360 THE DAUGHTERS OF JAMES II OF ENGLAND. her heart and approval to her husband. She opposed her father, not merely because he was a Catholic, but wished to make England Catholic. She believed that he was trying to pass off upon the people of England a spurious child, who would continue the work which he had begun, and fasten upon Great Britain a line of Catholic kings. Success rewarded the efforts of the Prince of Orange, and in a few weeks Mary joined him in England. In April, 1689, William and Mary were crowned at West- minster Abbey, King and Queen of England. As she was not merely Queen by right of marriage, but by right of birth, she was crowned in all respects as a monarch, being girt with a sword, placed upon the throne, and presented with a Bible, a pair of spurs, and a small globe. The gracious manners of Queen Mary, her pronounced piety, and her noble presence went far towards reconcil- ing the people to the ungenial demeanor of her husband. It was she who introduced into England the taste for collecting china, which has been often since revived, and which prevails even at this day. She continued to write letters to her old friends in Holland, and to make entries into her diary, some of which are printed in the volume under consideration. Her husband did not find Ireland so easy to conquer as England, and it was not till the summer of 1691 that the Catholic Irish were finally sub- dued. When the news of victory reached England, the churches opened, and the people thronged to them to offer thanks to God. Queen Mary, at the Palace of Kensing- ton, wrote thus in her diary : " What thanks ought I to render, my soul, to thy Lord for all His bounties ? They are indeed new every morning, and I can well say : it is of thy mercy, Lord, that we are not consumed, for Thy mercy endureth for- ever. But what are we, thy poor sinful people of this country, what is my husband, and what am I, that we
