England into the Thames as he crossed that river, proceeded to the little town of Feversham, where he had made arrangements to embark for France. Messengers were sent to the Prince by the magistrates of the city, inviting him to hasten his march.

At Feversham, James was recognized and arrested. Several peers, who were in London, met, and despatched a party of life-guards to protect his return to that city. He came to his palace at Whitehall, which William, who had been steadily advancing and was now himself near to Westminster, surrounded with some battalions of Dutch troops.1

His arrival

at London.

December 16.

The second night after James's arrival he was aroused from sleep to receive Lord Halifax, who had December 18. joined the Prince, and who now came with a message from him to the effect that it was best for the King's own safety and for the public peace that he should withdraw from London. A place was named for his retirement; but James objected to it, and expressed his preference for Rochester, thirty miles eastward from the city, on the Thames. William had anticipated such a request, and no other could have been more acceptable to him. He penetrated the frightened monarch's design of escaping to France, and the execution of that scheme would give him great relief in respect to the disposal of his uncle's person. James was allowed to go to Rochester, December 19. where care had been taken to have him carelessly guarded. He had been there but four days before Flight of King his arrangements were completed; and, exult ing in the cunning by which he eluded his December 23. keepers, he left his country for the last time. He received from Louis a courteous welcome, and, by the favor of that generous ally, established his mock court at St. Germain's. At the close of the day when he left Westminster, the Prince of 1 James's last Privy Council was held on this day. (Journals, &c.)

James from

England.

December 28.

Orange entered it, and took up his lodging in St. James's palace.

Some of his most perplexing difficulties were as yet only reached. But they were at length overcome. A meeting was called of the Peers then in the city, and another assembly was constituted of members of the House of Commons during the reign of Charles the Second, and of the city magistrates. By their advice, writs were issued in the Prince's name for a convention of the estates of the realm. Till that should assemble, he consented to exercise the executive authority.

1689.

January 22.

succession

The Convention assembled. The Lords assumed their hereditary place. The Lower House was composed of knights and burgesses, representing the established constituencies of the kingdom. Two thirds of the members were of the Whig party. Of the Tories, with whom were counted a full half of the House of Lords, one portion was disposed to Discussions negotiate with the King, with a view to his about the restoration under such conditions as might protect the nation in future from a repetition of his unlawful practices. This section of the Tories presently allied itself with another, which, with the Archbishop, Lord Clarendon, and Lord Rochester at its head, desired to continue to the King his title, but to keep him in exile, and transfer his powers to a Regent, who should exercise the powers of government, as if the sovereign were an infant or an idiot. A third division, led by Lord Danby and by Compton, Bishop of London, maintained that James, by his flight from the country, had abdicated the sovereignty, which now devolved on the heir, as it would have done at his death; and that accordingly Mary, Princess of Orange, was now Queen of England. The doctrine of the Whigs was, that the King, by his misconduct, amounting to a violation of the contract between himself and his subjects, had forfeited the crown for him

self and his posterity, and that it was competent to the remaining estates of the realm to fill by election the vacant throne.

January 28.

After an earnest debate, in which these various views were brought out, the Commons resolved that James had abdicated the government, and that the throne was vacant. They followed up January 29. this action by a vote, that it was inconsistent with the safety of England to be governed by a Popish King. To this last Resolve the Peers, under the pressure which had been brought upon them, unanimously consented. But it was by a vote of only fifty-one against forty-nine, that they declared themselves opposed to the

plan of a regency. Two days afterwards, they January 31. refused, by a vote of fifty-five to forty-one, to adopt the Resolve of the Commons affirming the va cancy of the throne. The majority was made up of many Lords who held that James was still King, and of a few who held that Mary was already his successor. a second trial of the question, each House adhered to the position which it had taken; and, as the next step, each House appointed its committee for a conference.

February 5.

On

Again the scheme of a regency began to be talked of. William now thought it expedient to make himself understood. He informed some of the leaders of the different parties, in each other's presence, that he could not accede to that arrangement. He must be King, or he would go back to Holland, and withdraw from all agency in English affairs. In the circumstances, there was no withstanding the force of this decision. Only, on further consultation, it was determined that he ought to hold the regal title jointly with his wife, while the administration should be in his hands alone. At the conference between the committees of the Houses, this arrangement was matured. The Lords then February 6. voted, by a majority of about fifteen, that the

Mary as King

and Queen.

February 12.

throne was vacant, and proceeded to declare, without a division being called for, that William and Mary should be proclaimed King and Queen of England. In Proclamation the instrument which completed this great trans- of William and action, the Houses incorporated a Declaration of Right, which purported to set forth the principles of the English Constitution. Rather it created that Constitution, under which, with some minor changes of it, such as the lapse of time requires, six generations of the people of England have enjoyed an amount of tranquillity, felicity, and greatness, such as has rarely fallen to the lot of any community of men.

CHAPTER XII.

In the short time that elapsed between the abrogation of the Charter of Massachusetts Bay and the death of King Charles the Second, no arrangements were concluded for the government of that Colony; and the variety of important business which belonged to the beginning of a new reign, and the insurrection under the Duke of Monmouth which took place soon after, fully occupied the attention of the ministry of King James. Accordingly no orders came from England for a new regulation of affairs in Massachusetts, and the administration was continued in the ancient form.

On the day of King James's accession to the throne, he issued his proclamation, directing that all persons in authority in his kingdoms and colonies should continue to exercise their functions till fur

1685. February 6.

ther order should be taken. A printed copy of the proclamation was transmitted to Boston by Blathwayt, along with an order to proclaim the new King. The General Court was convened by the Governor to receive and register the edict. The Court was prepared to reply, that the royal pleasure had been

May 6.

1 The printed copies sent over are in the Archives of Massachusetts (CVI. 339–341). -"The law of England, with peculiar good sense holding it as a maxim that no person shall be required to take notice where it is impossible to do so,' obliges no officers of distant provinces to know anything of the demise of the crown but what is communicated by official intelligence.

And nothing is legal notice of such an important event but a proclamation of the accession which constitutes [communicates] the demise, signed by the Privy Council and transmitted by the Secretary of State." (Chalmers, Political Annals, Book II. Chap. I. For the use of a MS. copy of this portion of the work, which has never been printed, I am indebted to Mr. Sparks.)