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elections should be carried on with all possible freedom; not only without violence and threatenings, but even without recommendations or any sort of practice, how usual and how innocent soever. The like care secured their liberty when they met. Every man argued and voted in the great deliberations then on foot, both with freedom and safety. Nor did the king speak to any person, or suffer any to speak in his name to persuade, much less to threaten, those who seemed still to adhere to the late king's interest: so strict was he in observing the promises he had made in his declaration. It was thought a remissness and a hazarding the public too much to interpose or move so little in these matters as he then did. The convention came to a full resolution, and judged that the late king had broke the original contract upon which this government was at first founded, and after that had abandoned it; so that it was necessary for them, being thus forsaken by him, to see to their own security. And as they judged that the late king's right to govein them was sunk, so they did not think it was necessary or incumbent on them to examine that which the whole nation in general, as well as the king in particular, had just reason to call in question, concerning the birth of the pretended prince of Wales. When the late king had quitè dissolved the tie of the nation to himself, they thought they had no farther concern upon them to inquire into that matter; and therefore they thought fit to let it remain in that just doubtfulness under which the late king's own method of proceedings had brought it. Besides that, a particular care had been taken by the late king to cause all those who had been in the management of that mat'er, or

were suspected of having a share in the artifices about it, to be carried over into France, so that it was not possible to come at those persons, by the interrogating of whom, truth might have been found out. The king expressed no ambitious desires of mounting the throne. The addresses of both houses, and the state of Europe, which seemed desperate without a mighty support from England, determined him in that matter. But as he can appeal to God of the sincerity of his intentions, who alone knows them, so he has an infinite number of witnesses who saw, and can justify, his whole conduct in the progress of that revolution, if it were fit for him to appeal to them."

In the answer to the second memorial of king James, it is observed in justification of the Revolution," that nothing was done in the progress of it but that which he made inevitable by some act or other of his own. It went not upon false suggestions, nor barely upon the pretences of redressing particular grievances or some doubtful oppressions, much less on the ambitious designs of his majesty, that are so often and so maliciously represented as the true causes of the Revolution. It was the late king's open throwing off the restraint of law, and his setting about a total subversion of the constitution, that drove the nation to extreme courses. The oaths of allegiance can be understood only in the sense limited by law, and so they cannot be conceived to bind subjects to a king who would not govern them any longer unless he might be allowed to do it against law. A revolution so brought about carries in it no precedent against the security of government or the peace of man

kind. That which an absolute necessity enforced at one time, can be no warrant for irregular proceedings at any other time, unless it be where the like necessity shall require the like remedies. But since the late king thinks fit to reflect on the oaths of subjects, he ought also to remember the oath which he himself swore at his coronation, to defend the church of England, and to maintain the laws; to neither of which he shewed any regard in his whole government, but set himself to overturn both. The many alterations that have been made in the succession to the crown of England upon occasions that were neither so pressing nor so important as those of late were, should have obliged those who penned this memorial to be more reserved and less positive in affirming things so contrary to the known history of this kingdom. These revolutions were confirmed by laws which were not afterwards, upon succeeding changes, repealed; for they continue still in force. Nor was the crown of England ever reckoned to be such a property to those who held it, that they might use it or dispose of it at pleasure, as the memorial seems to suppose."

A third manifesto or protest against the peace about to be concluded, "without his participation," dated June 8, 1687, and addressed to ALL the princes and powers of Europe, was afterwards published by king James, of which no sort of notice was taken in any mode whatever, by any of the parties concerned.

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CONFERENCES OF HALLE.

A. D. 1697.

THERE can be no doubt, from the positive testimony of king James's memoirs, corroborated by those of the duke of Berwick, that in the famous conferences held at Halle, between marshal Boullers and the earl of Portland, pending the negotiations at Ryswick, overtures on the part of the king of France were made by the former in favour of the infant son of James, which were not wholly rejected by William: but the folly and bigotry of the abdicated monarch rendered all such projects impracticable.

We have, from two very high authorities, narratives somewhat vague and general indeed of what passed at these conferences; but neither bishop Burnet, who received his account from the earl of Portland, or M. de Torcy, who had his information, in all probability, from M. Boufflers, make the least mention of the overtures above alluded to; both the negotiators being, no doubt, under strong injunctions of secresy as to this point. The statement of Dr. Burnet is as follows:

"While they were negotiating, by exchanging papers, which was a slow method, subject to much delay, and too many exceptions and evasions, the marshal Boufflers desired a conference with the earl of Portland, and by the order of their masters they met four times, and were long alone. That lord told me himself that the subject of these conferences was concerning king

James. The king desired to know how the king of France intended to dispose of him, and how he could own him and yet support the other. The king of France would not renounce the protecting him by any article of the treaty; but it was agreed between them that the king of France should give him no assistance, nor give the king any disturbance on his account, and that he should retire from the court of France, either to Avignon or Italy. On the other hand, his queen should have 50,0001. a year, which was her jointure settled after his death, and that should now be paid her, he being reckoned as dead to the nation; and in this the king very readily acquiesced. These meetings made the treaty go on with more dispatch, this tender point being once settled."-Bishop Burnet's History, vol. iii. p. 277.

It is obvious to remark on this account, that the bishop erroneously supposed the object of the conferences to have been merely the satisfaction of king William, in relation to the disposal of the person of king James: although, had this been the fact, the first overture must doubtless have proceeded from the king of England, and not from the king of France, contrary to the bishop's own statement. The narrative of the marquis de Torcy is more full and satisfactory.

"Vers la fin de l'été, 1697, les traités de la paix générale étant prêts à signer à Ryswick, & les armées encore en campagne, le maréchal de Boufflers eut à la vue de l'une et de l'autre armée, quatre conférences avec le comte de Portland, né Hollandois, confident intime du roi d'Angleterre dont il avoit été page. On a fausse ment publié que le partage de la succession d'Espagne

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