Change in the Opinion of the Tories concerning the Lawfulness of Resistance--Russell proposes to the Prince of Orange a Descent on England--Henry Sidney--Devonshire; Shrewsbury; Halifax--Danby--Bishop Compton--Nottingham; Lumley--Invitation to William despatched--Conduct of Mary--Difficulties of William's Enterprise--Conduct of James after the Trial of the Bishops--Dismissions and Promotions--Proceedings of the High Commission;Sprat resigns his Seat--Discontent of the Clergy; Transactions at Oxford--Discontent of the Gentry--Discontent of the Army--Irish Troops brought over; Public Indignation--Lillibullero--Politics of the United Provinces; Errors of the French King--His Quarrel with the Pope concerning Franchises--The Archbishopric of Cologne--Skilful Management of William--His Military and Naval Preparations--He receives numerous Assurances of Support from England--Sunderland--Anxiety of William--Warnings conveyed to James--Exertions of Lewis to save James--James frustrates them--The French Armies invade Germany--William obtains the Sanction of the States General to his Expedition--Schomberg--British Adventurers at the Hague--William's Declaration--James roused to a Sense of his Danger; his Naval Means--His Military Means--He attempts to conciliate his Subjects--He gives Audience to the Bishops--His Concessions ill received--Proofs of the Birth of the Prince of Wales submitted to the--Privy Council--Disgrace of Sunderland--William takes leave of the States of Holland--He embarks and sails; he is driven back by a Storm--His Declaration arrives in England; James questions the Lords--William sets sail the second Time--He passes the Straits--He lands at Torbay--He enters Exeter--Conversation of the King with the Bishops--Disturbances in London--Men of Rank begin to repair to the Prince --Lovelace--Colchester; Abingdon--Desertion of Cornbury--Petition of the Lords for a Parliament--The King goes to Salisbury--Seymour; Court of William at Exeter--Northern Insurrection--Skirmish at Wincanton--Desertion of Churchill and Grafton--Retreat of the Royal Army from Salisbury--Desertion of Prince George and Ormond--Flight of the Princess Anne--Council of Lords held by James--He appoints Commissioners to treat with William--The Negotiation a Feint--Dartmouth refuses to send the Prince of Wales into France--Agitation of London--Forged Proclamation--Risings in various Parts of the Country--Clarendon joins the Prince at Salisbury; Dissension in the Prince's Camp--The Prince reaches Hungerford; Skirmish at Reading; the King's Commissioners arrive at Hungerford--Negotiation--The Queen and the Prince of Wales sent to France; Lauzun--The King's Preparations for Flight--His Flight THE acquittal of the Bishops was not the only event which makes the thirtieth of June 1688 a great epoch in history. On that day, while the bells of a hundred churches were ringing, while multitudes were busied, from Hyde Park to Mile End, in piling faggots and dressing Popes for the rejoicings of the night, was despatched from London to the Hague an instrument scarcely less important to the liberties of England than the Great Charter.
The prosecution of the Bishops, and the birth of the Prince of Wales, had produced a great revolution in the feelings of many Tories. At the very moment at which their Church was suffering the last excess of injury and insult, they were compelled to renounce the hope of peaceful deliverance. Hitherto they had flattered themselves that the trial to which their loyalty was subjected would, though severe, be temporary, and that their wrongs would shortly be redressed without any violation of the ordinary rule of succession. A very different prospect was now before them. As far as they could look forward they saw only misgovernment, such as that of the last three years, extending through ages. The cradle of the heir apparent of the crown was surrounded by Jesuits. Deadly hatred of that Church of which he would one day be the head would be studiously instilled into his infant mind, would be the guiding principle of his life, and would be bequeathed by him to his posterity. This vista of calamities had no end. It stretched beyond the life of the youngest man living, beyond the eighteenth century. None could say how many generations of Protestant Englishmen might hive to bear oppression, such as, even when it had been believed to be short, had been found almost insupportable. Was there then no remedy? One remedy there was, quick, sharp, and decisive, a remedy which the Whigs had been but too ready to employ, but which had always been regarded by the Tories as, in all cases, unlawful.
The greatest Anglican doctors of that age had maintained that no breach of law or contract, no excess of cruelty, rapacity, or licentiousness, on the part of a rightful King, could justify his people in withstanding him by force. Some of them had delighted to exhibit the doctrine of nonresistance in a form so exaggerated as to shock common sense and humanity. They frequently and emphatically remarked that Nero was at the head of the Roman government when Saint Paul inculcated the duty of obeying magistrates. The inference which they drew was that, if an English King should, without any law but his own pleasure, persecute his subjects for not worshipping idols, should fling them to the lions in the Tower, should wrap them up in pitched cloth and set them on fire to light up Saint James's Park, and should go on with these massacres till whole towns and shires were left without one inhabitant, the survivors would still be bound meekly to submit, and to be torn in pieces or roasted alive without a struggle. The arguments in favour of this proposition were futile indeed: but the place of sound argument was amply supplied by the omnipotent sophistry of interest and of passion.
