vention. for the succession of his children by any subsequent CHAP. 11. marriage; but they were only to inherit after the children The Conof the Princess Anne. The Commons further affirmed the continuance in full of the Plantagenet title "King of France and Ireland." Troubles were already anticipated in Ireland, and the assertion of the authority of Parliament over that island was considered essential. and Mary. The formal transfer of the crown to William and Its acceptMary was made on February 13th, 1689, this important William ance by ceremony taking place in the Banqueting House, Whitehall, where the Lords and Commons of the Convention had assembled. The Prince and Princess stood upon the step under the canopy of state; and the Speakers of both Houses and all parties having taken their places, the clerk of the House of Lords read the Acts of Settlement and the Declaration, in which the tender of the crown was made. The reference to the constitutional concessions ran as follows: "We do claim and insist upon the premises as our undoubted rights and liberties. Encouraged by the Declaration of his Highness the Prince, we have confidence that he will perfect the deliverance. which he has begun, and will preserve our rights against all further injury." The crown was accepted under the limitations expressed and the rights reserved. In his answer William declared his willingness to concur in anything that would be for the good of the kingdom. In his wife's name and his own he promised to protect the rights, privileges, and religion of the country, and to summon Parliament frequently, and to attach even more importance to its counsels than to his own opinion, while maintaining at the same time the lustre of the Crown. Proclamation of the new King and Queen was then made, with all the old formalities, first at Whitehall Gate, then at Temple Bar, and afterwards in Cheapside and at the Royal Exchange. William and Mary began their reign with a mixed The MinMinistry. Danby was appointed Lord President of the Council; Halifax became Privy Seal, retaining also the Speakership; and Shrewsbury and Nottingham became Secretaries of State. The business of the Treasury and istry. CHAP. II. Admiralty departments was executed by boards, and the King himself directed the foreign policy of England. The Con vention. The Conrention becomes a Parlia ment. Coronation of the King and Queen. On February 20th the Convention declared itself a Parliament. Powerful arguments were adduced both for and against this step. The last elections had not been held for the purpose of electing a legally constituted Parliament, but it was urged that the work of the Revolution might be jeopardised if the Convention now dissolved itself and the country were appealed to; the members therefore considered themselves justified in declaring themselves to be a Parliament and de facto representatives of the people at this crisis. The coronation of William and Mary was performed. on April 11th in Westminster Abbey. The new rulers swore to govern according to the statutes passed by Parliament, and to maintain the religion established by law. Meanwhile the Revolution was being perfected in Scotland. A Convention was summoned in which the Presbyterian and Whig elements were greatly preponderant over those of the Episcopalians and Tories. The Convention quickly declared the deposition of James, and passed a Claim of Rights which was even more pronounced than the English declaration. It affirmed very clearly, amongst other things, the necessity for summoning frequent Parliaments, and it demanded the deposition of an ecclesiastical power which stood above the presbyter, and was alien to the historical development of the Church of Scotland. At Whitehall on May 11th, 1689, a Scottish deputation offered the crown to William and Mary. To only one of the required obligations did the King object: the article which pledged him to extirpate heretics and enemies of God's truth. William said he would work for Protestantism by legal and evangelical means, but he would never be a persecutor; and on the understanding that this only was required of him he swore to observe all the articles. There was a rising of the Highlanders in favour of James, but their leader, Dundee, was killed at Killiecrankie, and Mackay, the general of the Convention, brought the war to a successful vention. conclusion at St. Johnstone's and Dunkeld. James himself CHAP. II. made an effort in Ireland. The siege of Londonderry The Conwas undertaken, but the city was relieved by Kirke, and the battle of Newtown Butler gave the advantage to William. ties. James, however, found encouragement in the condition William's of the English Parliament, which was now very much difficul divided in its counsels. The King was also embarrassed in his Ministry. The chief Treasury offices were held by Mordaunt and Delamere, who knew nothing of finance, and the actual management lay with Godolphin, the brilliant Tory statesman. Of the two secretaries of State, one, Shrewsbury (the chief favourite of William), was a Whig, and the other, Nottingham, a Tory. and the clergy. A serious difficulty arose in relation to the clergy. By The King a large majority the House of Commons required that the oath of allegiance to William and Mary should be taken by every one, including the clergy. A time was fixed by which the oath must be taken; suspension was to follow refusal, and deprivation to succeed that, if the refusal were continued for a further six months. As a section of the clergy held out, the Lords proposed to leave it to the King to settle when the oath should be taken by each person; but the Commons opposed this. They held that, as Parliament had ordained the earlier oaths taken to King James, it had power to abolish them now. The State was the supreme authority in the alteration of oaths. The bishops maintained that Parliament had no right whatever to prescribe an oath to the clergy. Ultimately the oath was exacted, but the clergy had six months' more time allowed them in which to take it than the laity. A number of bishops were deprived of their sees, but they were succeeded by others incomparably superior; and while there were excellent men among the non-juring clergy generally, the well-affected part of the Church contained by far its most useful and able members. Of course the expulsion brought a certain amount of hostile influence to swell the other difficulties which beset the Government. The Con vention. Comprehension scheme. CHAP. II. A Comprehension scheme was next brought forward for placing the Presbyterians on an equality with the members of the State Church. William advocated this, but the Church refused any concession except the revocation of the penal laws against Protestants; it would not tolerate equality on the part of any other religious body. Ministe rial dissensions. Whigs and The King was also thwarted in other directions, and his composite Ministry soon became a source of trouble. The Whigs grew jealous of the Tories, and the Commons were so prejudiced against Halifax that he was compelled to retire from power. His policy had been one of convenience, and "his fall is a warning to English statesmen that they will be deemed responsible to their country for measures which they countenance by remaining in office, though they may resist them in council." There had been scandalous mismanagement of affairs in Ireland, and Military Commissary Shales, whose appointment the Commons suspected was due to Ministerial influence and corruption, was dismissed. The breach between the Whigs and Tories became wider. Although both had co-operated in the Revolution, their principles now drove them asunder. When a bill of indemnity was brought forward, the Whigs endeavoured to use it as a means of vengeance, following unfortunately but too many precedents. It was sought to bring to account all those who were concerned in the proceedings of James II. which were declared to be illegal by the Declaration of Rights. The executions of Russell and Sidney were declared to be judicial murders; and reprisals were discussed of a kind suggested by the proceedings of the Restoration Parliament. It was further proposed that all who had taken part in the surrender of the charters of towns should be declared incapable of holding any office in the corporations, and this legislation would have struck severely at the Tories, the existing holders of those offices. The Indemnity Bill, however, 1 Hallam's Constitutional History of England. was not carried through. As the Whigs failed to eject the Tories from the corporation offices, which bore with them great influence, the former suffered severely at the ensuing elections. CHAP. II. The Con vention. of the While the Whigs in some matters acted from jealousy Settlement and vindictiveness, "they amply redeemed their glory by Revenue. what cost them the new King's favour: their wise and admirable settlement of the revenue." William had been anxious in the outset "to combine all Protestant parties in the service of the State, and then to procure for himself a permanent revenue independent of an annual grant."1 By this means he would have held a strong position as a monarch, and yet one in accordance with law. He considered that he was fairly entitled to the revenue of James II., and the lawyers who supported the King's view held that the revenue was annexed to the Crown, and followed the arrangement of public affairs. But the Whigs argued that if Parliament had power to dispose of the crown, it had also power to dispose of the revenue. Both matters lay with the people, and through them were vested in the Commons. The Convention Parliament recognised in former large grants a fruitful source of royal encroachments, and it was unwilling to risk future dissensions with the sovereign on the same grounds. Sir William Pulteney said, "It is our security to have the revenue in our disposition," and this was certainly an effectual means of preventing a monarch from acting independently of Parliament. While the Commons therefore did not object to a grant of £1,200,000 per annum, as under Charles II., they were not inclined to secure this sum to William III. for life. They even adopted a more stringent policy than had hitherto prevailed, and voted for one year only, and no longer, the taxes required to produce the necessary revenue. The learned Whig lawyer Somers pointed out that this tantamount reversal of the hereditary right of the Crown to a definite property was an innovation which VOL. II. 1 Ranke's History of England. 3 |