226 ENGLAND. 



sequence, embarked with a fleet of 500 sail for England, avowing it 

 to be his design to restore the church and state to their true rights. 

 Upon his arx'ival in England, he was joined not only by the Whigs, 

 but by many whom James had considered as his best friends ; and 

 even his daughter, the princess Anne, and her husband, George 

 prince of Denmark, left him, and joined the prince of Orange. James 

 might still have reigned ; but he was surrounded with French emis- 

 saries and ignorant Jesuits, who wished him not to reign rather than 

 not to restore popery. They secretly persuaded him to send his 

 queen, and son, real or pretended, then but six months old, to France, 

 and to follow them in person, which he did ; and thus, in 1688, ended 

 his reign in England; which event in English history is termed the 

 revolution. i 



William, notwithstanding the great service he had rendered to the 

 nation, and the public benefits which took place under his auspices, 

 particularly in the establishment of the bank of England, and the re- 

 coining the silver money, met with so many mortifications from his 

 parliament, that he actually resolved upon an abdication, and had 

 drawn up a speech for that purpose, which he was prevailed upon to 

 suppress. He long bore the affronts he met with, in hopes of being 

 supported in his war with France ; but at last, in 1697, he was forced 

 to conclude the peace of Ryswick, with the French king, who ac- 

 knowledged his title to the crown of England. William had lost his 

 queen, December 28, 1694, but the government was continued in his 

 person. After peace was restored, the commons obliged him to dis- 

 band his army, all but an inconsiderable number, and to dismiss his 

 favourite Dutch guards. Towards the end of his reign, his fears oi 

 seeing the whole Spanish monarchy in the possession of France at 

 the death of the catholic king, Charles II, which was every day ex- 

 pected, led him into a very impolitic measure, which was the parti- 

 tion treaty with France, by which that monarchy was to be divided 

 between the house of Bourbon and Austria. This treaty was highly 

 resented by the parliament, and some of his ministry were impeach- 

 ed for advising it. It was thought William saw his error when it 

 was too late. His ministers were acquitted from their impeach- 

 ment ; and the death of king James discovered the insincerity of the 

 French court, which immediately proclaimed his son king of Great 

 Britain. 



This perfidy rendered William again popular in England. The 

 two houses passed the bill of abjuration, and an address for a war 

 with France. The last and most glorious act of William's reign was 

 his passing the bill for settling the succession to the crown in the 

 house of Hanover, on the 12th of June, 1701. His death was has- 

 tened by a fall from his horse, soon after he had renewed the grand 

 alliance against France, on the 8th of March, 1702, in the 52d year 

 of his age, and the 14th of his reign in England. The public debt, 

 at the time of his death, amounted to the then unheard-of sum of 

 14,000,000/. 



Anne, princess of Denmark, by virtue of the act of settlement, and 

 being the next protestant heir to her father James II, succeeded to 

 the throne. As she had been ill treated by the late king, it was 

 thought she would have deviated from his measures; but the beha- 

 viour of the French in acknowledging the title of her brother, who 

 has since been well known by the name of the Pretender, left her no 

 choice ; and she resolved to fulfil all William's engagements with his 



