“My Lord, upon the whole matter, I designed this day to have waited upon your Grace and my Lord of Ely, but, in good truth, I am not able to stir abroad. I took physic last Monday, and I have been feverish ever since; but as soon as it shall please God to enable me, I shall wait upon your Grace and my Lord of Ely. In the meantime, with the tender of my humble duty and service,
“I remain,
“Your Grace’s most obedient servant
to command,
“William Norwich.”[185]
This secession from the Church on a question touching the Crown could not but be a trouble to William; at the same time he had other troubles. The intrigues and trials between Whigs and Tories were the plague of his reign. He wished he were a thousand miles away, and that he had never become King of England. He thought he could not trust the Tories—he resolved he would not trust the Whigs; and once he was on the point of going back to Holland, leaving the Government here in the hands of the Queen. He and his Ministers had warm debates, and it is said that amongst them tears were shed. At last William made up his mind to go to Ireland, and there put an end to the war.[186]
He assembled a new Parliament on the 2nd of April. Terrific excitement prevailed at the elections. The Whigs denounced the Tories as Jacobites, and the Jacobites as Papists. The Tories denounced the Whigs as Republicans, Fanatics, Latitudinarians, and Atheists. The Tories had the best of it, and returned a majority. Four Tories were declared to be at the head of the poll for the City of London. Prominent and noisy Whigs were excluded from their old seats; liberal men, disgusted at the excesses of their own party, voted on the other side; even Sir Isaac Newton declined a contest at Cambridge, and recorded his name in favour of Sir Robert Sawyer, who had been expelled from the Whig Convention. Yet in spite of defeats, the Whigs took heart and concocted plans, hoping to frustrate the opposite policy. This subject, however, it is not necessary to pursue, neither need we describe the changes which took place in the Ministry. Before the Revolution, the conduct of the Ministry affected most materially the affairs of the Church and the condition of Dissenters; after the passing of the Allegiance Act, the Church was little affected by the policy of the Government, except as connected with Convocation; still less did that policy touch the Dissenters after the passing of the Toleration Act.
IRISH CAMPAIGN.
In anticipation of the Irish campaign, a national fast was fixed for the 12th of March, when prayers were offered for the personal safety of William. Immediately afterwards, a form of prayer of a very different description was printed and circulated. It referred to England as in a state of religious apostacy, and it sought the restoration of James without mentioning him by name. He was referred to as the stone which the builders rejected, and which God would make the head of the corner. There could be no mistake as to what was meant by the petitions, “Give the King the necks of his enemies;” “Raise him up friends abroad;” “Do some mighty thing for him, which we, in particular, know not how to pray for.”[187]
This inflammatory performance under a devout disguise aroused indignation, and numbers of the adherents of William ascribed its composition to the Nonjurors. The excitement against the Bishops of that party was increased by a publication, in which they were styled “the Reverend Club of Lambeth,” “the Holy Jacobite Club,” “wretches, great contrivers, and managers of Cabals,” who loved “to trample on the Dissenters, now happily out of their clutches.” The new prayers are called the Bishop’s “Great Guns;” and Ken is alluded to as a fellow who had eaten King William’s bread. The most shameful passage is one in which, under a covert allusion to the massacre of the De Witts in Amsterdam, a violent assault upon the individuals abused is obviously suggested.[188]
1690.