accidental firing of a cottage by half a dozen starving Irish soldiers in a fray with some country people is mentioned as its origin. According to others, it originated in the cabinet of the Prince of Orange; and the peasants who brought it to Westminster were sent by Marshal Schomberg, with the purpose of exciting an alarm of danger, rendering James, his religion, and his adherents still more odious, and thus preparing for the more popular reception of the Prince. Finally, the notorious Speke, who appropriated the spurious declaration in the name of the Prince of Orange, had the hardihood to claim, also, the nefarious authorship of this rumour. The claim made by Speke proves nothing more than his own infamy. Political rancour and zeal for the unfortunate king naturally charged an odious contrivance upon the Prince of Orange, and contemporary calumny has been echoed without scruple by Jacobites in succeeding times. There appears not the slightest ground for this particular imputation upon the Marshal and the Prince; and the probability is that the rumour was purely accidental. Two circumstances have been relied on as -proofs that it was premeditated; the inadequacy of the accidental cause assigned, that is, the burning of a cottage, — and the astonishing rapidity with which it travelled over the island. But the lightest cause will agitate masses of, men where their minds are predisposed and their passions excited, and the popular imagination would circulate its chimeras with a velocity far exceeding all systematic contrivance.

--

This crisis of the Revolution is instructive when contemplated from the present day. There cannot be a better standard of the advance of popular intelligence and independence. There

was then, even in the capital, no public spirit, no democracy, no people, no magistracy, worthy or conscious of its mission. All power was divided between the aristocracy and the rabble. When upon the King's flight the populace began the work of plunder and devastation, the citizens and their magistrates were alike supine. No association was formed, no meeting was held, no individual, either in a private or magisterial capacity, stood forward to rally the industrious and orderly classes for selfprotection, upon the sudden dissolution of the government and of society itself. It is easy to imagine what would now take.

a

place in London upon a similar emergency. A municipal government would start up in perfect vigour before an hour's lapse. It was not so in 1688. The city might have been fired and pillaged, if the lords spiritual and temporal had not stepped into the breach and restored order. They met at Guildhall, with the intention of consulting with the lord mayor and other magistrates. Finding these unequal to the emergency and to their station, this extraordinary council commanded instead of consulting them. By a still more resolute assumption of power it sent off orders to the army and to the fleet, and its commands in every instance produced submission and peace. " The Tower was in possession of Skelton, appointed governor by the king. He was invited to attend at Guildhall, and upon his compliance with this artful manœuvre was deprived of his command. The lieutenancy was given to Lord Lucas, who happened to be quartered there with his company. To remove the fears and complete the security of the citizens, the council took the further precaution of disarming all Papists, and issuing warrants to apprehend all popish priests and Jesuits within the limits of London and Westminster. But the most important and memorable act of this self-constituted government was a declaration, by which, without verifying or inquiring into facts or motives, it virtually renounced King James, and applied to the Prince of Orange. In this declaration the lords and bishops impute the King's departure to popish counsels, and unanimously resolve to resort to the Prince; who, they say, ❝ out of pure. kindness incurred vast expense and much hazard to his person, in order to rescue them from popery and slavery." It wil be remembered, that Lords Godolphin and Halifax, and not the Papists, were the chief authors of the King's flight. The Prince, it may be added, took care to reimburse his vast expense by the payment of principal and interest to the Dutch; and the crown of three kingdoms was well worth the personal hazards of one of the most contemptible of campaigns. The declaration, though unanimous, was not carried without warm debates." Archbishop Sancroft was present, and signed it, but absented himself from all the subsequent meetings which were held at Whitehall.

The Prince meanwhile was at Henley, receiving addresses, and

b

Sheffield, D. of Buck., Account of the Rev. D'Oyley's Life of Sancroft.

issuing his decrees. No doubt was entertained that the King was by this time withdrawn beyond the realm. "In the Prince of Orange's army," says Sheffield, Duke of Buckingham," the nation was looked on as their own." The Prince himself assumed the tone and powers of the supreme chief of the state. The declaration of the council of peers at Guildhall was forwarded to him by a deputation of four of its members, Earl Pembroke, Viscount Weymouth, Lord Culpepper, and the Bishop of Ely. This was followed by a fulsome address from the city of London, returning the deepest thanks of the citizens to the Divine Majesty for his miraculous success, and humbly beseeching him to vouchsafe to repair to their capital city. The adhesions of courtiers, military officers, and country gentlemen crowded upon him. The highways were thronged with persons coming to tender their services and solicit his commands. On the 13th of December, before the manifesto of the council of peers at Guildhall had yet reached him, he issued the following sovereign order "from his court at Henley," under the name and disguise of a declaration :

"Whereas we are informed, that divers regiments, troops, and companies have been encouraged to disperse themselves in an unusual and unwarrantable manner, whereby the public peace is very much disturbed; we have thought fit hereby to require all colonels and commanders-in-chief of such regiments, troops, and companies, by beat of drum, or otherwise, to call together the several officers and soldiers belonging to their respective regiments, troops, and companies, in such places as they shall find most convenient for their rendezvous, and there to keep them in good order and discipline. And we do likewise direct and require all such officers and soldiers forthwith to repair to such places as shall be appointed for that purpose by the respective colonels and commanders-in-chief, whereof special notice is to be given unto us for our further orders."

The Prince, it will be observed, by describing the disbanded troops as "encouraged to disperse themselves," etc. disputes the authority of the King's orders. It is said that he took umbrage because the lords at Guildhall did not directly invite him to assume the powers of government, instead of proposing as they did to support and co-operate with him. He, however, chose to under

stand it in the former sense; and Bishop Burnet, to justify him, had the boldness to call it "an invitation to him to come and take the government of the nation into his hands." On the 14th the Prince of Orange moved his court from Henley to Windsor,

James, like all tyrants and most kings, considered the nation as made for his use; he, therefore, did not scrupule to leave his people in a state of anarchy, with the selfish purpose of embarrassing his rival, and deriving advantage from public confusion. There were now two self-constituted provisional governments; the lords at Whitehall, and the Prince of Orange, with his conclave of lords and gentlemen, at Windsor. They acted without subordination, concert, or collision. An unexpected incident soon interfered with their functions, and gave a new turn to their proceedings. News came that the King was still in England, a prisoner in the hands of the rabble of a small fishing town within a short distance of his capital.

CHAPTER XVII.

The King seized at Feversham.—His Return to Whitehall.—The Dutch Troops march upon the Capital.—Second and final Departure of the King.-Entry of the Prince of Orange into London.-The Peers summoned by him.—Reception and Conduct of James II. in France.

THERE are various narratives, by professed eye-witnesses and others, of the first flight of James II., his detention at Feversham, and his return to Whitehall in momentary triumph. His own account of his adventures, from his first flight to his final escape, is circumstantial, and may be regarded as authentic. It exists in MS. in the French archives, as given with his own hand to the community of nuns founded at Chaillot, near Paris, by Queen Henrietta, his mother. There is in his narrative little bitterness,

• See Appendix.

It appears to be an extract from the King's MS. Memoirs, translated into French for the use of the nuns. There is a copy among the papers of the late Sir J. Mackintosh. Nearly the whole of the same passage is cited by the compiler of the Life of James II.

and no apparent exaggeration. He rather understates, as compared. with other accounts, the outrages offered to him, and negatives by implication the theatric recognitions of his person, the sudden transitions from gross ribaldry to genuflexions and tears, and the royal munificence with which he has been represented to have allowed the plunderers to retain 400 guineas of which they had robbed him, demanding only the restitution of his jewels.

The King chose Sir Edward Hales for the companion of his flight. They left Whitehall at one in the morning of Tuesday, the 11th of December (O. S.), and crossed in a small boat from Privy Gardens to Vauxhall, as the Queen had done. The King, whilst crossing over, threw the great seal into, the Thames. Sheldon, one of the King's equerries, having provided relays of horses, they reached Feversham about ten in the morning, and embarked in a customhouse hoy, which Sir Edward Hales had hired to take them to France. The King, Hales, and Sheldon, went on board; the wind was fair, but it blew so strong a gale that the master of the vessel would not venture to sea without more ballast. The King, himself a good seaman, agreed with the master, and they ran ashore, for the purpose of taking in ballast, at the western end of Sheppy, intending to get under weigh at half flood. The commander of the hoy all this time knew not whom he had on board. About eleven at night the vessel was afloat once more and about to sail away, when a band of fifty, and sixty armed freebooters approached them in three Feversham fishing-boats. All Protestants were licensed to chase priests and Papists as their proper prey by sea and land. It was taken up as a sort of trade, especially by the fishermen on the river, and in the ports opposite to France. A Feversham party of this description boarded the King's hoy; their captain, named Ames, jumped into the cabin and seized the King, with his two companions, as suspected Papists. Sir Edward Hales put fifty guineas into his hand, and whispered him that he should have a hundred more if he procured them an opportunity to escape. He took the money, promised to do what was required of him, said he should go ashore for the purpose; and, when leaving the vessel, advised them to give him their money and other valuable effects, as his comrades were persons very capable of rifling them whilst he was away. They accordingly gave him their money and

It was found by a waterman soon after the Revolution.