light in greeting a gracious, smiling king, who would lift the spell of gloom from the nation. Charles did this, more fully than was expected. Never was the law of reaction more

estantism in Holland, for the

But that animal had grown patient since the Protectorate. England treated Charles like a spoil

t of Habeas C

n at such a time as this the liberties of the people were expanding. The Act of "Habeas Corpus" fo

ism alarmed the people, who tried to divert the succession from James, the brother of the King, who was extreme and fanatical in his devotion to the Church of Rome. But in 1685, the Masks and rou

Milton an

allegory, "Pilgrim's Progress." There was no inspiration to genius in the cause of King and Cavaliers. But the stern problems of Puritanism touched two souls with the divine afflatus. The sacred Epic of Milton, sublime in treatment as in concep

nt-and to overawe the Clergy, while insidiously striving to establish Papacy as the religion of the Kingdom. Chief Justice Jeffries, that most brut

s 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 an

James II.

mes, paralyzed, powerless, unable to raise a force to meet him, a

lliam and Mar

m and Mary his wife were invited to rule jointly t

ad 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,

Battle of B

ad 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 dr

e: Bill

As a wise householder employs the hours of sunshine to repair the leaks revealed by the storm, just so Parliame

of Rights," established by specific enactments, which one after another declared what the King sho

rnment can exist without money about as long as a man without air! So the act which gave to the House of Commons exclusive power to grant su

rom the Treasury of England, than from that of France. Henceforth there can be no differences between King and people. They must be friends. A Ministry which forfeits the friend

d not been served before, he felt hurt and wounded at fetters which had not been placed upon such Kings as Charles I. and his sons. We wonder that a man so exalted and so s

e, are sure to be considered an impertinence by some. Then- there might be another "Restoration," and wary ambitious nobles were cautiously making a record which would not unfit them for its benefits when it came. He lived in an atmosphere of conspiracy, suspicion, and loyalty grudgingly besto

ied on against James an

which were the beginni

ing of the Bank of Eng

of thi

ears earlier, the succession passed to her sister Anne,