50 



Till: STANDARD DICTIONARY OF FACTS 



1660. He took complete advantage of the popu- 

 lar reaction from the narrowness and intolerance 

 of PuritaniMii. and even latu-rly endeavored to 



lishinir tin- Cath- 

 olic religion. The promise- of religion- freedom 

 :n before the Rc-toration in t: 



re broken -t ami 



\<-t of rniformity. 



which dr<.ve two thousand clergymen from the 

 Cluire: -ting move- 



f modern times. The ( 'onvent icle and 

 Five-i: llowed. and the" Drunken Parli- 



ament i Epi-copacy in Scotland. At 



one time even civil war seemed again imminent. 

 :i<or>hip of the press 

 and the reallirmation of the habeas 

 principle are the most praiseworthy inci- 

 of tlu> reign. 



A- Charles II. left no legitimate issue, his 

 brother, the Duke of York, succeeded him as 

 II. (1685-88). An invasion by an ille- 

 gitimate son of Charles, the Duke of Monmouth. 

 who claimed the throne, was suppressed, and 

 the king's arbitrary rule was supported by the 

 whole-ale butcheries of such instruments a"s 

 Kirke and Jeffreys. The king's zealous coun- 

 < of Roman Catholicism and his attempts 

 to force the Church and the universities to sub- 

 . provoked a storm of opposition. Seven 



E relates were brought to trial for seditious libel, 

 ut were acquitted amidst general rejoicings. 

 The whole nation was prepared to welcome any 

 deliverance, and in 1688 William of Orange, hus- 

 band of James's daughter Mary, landed in Tor- 

 bay. Jame- tied to France, and a convention 

 summoned by \Yilliam settled the crown upon 

 him. he thus becoming William III. Annexed 

 to this settlement was a Declaration of Rights 

 circumscribing the royal prerogative by depriv- 

 ing him of the right to exercise dispensing power, 

 or to exact money, or maintain an army with- 

 out the assent of parliament. This placed 

 henceforward the right of the British sovereign 

 to the throne upon a purely statutory basis. A 

 toleration act. passed in 1689, released dissent 

 from many penalties. An armed opposition to 

 William lasted for a short time in Scotland, but 

 d with the fall of Viscount Dundee, the 

 leader of James's adherents; and though the 

 struggle was prolonged in Ireland, it was brought 

 to a close b.-tore the end of 1691. The following 

 year saw the origination of the national debt, the 

 exchequer having been drained by the heavy | 

 military expenditure. A bill for triennial parli- 

 ament < was passed in Kl'H, the year in which 

 Mary <lied. For a moment after her death 

 William's popularity was in danger, but his suc- 

 cesses at Namur and elsewhere, and the obvious 

 exhaustion of France, once more confirmed his 

 power. The treaty of Ryswick followed in 

 It'.'.JT. and the death of James II. in exile in 1701 

 remove. 1 a not unimportant source of danger. 

 Marly in the following year William also died, 

 and by the act of settlement Anne succeeded him. 

 The dosing act of William's reign had been the 

 formation of the trrand alliance between Finland. 

 Holland, and the (lerman Empire, and the new 

 queen's rule opened with the brilliant BU 

 ot Marlborouirh at Hlenheim (1701; and Ramil- 

 7i )i'. Throughout the earlier part of her 



reign the Marlboroughs practically ruled the 

 kingdom, the duke's wife. Sarah Jennings, being 

 the queen's most intimate friend and adviser. 

 In 1707 the history of England becomes t he his- 

 tory of Britain, the Act of I'nion passed in that 

 year binding the parliament s and realms of Eng- 

 land and Scotland into a single and more power- 

 ful whole. 



The measure which declared the parliaments 

 of England and Scotland united, and the two 

 countries one kingdom, known as the United 

 Kingdom of Great Britain, was passed, after 

 violent opposition, in the reign of Queen Anne. 

 l>t of May. 1707. This union, however, much it 

 was opposed by the prejudices and interest of 

 particular men or classes at the time, has con- 

 tributed very much to the prosperity of both 

 countries. The C,rand Alliance, which it had 

 been the aim of William's later years to form 

 between Holland, Austria, and England against 

 the threatening growth of French power, now 

 held the field against the armies of Prance, and 

 the victories of Marlborough at Blenheim and 

 Ramillies, and the taking of Gibraltar and Bar- 

 celona, ended in the Treaty of Utrecht in 1713, 

 by which the British right of sovereignty over 

 Hudson's Bay, Newfoundland. Nova Scotia, 

 Minorca, and Gibraltar was acknowledged, and 

 the foundation of Britain's imperial and colonial 

 power securely laid. The remainder of Anne's 

 reign was distracted by the never-ending alter- 

 cations of domestic parties. She died on the 

 1st of August, 1714; and with her ended the 

 line of the Stuarts, who had held the scepter of 

 England 112, and that of Scotland 3\'.) years. 



At her death, George I., elector of Hanover, 

 maternally descended from Elizabeth, daughter 

 of James I., according to the Act of Settlement, 

 ascended the throne of Britain. The Whigs 

 under this prince regained that superiority in the 

 national councils of which they had long been 

 deprived, and this, along with the suspension of 

 the Habeas Corpus Act and some other extreme 

 precautionary measures, increased the irritation 

 of the Tory and Stuart party. . In 171") the Earl 

 of Mar in Scotland and the Earl of Derwent- 

 water in England raised the standard of rebellion 

 and proclaimed the Chevalier St. George it he 

 Old Pretender) king. But the insurrection. 

 feebly supported by the people, was soon sup- 

 pressed. In 1716 the Septennial Act was passed, 

 making parliament of seven instead of three 

 years duration. In 1720 occurred the extra- 

 ordinary growth and collapse of the South Sea 

 Company. From this date till 1742 the govern- 

 ment was virtually in the hand's of Sir Robert 

 Wai pole, the first, we might say, of modern 

 premiers, governing the cabinet and chiefly 

 responsible for its doings. Walpole had great 

 sagacity, prudence, and business ability, and 

 could manage dexterously the king, the parlia- 

 ment, and the people alike. It is true that in 

 the case of the parliament he achieved this by 

 undue influence in elections and a scandalous 

 use of bribery. But the power he thus acquired 

 was generally wisely used. The failure of the 

 war with Spain into which he had reluctantly 

 entered drove him from office, and in 17-12 his 

 long ministry came to an end. In \7\-\. (!e.->rge 

 II., frightened at the dangers to Hanover, 



