of York's children from the succession, and make him heir. He waited, then, till he saw such an expectation was not worth waiting for, and that his wisest course was to marry Mary. When the negotiations began in earnest, he showed great care in avoiding any step which might link him to the fortunes of the falling house, and in letting it be known that his marriage was to be no guarantee of support to the English throne. Equally interesting is his attitude towards English parties at the time of the Exclusion Bill. How early he showed his determination to have sole power in England, and with what delicate consideration for his wife he let his determination be known, has already been shown from Burnet. In these instances I think we may observe what may be roughly and somewhat vulgarly called meanness. Having thus hastily observed some traits in the character of William of Orange, we shall pass on to notice some affairs of importance, his connection with which has served in some quarters to discredit his memory.
William's relation to the murder of the De Witts is a question which is still obscure. I will therefore only quote and translate from one of the latest and ablest studies of his life, that of M. le Comte de Lort-Sérignan. "The Prince of Orange had long known the hatred of the people towards the De Witts. He ought to have understood that his duty and his honour—the respect which he owed to himself, to his name, to that of his country—demanded that he should protect from causeless and groundless animosity the two foremost
