Page:Cassell's Illustrated History of England vol 3.djvu/582

568 fore a convention in the absence of James might exercise the same legitimate function. When the lords presented an address to this effect on the 25th, William received it, but said it would be necessary to receive the conclusion of the commons before any act could take place. On the 27th the commons came to the same conclusion, and William was requested to exercise the powers of the executive till the convention should assemble.

In issuing orders for the election of the members of the convention, William displayed a most politic attention to the spirit of the constitution. He gave direction that no compulsion or acts of undue persuasion should be exercised for the return of candidates; no soldiers should be allowed to be present in the boroughs where the elections were proceeding; for, unlike James, William knew that he had the sense of the majority of the people with him. The same measure was adopted with regard to Scotland. There, no sooner had William arrived in England, than the people rose against James's popish ministers, who were glad to flee or conceal themselves. Perth, the miserable renegade and tyrant, endeavoured to escape by sea; he was overtaken, brought ignominiously back, and flung into the prison of Kirkaldy. The papists were everywhere disarmed, the popish chapels were attacked and ransacked. Holyrood House, which swarmed with Jesuits, and with their printing presses, was not exempt from this summary visitation; and bonfires of all sorts of popish paraphernalia —crosses, books, images, and pictures—were made. William now called together such Scottish noblemen and gentlemen as were in London, who adopted a resolution requesting him to call a convention of the estates of Scotland, to meet on the 14th of March, and in the meantime that he would take on himself the same executive authority as in England. William was, therefore, the elected rider of the whole kingdom for the time. This power he proceeded to exercise with a prudence and wisdom in striking contrast to the idiotic antagonism of James. All parties and religions were protected as subjects; Feversham was released, and the administration of justice proceeded with a sense of firmness and personal security which gave general confidence.

On the 22nd of January, 1689, the convention met. The lords again chose Halifax as speaker, the commons, Powle. The catholic lords had not been summoned, and were not there. In the lords, bishop Sherlock and a small knot of tories were for recalling James, and attempting the impossible thing of binding him to the constitution; another party, of which Sancroft was known to be the head, though he had not the courage to go there and advocate it, were for a regency; whilst Danby contended for proclaiming the princess Mary in her own right; and the whigs were for nominating William as an elective prince. In the commons, similar parties appeared; but the great majority were for declaring the throne vacant, and, on the 28th, they passed a resolution to that effect, and the next day another, that no popish king could possess the throne. These carried up to the lords were, after a debate of two days, also adopted, but only by small majorities.

James now sent a letter to each house, declaring that he had not abdicated, but had been compelled to withdraw by necessity; and he offered to return and redress every grievance. Both houses refused to receive the letters; but in both the question as to who should be the successor to the throne was violently debated. Lord Lovelace and William Killigrew presented a petition to the commons, demanding that the crown should be given to the prince and princess of Orange jointly. A member asked if the petition was signed, and Lovelace replied No, but that he would soon procure signatures enough. In fact, there were great and noisy crowds about the house; and Lovelace was suspected of having brought the mob from the city to intimidate the opponents. His proceedings were strongly protested against, and William himself sent for him and expressed his disapprobation of bringing any such influence to force the deliberations of the convention. The earl of Devonshire then gathered a meeting of the advocates of the prince and princess at his house, there the question was discussed, and where Halifax concluded for William, and Danby for Mary. To obtain, if possible, some idea of the leaning of William, who had preserved the most profound silence during the debates, Danby put the question to a friend and countryman of William's present, what was the real wish of William? He replied that it was not for him to say, but that, if he must give an opinion, he did not believe that the prince would consent to be gentleman-usher to his wife. This opened the eyes of Danby, who said, "Then you all know enough, and I far too much." In fact, blind must all have been who had studied the character of William not to have seen from the first that he came there to be king, and that on equal terms at least with his wife. The man who had for years brooded in jealous secrecy over the idea that his wife would one day be raised over his own head by her claim on the British crown, was not likely to accept less than an equal throne with her.

Whilst this question was still agitating both houses, Mary herself settled it by a letter to Danby, in which she thanked him for his zeal in her behalf; she declared that she was the wife of William, and had long resolved, if the throne fell to her, to surrender her power, by consent of parliament, into his hands. This was decisive, and the enemies of William had only the hope left that the princess Anne might protest against William, and take precedence of her rights and those of her issue. But Anne had long been perfectly accordant with William and Mary on this head, and declared herself entirely willing that William should hold the throne for his life. Mary and Anne having spoken out, William now sent for Halifax, Dandy, Shrewsbury, and the other leaders, and told them that, having come for the good of the nation, he had thought it right to leave the nation to settle its election of a ruler, and that he had still no desire to interfere, except to clear their way so far as he himself was concerned. He wished therefore to say that, if they decided to appoint a regent, he declined to be that man. On the other hand, if they preferred placing the princess his wife on the throne, he had nothing to object; but, if they offered to give him during his life the nominal title of king, he could not accept it; that no man respected or esteemed the princess more than he did, but that he could never consent to be tied to the apron-strings of any woman, even the very highest and best of her sex; that if they chose to offer him the crown for life, he would freely accept it; if not, he would return