Terms, in Truth, were too favourable to the French) were the only Means his Highness had to obtain the Lady. Here was Love and Glory in Oppotion to one another; but the Prince, under these extraordinary Circumstances, fhewed an unchangeable Temper, and a Mind impregnable against the strongest Affaults. He affured the Crown of England, that, although he had the highest Veneration for the Princess Mary, yet nothing could make him recede from the Intereft of the Allies, and he should always prefer his Honour to all other Confiderations whatsoever. Fortune was juft to his Virtue; he gained his Point both Ways, and obtained the beft of Princeffes for himself, and thofe Articles of Peace he infifted upon for his Confederates,

It seems a Wonder, if King Charles was a Roman Catholick, or, in Reality, inclinable to that Intereft, he should permit the Princeffes to be educated in the Proteftant Faith: Yet there feem fo many Arguments for this Opinion, that I believe few Perfons ftand in Doubt of it; but, if fo, it is plain he preferred the Eafinefs of a Crown to his future Confiderations.

If the Prince was fond of any Thing to a Degree, it was of Hunting, and the Diversions of the Field; he paid his Servants well that took Care of his Pleasures this Way, and gave them all reasonable Encouragement. Perchance fome of these might receive their fuperfluous Penfions, when the Army Abroad wanted their neceffary Subsistance.

Some Perfons are of Opinion, that the Prince held Predeftination; that it was his Judgment all Balls were commiffioned, and had their Bounds fet them, farther than which they were not able to go. It is true, at the Fight of Seneff, and the Battle of the Boyne, he fought with fuch a Spirit, as generally poffeffes those who have firmly imbibed a Belief of this Nature; but, whether. his Judgment induced him to be of this Opinion or not, he countenanced the Thought, which he was fatisfied made his Soldiers regardless of Danger, and contributed to their Courage and Refolution.

During his being at the Helm of the Dutch Government in Holland, he was fparing of his own Money, but yet not tenacious to that Degree, but he concluded several Alliances with the Proteftant Powers of Germany, for which he paid dear enough; and it is even faid, that the Holy Father himself entered into an Engagement with him against the King of France, that Disturber of Mankind. Certain it is, he knew how to fpare, and how to lay out his Money to a good Advantage; and, if he could have commanded the Purfe of England, when he was once Prince of Orange, as he did afterwards, when he was King of England, in all Probability, he had never permitted the Growth of a Power which grew, in Time, to be fo formidable to all Europe.

It is no strange Thing, that the Pope oppofed the King of France; Interest cements the closest Friendship; the Head of the moft Holy. Church and St. Peter's Succeffor, as he ftiles himself, joins with a Prince of a different Faith, in order to protect their common Liberties: His moft Christian Majesty acts the fame Part, and confederates with his good Friends the VOL. III. Muffelmen.

A a

Muffelmen. The one leagues with a Proteftant, the other with an Infidel, each for their feparate Advantage; and, in this Affair, the Pope's Dealings must be owned the jufter of the two: His Reafon for the Union was Selfdefence, and what obliged the King of France to his Confederacy was no other than the difhoneft Motives of Tyranny and Ambition.

The Prince of Orange, landing in the West of England, marched from thence to Exeter, of which City he made himself Mafter, and went forward with the Succels that we all know of. Yet his Preparations for this Defcent were not carried fo privately, but the Count de Vaux, Ambaffador from his moft Chriftian Majefty at the Hague, difcovered the whole Affair, and gave Notice of it to his Mafter, and to the Envoy of King James the Second. The King of France immediately caufed a Memorial to be prefented to the States of Holland on this Subject, who very fairly denied the Matter, and turned the Blame of the whole Affair on the Prince of Orange. The King of France was fatisfied with this Anfwer, and certainly the Genius of that Empire was then asleep, or fo employed about the War going to be made against the House of Auftria, that it could not be at Leifure to respect the Affairs of the Low-Countries. If the Troops of his moft Chriftian Majesty had fell down into the Spanish Netherlands, instead of marching into Germany, the Dutch had been obliged to have kept that warlike Prince at Home, to defend their own Territories; England might have justly defpaired of a Revolution, and Europe of its Liberties: But Providence had ordered Things otherwife; the Court of France committed this unalterable Blunder, and the great Lewis, upon this Occafion, failed to exert that Judgment which he fo often convinced the World he was Mafter of, both before and afterwards.

The Battle of Mons was an Action in which the Prince of Orange acquired a great deal of Glory: He beat the Duke of Luxemburg, who lay encamped before that Town, out of his Intrenchments, and forced his Ar my to a precipitate Flight. This Relation, without other Circumftances, is indeed extremely honourable to the Memory of that Monarch; but, if it be alfo true, which Tradition acquaints us with, concerning that Battle, the Prince deferved no Laurels. It is moft certain, that, a few Hours before the Fight, a Peace was concluded betwixt his moft Chriftian Majefty and the States of Holland; but, whether the Prince had any Notice of this Pacification, I cannot tell; but, if fo, to fight with the Articles of Peace in his Pocket, proves him vain-glorious and revengeful.

His Enterprife upon England must be allowed very juft; that Step towards the Revolution, there are but few which cavil at; it is true, fome Perfons would have been contented that he had proceeded but little farther, and only tied up the Hands of his unfortunate Predeceffor. But thefe Gentlemen argue very little like Politicians, King James would have been King James ftill, and foon, by the Violation of the People's Liberties, returned to that Course from whence the Succefs of the Prince's Arms had obliged him to deviate; and admitting King James to have kept within the Bounds

of

of Reason and Moderation, yet fill the Proteftant Religion, and the Liberties of all Europe, must have been betrayed to the Ambition of France, by the bare Neutrality of England, our Inland being the only Balance to that incredible Power which the French has lately affumed; fo that King William's taking upon him the Regency of this Nation feems rather to have been an Act of Neceffity than Ambition. Happy is that Prince, who finds fuch an Opportunity of mounting a Throne, where Fate, or Providence, pufhes upon him that Grandeur, which it is the Nature of all Mankind to be defirous of.

The fecuring thofe Lords, by the Prince of Orange, which were fent to him on the Part of King James, when he fix'd his victorious Standards at Windfor, carried with it an Air of Ill-nature and Hardship, and looked like a Violence upon the Law of Nations; but they were foon discharged, and were only fecured from receiving Injuries themfelves, and injuring others by their ill-timed Errand.

The Meffage which the Son-in-Law fent to his Royal Father, a little before the Blue Guards took their Poft before Whitehall, was looked upon in these Times, by such as had an Inclination to their old Master, as bitter, undutiful, and wicked; but, certainly, the Prince never fhewed his Clemency, or indeed his Tenderness, for King James, more than upon that Occafion. The Prince was under an unavoidable Neceffity of entering London, the Heart and Capital of this Realm, in order to bring those great Defigns to a Conclufion, on Account of which he had run fo many Hazards. The Troops that he commanded, and would, in all Likelihood, have took Poffeffion of Whitehall, were Foreigners, of a different Language and Religion than King James, and fuch who might have offered Violence to the Perfon of that Monarch, notwithstanding their Orders to the contrary: But allowing that King William had detached for that Service the Scotch and English, which bore his Colours, ftill the Hazards of King James would have been the greater; several of the Officers, belonging to thofe Regiments, had ferved in Ireland under King James, and had been broke of their Commisfions, purely for being Proteftants; others had voluntarily quitted England or Ireland, to find a Liberty of their Religion Abroad, and which they conceived was in Danger at Home. In the Number of these were MajorGeneral Mackay, and feveral others: Another Party were perfonally dif gufted by the late King James; fuch were Lieutenant-General Talmafh, my Lord Cutts, and many more of Quality and Diftinction: To have commanded, therefore, thefe to guard their old Mafter, against whom they had, or pretended to have, fo many Caufes of Diffatisfaction, would have been Madnefs in any Perfon, who intended or defigned that Monarch should live, till cut off by the Courfe of Nature; which was the vifible Design of King William, in refpect to the late King James, as appears by this, and will be made yet further appareent by the fubfequent Obfervations. It is true, the Honour of General Talmash and my Lord Cutts would have guarded the late King from Violence and Injuries to their Power: But who could anA a 2 fwer

fwer for the Caprice and Whimfies of the private Centinels? Or, who can fay to their Humours, Thus far fhalt thou go, and no further.

Thus, we frequently fee the beft of Accounts mifinterpreted; we turn the great or little End of the Perfpective fuitable to our own Inclination or Fancy, and the Fact bears no Colour from itfelf, but from the falfe and prejudiced Glofs we put upon it.

The Church of England was as forward in folliciting King William to invade England as the Diffenters; the Reafon of this was evident, because King James invaded the Church, affumed a Power to new-model the Univerfities, filenced Dr. Sharpe, then Minifter of St. Giles's in the Fields, fet up an Ecclefiaftical Court, fuperior to that of Doctors Commons, and imprifon'd the Bishops in the Tower. Yet this very Church of England, I mean fome of the Clergy, the Reprefentatives of the Church, refused to take the Oaths to King William, equally diffatisfied with their elective and hereditary King; they forgot the Memorials delivered, on their Behalf, to the Prince of Orange, their Honour, and their Misfortunes; but the Reason of this Uneafinefs appeared moft plainly; King William had not Dishes enough to fatisfy all the Longings and Expectations of his Guests; he could not cut out the whole State into Deaneries and Bishopricks; and, indeed, King William, as politick a Prince as he was, had not yet Craft enough to humour the Clergy, neither, perchance, at that Time of Day, did he think it his Intereft fo to do; believing that, here in England, the Tribe of Levi, and their Doctrines, always depended on the Government, as in Holland.

Sir Charles Sidley, in a Speech made to the Houfe of Commons, took the Liberty to fay, That King William, though a Prince in Years, was but a young King, infinuating, that Monarch, though a very wife Man, was not, by Reafon of the Shortnefs of his Reign, at that Time acquainted with feveral Syftems of Government, neceffary to be known by English Princes; and, fure, one of the Miftakes of that Reign appeared, in not managing the various Factions of the Clergy at firft; which if the King had done with Addrefs, they had perfectly forgot the Notions of Sherlock, Sibthorp, or Manwaring.

The Prince made a Bridge of Gold for King James; he was taken by his own Subjects, and in a Sort of Confinement, brought back to London. That Sun, which was dreaded in the Weft as bad as Death itself, fets in a fmall Town, the Scorn and Mockery of the Rabble; but the unhappy King, however barbarous his Subjects were to him, would have had no great Caufe of Complaint, had his Government been equal. The King of Kings was defpifed by his Friends and Relations, and that Monarch, like the fuffering Jefus, met with ill Ufage from thofe Creatures he had made.. Yet the Permiffion allowed King James to retire where he would was a plain Indication, that the Prince had no Manner of Defign of injuring his

Perfon, nor harboured any Sentiments of Revenge against a Father, whom he conceived endeavoured, by ungentleman-like Methods, to deprive him of a Throne, and his Right, by the Birth and Merits of his Lady, a Princefs of inimitable Piety and Virtue.

It was an unaccountable Mistake in Policy, and an Error ill-agreeing with the Prudence of King William, in not fecuring and bringing to Juftice those Traytors, who, by their flagitious Councils, had near ruined the Church and State; I mean thofe who once difgraced the Bench, and from that Seat of Justice, forgetting the Duty they owed their God, their King, and their Country, and as little mindful of their own Honour and the publick Liberty, gave their Opinion, That the King might difpenfe with the Penal Laws and the Teft, thofe Bulwarks of the English Franchises: A juft Severity on thefe People, and a Retrospection into their Actions, would have given their Succeffors fufficient Warning to make them honeft; and, though our modern Judges have behaved themselves with all the Worth and Probity imaginable; yet their Impartiality must not be efteemed the Effects of any Terror that was ftruck into them by a juft Punishment of their Predeceffors, but rather fpringing from their own internal Goodnefs and Virtue.

As thofe Gentlemen, who were falfe to their Country, might have eafily felt the Relentments of the Convention, juft before the Prince's Acceffion to thefe Realms; fo he had an extraordinary Opportunity of doing himself and the Nation Juftice, upon fuch infamous Perfons, as betrayed both, without expofing himself in the Quarrel: An Old Bailey Jury would certainly have measured to them the fame Mercy as other fupposed Criminals had found from their bloody Hands; for, by the Way, moft Juries are for the ftrongeft Side, and few Perfons, as I ever heard or read of, when indicted for Treafon, had the good Fortune to efcape fafe and found from their fiery Trial; and all this might have been done without Reflection upon the Prince, or calling his Nature or Mercy into Question; if any Odium had happened, it would have been charged upon the Ferment

of the Nation.

A Scrutiny of this Nature, though it had let fome ill Perfons Blood, it might have been yet very neceffary for the Health of the Republick; and I believe few Perfons would have been angry, if the Blood of Ruffel, Sidney, and Cornish had been fufficiently expiated.

My Lord Chief Juftice Herbert, who exercised that Office in thofe Times, perchance a Man more innocent than fome of his Contemporaries, and not inferior to any of his Succeffors in Learning, forefaw fuch a Storm a-coming, and very fairly got away into France, beyond the Reach of it: But his Profpect was erroneous, and he banished himself to no Purpofe; yet his Flight plainly evinced what he thought would be the Fate, or was the Merit of his Affociates; and, whether the English would have pardoned him or not, it is plain, he did not pardon himself.

No