In this crisis, some of the principal nobility and gentry, with a few
clergymen, united in a secret address to the Prince of Orange, calling
upon him to come over with an armed force, and aid them in protecting
their faith and liberties. This prince, who feared that England would
soon be joined to France against the few remaining Protestant powers,
and also that his prospects of the succession in that country, as
nephew and son-in-law of the king, were endangered, listened readily
to this call, and immediately collected a large fleet and army,
comprising many individuals, natives of both Scotland and England, who
had fled from the severe government of the Stuart princes. The
preparations for the expedition were conducted with great secrecy, and
James was partly blinded to them, by a rumor that their only object
was to frighten him into a closer connection with France, in order to
make him odious to his subjects. When he was at length assured by his
minister in Holland that he might immediately expect a formidable
invasion, he grew pale, and dropped the letter from his hands. He
immediately ordered a fleet and large army to be collected, and, that
he might regain the affections of his subjects, he called a
parliament, and undid many of his late measures. The people justly
suspected his concessions to be insincere, and were confirmed in their
belief, when, on a rumor of the Prince of Orange being put back by a
storm, he recalled the writs for assembling Parliament.
On the 19th of October, the Prince of Orange set sail with 50 ships of
war, 25 frigates, 25 fire-ships, and 500 transports, containing 15,000
land troops. A storm occasioned some damage and delay; but he soon put
to sea again, and proceeded with a fair wind along the British
Channel, exhibiting from his own vessel a flag on which were inscribed
the words, ‘THE PROTESTANT RELIGION AND THE LIBERTIES OF ENGLAND,’
with the apposite motto of his family, ‘_Je Maintiendrei_――‘I will
maintain.’ As he passed between Dover and Calais, his armament was
visible to crowds of spectators on both shores, whose feelings were
much excited at once by its appearance and its well-known purpose. The
English fleet being detained at Harwich by the same wind which was so
favorable to the prince, he landed (November 5) without opposition at
Torbay, and immediately proceeded to circulate a manifesto, declaring
the grievances of the kingdom, and promising, with the support of the
people, to redress them.
At the first there seemed some reason for fear that the prince would
not meet with adequate support. On his march to Exeter, and for eight
days after arriving there, he was not joined by any person of
consequence. The nation, however, soon became alive to the necessity
of giving him encouragement. The gentry of Devon and Somersetshires
formed an association in his behalf. The Earls of Bedford and
Abingdon, with other persons of distinction, repaired to his quarters
at Exeter. Lord Delamere took arms in Cheshire; the city of York was
siezed by the Earl of Danby; the Earl of Bath, governor of Plymouth,
declared for the prince; and the Earl of Devonshire made a like
declaration in Derby. Every day discovered some new instance of that
general confederacy into which the nation had entered against the
measures of the king. But the most dangerous symptom, and that which
rendered his affairs desperate, was the spirit which he found to
prevail in his army. On his advancing at its head to Salisbury, he
learned that some of the principal officers had gone over to the
Prince of Orange. Lord Churchill (afterwards famous as Duke of
Marlborough), Lord Trelawney, and the king’s son-in-law, George,
Prince of Denmark, successively followed this example. Even his
daughter, the Princess Anne, deserted him. In great perplexity, he
summoned a council of peers, by whose advice writs were issued for a
new Parliament, and commissioners despatched to treat with the prince.
A kind of infatuation now took possession of the king; and having sent
the queen and infant prince privately to France, he quitted the
capital at midnight, almost unattended, for the purpose of following
them, leaving orders to recall the writs and disband the army. By this
procedure, the peace of the country was imminently endangered; but it
only served to hasten the complete triumph of the Prince of Orange,
who had now advanced to Windsor. The supreme authority seemed on the
point of falling into his hands, when, to his great disappointment,
the king, having been discovered at Feversham, in Kent, was brought
back to London, not without some marks of popular sympathy and
affection. There was no alternative but to request the unfortunate
monarch to retire to a country-house, where he might await the
settlement of affairs. James, finding his palaces taken possession of
by Dutch guards, and dreading assassination, took the opportunity to
renew his attempt to leave the kingdom. He proceeded on board a vessel
in the Medway, and after some obstructions, arrived safely in France,
where Louis readily afforded him an asylum.
The same day that the king left Whitehall for the last time, his
nephew and son-in-law arrived at St. James’. The public bodies
immediately waited on him, to express their zeal for his cause; and
such of the members of the late Parliaments as happened to be in town,
having met by his invitation, requested him to issue writs for a
convention, in order to settle the nation. He was in the same manner,
and for the same purpose, requested to call a convention in Scotland.
The English convention met on the 22d of January 1689, and during its
debates the prince maintained a magnanimous silence and neutrality.
The Tory party, though it had joined in calling him over, displayed
some scruples respecting the alteration of the succession, and seemed
at first inclined to settle the crown on the princess, while William
should have only the office of regent; but when this was mentioned to
the prince, he calmly replied, that in that event, he should
immediately return to Holland. A bill was then passed, declaring that
‘James II, having endeavored to subvert the constitution, by breaking
the _original contract_ between the king and the people, and having
withdrawn himself from the kingdom, has _abdicated_ the government;
and that the throne is thereby become _vacant_.’ To the bill was added
a _Declaration of Rights_――namely, an enumeration of the various laws
by which the royal prerogative and the popular liberties had formerly
been settled, but which had been violated and evaded by the Stuart
sovereigns. William and Mary, having expressed their willingness to
ratify this declaration, were proclaimed king and queen jointly――the
administration to rest in William; and the convention was then
converted into a Parliament.
In Scotland, where the Presbyterians had resumed an ascendancy, the
convention came to a less timid decision. It declared that James, by
the abuse of his power, had _forfeited_ all right to the crown――a
decision also affecting his posterity: and William and Mary were
immediately after proclaimed. By a bill passed in the English
Parliament, the succession was settled upon the survivor of the
existing royal pair; next upon the Princess Anne and her children; and
finally, upon the children of William by any other consort――an
arrangement in which no hereditary principle was overlooked, except
that which would have given a preference to James and his infant son.
By the Revolution, as this great event was styled, it might be
considered as finally decided that the monarchy was not a divine
institution, superior to human challenge, as the late kings had
represented it, but one dependent on the people, and established and
maintained for their benefit.