Page:The American Cyclopædia (1879) Volume VI.djvu/627

 ENGLAND 615 rince of Orange, had watched the contest closely. He was the king's nephew, son of his sister Mary, and had married the king's eldest daughter Mary, heir apparent to the British crown. It is not probable that he cared much for the liberties of England, for he was the chief of that party in Holland which was op- posed to the existing constitution, a polity in its spirit not unlike to that of England ; but he was firmly opposed to Louis XIV., and desired to have the aid of England in thwarting his schemes ; and James was the pensioner and ally of Louis, and so would remain so long as he should persist in governing England illegal- ly. While Mary of Orange stood next in suc- cession to James, her husband could not do much in opposition to that king ; but he let it be known that his sympathies and those of his wife were with the constitutionalists. James had married for his second wife Mary Bea- trice, a princess of the house of Este, and from this union had proceeded four children, all of whom had died. It seems to have been taken for granted that this couple were to have no more children, and that in due course James would be succeeded by his daughter Mary ; but in 1687 the queen was declared to be pregnant, and on June 10, 1688, was born that prince who was afterward known as the pretender. This incident precipitated matters, for the opinion was almost universal in Eng- land that a. supposititious child had been placed in the position of heir apparent to the crown. On June 30, 1688, William was invited to in- vade England at the head of an army. This invitation was signed by the earls of Shrews- bury, Devonshire, and Danby, by Lord Lum- ley, by Henry Sidney and Admiral Russell, and by Compton, bishop of London; and it was accepted. A variety of circumstances favor- ed the undertaking, and on Nov. 5 William landed at Torbay, at the head of a well ap- pointed army, 15,000 strong, composed of men of several nations. At first the people were slow to join him, and after advancing as .far as Exeter he talked of returning to his ships ; but men of note now began to repair to his stan- dard, and it was found that James had no hold even on the great army which he had estab- lished in defiance of law. He was deserted by those upon whom he ought to have been able to rely, even his daughter Anne joining his enemies. He gave way to terror, hastened to undo all he had done, and fled. Brought back to London, he fled a second time, and reached France, whither he had sent his wife and son. All England was in the hands of William and his friends. The convention parliament that assembled conferred the crown on William and Mary, and in its declaration of right placed the vindication of the act on the ground of the " undoubted inheritance of Englishmen," the entire movement being conservative in its char- acter, and not one of innovation. The events of 1688-'9 are known as the English revolu- tion, but it would be more correct to call them the close of that revolution; for the contest that had commenced with the coming of the Stuarts to the throne, and which had lasted for 86 years, was virtually closed on the day that William and Mary were proclaimed king and queen of England. For almost two centu- ries the government of England has been con- stitutional without question, a circumstance totally without parallel in the history of great nations. If we except the rebellions of 1715 and 1745, that country has been the scene of no serious outbreak against established au- thority for six generations. Faults there have been in both government and people, but not greater than are to be found in the correspond- ing annals of other European nations ; while in no other country of the old world has the good that England has known had an exist- ence. Liberty and law have gone hand in hand together, each sustaining the other, mutually imparting a portion of their spirit. Moral, intellectual, and material progress through six generations has placed England' foremost among nations, and left her in some important respects without a rival. The greatness of England, her moral power, and in no small de- gree her literature, and the fact that she is the mother of nations destined perhaps to excel herself, are all due to the happy settlement that was effected in 1688-'9, which was the completion by one set of patriots of what other patriots had initiated or forwarded. William III. found his new throne anything but an agreeable seat, but it enabled him to combat Louis XIV. with ultimate success, though the war that England declared against France in 1689 was marked by many reverses. It was terminated by the peace of Eyswick in 1697. Ireland was subdued almost as com- pletely as she had been by Cromwell. Sever- al conspiracies were formed against the new government, but they all failed. Mary died in 1694, and left William sole monarch. The freedom of the English press dates from 1695. Most of the legislation of this reign was liberal, and would have been more so if William's wishes could in all cases have prevailed. Much of the evil of those times grew out of religious intolerance, and William was singularly free from bigotry, though few men have been more devout. The toleration act, which has been said to illustrate most strikingly the peculiar vices and the peculiar excellences of English legislation, was adopted in 1689. During Wil- liam's reign the bank of England was estab- lished (1694), and the modern system of finance introduced. He entered into two parti- tion treaties with Louis XIV. to dispose of the immense dominions of the Spanish branch of the house of Austria, Charles II. being with- out heirs of his body. Louis violated the sec- ond treaty in 1700, and William would have made war on him, but circumstances pre- vented; and there was every prospect that the entire Spanish monarchy would pass to Philip of Anjou without a serious struggle,