which he exerted. He even hearkened to imprudent counsel, by which he was prompted to desert the throne, and to gratify his enemies beyond what their fondest hopes could have promised them.

The queen observing the fury of the people, and knowing how much she was the object of general hatred, was struck with the deepest terror, and began to apprehend a parliamentary impeachment (accusation), from which, she was told, the queens of England were not exempted (free). The popish courtiers, and, above all, the priests were aware, that they should be the first sacrifice, and that their perpetual banishment was the smallest penalty (punishment) they must expect from national resentment. They were, therefore, desirous of carrying the king along with them; whose presence, they knew, would still be some resource and protection to them in foreign countries, and whose restoration, if it ever happened, would again reinstate them in power and authority. The general defection (falling off) of the Protestants made the king regard the Catholics as his only subjects, on whose counsel he could rely; and the fatal catastrophe (end) of his father afforded. them a plausible (apparently right) reason for making him apprehend a like fate. The great difference of circumstances was not, during men's present distractions, sufficiently weighed (considered). Even after the people were inflamed by a long civil war, the execution of Charles I. could not be deemed a national deed; it was perpetrated by a fanatical army, pushed on by a daring and enthusiastical leader; and the whole kingdom had ever entertained, and did still entertain, a violent abhorrence against that enormity. The situation of public affairs, therefore, no more resembled what it was forty years before, than the prince of Orange, either in birth, character, fortune, or connexions, could be supposed a parallel to Cromwell.

The emissaries of France, and among the rest, Barillon, the French ambassador, were busy about the king; and they had entertained a very false notion, which they instilled into him, that nothing would more certainly retard the public settlement and beget universal confusion, than his deserting the kingdom. The prince of Orange had, with good reason, embraced a contrary opinion; and he deemed (considered) it extremely difficult to find expe

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dients (contrivances) for securing the nation, so long as the king kept possession of the crown. Actuated, therefore, by this public motive, and no less, we may well presume, by private ambition, he was determined to use every expedient which might intimidate the king, and make him quit that throne which he himself was alone enabled to fill. He declined a personal conference with James's commissioners, and sent the earls of Clarendon and Oxford to treat with them; the terms which he proposed, implied almost a present participation of the sovereignty; and he stopped not a moment the march of his army towards London.

READING LXXIV.

PROGRESS OF THE PRINCE OF ORANGE.-ABDICATION OF JAMES II.

THE news which the king received from all quarters served to continue the panic into which he had fallen, and which his enemies expected to improve to their advantage. Colonel Copel, deputy-governor of Hull, made himself master of that important fortress; and threw into prison lord Langdale, the governor, a catholic; together with lord Montgomery, a nobleman of the same religion. The town of Newcastle received lord Lumley, and declared for the prince of Orange and a free parliament. The duke of Norfolk, lord-lieutenant of the county of that name, engaged it in the same measure.

The king, every moment alarmed more and more, by these proofs of a general disaffection, not daring to repose trust in any but those who were exposed to more danger than himself, precipitately embraced the resolution of escaping into France; and he sent off beforehand the queen and the infant prince, under the conduct of count Lauzun, an old favourite of the French monarch. He himself disappeared in the night-time, attended only by Sir Edward Hales, and made the best of his way to a ship which waited for him near the mouth of the river. As if this measure had not been the most grateful to his enemies of any that he could adopt, he had carefully con

cealed his intention from all the world; and nothing could equal the surprise which seized the city, the court, and the kingdom, upon the discovery of this strange event. The more effectually to involve every thing in confusion, the king appointed no one, who should, in his absence, exercise any part of the administration; he threw the great seal into the river; and he recalled all those writs which had been issued for the election of the new parliament.

By this temporary dissolution of government, the populace were masters; and there was no disorder, which during their present ferment, might not be dreaded from them. They rose in a tumult, and destroyed all the Roman Catholic chapels. They even attacked and rifled the houses of the Florentine envoy and Spanish ambassador, where many of the Catholics had lodged their most valuable effects. Jefferies, the chancellor, that infamous judge, whose cruelties are proverbial, had disguised himself, and was endeavouring to fly the kingdom, when being discovered by them, he was so maltreated (ill-used), that he died soon after. Even the army, which should have suppressed these tumults, would, it was apprehended, serve rather to increase the general disorder. Feversham had no sooner heard of the king's flight, than he disbanded the troops in the neighbourhood, and without either disarming or paying them, let them loose to prey upon the country.

In this extremity, the bishops and peers, who were in town, being the only remaining authority of the state, thought proper to assemble and to interpose for the preservation of the community. They chose the marquis of Halifax speaker; they gave directions to the mayor and aldermen for keeping the peace of the city; they issued orders, which were readily obeyed, to the fleet, the army, and all the garrisons; and they made applications to the prince of Orange, whose enterprise they highly applauded, and whose success they joyfully congratulated.

While every one from principle, interest, or animosity (hatred), turned his back on the unhappy king, who had abandoned his own cause, the unwelcome news arrived, that he had been seized by the populace at Feversham, as he was making his escape in disguise; that he had been much abused, till he was known, but that the gentry had

then interposed and protected him, though they still refused to consent to his escape. This intelligence threw all parties into confusion. The prince sent Zuylestein with orders that the king should approach no nearer than Rochester, but the message came too late. He was

already arrived in London, where the populace moved by compassion for his unhappy fate, and actuated by their own levity (inconstancy), had received him with shouts and acclamations.

During the king's abode at Whitehall, little attention was paid to him by the nobility or any person of distinction. They had, all of them, been previously disgusted on account of his blind partiality to the Catholics; and they knew that they were now become criminal in his eyes, by their late public applications to the prince of Orange. He himself shewed not any symptom of spirit, nor discovered any intention of resuming the reins of government, which he had once thrown aside. His authority was now plainly expired; and as he had exercised his power, while possessed of it, with very precipitate and haughty counsels, he relinquished it by a despair equally rash and pusillanimous (cowardly).

Nothing remained for the now ruling powers but to deliberate how they should dispose of his person, and it was determined to force him to retire into France, a measure, which, of himself, he seemed sufficiently inclined to embrace. The king, having sent lord Feversham on a civil message to the prince, desiring a conference for an accommodation in order to the public settlement, that nobleman was arrested, under pretence of his coming without a passport. The Dutch guards were ordered to take possession of Whitehall, where James then resided, and to displace the English, &c. Halifax, Shrewsbury, and Delamere, brought a message from the prince, which they delivered to the king in bed after midnight, ordering him to leave his palace next morning, and to depart for Ham, a seat of the duchess of Lauderdale. He desired permission, which was easily granted, of retiring to Rochester, a town near the sea coast. It was perceived that the artifice had taken effect, and that the king, terrified with this harsh treatment, had renewed his former resolution of leaving the kingdom.

He lingered, however, some days at Rochester, under

the protection of a Dutch guard, and seemed still desirous of an invitation to keep possession of the throne. He was undoubtedly sensible, that, as he had at first trusted too much to his people's loyalty, and, by confiding in their submission, had offered the greatest violence to their principles and prejudices; so had he, at last, on finding his disappointment, gone too far in the other extreme, and hastily supposed them destitute of all sense of duty and allegiance. But observing that the church, the nobility, the city, the country, all concurred in neglecting him and leaving him to his own counsels, he submitted to his melancholy fate; and being urged by earnest letters from the queen, he privately embarked on board a frigate which waited for him, and arrived safely at Ambleteuse, in Picardy, whence he hastened to St. Germain's. Louis XIV. received him with the highest generosity, sympathy, and regard; a conduct which, more than his most signal victories, contributes to the honour of that great monarch.

Thus ended the reign of a prince, whom, if we consider his personal character rather than his public conduct, we may safely pronounce more unfortunate than criminal. He had many of those qualities which form a good citizen; even some of those which, had they not been swallowed up in bigotry and arbitrary principles, serve to compose a good sovereign. In domestic life his conduct was irreproachable, and entitled to our approbation-severe, but open in his enmities, steady in his counsels, diligent in his schemes, brave in his enterprises, faithful, sincere, and honourable in his dealings with all men; such was the character with which the duke of York mounted the throne. In that high station, his frugality of public money was remarkable, his industry exemplary, his application to naval affairs successful, his encouragement to trade judicious, his jealousy of national honour laudable (praiseworthy). What then was wanting to make him an excellent sovereign?-a due regard and affection to the religion and constitution of his country. Had he been possessed of this essential (necessary) quality, even his middling talents, aided by so many virtues, would have rendered his reign honourable and happy. When it was wanting, every excellency which he possessed became dangerous and pernicious to his kingdoms.