REFERENCES.--Louis XIV. et son Siecle. Voltaire's and Miss
Pardoe's Histories of the Reign of Louis XIV. James's Life
of Louis XIV. Memoires du Duc de St. Simon. The Abbe
Millot's History. D'Anquetil's Louis XIV., sa Cour, et le
Regent. Sismondi's History of France. Crowe's and Rankin's
Histories of France. Lord Mahon's War of the Spanish
Succession. Temple's Memoirs. Coxe's Life of Marlborough.
Memoirs of Madame de Maintenon. Madame de Sevigne's Letters.
Russell's Modern Europe. The late history by Miss Pardoe is
one of the most interesting ever written. It may have too
much gossip for what is called the "dignity of history;" but
that fault, if fault it be, has been made by Macaulay also,
and has been condemned, not unfrequently, by those most
incapable of appreciating philosophical history.

CHAPTER XVII.

WILLIAM AND MARY.

[Sidenote: William and Mary.]

From Louis XIV. we turn to consider the reign of his illustrious
rival, William III., King of England, who enjoyed the throne
conjointly with Mary, daughter of James II.

The early life and struggles of this heroic prince have been already
alluded to, in the two previous chapters, and will not be further
discussed. On the 12th day of February, 1689, he arrived at Whitehall,
the favorite palace of the Stuart kings, and, on the 11th of April, he
and Mary were crowned in Westminster Abbey.

Their reign is chiefly memorable for the war with Louis XIV., the
rebellion in Ireland, fomented by the intrigues of James II., and for
the discussion of several great questions pertaining to the liberties
and the prosperity of the English nation, questions in relation to the
civil list, the Place Bill, the Triennial Bill, the liberty of the
press, a standing army, the responsibility of ministers, the veto of
the crown, the administration of Ireland, the East India Company, the
Bank of England, and the funded debt. These topics make the domestic
history of the country, especially in a constitutional point of view,
extremely important.

The great struggle with Louis XIV. has already received all the notice
which the limits of this work will allow, in which it was made to
appear that, if Louis XIV. was the greater king, William III. was the
greater man; and, although his military enterprises were, in one
sense, unsuccessful, since he did not triumph in splendid victories,
still he opposed succes