P. 696, line 6 from bottom: after 'Minorca' read' and obtained from France promise to destroy the fortifications of Dunkirk.'

P. 709, iine 9: before 'Walpole' read' Sir Robert.'

P. 798, last line: dele 'now,' and after Spain read at the end of the Seven Years War.' (See p. 766.)'

P. 886, line 3 after 'Huskisson' read 'the President of the Board of Trade.'

PART VIII

THE RISE OF CABINET GOVERNMENT

1689-1754

CHAPTER XLII

WILLIAM III. AND MARY II.

WILLIAM III. 1689 -1702. MARY II. 1689-1694

1689.-It was

1. The new Government and the Mutiny Act. unlikely that William would long be popular. He was cold and reserved, and he manifestly cared more for the struggle on the Continent than for the strife which never ceased between English parties. Yet he was sagacious enough to know that it was only by managing English affairs with firmness and wisdom that he could hope to carry England with him in his conflict with France; and he did his work so well that, though few of his new subjects loved him, most of them learned to respect him. As he owed his crown to the support of both parties, he chose his first ministers from both. In March his throne was exposed to some danger. The army was dissatisfied in consequence of the shabby part which

III.

UU

it had played when called on to defend James II., and one regiment mutinied. Only the Dutch troops could be trusted, and it was by them that the mutiny was suppressed. The punishment of mutinous soldiers by courts martial had been forbidden by the Petition of Right (see p. 508). Parliament now passed a Mutiny Act,

which authorised the maintenance of discipline by such courts for six months only. The Act has been since renewed from year to year, and as, if it dropped, the king would have no lawful means of maintaining discipline, Parliament thus maintains control over the army..

2. The Toleration Act and the Nonjurors. 1689.-Still more

1689

RELIGIOUS LIBERTY

651

important was the Toleration Act, which gave to Dissenters the legal right to worship publicly, on complying with certain formalities. From this toleration Unitarians and Roman Catholics were excluded. The great mass of Protestant Dissenters were well satisfied, and the chief cause of religious strife was thus removed.

An attempt made to carry a Comprehension Bill (see pp. 598, 599), which was intended to attract Dissenters to the Church by altering the Prayer Book, ended in complete failure. All holders of office in Church and State were required to take the oaths of supremacy and allegiance to the new sovereigns. About 400 of the clergy with Archbishop Sancroft and six other bishops refused to swear. Their