whom were innocent, but all of whom were found guilty by packed and coerced juries. James attempted to restore the Court of High Commission, and for that purpose appointed seven commissioners with unlimited authority over church affairs. Nothing more obnoxious could have been done by a Papist. When the storm of public indignation had been raised by the arrest, trial and acquittal by a jury, of six bishops, who remonstrated against his order to read his declaration of indulgence in all the churches immediately after divine service, and his eyes were open to the fact that he was without support in any quarter, he hastened to correct his errors by revoking all his most unpopular acts, but it was too late.

His son-in-law, the Prince of Orange, who had long been looked to by the Protestants, was invited into England, and having gathered and brought over a large naval force, was cordially received by all classes, even the army deserting and going over to him. James, finding himself deserted by the nation and his own family, was allowed to escape into France, and by his flight was regarded as having abdicated the throne. The succession of James I, King of Scotland, to the throne of England had been followed by the rapidly increasing independence of Parliament. James came as the legal heir to the throne and was recognized as such. The case of William, however, was different; he himself had no hereditary claim, and his wife was not then the heir, because of the birth of a male heir. But the son was not yet entitled to rule because James still lived and had not formally abdicated. The theory of the inheritance of kingly power was for the time definitely set aside. William and Mary had no foundation on which to rest their claims but that of the will of the nation expressed through Parliament. A distinct advance was thus made in recognition of the rights of the Houses of Parliament to represent the nation, and in the statute establishing the coronation oath the supremacy of the law over the king, as well as his subjects, was recognized. The ceremony prescribed required the administration of the oath by an archbishop or bishop in the following form: "The archbishop or bishop shall say, 'Will you solemnly promise and swear to govern

the people of this kingdom of England, and the dominions thereto belonging, according to the statutes in Parliament agreed on, and the laws and customs of the same.'

"The king and queen shall say, 'I solemnly promise so to do.'

"Archbishop or bishop, 'Will you to your power, cause law and justice in mercy to be executed in all your judgments?' "King and Queen, 'I will.'

"Archbishop or bishop, 'Will you to the utmost of your power maintain the laws of God, the true profession of the gospel and the Protestant reformed religion established by law? and will you preserve unto the bishops and clergy of this realm, and to the churches committed to their charge all such rights and privileges as by law do or shall appertain unto them or any of them?'

"King and Queen, ‘All this I promise to do.'

"After this the king and queen laying his and her hand on the holy gospels shall say, King and Queen, ‘The things which I have here before promised I will perform and keep, so help me God.' Then the king and queen shall kiss the book."

As the impulse which placed William and Mary on the throne was mainly a religious one, the early legislation was leveled against the papists and, while test oaths were still required, there was toleration of divergence of opinion among Protestants within certain limits fixed by statute. The people were not yet willing to leave the matter of religion to the free conscience of the individual.

With the accession of William and Mary came no radical change in the theory of government or the system of laws. There was merely an advance toward representative government. The great multitude were still deprived of all right of suffrage as well as of ownership of the soil. The ruling force was still the great landowners and the titled aristocracy. Those who had acquired wealth in the cities were accorded some representation, both in municipal affairs and in the election of members of Parliament, but the poor ignorant laborers everywhere were still excluded from all participation in public affairs and deprived of all facilities for gaining an education.

Privileged classes maintained their complete ascendency in accordance with a system of laws designed to accomplish that end. Inheritance of lands by the rule of primogeniture preserved great estates in the hands of a landed aristocracy. While the war of the roses and the barbarities of those times had resulted in the extermination of many of the leading families among which the kingdom had been divided by William the Conqueror, there were still as many titled aristocrats as ever. The king always had power to make them, and increased his own importance by raising his favorites to the peerage, for it has always been true that,

"A king can make a belted knight, a Marquis, Duke and a' that."

The great landholders whether titled or not have generally been the champions of privilege, which must always be synonymous with injustice. In England the landed aristocracy followed no useful employment, but regarded every useful citizen, who labored in any field other than politics, as an inferior. Idling, drinking, gambling, hunting and fighting in the early days, and horse-racing and other sports in later times, have been the principal employments of those favored with the privilege of taking a large share of the products of the labors of others without compensation. A great retinue of servants to do nothing but wait on the lord and magnify his importance, also supported by the labors of others, has always been deemed a mark of greatness. In times when the multitude were too poor to attend schools, wealth afforded a chance for further distinction from education. Some advantage has accrued to the nation from the studies of those who despised labor generally, but probably far less than if the opportunities had been better distributed, for many of the country gentry were too ignorant to read, and drunkenness and debauchery have at all times been more attractive to many of them than the strain of study. No country illustrates better than England the steady potency of that great moral law, which commands man to labor and promises due reward for it. Though for many generations the burden of supporting a vicious aristocracy and a more or less dissolute and pretentious priesthood

had been imposed on the multitude of ignorant and none too industrious or moral laborers, the advancement of England from its barbarism was due entirely to the efforts of artisans, merchants, teachers and other useful people. The idle and dissolute classes, who claimed superiority and enjoyed such extensive privileges, were always an incubus, retarding prosperity and often invoking the dire calamities of war and desolation. That useful activities are the source of all progress is so self-evident that it would seem that all men ought to recognize it from the slightest consideration, yet the strange fact exists that the privileged classes in all countries look down on and despise the useful ones. It was and still is so in England; yet the beginnings of its real prosperity were the introduction of useful arts from the continent, the advancement of knowledge concerning manufactures and trade, the building of ships and sailing to distant lands, and the exchange by the merchants of surplus British products for the surplus products of different sorts from other countries. The manufacturer, the ship builder and the merchant had already done much toward building England, when William and Mary came to the throne, not aided by but in spite of the dissolute aristocracy. Many of the aristocratic families had gone to ruin and poverty as the penalty imposed by nature on idleness, improvidence, debauchery and extravagance, and many great landed estates had already passed into the hands of those who had organized industrial forces and performed truly civilized services in the useful fields of industry and commerce. The ruling force of the nation no longer reposed exclusively in the robber kings and nobles, but the more enterprising and useful classes in the towns had some representation in the house of commons, now rapidly advancing into the position of the dominant political force in the kingdom. It need not be assumed that the motives actuating those employed in gainful callings were so superior. They too often asked and obtained from the kings and Parliament special privileges giving them unmerited advantages. The trade monopolies granted in such numbers by Elizabeth and other sovereigns were as unjust and faulty in principle as the

land monopolies of feudal times, and merchants and manufacturers have at all times been just as willing to receive them. The fundamenta! superiority however still remained with the industrialists, for no profit could be made without carrying on their useful activities, which were still of some value to the public though coupled with monopoly and extortion. No great reform in the direction of the abolition of privilege was accomplished when William and Mary took the throne, but an advance in the idea of government was made. Instead of a continued recognition of the ownership of the kingdom by the king as his property, the right of the people to choose a king was asserted and exercised. The many 'centuries of education in the law of land tenure and inheritance, of ecclesiastical tithes and privileges, of titles, preëminences and inherited right to rule, had done their work so well, that no attack was made on any of these, save the king's excessive prerogative.

The principal officers named by William, after he assumed authority, were the members of his privy council, two secretaries of state, privy seal, master of the horse, of the robes, of the ordinance, and twelve judges. Commissioners were named for the treasury, the admiralty and chancery, and to remove doubts as to this procedure an act of Parliament was passed authorizing the appointment of commissioners in lieu of a chancellor. The first act of Parliament in William's reign was one "for removing and preventing all questions and disputes concerning the assembly and sitting of this present parliament," which had not been regularly summoned. William and Mary were not the lawful heirs of the throne. The House of Lords was really the only constitutional body of recognized authority, but King and Commons joining with the Lords in an act of Parliament settled their own authority in a manner which the nation approved and sustained. A long act was passed levying a tax of twelve pence on the pound of annual revenue from lands and other property, and providing a mode for its collection and payment into the exchequer. The last section of this act contained the requirement, that an account should be rendered to the Commons in