WILLIAM THE THIRD.

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peace after a long and sanguinary war, and liberty united chap.

XXIV.

with order after civil troubles which had lasted during two 16aa- "generations, and in which sometimes order and sometimesliberty had been in danger of perishing.

Such were the fruits of the general election of 1695.

The ministers had flattered themselves that the generalelection of 1G98 would be equally favourable to them, andthat in the new Parliament the old Parliament would re-vive. Nor is it strange that they should have indulgedsuch a hope. Since they had been called to the directionof affairs everything had been changed, changed for thebetter, and changed chiefly by their wise and resolute po-licy, and by the firmness with which their party had stoodby them. There was peace abroad and at home. Thesentinels had ceased to watch by the beacons of Dorsetshireand Sussex. The merchant ships went forth without fearfrom the Thames and the Avon. Soldiers had been dis-banded by tens of thousands. Taxes had been remitted.

The value of all public and private securities had risen.

Trade had never been so brisk. Credit had never been sosolid. All over the kingdom the shopkeepers and thefarmers, the artisans and the ploughmen, relieved, beyondall hope, from the daily and hourly misery of the clippedsilver, were blessing the broad faces of the new shillingsand half crowns. The statesmen whose administration hadbeen so beneficent might be pardoned if they expected thegratitude and confidence which they had fairly earned.

But it soon became clear that they had served their country