Page:The child's pictorial history of England; (IA childspictorialh00corn).pdf/174

 reign of George the First, this arrangement was altered to seven years, and so it has continued ever since.

5. It was also agreed that none but a Protestant should ever be king or queen of England; and all these, with many other regulations, were written down, and signed by king William, and this is called the Bill of Rights.

6. No one was to be persecuted on account of his or her religion; but the Catholics were not allowed to hold landed property, or to be members of parliament; and it was not till the reign of George the Fourth that people of the Catholic faith were restored to their ancient rights and privileges.

7. Soon after William was made king, he had to go to Ireland, to fight against James the Second, who had landed there with a French army, thinking the Irish would assist him to recover the throne. But he was defeated in a battle fought on the banks of the river Boyne, and obliged to go back to France, where he lived in retirement for the rest of his life.

8. His daughter, Mary, the wife of king William, was a very amiable woman, and much beloved by the English. It was she who induced the government to convert the palace at Green