REVOLUTION. 



fight againft the prince of Orange. Prince George of 

 Denmark and the princelsAnne abandoned the king: an 

 event which, concurring with feveral other incidents that 

 had occurred, and which threatened the overthrow of his 

 royal authority, occasioned an alarm approaching to con- 

 fternation, and a grief that caulcd him to Ihed tears. In 

 this Hate of diitrefs, deferted by his friends and family, and 

 deipifed by his enemies, he was as much depreffed, as he had 

 before been vainly elated by profperity. He ill tied writs for 

 a new parliament, and deputed commiflioners to treat with 

 the prince of Orange. The king every day more and more 

 alarmed by accounts of the general difuffection that pre- 

 vailed, and milled by imprudent counfel operating upon his 

 fears, precipitately embraced the relolution of efcaping into 

 France, having fent before him the queen and the infant 

 prince. Nor before his departure did he provide for the 

 exercife of the adminiftration ; he threw the great leal into 

 the river, and recalled all the writs that had been iflued for 

 the election of the new parliament. During this temporary 

 diirolution of government, the populace became matters, 

 rofe in a tumult, deltroyed the mais-houfes, and even at- 

 tacked and rifled the houfes of the Florentine envoy and 

 Spanifh ambatfador, where many Catholics had lodged their 

 valuable effects. Having difcovered Jefferies, the chancel- 

 lor, notwithstanding the difguife he had alfumed in order to 

 fly the kingdom, they fo abufed him that he died foon after. 

 Feverfham diibanded the troops, and without either dif- 

 arming or paving them, let them loofe to prey upon the 

 country. In this extremity, the bifhops and peers, who 

 were in town, ailembled, and having chofen the marquis of 

 Halifax fpeaker, gave directions to the mayor and alder- 

 men for keeping the peace of the city, and iflued orders, 

 which were readily obeyed, to the fleet, the army, and all the 

 garrifons ; and they made applications to the prince of Orange, 

 whole enterpri/.e they highly applauded, and whofe luccefs 

 they joyfully congratulated. The prince, availing himfelf 

 of the popularity of his caufe, approached nearer and nearer 

 to London. In the mean while the king, though difguifed, 

 was difcovered and feized by the populace at Feverfham, 

 where he was attempting to make his eicape, and foon after 

 arrived in London. Whilft he remained at Whitehall he 

 received few marks of attention and refpeft ; and whilft he 

 remained there the Dutch guards took pofleflion of the pa- 

 lace. In confequence of a meffage conveyed to him from 

 the prince by Halifax, Shrewfbury, and Delamere, which 

 commanded him to leave the palace, lie removed to Ham, 

 a feat of the duchefs of Lauderdale's. Having obtained 

 permiflion he retired to Rochelter, where lie remained for 

 fome days. But finding that the church, the nobility, the 

 city, the country, all concurred in neglecting him, and Lav- 

 ing him to his own counlels, he fubmitted to his melancholy 

 fate ; and being urged by earnefl letters from the queen, he 

 privately embarked on board a frigate which waited for him ; 

 and he arrived lately at Ambleteufe in Picardy, whence 

 he battened to St. Germains. The prince, in compliance 

 with an addrefs from about 90 peers and bilhops, lum- 

 moned a convention, which completed the revolution. 



The true ground and principle upon which that memor- 

 able event proceeded, was an entirely new cafe in politics, 

 which had never before happened in our hiftory ; the abdica- 

 tion of the reigning monarch, and the vacancy of the throne 

 thereupon. Accordingly, in a full allembly of the lords and 

 commons, met in Convention (which fee) on occafion of this 

 vacancy, both houfes came to this refolution (.Jan. 22, [680] : 

 " That king James the Second, having endeavoured to lub- 

 vert the conftitution of the kingdom, by breaking the ori- 

 ginal contract between king and people ; and, by the advice 



Vol. XXX. 



of Jcfuits, and other wicked perfons, Laving violated the 

 fundamental laws ; and having withdrawn himlelf out of til , 

 kingdom, has abdicated the government, and that the throw 

 1 . thereby vacant." 



The facts themielves thus appealed to, viz. the kin"'. 

 endeavour to tubvert the constitution, by breaking the ori- 

 ginal contract, his violation of the fundamental laws, and 

 his withdrawing himlelf out of the kingdom, were evident 

 and notorious : and the confequenccs drawn from thefe 

 facts (namely, that tliey amounted to an abdication of the 

 government (fee Abdication),; which abdication did not 

 arlect only the perfon of the king himfelf, but alfo all hi 

 heirs, and rendered the throne abl'olutely and completely 

 vacant) it belonged to our anceltors to determine. For, 

 whenever a quettion arifes between the fociety at large and 

 any magiftrate velted with powers originally delegated by 

 that fociety, it mult be decided by the voice of the fociety 

 itfelf : there not being upon earth any other tribunal to 

 which to refort. And that thefe confequenccs were fairly de- 

 duced from thefe facts, our anceltors have folemnly deter- 

 mined, in a full parliamentary convention reprefentmg the 

 whole fociety. The reafons upon which they decided ma\ 

 be found at large in the parliamentary proceedings of the 

 times, our anceltors having molt indifputably a competent 

 jurifdiction to decide this great and important queflion, and 

 having in fact decided it, it is now become our duty at this 

 diltance of time to acquiefce in their determination ; being 

 born under that eltablifhment which was built upon tills 

 foundation, and obliged, by every tie, religious as well as 

 civil, to maintain it. 



The lords and commons having determined this funda- 

 mental article, that there was a vacancy of the throne, pro- 

 ceeded to fill up that vacancy in inch manner as they judged 

 the molt proper. And this was done by their declaration of 

 the 1 2th of February, 1689, in the following maimer : "That 

 William and Mary, prince and princefs of Orange, be, and 

 be declared king and queen, to hold the crown and royal 

 dignity during their lives, and the life of the furvivor of 

 them ; and that the fole and full exercife of the regal power 

 be only in, and executed by, the faid prince of Orange, in 

 the names of the faid prince and princefs, during their joint 

 lives ; and after their deceafes the laid crown and roval dig. 

 nity to be to the heirs of the body of the laid princefs ; and 

 tor default of fuch iffue, to the princefs Anne of Denmark, 

 and the heirs of her body ; and for default of fuch iffue, to 

 the heir of the body of the laid prince of Orange." This 

 transaction, founded in equity, and llrictly agreeable to the 

 Ipirit of our conititution, and tiie rights of human nature, 

 formed a new era in the hiftory of our country, in which 

 the bounds of prerogative and liberty have been better dc- 

 lined, the principles of government more thoroughly exa- 

 mined and underltood, and the rights of the fubject more 

 explicitly guarded by legal provilions, than in any other 

 period of the Englifh hiftory. 



To the Settlement of the crown was annexed a declara- 

 tion of rights, in which all the points that had, of late 

 years, been difputed between the king and people were 

 finally determined ; and the powers of roval prerogative 

 were more narrowly circumfcribed and more exactly defined 

 than in any former period of the Englilh government. It 

 is worthy of obfervation, fays judge lMackltone, that the 

 convention avoided with great wifdoni the wild extremes into 

 which the vifionary theories of fome zealous republicans 

 would have led them. They held that this mifconduct of 

 king James amounted to an endeavour to fubvert the confli- 

 tution ; and not to an actual fubverfion, or total diflolution 

 of the government, according to the principles of Mr. 



y Locke 



