WILLIAM THE THIRD.

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after a struggle of several weeks which had attracted muchattention not only here but on the Continent, he had beendefeated by two Whig candidates, and forced to takerefuge in a small borough. But times had changed, liewas now returned in his absence by a large majority; andwith him was joined another Tory less able and, if pos-sible, more unprincipled than himself, Sir BartholomewShower. Shower had been notorious as one of the hang-men of James. When that cruel King was bent on punish-ing with death soldiers who deserted from the army whichhe kept up in defiance of the constitution, he found thathe could expect no assistance from Holt, who was theRecorder of London. Holt was accordingly removed.Shower was made Recorder, and showed his gratitudefor his promotion by sending to Tyburn men who, as everybarrister in tlielnns of Court knew, were guilty of no offenceat all. He richly deserved to have been excepted from theAct of Grace, and left to the vengeance of the laws whichhe had so foully perverted. The return which he madefor the clemency which spared him was most character-istic. He missed no opportunity of thwarting and damagingthe Government which had saved him from the gallows.Having shed innocent blood for the purpose of enablingJames to keep up thirty thousand troops without the con-sent of Parliament, he now pretended to think it monstrousthat William should keep up ten thousand with the consentof Parliament. That a great constituent body should beso forgetful of the past and so much out of humour with the

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