388

HISTORY OP ENGLAND.

CHAP.

X._

1688.

Satisfac-tion ofHomanCatholicpowers.

State offeeling inFrance.

to which the members of the true Church were exposed Jamesalone was responsible, and that William alone had saved themfrom a sanguinary persecution.*

There was, therefore, little alloy to the satisfaction withwhich the princes of the House of Austria and the SovereignPontiff learned that the long vassalage of England was at anend. When it was known at Madrid that William was in thefull career of success, a single voice in the Spanish Council ofState faintly expressed regret that an event which, in a poli-tical point of view, was most auspicious, should be prejudicialto the interests of the true Church.** But the tolerant policyof the Prince soon quieted all scruples, and his elevation wasseen with scarcely less satisfaction by the bigoted Grandeesof Castile than by the English Whigs.

With very different feelings had the news of this greatrevolution been received in France. The politics of a long,eventful, and glorious reign had been confounded in a day.England was again the England of Elizabeth and of Cromwell;and all the relations of all the states of Christendom werecompletely changed by the sudden introduction of this newpower into the system. The Parisians could talk of nothingbut what was passing in London. National and religiousfeeling impelled them to take the part of James. They knewnothing of the English constitution. They abominated theEnglish Church. Our revolution appeared to them, not as

• Burnet, i. 802.; Ronquillo, Jan. T V Feb. 1089. The originalsof these despatches were entrusted to me by the kindness of the lateLady Holland and of the present Lord Holland. From the latter despatchI will quote a very few words: “La tema de S. M. Britanica 4 seguirimprudentes consejos perdid 4 los Catolicos aquella quielud en que lesdexo Carlos segundo. V. E. asegure 4 su Santidad que mas sacard delPrincipe para los Catolicos que pudiera sacar del ltey.’’

** On December if. 1688, the Admiral of Castile gave his opinionthus: “Esta materia es de calidad que no puede dexar de padecer nu-estra sagrada religion 6 el servicio de V. M.; porque, si el Principe deOrange tiene buenos succesos, nos aseguraremos de Franceses, pero po-ligrar4 la religion.” The Council was much pleased on February Jg.by a letter of the Prince, in which he promised “que los Catolicosque se porlaren con prudencia no sean molestados, y gocen libertad doconciencia, por ser contra su dictamen el forzar ni casligar por estarazon 4 nadie.”