the Princess Anne, but hitherto there was no issue by his second marriage. Towards the end of the year 1687, it was rumoured that the queen might soon be expected to bear a child. Although not a matter to excite wonder or doubt, yet there appeared to be something suspicious about it at this juncture, and the opponents of the king shook their heads. Their doubts were increased by the conduct of some of the catholics, who predicted that the infant would be a son, and that divine providence had so ordered it, that a catholic heir might be born to the crown. Between nine and ten o'clock in the morning of the 10th of June the child was born, and it was a boy. The event occurred a month before the time when it was expected. Several people were not invited to be present, who it was thought ought to have been there; as, for instance, the Princess Anne, whose hopes of succeeding to the crown were much affected by this event. These omissions were imprudent. There can be no doubt that the child was legitimate; but many persons not only suspected then, but long firmly believed, that he was spurious.

The king now saw that the country was likely to rise against him, and that it was time to try how far the army could be relied on. He found that the troops were in general zealous protestants, and that very few of them would aid him in his catholic projects. Kirke, who had been an instrument of his tyranny against the Monmouth rebels, revolted at the idea of deserting Protestantism, and said he was under an old promise to the Bey of Tangier, that if he ever changed his religion he would become a Mahometan.

2. THE PRINCE of Orange.-People now began to look towards Holland and the Prince of Orange. He was the grandson of Charles I., and was married to the eldest daughter of James II., who, if the new child were spurious, as the public in general believed, would be the next heir to the crown. Many of the disaffected frequented the prince's court at the Hague, and they had often urged him to make a descent on England, where they assured him of an enthusiastic reception. The prince kept together a considerable body of troops, and made preparations to act when the right time should come, but he was a man of a cautious, cool disposition, who would not rashly commit himself. It was on the same day when the bishops were acquitted, that a letter inviting William to come over to the relief of the English people was signed by several men of the first rank and influence in the country, and trans

mitted to the Hague. On the 19th of October, the prince set sail with about 12,000 troops. He was driven back by a storm, and it was not until the 5th of November that he landed safely with his troops at Torbay in Devonshire. Some statesmen feared, that however much the English people might be discontented by the conduct of their sovereign, their national pride would be outraged if their country were overrun by a foreign force. All the troops of the prince, however, were not foreigners: there were many Englishmen among them; and it so happened that the force to which James had recourse, consisting chiefly of Irish catholics, was looked at with more jealousy even than the armament of William.

3. IRELAND.-The Irish had undoubtedly suffered much injustice at the hands of the English government-injustice not uncommon, since it is almost always offered by the conquerors to the conquered. In many places they had been driven out of their lands and replaced by colonists from England. These colonists had now, however, been there for a generation or two, and to have turned their descendants out would have been repeating the same species of injustice. James and his followers had no design of readjusting the rights of property; but the native Irish being all catholics, while the greater part of the colonists were protestants, they showed a disposition to encourage the former at the expense of the latter. An oppressed people are very dangerous when they get the upper hand. A government desirous of doing justice to the native Irish would have begun by gradually emancipating them. But James, and Tyrconnel, a reckless unprincipled man who was his representative in Ireland, showed that they were determined to place the protestants at the mercy of the Roman-catholics. The former were seized with terror, and many of them fled to England. They had indeed good reason for their fears when they remembered the savage character of the people who were evidently about to be let loose on them, and their proceedings on former occasions. Tyrconnel made it his business to form an army in Ireland, consisting entirely of the native Irish. In later times the Irish soldiers have been among the best troops which the United Kingdom possessed, but at that time the people of Ireland were as alien to those of England as if they had been natives of Africa. The Irish army was thus looked on with fear, not only by the colonists of Ireland, but by the people of England. This fear was greatly increased after James found that the English troops would not support him, for he

then brought Irish soldiers over to England, and thus he soon had an army consisting chiefly of these foreign Roman-catholics, whom the people of England so thoroughly disliked. "Of the many errors," says Mr Macaulay, "which James committed, none was more fatal than this. Already he had alienated the hearts of his people by violating their laws, confiscating their estates, and persecuting their religion. Of those who had once been most zealous for monarchy he had already made many rebels in heart. Yet he might still, with some chance of success, have appealed to the patriotic spirit of his subjects against an invader. For they were a race insular in temper as well as in geographical position. Their national antipathies were, indeed, in that age, unreasonably and unamiably strong. They had never been accustomed to the control or interference of any stranger. The appearance of a foreign army on their soil might impel them to rally even round a king whom they had no reason to love. William might perhaps have been unable to overcome this difficulty, but James removed it. Not even the arrival of a brigade of Louis's musketeers would have excited such resentment and shame as our ancestors felt when they saw armed columns of papists just arrived from Dublin, moving in military pomp along the high roads."

4. LILILBULERO.-In these times the modern manifestations of popular feeling were unknown: no public meetings were held to denounce grievances or assert rights; and no newspapers spread with the speed of the winds to the most distant parts of the island the eloquence of the statesman or the appeal of the patriot. Songs and pamphlets were the ordinary channels through which the people made known their sentiments; and availing himself of the former means, Lord Wharton wrote a ballad, in which he represented one Irishman congratulating another on the prospect of the English being subdued, and popery prevailing under a Roman-catholic heir to the crown. Bishop Burnet, when speaking of it, says, a foolish ballad was made at that time, treating the papists, and chiefly the Irish, in a very ridiculous manner, which had a burden, said to be Irish words, lero, lero, lilli bulero,' that made an impression on the army that cannot be well imagined by those who saw it not. The whole army, and at last all the people, both in city and country, were singing it perpetually; and, perhaps, never had so slight a thing so great an effect."

On the 8th of November, the Prince of Orange reached

Exeter, where he quietly established his court and camp, waiting for such followers as might choose to join him, and noticing the turn of events. He published a declaration, intimating to the people of England that he had come only to protect their civil and religious liberties. He kept there for some time an orderly and peaceful camp, before he was joined by many persons of consequence: but when some officers of the army with their troops, and gentlemen of rank with their retainers, espoused his cause, others, who thought it was likely to prevail, followed. Lord Churchill, afterwards the famous Duke of Marlborough, was among the most conspicuous of the deserters; and when people saw that a man so sagacious and far-sighted had changed his allegiance, they concluded that the cause of the prince would certainly be successful. The king's son-in-law, George, prince of Denmark, was with James at the time when he heard of many of these desertions, and as each one was announced, the prince said in French, Est-il possible!" is it possible!" He was a weak-minded man, but his conduct shows how little talent it requires to be treacherous, for, while he pretended to be surprised, he was waiting for the proper moment to follow the deserters. When he departed, the poor king said, "So Est-il possible has gone too, "-the only joke he was ever known to utter besides one about Jeffreys' campaign. When the prince's wife, his daughter Anne, left him, he was overcome by more sorrowful reflections, and said, "God help me-my own children have forsaken me."

5. At length he thought his person in danger, and on the 10th of December secretly left the palace with the view of escaping to France. At his departure he attempted an idle piece of mischief to the country by throwing into the Thames the great seal by which the principal public documents were authenticated. When the city of London awoke without a king, and, what some people considered more serious, without a great seal, the lovers of order and the owners of property were seized with consternation. All the baser inhabitants of the capital, thieves, swindlers, ruffians, roamed abroad unrestrained. Some unprincipled persons added to the panic by proclaiming that the Irish troops were on their march to slaughter the citizens,-a circumstance so far from the truth, that these poor fellows, disbanded and thrown on their own resources, were humbly begging their bread in obscure places. The English, however, though unrestrained, showed no dis

position for sanguinary outrage. On one man only did they show a disposition to exercise their vengeance-the detested Jeffreys. Conscious of his danger, he had disguised himself as a common sailor, and clipped his bushy eyebrows. Thus equipped he was seated in a small tavern at Wapping, when an attorney, who had once stood before him in mortal terror as he was bullying people in the Court of Chancery, happened to enter the room. The fierce eyes and the terrible brow had made such an impression upon the poor man that they would never desert him, and when he saw them before him in the person of the pretended sailor, he made an exclamation which enabled the people to discover their enemy. It was now his turn to suffer the tortures of fear which he had inflicted on others. He showed that like most cruel men he was an abject coward. He became almost delirious with fright, and being rescued from the crowd, he was at his own earnest prayer committed to the Tower, as the only place where he could feel that he was safe.

In his attempt to escape, the king was rudely handled by some ignorant fishermen, and as their interference aroused attention to his project of flight, he found it necessary to return to London. This event rather perplexed the adherents of the Prince of Orange, who did not wish any personal injury should happen to the king, and yet were so far committed that they could not safely see him restored to the throne. On the 23d of December he finally embarked for France.

6. THE CONVENTION.-As James left his palace of Whitehall, William arrived at it, and his troops were posted round the metropolis to prevent disorder. A number of the gentlemen who had been members of the last parliament of Charles II. were desired to meet and give the prince their advice. They requested him to direct the affairs of the country in the mean time, and to assemble the peers and the representatives of the people. These were assembled accordingly on the 22d of January 1689, and as they were not called together in the usual manner by the sovereign authority, their meeting, instead of a parliament, was styled a Convention. One of its first acts was to pass the celebrated " Declaration of Rights," condemning the arbitrary proceedings of the last reign. It also decided that James II. had abdicated the government, and that the throne was vacant. The parliament requested that the Prince of Orange and his wife should become King and Queen of England, on the condition that the exercise of the