cordingly sent his ambassador to Rome, surrounded with guards and other armed attendants; and Innocent was able to oppose him only with excommunications.

This triumph over the spiritual father of christendom was the last insult on the dignity of sovereigns, which Lewis XIV. was suffered to commit with impunity. The emperor had taken Buda from the Turks, after an obstinate siege: he had defeated them with great slaughter at Mohatz; he had entirely subdued the Hungarian malecontents: ́he had even got the crown of Hungary declared hereditary in the house of Austria, and his son Joseph proclaimed king of that country. Though still engaged in hostilities with the Infidels, he had now leisure to turn his eye towards France; nor could he do it with indifference. The same vain-glorious ambition which had prompted Lewis to tyrannize over the pope, and to persecute his protestant subjects, that, to use the language of his historians, as there was ONE king there might be but one religion in the monarchy, and which justly alarmed all Germany and the north, at length awakened the resentment of Leopold.

A league had been already concluded by the whole empire at Augsburg, in order to restrain the encroachments of France, and to vindicate the objects of the treaties of Westphalia, the Pyrenees, and Nimeguen. And an ambitious attempt of Lewis XIV. to get the cardinal de Furstemberg, one of his own creatures, made elector of Cologne in opposition to the emperor, at once shewed the necessity of such an association, and lighted anew the flames of war in Ger many and the Low Countries. Spain and Holland had become principals in the league; Denmark, Sweden, and Savoy were afterward gained; so that the accession of England seemed only wanting to render the confederacy complete, and that was at last acquired.-But, before I enter into particulars, we must take a view of the unhappy reign of James II. and the great change in the English constitution with which it was terminated.

LETTER

LETTER XVI.

GREAT BRITAIN AND IRELAND, DURING THE REIGN OF JAMES II.

A. D. 1685.

CHARLES II. by his popular character and temporising policy, had so generally reconciled the English nation to his arbitrary administration, that the obnoxious religion, and even the blind bigotry of his brother, may perhaps be considered as fortunate circumstances for the British constitution. For had James II. been a protestant, he might quietly have established despotism in England; or had he, as he formerly promised, made his religion a private affair between God and his own conscience, he might still have been able to subdue the small remains of liberty, and to establish that absolute government which he loved. But the justice of these reflections will best appear from the facts by which they were suggested.

The new king, who was fifty years of age when he ascended the throne, began his reign with a very popular act. He immediately assembled the privy council, and declared, That although he had been represented as a man of arbitrary principles, and though determined not to relinquish the just rights and prerogatives of the crown, he was resolved to maintain the established government, both in church and state, being sensible that the laws of England were sufficient to make him as great a monarch as he could wish'. This declaration gave great satisfaction to the council, and was received with the warmest applause by the nation. As James had hitherto been considered as a prince of unimpeached honour and sincerity, no one doubted but his intentions were conformable to his professions. "We have now," it was commonly said, "The word of a king; and a word "never yet broken?!" It was represented as a greater se

1. Printed Declaration.

2. Burnet, book iv.

curity to the constitution than any that laws could give. Addresses poured in from all quarters, full not only of expres sions of duty, but of the most servile adulation3.

But this popularity was of short continuance. The nation was soon convinced, that the king either was not sincere in his promises to preserve the constitution inviolate, or entertained ideas of that constitution very different from those of his people, and such as could yield no security to their civil or religious liberties. He went openly, and with all the ensigns of his dignity, to mass, an illegal worship: he was even so imprudent as to urge others to follow his example: he sent an agent to Rome, in order to make submissions to the pope and he levied taxes without the authority of par liament4.

James, however, soon found the necessity of assembling a parliament; and, in consequence of the influence which the crown had acquired in the boroughs, by the violation of the corporation-charters, a house of commons was procured as compliant as the most arbitrary prince could have wished. If they had been otherwise disposed, the king's speech was more calculated to work on their fears than their affections, to inflame opposition than to conciliate favour, and strongly indicated the violence of his principles. After repeating his promise to govern according to the laws, and to preserve the established religion, he told the commons, that he positively expected they would grant him, during his life, the same revenue which his brother had enjoyed. "I might use many "arguments," said he, "to enforce this demand! the bene

3. The address from the quakers was, however, distinguished by that plainness which has so long characterised the sect. "We are come," said they," to testify our sorrow for the death of our good friend Charles, and "our joy for thy being made our governor. We are told thou art not of "the persuasion of the church of England, any more than we; wherefore, "we hope, thou wilt grant us the same liberty which thou allowest thy"self: which doing, we wish thee all manner of happiness." 4. Burnet, book iv. Carte's Life of Ormond, vol. iii.

VOL. IV.

Y

"fit

"fit of trade, the support of the navy, the necessities of the "crown and the well-being of the government itself, which "I must not suffer to be precarious: but, I am confident "that your own consideration, and your sense of what is "just and reasonable, will suggest to you whatever might on "this occasion be enlarged upon. There is, indeed, one po

pular argument," added he, "which may be urged "against compliance with my demands. Men may think, "that by feeding me from time to time with such supplies as "they think convenient, they will better secure frequent meet

66

ings of parliament: but as this is the first time I speak to you "from the throne, I will answer this argument once for all. I "must plainly tell you, that such an expedient would be very improper to employ with ME; and that the best way to engage me to meet you often, is always to use me wells."

In return to this imperious speech, which a spirited parliament would have received with indignation, both houses presented an address of thanks, without so much as a debate; and the commons unanimously voted, "That the re"venue enjoyed by the late king, at the time of his death, "shall be settled on his present majesty, during life." Nor did the generosity of the commons stop here. The king having demanded a farther supply for removing the anticipations on the revenue, and other temporary purposes, they revived certain duties on wines and vinegar, which had been granted to the late king; but which, having expired during the bad humours of his latter parliaments, had not been renewed. To these were added some impositions on tobacco and sugar; all which, under the rigid œconomy of James, rendered the crown, in time of peace, independent of the parliament.

The Scottish parliament went yet farther than that of England. Both lords and commons declared their abhorrence

5. Journals, ay 19, 1685.

6. James II. 1685.

of

of all principles and positions derogatory to the king's sacred, supreme, sovereign, absolute authority; of which none, they said, whether single persons or collective bodies, can participate but in dependence on him and by commission from him. They offered, in the name of the nation, to support with their lives and fortunes their present sovereign and his lawful heirs, in the possession of the crown and its prerogatives, against all mortal men: and they annexed the whole excise, both of inland and foreign commodities, forever to the crown.

This profuse liberality of the parliaments of the two kingdoms, and the general, and even abject submission of the two nations, gave the king reason to believe that his throne was as firmly established as that of any European monarch. But, while every thing remained in tranquility at home, a storm was gathering abroad to disturb his repose; and which, although dissipated without much trouble, may be considered as a prelude to that great revolution which finally deprived him of his crown, and condemned himself and his posterity to a dependant and fugitive life among foreigners.

The prince of Orange, ever since the proposed exclusion of his father-in-law, had raised his hopes to the English throne. He had entered deeply into intrigues with the ministers of Charles II. he had encouraged the parliamentary leaders in their violent opposition; and, unaccountable as it may seem, it appears that he secretly abetted the ambitious views of the duke of Monmouth, though they both aimed at the same objects. It is at least certain that he received the duke with great kindness, and treated him with the highest marks of respect, after he had been pardoned by a fond and indulgent father, for his unnatural share in the Rye-house plot, but ordered to leave the kingdom on a new symptom of disaffection; that on the accession of James II.

7. Burnet, book iv. Hume, vol. viii.

8. See king James's Mem. in Macpherson's Original Papers, vol. i. and Count D'Avaux's Negociations, tom, i. ii. iii. iv.

and