spiritual functions. They were unable to touch his emolu ments, since such a step would have enabled him to appea to the Civil Courts for protection; in which case the Chie Justice himself warned the King that he must inevitably succeed.

It was the only instance in which James condescended to take warning. He now openly encouraged Friars of all orders, Benedictines, Franciscans, Carmelites, and, above all, Jesuits, though, from the time of the Gunpowder Plot, special statutes of unusual severity had been enacted against that order, to establish chapels, convents, and schools in the heart of London; while, to check any disposition of the citizens to resist, he assembled a fresh army, consisting of above 13,000 men, cavalry and infantry, with a heavy train of artillery; and encamped it on Hounslow Heath, within 12 miles of the capital. But the feeling which he thus haped to repress on the part of the citizens, being, in truth, the feeling of nearly every Englishman worthy of the name, was largely shared by the soldiers. To use a modern expression, the two bodies began to fraternize together, and the unarmed population of the city soon learnt that, if things went further, they might reckon on the sympathy, if not on the active co-operation of the soldiers. And as demonstration of the King's inflexible obstinacy followed demonstration, it became daily more and more probable that the discontent which pervaded the kingdom would eventually kindle into open resistance.

Before the end of the year, in spite of all his servility in the Court of High Commission, the Earl of Rochester was dismissed from his office because he refused to renounce his religion; his brother, the Earl of Clarendon, was recalled from Ireland, that Tyrconnel might unite the supreme civil with

Position of the Prince of Orange.

53

the supreme military authority; and their disgrace produced the deeper impression, since it made it evident that even the bonds arising from the closest family ties would be made by James to give way to the one absorbing motive of reestablishing the Papal religion and the Papal authority in the kingdom.

So general and so deep did the indignation and the alarm become, that, by the beginning of 1687, the minds of many began to turn towards William Prince of Orange, who, as a grandson of Charles I., was himself a Prince of the blood royal of England. William had married the King's eldest daughter, the presumptive heiress to the throne; he was known as a Prince of great statesmanlike capacity, and of energetic courage and resolution; and it was reasonable to think that the probability that these kingdoms might eventually become the inheritance of his wife might incline him to take a lively interest in their affairs. It might even be construed as already giving him some right to interfere actively in any case of conspicuous misgovernment, while his principles and opinions, so far as they were known, were in complete harmony with those of the great majority of the nation. As Stadtholder of a republic he could not fail to disapprove of the establishment or exercise of despotic authority; while it was notorious that he was firmly attached to Protestantism, and was averse to all persecution for religious differences. Every circumstance therefore combined to point him out to those who were discontented with the Government as their most suitable ally. And more than one urgent application for his advice or assistance reached the Hague in the first months of the year; some of those who sought it even entreating him at once to cross over to England with an army, and to endeavour by the

display of force to bring back James to more constitutiona

courses.

But William wisely decided that the pear was not yet ripe though he began to open communications with some of the leading nobles and statesmen of both parties; watching the train of events, and giving them as much encouragement in their resolution to uphold the Protestant constitution as could be afforded by their assurance of his sympathy with their objects, and his probable willingness to afford them more material aid should such become indispensable.

He even sent over to England a confidential agent of great sagacity, named Dykvelt, whose ostensible duties were those of envoy from the States of Holland to the British Government, but the real object of whose mission was to gather for the Prince information as to the state of public feeling in England, on which he could place greater reliance than on the representations of members of either party, however zealous, honest, or able. Being a man of great diplomatic address, Dykvelt held frequent intercourse with men of influence of all parties and all sects, whether in or out of Parliament: many even of the Roman Catholics not scrupling to enter into communication with him; and he gradually learnt that William's informants had not exaggerated either the extent or the degree of the prevailing discontent; that even those whose especial champion and protector James seemed to be, disapproved of his mode of showing them favour, and that the dissatisfaction was increasing.

CHAPTER IV.

James tries to gain the Prince of Orange's consent to a general toleration -He issues a Declaration of Indulgence-The Nonconformists declare against the dispensing power-The correspondence between Stewart and Fagel-James dissolves the Parliament-James executes some soldiers for desertion-He attacks the University of CambridgeFarmer is nominated President of Magdalen College, Oxford-James visits Oxford-The fellows of Magdalen are expelled-James proposes to bequeath Ireland to Louis-Expectation of an heir to the Throne A Board of regulators is appointed-James issues a second Declaration of Indulgence-Six bishops present a petition to the King.

IN the spring of 1687, it seemed as if James had changed his tactics; and, having failed to carry his point by threats and prosecutions, had resolved once more to try what address might effect for him. He knew that the Protestants of the Church of England regarded the Protestant Nonconformists with an antipathy little less determined than that which they felt towards the Roman Catholics, and which seemed the more ineradicable since it was combined with something of disdain. He might well believe that the Nonconformists repaid their dislike with interest; but the zeal which, since his accession, he had shown for elevating his own Church above them both, had had some effect in uniting them. He now conceived that, by a comparatively slight change of policy, he might be able to divide them. When he had first endeavoured to procure the assent of Parliament to

a relaxation of the laws against the Roman Catholics, he had treated with scorn the idea that the Protestant Dissenters had any claim to a similar indulgence; and many, probably the majority, of the Churchmen were equally disinclined to see the laws relaxed in favour of either body.

He now, therefore, adopted the idea that, if he granted relief to both, such an act would secure the gratitude of the Protestant Nonconformists, and widen the breach between them and the Church of England. He even sent the Marquis Albeville over to Holland to endeavour to obtain the sanction of the Prince of Orange to his design; and also wrote to the Prince with his own nand on the subject. But William looked at the interests of Protestantism in general rather than at those of any one sect in particular; and, though he undoubtedly inclined to the doctrines of the Nonconformists rather than to those of the Church of England, he nevertheless had so deep a conviction that the Test Act was the surest bulwark against Popery, that he absolutely refused to concur in the King's project. But opposition never made James flinch; and though the precedent of his brother's reign, when Charles had been compelled to revoke the Declaration of Indulgence which he had issued, could not fail to be fresh in his recollection, he now took upon himself to issue a somewhat similar Declaration; annulling by his own authority the whole

1

1 He writes to the King, June 17, 1687, that he had already assured him "qu'il n'y avait personne au monde qui pouvait avoir plus d'aversion "" que j'avais pour toute sorte de persécution au fait de religion, et qu'assuré"ment je ne voudrais de ma vie y donner les mains; mais aussi je ne "pourrais jamais me résoudre à faire quelque chose contraire au bien et à "l'intérêt de la religion que je professe; et qu'ainsi je ne puis concourir en ce que votre Majesté désire de moi."-DALRYMPLE, vol. III. Pt. 2, p. 184.

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