with stupidity and ignorance in sovereigns and ministers to be cautiously approached; with whimsical apprehensions and jealousies to be allayed; with conceit to be humored; with sensitive obstinacy to be overcome, or soothed, or eluded. He who has thus felt the embarrassments of restricted authority naturally comes to covet absolute authority with a disinterested ambition. If he is prompted by generous aims, the restraints which disable him are felt with the more impatience and resentment. He can scarcely fail to become tenacious and greedy of power.

As it could not be supposed that the imported king was well acquainted with the conditions of English administration, his choice of advisers was a matter of much interest to his colonial subjects. And its interest increased as his own qualities and tastes became better known. Though a brave and skilful, he had not been an eminently successful, soldier. But he was the ablest political manager in Europe. He knew all the schemes, intrigues, and factions of all the courts, and had gauged the abilities and characters of all the controlling courtiers. It followed, that the special function which he assumed for himself when seated on the throne of England was the charge of the foreign relations of his realm. This department of affairs, including the military arrangements incident to it, he not only superintended, but personally conducted, with not much consultation, and not much aid. For other busi

ness of the government he had little taste or preparation, and allowed himself but little time, leaving it mainly to his great ministers of state. When matters relating to it were necessarily brought to his notice, he was apt to make a summary disposition of them; the leading principle of his decisions being to take care that what the Revolution had left of the royal prerogatives should not be invaded, and that such opportunities for extending the sovereign's power as the existing jealous state of the public mind admitted should not fail of being put to use.

Of the official advisers of the king, the Treasurer and the Secretaries of State were those whose policy would most affect the interests of the colonies. Danby, formerly Lord High Treasurer, was not enough trusted to be restored to that post, though he had materially aided in the recent Revolution. The Treasury was put in commission; the eccentric Lord Mordaunt, afterwards Earl of Peterborough, being nominally at its head. But its efficient chief was Sidney Godolphin, under whose administrations, while formerly holding the same place at two different times, Randolph and Andros had perpetrated their odious usurpations. The Earl of Sunderland, from whom the colonies could have expected no kindness, was not at first reinstated in the office which he had forfeited by his treachery to King James. The new Secretaries of State were the Earl of Nottingham and the Earl of Shrewsbury. The

latter was too young to be yet known except for his brilliant personal qualities, and for the brave part which he had taken in the subversion of the late despotism. Lord Nottingham was a grave and moderate Tory; an undisguised lover of prerogative, though his loyalty had not been proof against recent exigencies; and a fanatical devotee of the Church of England.

The legal proceedings which terminated in the vacating of the charter of Massachusetts had been conducted in the courts of King's Bench and of Chancery, and had been pressed on by Sir Robert Sawyer, as Attorney-General. The new constitution of those courts was an occasion of concern to the colonies. The Great Seal was intrusted to a commission; the chief commissioner being Sir John Maynard, a statesman nearly ninety years old, universally respected in that corrupt age for courageous probity, and recognized as the greatest lawyer of his time. He had been a prominent member of the Long Parliament on the popular side, and one of the prosecutors of the Earl of Strafford. The new Chief Justice of the King's Bench was John Holt, a young man just risen into professional eminence and general esteem. He was known to entertain liberal sentiments in politics, and for his contumacy in respect to the dispensing power had been removed by King James from the office of Recorder of London. The first Attorney-General under the new order of things was Sir George

Treby, who, as spokesman for the corporation of London, had greeted the Prince on his arrival there as the representative of a line "consecrated from generation to generation to defending truth and freedom against tyrants."

The leaning of the king's mind in respect to the religious administration was thought to be indicated when presently after his accession he gave the bishopric of Salisbury, the only see then vacant, to Gilbert Burnet, a frank and active enemy to all intolerance, and even reputed to be a doubtful churchman. And the appointment of a successor to Archbishop Sancroft, when that fastidious prelate refused to take the oath of allegiance, afforded a further acceptable assurance of the bias of the royal mind. It was impossible that the enlightened and generous Tillotson should ever lend himself to a vexatious treatment of dissent.

Accordingly the course of religious administration in this reign was such as, if it did not give complete satisfaction to the dissenters of New England, yet afforded them sufficient practical

1689. security. An early proceeding of the conFeb. 13. vention which, after recognizing the Prince May 24. and Princess of Orange as King and Queen of England, resolved on the same day to declare itself a parliament, was to pass an Act commonly known as the Toleration Act, "for exempting their Majesties' Protestant subjects from the penalties of certain laws." It left the Corporation

Act and the Test Act still in force. But all Trinitarian Protestants who should take the oaths of allegiance and supremacy, and make the legal declaration against popery, were now permitted to absent themselves from church and to attend conventicles, provided that their places of meeting should be open during religious services, and that their preachers should subscribe the doctrinal articles of the Church of England. It has been supposed that the terms of the Toleration Act were negotiated by John Locke. His writings show that he must have considered them inadequate to the ends of justice.

A repeal of the Test Act, and a measure of Comprehension, as it was called, including such alterations of the Liturgy and Articles as might satisfy the consciences of orthodox non-conformists and bring them into the Church, were both proposed. Patrick, Tillotson, Burnet, and Tennison were among the eminent churchmen who favored the compromise. But difficulties which proved to be insurmountable intervened. Even Whigs could not be persuaded to a unanimous agreement upon measures of so radical a character. Lord Nottingham, whose vast influence in the ecclesiastical circle might have brought about a generous indulgence, was well disposed to a comprehension, but the Test Act he was more inclined to strengthen than to rescind. The embarrassing subject was gotten rid of by a shift which only saved both parties from the morti