BEQUEST OF ΤΟ THE REV.EDWARD NARES, D.D. RECTOR OF BIDDENDEN, KENT, AND REGIUS PROFESSOR OF MODERN HISTORY IN THE UNIVERSITY OF OXFORD. MY DEAR SIR, IT is with feelings of no ordinary pride and satisfaction, that I am enabled to introduce this volume to the Public under the auspices of the Author of the Life of Lord Burleigh. I cannot, indeed, pretend to expect that a name equally known and admired in the Historic and Theological World, a name, too, gratefully remembered by the votaries of Literature in its lighter and more amusing form, will prove any protection against the criticisms to which inaccuracies or want of ability may have justly exposed me; but I trust I shall not incur the charge of presumption, in expressing a confident hope that the permission conceded in so flattering a manner, would at once have been withheld, did you not feel convinced that I had endeavoured to maintain, consistently with the impartiality which becomes the historian, a steady adherence to those principles, civil and religious, so nobly upheld when beset with danger, in that hallowed seat of learning, of which you are a distinguished ornament, and which I regard with filial reverence. Such an assurance, while it robs sarcasm of its sting, will encourage me to face with comparative boldness the fearful ordeal of public opinion. That you may long be spared to aid, by your exertions, the cause of sound religion and useful learning, is the heartfelt and anxious wish and prayer of, My dear Sir, Your much obliged and faithful Servant, Wicken Park, near Stoney Stratford, Northamptonshire, June 1. 1835. ARTHUR TREVOR. PREFACE. IN venturing to lay before the Public any account of a period of history so interesting as that of William III., I am well aware of the difficulty of the subject, as well as my own inadequacy to do it justice. Whether we consider William, like his illustrious ancestor, as the saviour of Holland, the champion of the Protestant cause, or the continued and unwearied opponent of the gigantic power and reckless ambition of Louis XIV. of France, his intimate connection with the great events and most celebrated men of that remarkable æra, cannot fail to enhance the reputation of a name long before enrolled in the annals of all that was glorious and great. That it was a crisis most important as regarded not only the destinies of England, but of civilised Europe at large, few will pretend to dispute; nor can it be denied that the occurrences of that time gave rise to some, and added strength to many, opinions and prejudices, which have continued in a greater or less degree to be upheld to the present day, not unfrequently driving the partisan of one and the other into extremes, between which it becomes more desirable than easy to steer an impartial course. The time of William III. will be alluded to by some as of glorious memory; by others, as now become obsolete, inapplicable to present times, and ill suited to public feeling. Both are as much in error as, it is apprehended, they are essentially ignorant of the real causes which led to the memorable Revolution of 1688, and thus established on a secure basis those institutions, that purity of religious worship, that constitutional freedom, the pride and glory of England, but which, in their attempt to imitate the moral weakness of other nations, has invariably caused them to fail. Still, however triumphant their final result, there is much in the history of those celebrated events to cause no feeling save that of regret. The necessity of raising the standard against legitimate Monarchy is always to be deplored, and the most sacred duty can alone render such a step matter of justification. That the purest, the most hallowed of motives swayed that peculiar body in the State, on whom it is but too much the custom of modern sarcasm to cast its ill-timed and unmerited aspersion, the most prejudiced writer cannot with justice dispute no sordid or narrow-minded feeling, no selfish object of interest or aggrandisement, dictated their course; they tendered their allegiance to a higher and holier power, and to their constancy and courage History cannot fail to offer a tribute alike noble and affecting. Under an impression that an abstract narration of a period which cannot fail to interest, more |