which thus victimised them, but to little purpose; for the Jacobite traitors in the government were not only careless to defend their country from the French, but they were still active to give the enemy the earliest notice of all the English movements, by which they were able to do them such constant injury.
William arrived in London from Holland on the 20th of October. He was received with acclamations, illuminations, and ringing of bells. His progress through London and to Kensington was like that of a conqueror. As if he was destined to take no rest, that very day the council was assembled, and it was concluded to dissolve parliament. William, however, had been enjoying relaxation at Loo, and no doubt this question of the dissolution of parliament had been discussed and arranged prior to his arrival. It was deemed much better to take the nation at this moment when it was in a good humour, than to defer it till the 25th of next March, when, by the Triennial Act, it must expire, and the public mind might possibly be different. There was another motive which was said to operate with William—the impeachment of Leeds. We have seen that William had a great reluctance to bring great delinquents to justice; but in the case of Leeds there were causes for this reluctance which we must respect. It was to Leeds, as Lord Danby, that William owed his match with Mary, and Mary had always had the greatest regard for Leeds, and he had, on his part, served her assiduously during William's absences. A new parliament would not be likely to take up again his impeachment, and accordingly, the old one was dissolved, and the new one called for the 22nd of November.
This announcement threw into full activity the newly acquired liberty of the press. Since the revolution, spite of the restrictions of the censorship, the press had been extremely busy, and when it was obliged to work in secret, it had been all the more venomous. The Jacobites had employed it to spread sedition and lies, it now came strongly forward in favour of the king and the constitution. There were abundance of tracts on the subject of the election, and besides the old news-letters, there were regular newspapers which advocated their own views, but with a decency and moderation which surprised all parties. Probably they were so delighted with their new liberty as to be anxious not to risk any withdrawal of it. Amongst the pamphlets was one, the last literary effort of Halifax, called, "Some Cautious Offered to those who are to Choose Members," which gave some good advice, especially not to choose lawyers, because they were in the habit of pleading on both sides, and were sure to look after their own advancement more than after that of the country; nor officers in the army, who, he thought, were out of place in parliament, and attempting to do what no man can ever do—serve two masters. He also warned them against pensioners and dependents on the crown, who do not make good representatives of the people; and against those who, for reasons best known to themselves had opposed the Triennial Bill. Finally, he bade them seek honest Englishmen, but warned them that they were not very easy to find.
If the people were alert to secure good representatives, William, for once, shook off his reserve and made a progress amongst his subjects to win popularity. There were six weeks till the meeting of the new parliament, and he resolved to see something of his subjects, and let them see something of him, in the meantime. Before leaving town, too, he paid a visit to the princess of Denmark, and there a very agreeable bit of flattery was prepared for him. Anne's son, the duke of Gloucester, a child only six years of age, presented himself with a little musket on his shoulder, and said he was learning his drill to help his uncle to beat the French. William was delighted by the circumstance, and before leaving London invested the little hero with the garter.
William first directed his course to Newmarket, a place much more frequented by Charles and James than by himself. There he was waited on by a deputation of heads of houses and learned doctors from Cambridge, who made him a very complimentary address on his splendid campaign and safe return, but gave him no invitation to honour the university by a visit. Thence he went to Althorpe, the seat of Sunderland, who, no doubt, was only too happy to receive such a mark of royal favour after his disgraces, rebuffs, and zealous endeavours to climb again to power. He entertained the king with all the splendour and profusion of a brother prince, and the nobility and gentry of the country round flocked hither to kiss his hand. Thence he travelled on to "Burleigh House by Stamford town," the seat of the earl of Exeter, thence to Lincoln, and so to Welbeck Abbey, the seat of the duke of Newcastle, since fallen by heritage, as if by the wish of William himself, to the descendants of his friend, the earl of Portland. From Welbeck, William directed his course to the earl of Stamford's at Bradgate Park, near Leicester, the old seat of the Greys of Groby, and where Ascham represented lady Jane Grey as reading Plato whilst the rest of the family were hunting; so on to lord Brook's at Warwick Castle, to the duke of Shrewsbury at Eyefort, into Gloucestershire, back by Woodstock to Oxford, at which place he was met by the duke of Ormond as chancellor of the university, the vice-chancellor, and the doctors and magistrates in full costume. A Latin oration was addressed to him, of which we may fairly predicate that William would not understand many words, our English pronunciation of Latin being so different to that of all the world besides. He was presented with the usual compliments of a Bible, a prayer-book, a pair of gold-fringed gloves, &c., and was about to sit down to a superb banquet in the theatre, when an anonymous letter found in the street, warning him not to eat in Oxford or he would be poisoned, cut short the festivity, and he made an early departure for Windsor. He was welcomed back to London by a grand display of fireworks in St. James's Square, given by Sydney, now earl of Romney.
On his journey the gentry had flocked to his stopping places from all quarters, and William had done his best to make himself agreeable; and what with the well-chosen time for the election, and this popular conduct, the new parliament returned proved to be greatly in favour of the government. Some of the members of the late parliament most opposed to government were not returned—as Sir John Knight, for Bristol, who had been so furious against William's favourite Dutchmen, and Seymour, for Exeter. Neither could John Hampden, who had saved his neck in the Rye House Plot by the loss of character, and had
