10 HISTORY OP ENGLAND.

cnAp. should not be again seated at the Council Board, and that the

XI <J '

- — fellows' of Magdalene should not again be ejected. But the

number of these men was small. On the other hand, thenumber of those Royalists, who, if James would have acknow-ledged his mistakes and promised to observe the laws, wereready to rally round him, was very large. It is a remarkablefact that two able and experienced statesmen, who had borne achief part in the Revolution, frankly acknowledged, a fewdays after'the Revolution had been accomplished, their appre-hension that a Restoration was close at hand. “If King Jameswere a Protestant,” said Halifax to Reresby, “we could notkeep him out four months.” “If King James,” said Danby tothe same person about the same time, “would but give thecountry some satisfaction about religion, which he might easilydo, it would be very hard to make head against him.” * Happilyfor England, James was, as usual, his own worst enemy. Noword indicating that he took blame to himself on account of thepast, or that he intended to govern constitutionally for thefuture, could be extracted from him. Every letter, everyrumour, that found its way from Saint Germains to Englandmade men of sense fear that, if, in his present temper, heshould be restored to power, the second tyranny would beworse than the first. Thus the Tories, as a body, were forcedto admit, very unwillingly, that there was, at that moment,no choice but between William and public ruin. They there-fore, without altogether relinquishing the hope that he whowas King by right might at some future time be disposed tolisten to reason, and without feeling any thing like loyaltytowards him who was King in possession, discontentedlyendured the new government.

Temper It may be doubted whether that government was not,

Wbigs. during the first months of its existence, in more danger from* Reresby’s Memoirs.