on this

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occafion, and gave us the wife and valiant William, Prince of Orange, (who had already distinguished himfelf as the Deliverer of his own country, Holland, from the unjuft invafion of Lewis the 14th in the year 1672, and who had now delivered England from the dangers of Popery and Slavery in which king James had involv ed her), for our King, inftead of the bigotted and arbitrary James, who had nearly compleated the ruin of our Religion and Liberty.

This Preface is as follows.

THE PREFACE TO THE THIRD EDITION OF THE "DEBATES IN THE HOUSE OF COMMONS IN OCTOBER, 1680, ON THE BILL FOR EXCLUDING JAMES, DUKE OF YORK, THE BROTHER OF KING CHARLES THE SECOND, FROM THE SUCCESSION TO THE CROWN OF ENGLAND," PUBLISHED AT LONDON IN JULY, 1807.

THE Debates of the English Houfe of Commons, which are here re-printed, took place in the Parliament which met on the 26th of October, 1680, and was Diffolved by the King's Proclamation, on the 18th of the following month of January, in the year 1680-1. They relate principally to the Bill propofed in that Parliament for excluding James, Duke of York, the only brother of King Charles the Second, from his right of fucceeding to the Crown of England, in the event (which was then very probable,) of the King's dying without lawful Iffue. And the ground of this important

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Important motion, was, "that the faid Duke, by aban

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doning the Proteftant Religion, and embracing that "of the Church of Rome, had rendered himfelf unfit "to difcharge the great Duties of the Office of a King "of England, in maintaining the Proteftant Religion, " (which had been established in the Kingdom in the "Reign of Queen Elizabeth,) and in defending the temporal Liberties and Privileges of the Subjects of "the Crown against the Encroachments and Ufurpa❝tions of the Papal Authority." This Bill was fupported with great zeal and ability by feveral of the moft eminent Patriots and Lawyers of that time, and particularly by that virtuous and much-refpected Nobleman, William Lord Ruffell, (the eldeft fon of the then Earl of Bedford,) and Sir Henry Capel, and Colonel Silas Titus, Sir Francis Winnington, and Sir William Jones; who confidered it as the only effectual remedy that could be provided for the Protection of the Proteftant Eftablishment, against the attempts which, they expected, would be made to deftroy it by the Duke of York, if ever he fucceeded to the Crown; his zeal for diftinguishing himself in the propagation of the new Religion which he had embraced, and his Ambition to be celebrated in the Annals of the Church of Rome, as one of her greatest Champions, and the Destroyer of the pestilent Northern Heresy, (as the Romish Priests denominated the Reformation) which had, for more than a Century past, overspread the British Dominions, having been, on various occafions, fufficiently made known to them. And they obferved, that, if he were once admitted to the Throne, and acknowledged to be the lawful King of England, and confequently to be the Head of the Army, and of the Navy, and of the Militia of England, and Mafter of the Revenue of the Crown,