depriving
them of that pleasing though somewhat distant prospect, in which at
present they flattered themselves. Calumny even went so far as to
ascribe to the king the design of imposing on the world a supposititious
child, who might be educated in his principles, and after his death
support the Catholic religion in his dominions. The nation almost
universally believed him capable, from bigotry, of committing any
crime; as they had seen that, from like motives, he was guilty of every
imprudence: and the affections of nature, they thought, would be easily
sacrificed to the superior motive of propagating a Catholic and orthodox
faith. The present occasion was not the first when that calumny had been
invented. In the year 1682, the queen, then duchess of York, had been
pregnant; and rumors were spread that an imposture would at that time be
obtruded upon the nation: but happily, the infant proved a female, and
thereby spared the party all the trouble of supporting their improbable
fiction.[*]

* This story is taken notice of in a weekly paper, the
Observator, published at that very time, 23d of August,
1682. Party zeal is capable of swallowing the most
incredible story; but it is surely singular, that the same
calumny, when once baffled, should yet be renewed with such
success.

CHAPTER LXXI.

JAMES II.

{1688.} While every motive, civil and religious, concurred to alienate
from the king every rank and denomination of men, it might be expected
that his throne would, without delay fall to pieces by its own weight:
but such is the influence of established government, so averse are men
from beginning hazardous enterprises, that, had not an attack been made
from abroad, affairs might long have remained in their present delicate
situation, and James might at last have prevailed in his rash and
ill-concerted projects.

The prince of Orange, ever since his marriage with the lady Mary, had
maintained a very prudent conduct; agreeably to that sound understanding
with which he was so eminently endowed. He made it a maxim to concern
himself little in English affairs, and never by any measure to disgust
any of the factions, or give umbrage to the prince who filled the
throne. His natural inclination, as well as his interest, led him
to employ himself with assiduous industry in the transactions on the
continent, and to oppose the grandeur of the French monarch, against
whom he had lo