1688. bury, and all that were with us. So I was ordered to draw it. It was, in few words, an engagement to stick together in pursuing the ends of the prince's declaration; and that, if any attempt should be made on his person, it should be revenged on all by whom or from whom any such attempt should be made. This was agreed to by all about the prince. So it was engrossed in parchment, and signed by all those that came in to him. The prince put Devonshire and Exeter under Seimour's government, who was recorder of Exeter. And he advanced with his army, leaving a small garrison there with his heavy artillery under colonel Gibson, whom he made deputy governor as to the military part.

The heads in Oxford

At Crookhorn, Dr. Finch, son to the earl of Winsent to him. chelsea, then made warden of All Souls college in Oxford, was sent to the prince from some of the heads of colleges; assuring him, that they would declare for him, and inviting him to come thither, telling him, that their plate should be at his service, if he needed it. This was a sudden turn from those principles that they had carried so high a few years before. The prince had designed to have secured Bristol and Glocester, and so to have gone to Oxford, the whole west being then in his hands, if there had been any appearance of a stand to be made against him by the king and his army; for, the king being so much superior to him in horse, it was not advisable to march through the great plains of Dorsetshire and Wiltshire. But the king's precipitated return to London put an end to this precaution. The earl of Bath had prevailed with the garrison of Plymouth and they declared for the prince. So now all behind him was safe. When he came to

Sherburn, all Dorsetshire came in a body, and joined 1688. him. He resolved to make all the haste he could to London, where things were in a high fermentation.

orders in

A bold man ventured to draw and publish another Great disdeclaration in the prince's name. It was penned London. with great spirit: and it had as great an effect. It set forth the desperate designs of the papists, and the extreme danger the nation was in by their means, and required all persons immediately to fall on such papists as were in any employments, and to turn them out, and to secure all strong places, and to do every thing else that was in their power to execute the laws, and to bring all things again into their proper channels. This set all men at work: for no doubt was made, that it was truly the prince's declaration. But he knew nothing of it. And it 794 was never known who was the author of so bold a thing'. No person ever claimed the merit of it: for, though it had an amazing effect, yet, it seems, he that contrived it apprehended, that the prince would not be well pleased with the author of such an imposture in his name. The king was under such

* But always supposed to have been one much known by the name of Julian Johnson. D. (This was Samuel Johnson, the political writer, and author, among other books, of one entitled Julian the Apostate; but another person was concerned in this forgery, for, according to his own story, the real framer of the declaration was Hugh Speke, whose brother had been condemned by Jefferies in Monmouth's rebellion. See Dalrymple's Memoirs, vol. i. p. 171, who says also at p. 177, that

VOL. III.

the same Speke reports in his
pamphlet, that he invented
the infamous lie, that the Irish
part of the disbanded army had
begun a massacre of the pro-
testants. But Echard, in his
History of the Revolution,
doubts the truth of Speke's ac-
counts, pp. 183 and 198. If
they are true, it was incumbent
on the prince, to whom Speke
says, he shewed the pretended
declaration, to have taken care
that the nation should be ac-
quainted with the imposture.)

Y

1688. a consternation, that he neither knew what to re

A treaty begun with

solve on, nor whom to trust. This pretended declaration put the city in such a flame, that it was carried to the lord mayor, and he was required to execute it. The prentices got together, and were falling upon all mass houses, and committing many irregular things. Yet their fury was so well governed, and so little resisted, that no other mischief was done: no blood was shed.

The king now sent for all the lords in town, that the prince. were known to be firm protestants. And, upon speaking to some of them in private, they advised him to call a general meeting of all the privy counsellors, and peers, to ask their advice, what was fit to be done. All agreed in one opinion, that it was fit to send commissioners to the prince to treat with him. This went much against the king's own inclinations: yet the dejection he was in, and the desperate state of his affairs, forced him to consent to it. So the marquis of Hallifax, the earl of Nottingham, and the lord Godolphin, were ordered to go to the prince, and to ask him what it was that he demanded. The earl of Clarendon reflected the most on the king's former conduct of any in that assembly, not without some indecent and insolent words, which were generally condemned ". He expected, as was said, to be one of the commissioners: and, upon his not being named, he came and met the prince near Salisbury. Yet he suggested so many peevish

" He said he had often told him what would be the consequence of his actions, and if he had minded him more, his affairs had never been in the condition they were now brought

to; but flattery was always more agreeable to princes than good advice. In confirmation of which he quoted a scrap of Latin, with very pedantic solemnity. D.

and peculiar things, when he came, that some sus- 1688. pected all this was but collusion, and that he was sent to raise a faction among those that were about the prince. The lords sent to the prince to know where they should wait on him: and he named Hungerford. When they came thither, and had delivered their message, the prince called all the peers and others of chief note about him, and advised with them what answer should be made. A day was taken to consider of an answer *. The marquis of Hallifax sent for me. But the prince said, though he would suspect nothing from our meeting, others might. So I did not speak with him in private, but in the hearing of others. Yet he took occasion to ask me, so as no body observed it, if we had a mind to have the king in our hands. I said, by no means; for we would not hurt his person. He asked next, what if he had a mind to go away. I said, nothing was so much to be wished for. This I told the prince. And he approved of both my answers. 795 The prince ordered the earls of Oxford, Shrewsbury, and Clarendon, to treat with the lords the king had sent. And they delivered the prince's answer to them on Sunday the eighth of December.

He desired a parliament might be presently called, that no men should continue in any employment,

× (Of the various arts used by the prince, during his route to London, to evade receiving the king's proposals, which he did not answer before the ninth of December, see Ralph's History of England, vol. i. p. 1055. The king's commissioners had received their passes from the

prince, who was then between
Bath and Salisbury, at Reading
on the third of the month.)

y (The earl of Clarendon in
his Diary says, the persons or-
dered to treat with the other
lords were, marshal Schomberg,
the earl of Oxford, and himself,
p. 109.)

1688. who were not qualified by law, and had not taken the tests; that the tower of London might be put in the keeping of the city; that the fleet, and all the strong places of the kingdom, might be put in the hands of protestants; that a proportion of the revenue might be set off for the pay of the prince's army; and that during the sitting of the parliament, the armies of both sides might not come within twenty miles of London; but, that the prince might come on to London, and have the same number of his guards about him, that the king kept about his person. The Lords seemed to be very well satisfied with this answer. They sent it up by an express, and went back next day to London.

The king

left the

But now strange counsels were suggested to the kingdom. king and queen. The priests, and all the violent papists, saw a treaty was now opened. They knew, that they must be the sacrifice. The whole design of popery must be given up, without any hope of being able in an age to think of bringing it on again. Severe laws would be made against them. And all those who intended to stick to the king, and to preserve him, would go into those laws with a particular zeal so that they, and their hopes, must be now given up, and sacrificed for ever. They infused all this into the Queen. They said, she would certainly be impeached and witnesses would be set up against her and her son: the king's mother had been impeached in the long parliament: and she was to look for nothing but violence. So the queen took up a sudden resolution of going to France with the child. The midwife, together with all who were assisting at the birth, were also carried over, or so

: