score gentlemen, chose Duke Hamilton president; a man who, being
of a temporizing character, was determined to pay court to the present
authority. His eldest son, the earl of Arran, professed an adherence to
King James; a usual policy in Scotland, where the father and son, during
civil commotions, were often observed to take opposite sides, in order
to secure in all events the family from attainder. Arran proposed to
invite back the king upon conditions; but as he was vehemently opposed
in this motion by Sir Patrick Hume, and seconded by nobody, the assembly
made an offer to the prince of the present administration, which
he willingly accepted. To anticipate a little in our narration; a
convention, by circular letters from the prince, was summoned at
Edinburgh on the twenty-second of March, where it was soon visible
that the interest of the malecontents would entirely prevail. The more
zealous royalists, regarding this assembly as illegal, had forborne to
appear at elections; and the other party were returned for most places.
The revolution was not in Scotland, as in England, effected by a
coalition of whig and tory: the former party alone had overpowered the
government, and were too much enraged, by the past injuries which they
had suffered, to admit of any composition with their former masters.
As soon as the purpose of the convention was discovered, the earl of
Balcarras and Viscount Dundee, leaders of the tories, withdrew from
Edinburgh; and the convention having passed a bold and decisive vote,
that King James, by his maleadministration, and his abuse of power,
had forfeited all title to the crown, they made a tender of the royal
dignity to the prince and princess of Orange.

The English convention was assembled; and it immediately appeared, that
the house of commons, both from the prevailing humor of the people, and
from the influence of present authority, were mostly chosen from among
the whig party.

After thanks were unanimously given by both houses to the prince of
Orange for the deliverance which he had brought them, a less decisive
vote than that of the Scottish convention was in a few days passed by
a great majority of the commons, and sent up to the peers for their
concurrence. It was contained in these words: "That King James II.,
having endeavored to subvert the constitution of the kingdom by breaking
the original contract between king and people; and having, by the advice
of Jesuits and other wicked pe