184

HISTORY OP EHGLAND.

chap, to Ileinsius, whom he could have no motive for deceiving,

XXIV.

" TesTsT - he intimated his intention very clearly. “I foresee,” hewrites, “that I shall he driven to take an extreme course,and that I shall see you again in Holland sooner than I hadimagined.”* In fact he had resolved to go down to theLords, to send for the Commons, and to make his lastspeech from the throne. That speech lie actually preparedand had it translated. He meant to tell his hearers that hehad come to England to rescue their religion and theirliberties; that, for that end, he had been under the neces-sity of waging a long and cruel war; that the war had, bythe blessing of God, ended in an honourable and advan-tageous peace; and that the nation might now be tranquiland happy, if only those precautions were adopted whichhe had on the first day of the session recommended as es-sential to the public security. Since, however, the Estatesof the Realm thought fit to slight his advice, and to exposethemselves to the imminent risk of ruin, he would not bethe witness of calamities which he had not caused andwhich he could not avert. He must therefore request theHouses to present to him a bill providing for the govern-ment of the realm: he would pass that bill, and withdrawfrom a post in which he could no longer be useful; but heshould always take a deep interest in the welfare of Eng-land; and, if what he foreboded should come to pass, if insome day of danger she should again need his services, hislife should be hazarded as freely as ever in her defence.

* Dec. |5 169S.