The prince declared himself averse to compulsion, though disposed to act with firmness and vigor. And it was at length agreed, that the authority actually exercised by his highness from the period of the king's departure ought not to be relinquished; and that the king's desertion of the nation made it improper to carry on any farther correspondence or negotiation with him. The earl of Feversham, who was sent by the king to Windsor with a message to the prince, was put under arrest; and the lords Halifax, Shrewsbury, and Delamere, were deputed by the prince with a message to the king, desiring or rather commanding him to leave the palace of Whitehall the next morning, and repair to Ham, or some other seat in the environs of the metropolis. The king inquired if he might not be permitted to retire to Rochester. This was easily acceded to; and it was perceived with much satisfaction that the king had another escape in contemplation. The ensuing day he was accordingly conducted to Rochester, under the escort of a military guard. Here he lingered for some days, in the faint hope of receiving a second invitation to return to the capital. The earl of Middleton, who accompanied him, urged his stay, though in the remotest part of the kingdom. "Your majesty," said he, 86 may throw things into confusion by your departure, but it will be the anarchy of a month. A

new government will be soon settled, and you and your family are ruined." The king's resolution, however, was fixed; and on the last day of December, he embarked on board a frigate for France, where the queen and the infant prince of Wales were already arrived. And though the king of France had no reason to be highly pleased with his conduct, he had the generosity to give him a very cordial and friendly reception..

The Throne

vacant, and

cess of

King and

England.

The very same day on which the king left Lon- 1689. don, the prince of Orange, took possession of St. declared James's. After receiving, the numerous congra- the Prince tulations presented to him from all quarters, he summoned an assembly consisting of all the Orange nobles, prelates, and gentlemen who had sat in Queen of any parliament during the reign of king Charles II.; and by their advice he issued circular letters to all the counties and boroughs throughout the kingdom, to elect a convention of the estates of the realm in the form of a parliament; which accordingly met on the 22d of January 1689, and, after a long and interesting debate, declared the throne of England VACANT; and by a decisive majority of voices conferred the crown, now at the disposal of the nation, upon the prince of Orange, as the just reward of that patriotism and valor by which he had so gloriously rescued them from slavery and ruin.

Such was the expedition and such the facility

with which a revolution was accomplished, which in its consequences must be acknowledged one of the most interesting and important in the annals of history. From this period a government was established which had for its basis-what no other government had ever before expressly assumed the natural and unalienable RIGHTS of MAN. From this period the grand question, whether government ought to be exercised for the advantage of the governors or the governed, was finally decided. Government was by the highest authority allowed, and even virtually asserted, to be a trust and the inference could not with any degree of plausibility be disputed, that the persons in whom this trust is vested, by whatever names or titles they may be distinguished, ARE ULTIMATELY RESPONSIBLE TO THE COMMUNITY FOR THE PROPER EXERCISE OF IT.

DISSERTATION I.

ON

THE CHARACTER

OF THE

EARL OF SHAFTESBURY.

No character has labored under greater obloquy than

Un

that of the earl of Shaftesbury: yet he appears, from the general tenor of his conduct, to have deserved highly of his country; and those parts of it which are at all questionable have been most grossly and invidiously aggravated. It is the province of History to correct these errors, and to distribute with impartial justice the awards of praise or censure. fortunately for the memory of lord Shaftesbury, the most eloquent historian of the age, Mr. Hume, has in relation to him imbibed all the prejudices of preceding writers, in all their virulence and all their absurdity. His ideas of this celebrated nobleman are indeed evidently and almost wholly taken from bishop Burnet, low as the authority of that prelate stands with him upon most other occasions. But what Mr. Hume remarks of the duke of Albemarle is at least as true of lord Shaftesbury," that bishop Burnet, agreeably to his own factious spirit, treats this nobleman with great malignity." At the period of the Restoration, few persons stood higher in the

esteem of the nation at large than Sir Anthony Ashley Cooper; and though decidedly of opinion, in opposition to general Monk, that conditions ought to have been proposed for the security of public liberty, the king, nothing offended at his warmth of patriotism, even before his coronation created him a peer by the title of Lord Ashley. And in the preamble to his patent, the Restoration is expressly said " to be chiefly owing to him; and that after many endeavours to free the nation from the evils in which it was involved, he at length by his wisdom and councils, in concert with general Monk, delivered it from the servitude under which it had so long groaned." He was also made governor of the Isle of Wight, chancellor of the exchequer, and lord-lieutenant of the county of Dorset: and he had, in conjunction with three other persons his intimate friends, a grant of the great estate of the Wallop family, which they afterwards nobly reconveyed to the original proprietors-the deeds of trust and conveyance being still extant.

Notwithstanding the appointment of lord Clarendon as first minister, it is perfectly well ascertained, though too superficially passed over by Mr. Hume, that the council were greatly divided in political opinion; and that the harsh, bigoted, and arbitrary measures of that nobleman were invariably opposed by the lords Ashley, Robarts, Manchester, Holles, Annesley, secretary Morrice, &c. and even at times by the lord treasurer Southampton himself, the noble friend of Clarendon, and who was also, to the chagrin of the chancellor, not less intimately connected with lord Ashley. The earl of Clarendon was supported by the Duke of York and the whole French interest, which on the other hand the chancellor espoused with strong and dangerous predilection-as the negotiations of the count d'Estrades evince beyond all controversy. On the disgrace of this minister, A. D. 1667, a new system was adopted; the French and high church influence