32. James was so utterly disconcerted and disheartened by all these desertions that he returned to London without striking a blow, sent off his wife and young child secretly to France, and in a few days escaped thither himself. This was the happiest thing possible for William, who came to London, having fought no battle, and shed no blood, not as a conqueror, but as a friend and deliverer. 1688. He enters London. LECTURE LI.—THE REVOLUTION AND KING WILLIAM. Effects of the Revolution. William and Mary. Religious toleration. 1. THIS Revolution, the Glorious Revolution, as it was proudly called, was the final victory of the liberty of England. All The Revolution. through our history there had been at intervals conflicts and struggles between the power and rights of the king, and the power and rights of the people. Now it was made clear, once and for ever, to both king and people, that a sovereign could not reign in England unless he reigned for the good of the people; and that he, as much as the poorest of his subjects, was bound by the laws of the land. 2. All the things that the Stuarts had been struggling for so obstinately and so blindly had to be resigned for ever. It was once more laid down clearly by Act of Parliament that the king could raise no money except by consent of the representatives of the people; that he might keep no standing army without the consent of parliament; that parliament was to be elected freely without the king interfering; that, when elected, parliament was to be allowed to discuss matters freely without the king interfering; that the people might offer petitions, if they felt themselves aggrieved, without being punished for it; that the judges were not to be set up and put down according to the king's pleasure, but to continue in their offices as long as they judged wisely, justly, and mercifully; that no man, rich or poor, should be put in prison for a single day by the arbitrary will of the king; that the king had no power to make or unmake laws without the agreement of the parliament. Lastly, it was settled that, in future, no one but a Protestant should be king or queen of England. 3. If William and Mary had been tyrants, perhaps they might have thought a crown and an authority limited like this were hardly worth accepting; but they were wise enough to know how much greater, happier, and safer it is to be the honoured guardians of a free and united people than to be despotic rulers, feared and hated by slaves and rebels. 4. This was the last great struggle in English history; there have been changes since then, sometimes discontent, sometimes here and there a riot; but the liberty and harmony of the nation have gone on gradually increasing. The rulers have cared more and more for the welfare of the people; they have seen ever more and more plainly the wisdom of being at one with them, and bringing their own will into harmony with the will of the nation. Perhaps the sovereign who has been the wisest of all in this respect, who has seen most clearly the position of a constitutional sovereign, has been Queen Victoria, who has been rewarded by a constant love and loyalty. 5. And this great Revolution was brought about peaceably and legally. The people, even when most excited and enraged, were content with pulling down Roman Catholic chapels, burning crucifixes, vestments, and images of the Pope, and did no harm to a single person. The only one they even wished to injure (and they may surely be forgiven for that) was Judge Jeffreys. He was caught in the disguise of collier, trying to escape from the country, dragged before the Lord Mayor, who fell into fits at the sight of him, and finally carried to the Tower. It was hard work to get him there; the crowds on all sides pursued his coach howling with rage, brandishing cudgels, and holding up halters in his sight. What a contrast to the day when the seven bishops had been taken to the Tower, in the midst of thousands of weeping people, asking their blessing and praying for them. Even in this world we sometimes see bad men and good men get their deserts. This wretch was not, however, put to death; he was kept in the Tower till he died there very miserably. 6. William, who had a wonderful intellect, steadiness, and devotion, with many other of the noblest qualities of a ruler, was not personally much liked in England. The William III. former kings, even James II., had lived in a kind of intimacy and familiarity with the people which William never attempted. He had cold and distant manners, which were a wonderful contrast to those of the gay and good-humoured Charles. Evelyn says he had a manly, courageous, and wise countenance; but was stately, serious, and reserved. He was no fonder of England than England was of him; indeed, he called it a villanous country, and to the end of his days he greatly preferred Holland, which we might be more inclined to call a villanous or, at least, a very ugly country. But the flatter a land was the better it was thought in those days. The Alps were looked upon as the place where nature had swept up the rubbish of the world to form and clear the plains of Lombardy. 7. William also very naturally liked his old Dutch_friends better than his new English ones, and affronted the people, as so many kings had done before, by giving great rewards and honours to these foreigners. Only he was unlike the other kings who had done that, by not having worthless favourites. His friends were all wise and faithful and good men, whose only fault was that they were not Englishmen. Nevertheless, though the English grumbled a great deal, as Englishmen will, and gave William a very troublesome reign, they were wise enough to know his value, and when there was any real danger of losing him, and getting James back, they always forgot their discontents and rallied around him. 8. Mary was a most devoted wife. She was good and pious, and winning in her manners; but it shocked the feelings of the people to see her supplant, and aid her husband in Mary. supplanting, her own father. There was something painful and heartless in the pleasure she exhibited in taking possession of the palace of her father, and sitting in the seat of her step-mother. It was explained that she did this in order to show that she thoroughly sympathized with her husband, and that she was only acting a part; but her behaviour, says a lookeron, "was censured by many.' She gradually, however, won much love and affection in the country, and was a wise and gentle queen. Her court was a great contrast to that of Charles II. One of her greatest friends, Bishop Burnet, wrote of her that "she set a great example to the whole nation, which shines in every part of it." One of her principal marks of wisdom, he considers, was that "she took ladies off from that idleness which not only wasted their time, but exposed them to many temptations. . . . She engaged many both to read and work." 9. Now at last something like charity and humility appeared in the laws respecting religion. The persecution of the Dissenters came to an end. William hated religious Religious tyranny, and wished all peaceable and innocent people in his kingdom to feel safe and free. He would have wished to repeal the Test and Corporation Acts, which had so hampered and galled both Dissenters and Roman toleration. Catholics; but being in these matters wiser than the country at large, he could not succeed in doing so. Parliament would not consent to repeal those acts, and when William wished to extend some toleration to the Roman Catholics, it would not consent to that either; indeed, some more grievances were added to those they had already, and very harsh laws were enacted against them. These laws do not seem, however, to have been very rigorously executed. 10. The Dissenters were now permitted, under certain restrictions, to have chapels and services according to their consciences, without any fear of being molested or punished. All their ministers, as well as the clergy of the Church of England, were ordered to take the oath of allegiance to the king, and nearly all of them very thankfully accepted the peace and protection he offered them, and were quite willing to do so. One part of this oath used to be "I, A. B., do declare and believe that it is not lawful, upon any pretence whatever, to take up arms against the king;" this clause was now omitted. The doctrine of passive obedience and non-resistance had not been found to work well, and even the Tories were beginning to reconsider the matter, and to remember Stephen Langton and Humphrey Bohun, and many another old English worthy who would have scorned the notion of swearing such an oath. 11. But it was a sore trouble to the Anglican clergy. They had been so long preaching about the divine right of kings, and the heinous wickedness of resisting them, that it was rather hard to turn round now and say their preaching had been all wrong, and that the nation and the Church were justified in sending away the king who had ruled so ill, and in choosing another. Nevertheless, most of the clergy had been either convinced of the absurdity of their doctrine by James's persecution of the Church, his falseness and his tyranny, or they persuaded themselves by ingenious arguments that they might lawfully obey William and Mary, took the oaths and kept their churches. The Non jurors. 12. A few, among them the Archbishop of Canterbury, Bishop Ken, and some other of the bishops whom James had sent to the Tower, refused. They were treated very gently and patiently; but at last a new archbishop and bishops were appointed in their stead, and the Church of England went on without them. These bishops, and the clergy who followed them, were called Nonjurors (men who would not take the oath); they considered themselves as the true Church |