Page:Cassell's Illustrated History of England vol 3.djvu/584

570 of the kingdom, and to do all that is in my power to advance the welfare and the glory of the nation."

This declaration was no sooner brought to an end than it was received with shouts of satisfaction by the whole assembly, and, being heard by the crowds without, was re-echoed by one universal "Hurrah!" The lords and commons,,as in courtesy bound, then retired; and, at the great gate of the palace, the heralds and pursuivants, clad in their quaint tabards, proclaimed William and Mary king and queen of England, at the same time praying for them, according to custom, "a long and happy reign."

The Princess Anne.

The dense mass of people, filling the whole street to Charing Cross, answered with a stunning shout; and thus, in three months and eight days from the landing of William at Torbay, the great revolution of 1688 was completed, the nation was finally relieved of the most mischievous and politically-hopeless dynasty that any country was ever cursed with, and the throne fixed on its only rational foundation—the voice and choice of the people. William had already, by his prudence and liberality, saved the kingdom from the anarchy and depression of tyranny; but by his pride he saved it still more. Had he consented to reign in right of his wife, and not, as he insisted, in his own right, the old pernicious fiction of the divine right of kings had still been kept up, with all its host of offensive, irritating, and degrading consequences. But by maintaining the independence of a man, and refusing the throne except as the gift of free men, he conferred that independence on the whole realm. He snapped asunder a sophism which had, from the beginning of kingship, sown the world with tears,