s he crossed the Thames in a boat by night, James threw the Great
Seal of State into the river, in the vain hope that without it a
Parliament could not be legally summoned to decide the question which
his adversary had raised.[3] The King got as far as the coast, but
was discovered by some fishermen and brought back. William
reluctantly received him, and purposely allowed him to escape a second
time. He reached France, and Louis XIV, who had long had the
treacherous King in his secret pay, received him at the court of
Versailles. There could be now no reasonable doubt that James's
daughter Mary (S477) would receive the English crown.

[3] On the Great Seal of State (S145).

492. Character of the Revolution of 1688.

Never was a revolution of such magnitude and meaning accomplished more
peacefully. Not a drop of blood had been shed. There was hardly any
excitement or uproar. Even the bronze statue of the runaway King was
permitted to stand undisturbed in the rear of the palace of Whitehall,
London, where it remains to this day.

The great change had taken place thus quietly because men's minds were
ripe for it. England had entered upon another period of history, in
which old institutions, laws, and customs were passing away and all
was becoming new.

Feudalism had vanished under Charles II (S482), but political and
religious persecution had continued. In future, however, we shall
hear no more of the revocation of city charters or other punishments
inflicted because of political opinion (SS479, 487), and rarely of any
punishment for religious dissent.

Courts of justice will undergo reform. They will cease to be "little
better than caverns of murderers,"[1] where judges like Scroggs and
Jeffreys (SS478, 487) browbeat the prisoners, took their guilt for
granted, insulted and silenced witnesses for their defense, and even
cast juries into prison under penalties of heavy fines, for venturing
to bring in verdicts contrary to their wishes.[2]

[1] Hallam's "Constitutional History of England," p. 138. Hallam also
says that the behavior of the Stuart judges covered them "with
infamy," p. 597.
[2] See Hallam, and also the introduction to Professor Adams's "Manual
of Historical Literature." For a graphic picture of the times, see,
in Bunyan's "Pilgrim's Progress," Christian's trial before Lord
Hategood.

The day, too, had gone by when an English sovereign could cast his
subjects into fetid dungeons in the To