also for the support of the protestant interest abroad; he therefore begged they would take into immediate consideration such effectual measures as the circumstances required.

This speech was received with general applause, and the lords immediately brought in a bill to prevent all disputes respecting the assembling of this parliament. It was read twice that afternoon, passed the next day, and was sent to the commons for their concurrence. The commons went into a committee of the whole house, and Mr. Hampden, their chairman, put the question, "Whether a king, "elected and declared by the lords spiritual and "temporal, and commons, coming to, and consult"ing with the said lords and commons, did not "make as complete a parliament and legislative 66 power to all intents and purposes as if the said king should cause new summons to be given, "and new elections to be made by writs?"

After a long and warm debate on the question, the commons agreeing to the bills, it received the royal assent, and the convention was from that time called the parliament. This act, passed February 23rd, was to commence from the 13th, the day on which the king and queen had accepted the crown; and instead of the old oaths of allegiance and supremacy, new oaths were enjoined to be taken by all the members of both houses, from and after the first day of March next ensuing. When the time came, eight or ten peers, and eight bishops, refused to take the oaths; among the latter, were five of the seven bishops sent to the tower by king James. When they withdrew from the parliament, some of them moved for a bill of toleration, and another of comprehension, whereby all moderate presbyterians might be reconciled to the church of England, and admitted to ecclesiastical benefices. Those bills were actually prepared and presented to the lords.

From this period, the party averse to the present government were distinguished by the appellation of non-jurors, who, rejecting the distinction of a king de jure, and a king de facto, were the authors of all the conspiracies against the new settlement, and for the restoration of king James. This fugi. tive monarch, his family and followers, had been received in France, not only with every mark of attention, regard, and sympathy due to their misfortunes, but with all that magnificence, generosity, and noble profusion which distinguished Lewis XIV. When he knew that the queen of England was on her way to St. Germain with the prince of Wales, he went from Versailles beyond St. Germain, attended by a numerous court, to meet her majesty. After having accompanied her, and endeavoured by every consolation in his power to alleviate her sorrows, which were already much abated by the happy intelligence she had received of the safe landing of her husband at Ambleteuse; Lewis returned to Versailles, and sent the next day to the queen a very rich toilet, with a complete assortment of fine clothes and dresses both for her majesty and the prince of Wales; the latter had been made on the same pattern as those of the young French princes; and in one of the drawers of the toilet, there was a purse of six thousand pistoles for the queen, who had been presented a few days before, on her landing at Boulogne, with another purse of four thousand.

The day after, king James being expected at St. Germain, Lewis repaired thither nearly an hour before-hand, and waited for his majesty's arrival in the queen's apartment. As soon as he heard that James was entering the palace, he ran to meet him to the door of the body-guards' hall, where they simultaneously precipitated themselves into one another's arms with the most cordial affection, and after repeated embraces, went hand-in-hand to the

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queen's apartment. After a conversation of nearly half-an-hour, Lewis led him into the room of the prince of Wales, where he was extremely interested by James's narrative of the principal circumstances of his escape. The courtiers who attended them, participated in the feelings of their royal master, whose magnanimity, they admired, and whose kind sensibility rendered him still dearer to them. The visit to the infant prince, being over, the two kings repaired to the queen's apartment, and soon after Lewis returned to Versailles. Next morning James found in his room every thing he could want or wish for, and ten thousand pistoles on his bureau. He went after dinner to Versailles and paid his visit to the king, who went to meet him at the door of the body-guards' hall, and took him in the most friendly way into his private apartments, where he introduced him to the queen. James, after a very long conversation with Lewis, paid a visit to the dauphin and the dauphine, monsieur and madame. He had no sooner arrived at St. Germain, than the dauphin and monsieur came to return the visit to their majesties. James returned to the dauphin the same honours he had received in his visit to him as it had been settled between the two kings on condition that the same honours should be paid to the prince of Wales at Versailles. As to the other princes and princesses of the blood, as well as the duchesses, and ladies of the court, many difficul ties arose about the punctilios of ceremonial or etiquette to be observed towards them at St. Germain. Lewis, to whom the king and queen of England referred all these questions, decided that the ceremonial or etiquette should be altogether the same at the court of St. Germain as at the court of Versailles. (Mem. de la cour de France pour les années 1688, 1689, par Madame la Comtesse de la Fayette, Amsterdam, 1733.)

In the mean time the non-jurors were preparing in England several attempts against the new government. William having discovered their designs through some intercepted letters, ordered the earl of Arran, sir Robert Hamilton, and some other Scottish gentlemen, to be sent to the tower. He consulted the two houses with regard to his conduct in such a delicate affair. The lords thanked him for the care he took of their liberties, and the commons empowered him by a bill to dispense with the habeas corpus act till the 17th day of April next ensuing. On the 11th of the same month, the ceremony of his coronation was performed, and according to the new-framed coronation-oath, he swore and promised "To govern the people of "England, &c. according to the statutes in parlia"ment agreed on, and the laws and customs of the "same; to cause law and justice in mercy to be "executed in all his judgments; to maintain to "the utmost of his power the laws of God, the "true profession of the gospel and the protestant "reformed religion as by law established; and to "preserve unto the bishops and clergy, and to the "churches committed to their charge, all such rights and privileges as by law do or shall apper. "tain unto them or any of them.”

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A bill was also passed at the same time for removing papists from London and Westminster, and an address was proposed to order the duchess of Mazarin to depart the kingdom. The Dutch ambassador and his brother made use of all their interest in her behalf, at the desire of St. Evremond, who was a great friend to her. They represented the assemblies at her house, which were thought by some to be so many popish cabals, to be only meetings for gaming and other diversions, by the former of which she chiefly subsisted. The marquis de Sivrac spoke for her to the king, alledging that she would

starve in any other country. But the address not having passed the upper house, the duchess was permitted to continue her diversions, and his majesty out of regard to her situation, allowed her a pension of two thousand pounds a year.

An alarming spirit of discontent having pervaded the army, the king resolved to detain the Dutch troops in England, and to send over to Holland in their room such regiments as were the most disaffected. One of the latter mutinied on its march, seized the military chest, disarmed the officers, declared for king James, and with four pieces of cannon, took their way to Scotland, but being pursued by general Ginckel with three regiments of Dutch dragoons, they surrendered at discretion.

William, sensible of the necessity of recurring to some popular means to conciliate the affection of his subjects, informed the commons by a solemn message, that he would readily acquiesce in any measure for a new regulation, or total suppression of the hearth-money, a tax which produced two hundred and forty-five thousand pounds at the rate of two shillings on each chimney. The commons presented on this occasion an address of thanks, in which they assured his majesty that they would be so careful of the support of the crown, that the world might see that his majesty reigned in the hearts of his people. The bill, however, met with such opposition from the tories, as to be nearly rejected in the house of lords. It was thought, that expecting a speedy revolution in favour of James, some of them were unwilling to pass an act which would oblige him either to maintain it, or by resuming this branch of revenue, to raise again the hatred of the nation against him. But whatever their motives might be, the bill obtained at last the majority in the two houses.

As the protestant dissenters were hearty friends.