The Treaties of Limerick.

237

Nor were they kept long in suspense or uncertainty, as to the willingness of the English Parliament to ratify it. The Parliament met in November; the Ministers pressed its ratification earnestly, as that to which they were bound to agree, by every principle of national good faith; and, though the Commons did for a moment desire to add the obligation of taking the oath of supremacy, and the declaration against Transubstantiation, to the oath of allegiance, they allowed themselves to be persuaded, and the Chief Justice of England was ordered to prepare a bill to give the treaty legal effect.

The military treaty was carried out with equal integrity, though its execution was not unaccompanied with disappointment and mortification to the authorities in William's interest. Sarsfield, who had made up his mind to take service in the French army, was naturally desirous to increase his own importance in the eyes of his new master by carrying over with him as large a force as he could persuade to accompany him. He called in the co-operation of the Roman Catholic clergy, who exerted on his side all that religious pressure which their religion enables them to put upon their flocks. In long and earnest sermons they declared that for any one to remain and enter the service of a heretic Prince was to imperil their souls; they, at the same time, held out the prospect that they would soon be led back, with a host of French allies, to reconquer their native land, and to restore it to its lawful Sovereign. It was believed that they added the stimulus of brandy to their pious exhortations; and Sarsfield was even accused of employing force, and of putting officers under arrest who hesitated to promise to adhere to him.

Ginkell, on the other hand, was equally desirous to retain

men who had shown how gallantly they could fight if well commanded, and whom, if they should follow Sarsfield to France, his King might soon have to encounter in Flanders. And he issued a proclamation assuring safety and protection to all who should choose to remain in Ireland, and honourable employment to all who would enlist in his army. the great majority Sarsfield and the priests prevailed. Many, indeed, who at first promised to embark found their hearts fail at the last moment, but still a very considerable force followed their gallant general1 They reached Brest in safety, and in the spring were formed into separate regiments; the men of the better class being even honoured by being allowed to compose two companies of body-guards, one of which was commanded by the Duke of Berwick, the other by Sarsfield himself. He died a soldier's death on the hardfought field of Landen; and they established for themselves and for their country a reputation for gallantry both brilliant and steady in every country in which the French armies waged war during the remainder of Louis's reign. But the hope that had been held out to them of returning to reconquer Ireland was never realized. James made no further attempt to recover the throne which he had lost by any enterprise of open honourable war.

William had been crowned King of Ireland in Dublin on the 5th of November in the preceding year; but that event

1 Lord Macaulay, who says that one regiment, in which 1,400 men had promised to go to France, when the day came furnished only 500, would seem to imply that the whole number who eventually went did not exceed 5,000 or 6,000 men. The Duke of Berwick states them at "about 20,000," and cannot be very wrong, for he says Louis formed them into nine infantry regiments of two battalions; two of dragoons on foot; two of cavalry ; and two companies of Gardes-du-corps, one of which was given to him and the other to Lord Lucan (Sarsfield).—Vol. I., p. 106.

End of the Civil War.

239

was rather the assumption of the royal title than the establishment of it, for his right to it was denied in the southern and western counties, in half of the kingdom. Now, on the other hand, it was universally recognized. With the departure of Sarsfield, all resistance to the new Government was at an end. In order to assure the population of those districts which had been the scene of the last campaign, William issued a proclamation announcing that the civil war was terminated; and in Ireland also the revolution was accomplished.

240

CHAPTER XII.

Much remains to be done in England after the settlement of the Government-Real character of the Revolution-Many legislative measures are still necessary-Composition of the ministry-The Toleration Bill-The Comprehension Bill-The Case of the Nonjurors-William issues an Act of Grace-The Bill of Rights-Question of the succession after the death of the Princess Anne-Birth of the Duke of Gloucester-The subsequent Act of Settlement-Gradual change in the mode of administration and character of a Ministry-Disqualification of placemen for seats in the House of Commons--The Triennial Bill, altered at a later period to a Septennial Bill-Purification of the coinage-Expiration of restrictions on the Press-Establishment of Newspapers.

WHEN William and Mary accepted the crown which was formally tendered to them by the Parliament of England, and by the Estates of Scotland, and when, having been already crowned in Dublin, William was able to proclaim that civil war and all resistance to his authority was terminated in Ireland also, the revolution was in one sense accomplished. A change in the reigning dynasty had been effected, and the new Sovereigns acknowledged that they held their authority by a different title from that which their predecessors had claimed as belonging to them. But in another point of view there was still much to be done. The change which had been made, great and important as it was, was not the whole of the revolution for which those who had brought about that change were anxious, nor for which all succeeding generations of Englishmen down to the present

The Declaration of Right.

time have been and still are grateful.

241

To them the Revo

lution has been something more. It has been practically the foundation of a new Constitution.

Up to this time the Constitution had too often been but a name. There had existed indeed for centuries laws and charters which had guaranteed to the English and Irish people all those privileges which are essential parts of real freedom, liberty of person, never to be violated except as a punishment for offences; and security for property, so that no King should be able to take the money of any subject unless by his own consent, duly signified by himself or by his representatives in Parliament. And when Scotland became subject to the same Sovereign as England and Ireland, that country also obtained its equal share of the freedom granted or confirmed to all by the Great Charter. But these inestimable charters and laws had been frequently violated by despotic sovereigns, so frequently, indeed, that in some notorious instances, the judges had pronounced that the precedents of such violation were so strong as to override the written law; and the great men who took the lead in bringing about the Revolution rightly felt that it would be a nullity if they failed so to avail themselves of the opportunity which it offered them, as to take securities that no such violations of the people's rights should be possible in future. That they were aiming at no new thing, but that these rights did of old belong to the people, was implied in the very title of the memorial which was read to the new Sovereigns before they were requested to accept the Crown, "The Declaration of Right." But that declaration required the ratification of a formal Parliamentary enactment to give it entire permanent validity. And a necessity for some other laws.

R