of the Go The prudence and moderation, and even the BOOKI. magnanimity of the prince of Orange during the 1689. debates of the convention, are justly and generally applauded. Perceiving the house of peers disposed Settlement to favor the establishment of a regency, he thought he thought vernment. proper, after observing a long and profound silence, to inform some of the leading members of that assembly, "that though he acknowledged their undoubted right to adopt that form of government which to them appeared most eligible, he was determined, if a regency were appointed, not to take upon him the office of regent; that, if they chose to settle the crown upon the princess of Orange, he claimed no right of objecting to it, but he would never act a subordinate part in the administration of the government. In either of these cases, therefore, he would return to Holland, of parliament collectively taken, is capable of doing any wrong; BOOK I. satisfied with the glory he had acquired by the service he had been so happy as to render them." 1689. Appointment of the nistry. This judicious and well-timed declaration put a sudden termination to the debate: and the two houses of convention came to a final resolution, Feb. 13, 1689, to offer the crown, in the name of all the people of England, to the prince and princess of Orange, as joint sovereigns; vesting at the same time the sole administration of government in the hands of the prince. This offer, which was no less agreeable to the princess, who indignantly disclaimed every idea of an interest separate from that of her husband, than to the prince, was accepted without hesitation; and their highnesses were crowned at Westminster king and queen of England, by the names of WILLIAM, and MARY, April the 11th, 1689, with great and universal acclamations. ९ The first public act of the new reign was a new Mi- proclamation confirming all protestants in the offices held by them on the 1st of December 1688. A new privy council was in a few days after nominated, consisting chiefly of whigs. The grand difficulty rested in the appointment of a new ministry, in the formation of which it would have been highly impolitic entirely to have excluded the tories, who had taken a very active and zealous part in the late revolution. The jealous animosity subsisting between the two state fac of the Mi tions began immediately to re-appear; and it was BOOK I. with little satisfaction to either that the king at 1689. last made his final arrangement. The earl of Danby, a zealous tory and high-churchman, who Characters boasted the splendid merit of devising and effect- nisters. ing the marriage of the prince and princess of Orange, and who was one of the seven patriots who risqued their lives and fortunes by signing the original invitation to the prince*, transmitted to him through the hands of M. Zuylestein, aspired to the office of lord high treasurer, which he had held during the reign of Charles II. But the king determined to put the treasury into commission; and lord Mordaunt, created earl of Monmouth, a zealous whig, was declared first commissioner. This nobleman possessed a most extraordinary force and versatility of talents; and his genius in the sequel taking a military direction, he attained to the highest degree of celebrity under his subsequent title, by descent, of earl of * The others were Shrewsbury, Devonshire, Lumley, the bishop of London, admiral Russel, and H. Sydney. The earl of Nottingham had been applied to, and had once assented to the invitation; but his heart failed him, and (as Sydney wrote to the prince, June 30,) "he retracted, under pretence of scruples of conscience-though they all concluded it to be another passion." He nevertheless kept the secret inviolate. The prince of Orange, knowing the selfish and unprincipled versatility of Halifax, forbade any positive or explicit communication of the design to that nobleman. BOOK I. Peterborough. Danby, thus excluded from the 1689. treasury, was obliged to content himself with the post of president of the council, and the title of marquis of Carmarthen. The earl of Shrewsbury, a man of capacity, of moderation, and of probity, whose character stood high with both parties, was appointed secretary of state, in conjunction with the earl of Nottingham, a determined tory, immoveable in his prejudices, grave in his deportment, austere in his morals, artful, able, and ambitious. This nobleman had refused to sign the invitation to the prince, but declared himself willing to share the responsibility as far as concealment would go and though in the conventional debates he had vehemently opposed the vote of abdication, he subsequently declared with much plausibility, "that though he would not make a king, yet upon his principles he could obey him better than those who did." The marquis of Halifax, a man of wit, genius, and eloquence, had conducted himself with such duplicity, or, to speak more properly, with such flagrant inconsistency, as entirely to lose the confidence of both parties. He had originally acted with the whigs, to whom he gave mortal offence by the decided part which he took in opposition to the exclusion bill, and by supporting the flagitious measures of the last years of Charles II. and the first of his successor, under whom he held the 4 1689. office of president of the council. In order to BOOK L recover his credit with the whigs, who were now likely to attain a permanent ascendency, he opposed with all the force of his oratory in the convention the project of a regency, and even went so far as to move that the prince should be declared king, and the princesses next in succession. This proposition, though immediately negatived, so far answered his purpose as to raise him high in the king's favor; but it made him odious to the whole body of the tories. To him was consigned the privy seal. The great seal was put into commission; Maynard, Keck, and Rawlinson, being nominated commissioners: and sir John Holt, a man of great ability and equal integrity, was declared chief justice of England. Admiral Herbert, a very popular and reputed a very skilful seaman, was placed at the head of the admiralty. The white staves were bestowed on the dukes of Devonshire and Dorset ; the first being appointed lord steward, and the latter lord chamberlain. M. Bentinck, a native of Holland, who had long enjoyed the king's confidence, was advanced to an honourable station in the king's household, and soon afterwards created earl of Portland. Sydney, brother to the famous Algernon Sydney, a man of engaging manners and graceful address, was distinguished in the new promotions, and in the sequel advanced to very high offices in the Mr. |
