LEADING DATES.

The Mutiny and Toleration Acts
The Bill of Rights

Battle of Killiecrankie
Siege of Londonderry.
Battle of the Boyne

Surrender and Treaty of Limerick
Massacre of Glencoe .
Battle of La Hogue

The Bank of England established

The Triennial Act

Death of Queen Mary
The Assassination Plot
Treaty of Ryswick

The First Partition Treaty.

The Second Partition Treaty
The Act of Settlement

The Second Grand Alliance

Death of James II.

Death of William III.

SECTION I.-PROCEEDINGS OF THE CONVENTION. Settlement of the Succession, 1689.

No sooner had James II. fled to France, than a Convention met at the invitation of William, Prince of Orange, and proceeded to deal with the question of the succession. Three alternatives were open to them :

1. To place the Princess Mary on the throne. William would not agree to this arrangement. He said, that he had not come to England to be his wife's servant and minister.

2. To declare William and Mary as merely regents for the absent king. To this course William also objected, saying, that he would rather return to Holland than become a mere "locum-tenens" for his father-in-law.

3. To offer the crown to William and Mary as joint sovereigns with equal rights, the executive part of the government being with Mary's consent vested in William. This plan was ultimately adopted.

The Convention then passed the Declaration of Right, which William and Mary solemnly swore to observe, and they were declared King and Queen.

Thus the great crisis known as the Revolution was brought to a successful issue.

General character of the Revolution.

1. It completely overthrew the Stuart theories of the Divine Right of Kings and Passive Obedience, and set up a King and a Queen, who owed their position entirely to the choice of Parliament.

2. The bitter contests between the King and the Parliament, which characterized the Stuart Period, were at an end. Hitherto, the will of the king had been the power, which guided the policy of the nation, now it was to be the "will of the Parliament." In other words, “The Reign of Parliament” had begun.

3. The Power of the Parliament also was so greatly increased, that if the members did not approve of a Minister, they compelled the king to dismiss him,

4. It established on a firm basis many of the fundamental principles of the English Constitution, such as illegality of taxation without consent of Parliament, and the liberty of speech in Parliament, principles the Stuarts had so persistently laboured to set aside (see Bill of Rights, p. 6).

5. It settled the revenue question, secured a proper expenditure of public money, and gave toleration to Dissenters.

6. It destroyed the French supremacy over Europe, and raised England to her place among European powers.

NOTE.-The name "Revolution," which has been given to these
changes, is not a good one.

(a) "Only a small part of the political constitution of the country
was changed, and no part whatever of its social institutions.
(b) The laws remained very much the same, but were put into
force in a much more effective manner. The judges held
their offices during good behaviour, and could only be re-
moved upon an address of both Houses.

William's First Ministers. The men who had been instrumental in placing William on the throne, were some of them Whigs and some Tories, and William chose his first Ministers from both parties. Danby became President of the Council,

Halifax held the Privy Seal, Nottingham and Shrewsbury
were Secretaries of State, Godolphin and Charles Mordaunt
(afterwards Earl of Peterborough) were the leading members
of the Treasury, and Herbert and Russell of the Admiralty.

NOTE.-William's most confidential advisers, however, were (a)
William Bentinck, a Dutch nobleman, whom he created Duke of
Portland; (b) Henry Sidney, the brother of the unfortunate Algernon
Sidney, beheaded in the reign of Charles II.

The Convention, having been declared a Parliament, passes the following important Acts:

1. A new oath of allegiance and supremacy was required of all members of Parliament, clergy, judges, magistrates, and officers in the army and navy (1689). Its object was to remove all place-holders in Church and State who were disaffected to the new Government. About 400 clergy, including Archbishop Sancroft, the good Bishop Ken, and five other bishops, refused to take the oath, and were removed from their preferments. They were called "non-jurors." They did not openly oppose the Government, but many of them began to carry on secret correspondence with the exiled king. They considered themselves as the only true Churchmen, and did not become wholly extinct till the year 1805.

2. First Mutiny Bill, 1689.

But a

(a) Its origin. A spirit of disaffection had seized the army in consequence of the insignificant part it had played in defending James II., and William thought it desirable to draft off some of the more disaffected troops to Holland. Scottish regiment, under the command of Marshal Schomberg, mutinied, while on its way to Ipswich, and, declaring for King James II., set out for Scotland. The mutineers were, however, overtaken by three regiments of dragoons, and having surrendered their arms, were sent to Holland.

(b) Chief Clauses—

(1) That it is unlawful to keep a standing army without consent of Parliament.

(2) That any soldier who deserts his colours, or mutinies against his officer, shall be tried and punished "with death or such other punishment as a general court-martial shall award.”

(3) The Bill also contains certain clauses relating to the enlistment, pay and quartering of soldiers.

NOTE. This Act has to be renewed every year. By this arrangement Parliament maintains a complete control over the army. If it omitted to pass this Act, (a) the payment necessary for the support of the army would be withheld, (b) the sovereign would be deprived of all legal authority of maintaining discipline over soldiers and sailors, (c) the power of the sword would be wrested from the hand of the sovereign altogether.

3. The Toleration Act, 1689.

Many of the men who had assisted in bringing about the recent changes in the government were Nonconformists, and it was deemed a convenient time to grant them relief from the severe penal laws passed against them in the reign of Charles II. Accordingly the Toleration Act was passed, mainly through the efforts of Nottingham. It enacted

(1) That freedom of worship should be allowed to all Dissenters who were willing to take the oath of allegiance and supremacy, and subscribe a declaration against Popery.

(2) That all conventicles should be held with "unlocked" doors, and all such conventicles should be registered and protected from insult.

(3) That no part of this toleration should be extended to Roman Catholics, or to those who denied the Trinity. NOTE 1.—The majority of Dissenters were well satisfied with these concessions, but men's ideas were still very narrow, and the Test Act still remained in force. William himself was in favour of a much more comprehensive scheme of toleration, and was willing to admit to his service "all Protestants who were willing and able to serve. Parliament, however, would grant nothing more than the Toleration Act. Persecution was still the rule, toleration the exception.

NOTE 2.-The Comprehension Bill. William also wished to see all Dissenters won back to the Church of England, and to do this, he advised, that all those things in the Prayer Book which displeased Dissenters should be altered. Most of the clergy were opposed to such a scheme, and the plan ended in a failure.

4. The Bill of Rights is passed, 1689. This Bill is an embodiment of the Declaration of Right cast into the form of a regular Act of Parliament. It is practically a "settlement" of the prolonged struggle between the King and Parliament, which had lasted for nearly one hundred years, and as such is one of the most important documents in English history. I. It declared to be illegal

(1) The pretended power of "suspending," or "dispensing" with the laws as assumed in the reign of James II.;

(2) The late Court of Ecclesiastical Commission and all other such courts;

(3) Levying money without consent of Parliament;

(4) Maintaining a standing army in time of peace without consent of Parliament;

(5) Infliction of excessive bail, fines, and punishments.

II. It also declared

(1) That subjects have a right to petition the king; (2) That Protestants may have arms for their defence; (3) That election of members of Parliament ought to be free; (4) That speeches and debates in Parliament ought to be free;

(5) That jurors in cases of high treason must be free-holders; (6) That for redress of grievances and for strengthening the laws, Parliament should be held frequently.

5. Settlement of the Revenue. The question of the revenue had been a most fruitful source of strife between the Sovereign and Parliament during the time of the Stuarts. The Commons now voted £1,200,000 to William for the current year, about one-half of which was to be appropriated to the maintenance of the Government and the Crown (or what is now called the “Civil List"), the other half to the public defence.

NOTE 1. In 1697 a Bill for the Appropriation of Supplies was passed.
Under the Stuarts, when money was needed for any special public
service, the grant voted by Parliament passed into the hands of the
sovereign, and no guarantee was given, that the money so voted
would be appropriated to its proper use. It was now arranged,
that all grants of money made by Parliament should be definitely
apportioned to the services for which they were intended.
NOTE 2.-Those who were in favour of James II. were known as
Jacobites (from Jacobus, the Latin word for James); while those
who supported William were called Williamites. The Jacobite
party were never strong enough in the reign to rise in open rebellion,
but they formed many plots, and gave William and his Government
much trouble.

SECTION

II.

SCOTLAND AND THE

REVOLUTION.

1. State of Scotland. Under Charles II. and James II. the government in Scotland had been placed in the hands of a few Scottish Episcopalians, who had set on foot a most severe persecution against the Presbyterians. No one but an Episcopalian had been allowed to sit in Parliament or even vote at