THE INTERREGNUM.

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choice of representatives. There was scarcely a county in chap.which the gentry and yeomanry had not, many months be-——fore, fixed upon candidates, good Protestants, whom noexertions must be spared to carry, in defiance of the King andof the Lord Lieutenant; and these candidates were nowgenerally returned without opposition.

The Prince gave strict orders that no person in the publicservice should, on this occasion, practise those arts whichhad brought so much obloquy on the late government. Heespecially directed that no soldiers should be suffered toappear in any town where an election was going on.’ Hisadmirers were able to boast, and his enemies seem not to havebeen able to deny, that the sense of the constituent bodieswas fairly taken. It is true that he risked little. The partywhich was attached to him was triumphant, enthusiastic, fullof life and energy. The party from which alone he couldexpect serious opposition was disunited and disheartened,out of humour with itself, and still more out of humour withits natural chief. A great majority, therefore, of the shiresand boroughs returned Whig members.

It was not over England alone that William’s guardianship Affairs ofnow extended. Scotland had risen on her tyrants. All the Scolland -regular soldiers by whom she had long been held down hadbeen summoned by James to his help against the Dutchinvaders, with the exception of a very small force, which,under the command of the Duke of Gordon, a great RomanCatholic Lord, garrisoned the Castle of Edinburgh. Everymail which had gone northward during the eventful month ofNovember had carried news which stirred the passions ofthe oppressed Scots. While the event of the military opera-tions was still doubtful, there were at Edinburgh riots andclamours which became more menacing after James hadretreated from Salisbury. Great crowds assembled at first bynight, and then by broad daylight. Popes were publiclyburned: loud shouts were raised for a free Parliament:placards were stuck up setting prices on the heads of theministers of the crown. Among those ministers Perth, as* Loudon Gazette, Jan. T. 168J.