WILLIAM AND MAEY.

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whether our country has ever passed through a more alarming ciiap.crisis than that of the first week of July 1690. J|3il| j —

But the evil brought with it its own remedy. Those little spirit ofknew England who imagined that she could be in danger at uon” 1 'once of rebellion and invasion: for in truth the danger of in-vasion was the best security against the danger of rebellion.

The cause of James was the cause of France; and, though tosuperficial observers the French alliance seemed to be his chiefsupport, it really was the obstacle which made his restorationimpossible. In the patriotism, the too often unamiable andunsocial patriotism of our forefathers, lay the secret at onceof William’s weakness and of his strength. They were jealousof his love for Holland: but they cordially sympathized with hishatred of Lewis. To their strong sentiment of nationality areto be ascribed almost all those'petty annoyances which madethe throne of the Deliverer, from his accession to his death,so uneasy a seat. But to the same sentiment it is to be ascribedthat his throne, constantly menaced and frequently shaken,w r as never subverted. For, much as his people detested hisforeign favourites, they detested his foreign adversaries stillmore. The Dutch w r erc Protestants: the French were Papists.

The Dutch were regarded as selfseeking, grasping, overreach-ing allies: the French ivere mortal enemies. The worst thatcould be apprehended from the Dutch w T as that they mightobtain too large a share of the patronage of the Crown, thatthey might throw on us too large a part of the burdens of thewar, that they might obtain commercial advantages at our ex-pense. But the French would conquer us: the French wouldenslave us: the French would inflict on us calamities such asthose which had turned the fair fields and cities of the Pala-tinate into a desert. The hopgrounds of Kent would be as thevineyards of the Neckar. The High Street of Oxford and theclose of Salisbury would be piled with ruins such as those which

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