n a
toleration and an equality of privileges to his Catholic subjects. This
question can only affect the personal character of the king, not our
judgment of his public conduct. Though by a stretch of candor we should
admit of his sincerity in these professions, the people were equally
justifiable in their resistance of him. So lofty was the idea which he
had entertained of his _legal_ authority, that it left his subjects
little or no right to liberty, but what was dependent on his sovereign
will and pleasure. And such was his zeal for proselytism, that, whatever
he might at first have intended, he plainly stopped not at toleration
and equality: he confined all power, encouragement, and favor to the
Catholics: converts from interest would soon have multiplied upon him:
if not the greater, at least the better part of the people, he would
have flattered himself, was brought over to his religion: and he would
in a little time have thought it just, as well as pious to bestow on
them all the public establishments. Rigors and persecutions against
heretics would speedily have followed: and thus liberty and the
Protestant religion would in the issue have been totally subverted;
though we should not suppose that James, in the commencement of his
reign, had formally fixed a plan for that purpose. And on the whole,
allowing this king to have possessed good qualities and good intentions,
his conduct serves only, on that very account, as a stronger proof
how dangerous it is to allow any prince, infected with the Catholic
superstition, to wear the crown of these kingdoms.

After this manner, the courage and abilities of the prince of Orange,
seconded by surprising fortune, had effected the deliverance of this
island; and with very little effusion of blood (for only one officer
of the Dutch army and a few private soldiers fell in an accidental
skirmish) had dethroned a great prince supported by a formidable fleet
and a numerous army. Still the more difficult task remained, and what
perhaps the prince regarded as not the least important: the obtaining
for himself that crown which had fallen from the head of his
father-in-law. Some lawyers, entangled in the subtleties and forms
of their profession, could think of no expedient, but that the prince
should claim the crown by right of conquest; should immediately assume
the title of sovereign; and should call a parliament, which, being thus
legally summoned by a king in possession, could rat