When those who formed this meeting mooted the question, “What authority they had to assemble,” they agreed, “that the request of His Highness the Prince was a sufficient warrant,” and proceeded to entrust him with the administration of public affairs until a Convention should be held, which he was to call by writs addressed to the Lords temporal and spiritual, being Protestants, and to the counties, universities, cities, and boroughs of England.[93]
A Convention being elected, the members met on the 22nd of January, 1689. It was composed of Protestants alone. These Protestants being chiefly Whigs, and those Whigs numbering an immense majority of Episcopalians, perhaps not more than twenty Nonconformists were returned—a fact which ought to be carefully borne in mind.
The day on which the Commons assembled, the Lords also appeared, to the number of about ninety, of whom sixteen were spiritual Peers. No prayers were read; the first thing done, after a short letter from the Prince had been laid on the table, was the appointment of a day of solemn thanksgiving.
Eleven Bishops were selected to draw up a form for the purpose, and it does not appear that any of them scrupled to undertake this service.[94] The 30th of January fell on a Sunday; and in such a case it had been arranged that the office for Charles’ martyrdom should be used on that day, and the observances of the fast transferred to the next. On the 30th, however, Evelyn notices that “in all the public offices and pulpit prayers, the collects and litany for the King and Queen were curtailed and mutilated.” On the 31st the thanksgiving set aside the fast. Burnet preached before the Commons, saying, “You feel a great deal, and promise a great deal more; and your are now in the right way to it, when you come with the solemnities of thanksgiving to offer up your acknowledgments to that Fountain of Life to whom you owe this new lease of your own.”[95]
1689.
The Bishop of St. Asaph, whose political sympathies have been indicated, was appointed to preach before the Lords at Westminster Abbey on the 31st, but according to Clarendon, Mr. Gee took his place.[96]
The House of Commons, after the customary formalities, and the election of Mr. Powle as Speaker, and an expression of concurrence in the Lords’ order respecting a day of thanksgiving, proceeded, on the 28th, to debate on the state of the nation. Amidst multifarious topics, Popery, the Church, and the divine right of kings were prominent; and the next day Colonel Birch, the Puritan, gave his view of past and present struggles by saying, “These forty years we have been scrambling for our religion, and have saved but little of it. We have been striving against Antichrist, Popery, and Tyranny.”[97]
The House voted that King James II., having endeavoured to subvert the constitution of this kingdom by breaking the original contract between King and people, and, by advice of Jesuits and other wicked persons, having violated the fundamental laws, and withdrawn himself out of the Kingdom, had abdicated the government, and that the throne was thereby vacant. The next day it was resolved that it had been found by experience to be inconsistent with the safety and welfare of this Protestant Kingdom to be governed by a Popish Prince.
CHARACTER OF THE REVOLUTION.
Thanks were given to the clergymen who had assailed Popery, and had refused to read the King’s Declaration.[98] Things deemed necessary for better securing religious liberty and law were reported from a Committee, who particularly specified, “effectual provision to be made for the liberty of Protestants in the exercise of their religion, and for uniting all Protestants in the matter of public worship as far as may be”—in which provision, are found germs of the Toleration and Comprehension Bills.