JAMES THE SECOND.

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But, though the addresses were numerous and full of chap.eulogy, though the acclamations were loud, though the illu- — ■minations were splendid, though Saint James’s Palace wastoo small for the crowd of courtiers, though the theatres wereevery night, from the pit to the ceiling, one blaze of orangeribands, William felt that the difficulties of his enterprise werebut beginning. He had pulled a government down. The farharder task of reconstruction was now to be performed. Fromthe moment of his landing till he reached London he hadexercised the authority which, by the laws of war, acknow-ledged throughout the civilised world, belongs to the com-mander of an army in the field. It was now necessary that heshould exchange the character of a general for that of a ma-gistrate ; and this was no easy task. A single false step mightbe fatal; and it was impossible to take any step withoutoffending prejudices and rousing angry passions.

Some of the Prince’s advisers pressed him to assume the nc is ad-crown at once as his own by right of conquest, and then, asKing, to send out, under his Great Seal, writs calling a Par- theliament. This course was strongly recommended by some righTot Jeminent lawyers. It was, they said, the shortest way to whatcould otherwise be attained only through innumerable diffi-culties and disputes. It was in strict conformity with theauspicious precedent set after the battle of Bosworth byHenry the Seventh! It would also quiet the scruples whichmany respectable people felt as to the lawfulness of trans-ferring allegiance from one ruler to another. Neither the lawof England nor the Church of England recognised any rightin subjects to depose a sovereign. But no jurist, no divine,had ever denied that a nation, overcome in war, might, with-out sin, submit to the decision of the God of battles. Thus,after the Chaldean conquest the most pious and patrioticJews did not think that they violated their duty to theirnative King by serving with loyalty the new master whomProvidence had set over them. The three confessors, whohad been marvellously preserved in the furnace, held high

affairs in England, 1088; Barnet, 1.802, 803.; Calamy's Life and Timesof Baxter, chap. xiv.

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