's Progress," in plain homely dish served the same heavenly
food. The theme of both was the problem of sin and redemption with
which the Puritan soul was gloomily struggling.

The reign of James II. was the last effort of royal despotism to
recover its own. He tried to recall the right of Habeas Corpus;--to
efface Parliament--and to overawe the Clergy, while insidiously
striving to establish Papacy as the religion of the Kingdom. Chief
Justice Jeffries, that most brutal of men, was his efficient aid, and
boasted that {125} he had in the service of James hanged more traitors
than all his predecessors since the Conquest!

The names Whig and Tory had come into existence in this struggle. Whig
standing for the opponents to Catholic domination, and Tory for the
upholders of the King. But so flagrantly was the Catholic policy of
James conducted, that his upholders were few. In three years from his
accession, Whig and Tory alike were so alarmed, that they secretly sent
an invitation to the King's son-in-law, William, Prince of Orange, to
come and accept the Crown.

William responded at once, and when he landed with 14,000 men, James,
paralyzed, powerless, unable to raise a force to meet him, abandoned
his throne without a struggle and took refuge in France.

The throne was formally declared vacant and William and Mary his wife
were invited to rule jointly the Kingdom of England, Ireland and
Scotland (1689).

The House of Stuart, which seems to have brought not one single virtue
to the throne, {126} was always secretly conspiring with Catholicism in
Europe. Louis XIV., as the head of Catholic Europe at this time, was
the natural protector of the dethroned King. His aim had long been, to
bring England into the Catholic European alliance, and, of course, if
possible, to make it a dependency of France. A conspiracy with Louis
to accomplish this end occupied England's exiled King during the rest
of his life.

But European Protestantism had for its leader the man who now sat upon
the throne of England. In fact he had probably accepted that throne in
order to further his larger plans for defeating the expanding power of
Louis XIV. in Europe. Broad and comprehensive in his statesmanship,
noble and just in character, an able military leader, England was safe
in his strong hand. Conspiracies were put down, one French army after
another, with the despicable James at its head, was driven back; the
purpose at one time be