WILLIAM THE THIRD.

147

CHAPTER XXIV.

The Gazette which informed the public that the King hadset out for Holland announced also the names of the firstmembers returned, in obedience to his writ, by the con-stituent bodies of the Realm. The history of those timeshas been so little studied that few persons are aware howremarkable an epoch the general election of 1698 is in thehistory of the English Constitution.

We have seen that the extreme inconvenience whichhad resulted from the capricious and headstrong conductof the House of Commons during the years immediatelyfollowing the Revolution had forced William to resort to apolitical machinery which had been unknown to his prede-cessors , and of which the nature and operation were butvery imperfectly understood by himself or by his ablest ad-visers. For the first time the administration was confidedto a small body of statesmen, who, on all grave and press-ing questions, agreed with each other and with the ma-jority of the representatives of the people. The directionof war and of diplomacy the King reserved to himself; andhis servants, conscious that they were less versed than liein military affairs and in foreign affairs, were content toleave to him the command of the army, and to know only

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CHAP.

XXIV.

Alteredpositionof theministry.