From this period it is said, that William acted more like a king than a mediator. Those gentlemen, who had been members of previous Parliaments, were summoned to meet at Westminster: and writs were afterwards issued for convening the Convention Parliament, which met on the 22nd of January 1688-9. Previous to this the Prince had publicly conformed to the Church of England, by receiving the Lord's Supper at the hands of the Bishop of London in the Chapel Royal at St. James's.[1]
Before the Convention assembled, the settlement of the government was the great subject of discussion throughout the whole kingdom. Still no one could foresee what would be the result of the deliberations of that assembly. Evelyn mentions a visit, which he paid to the Archbishop on the 15th of January. The Bishop of St. Asaph's was also present, with the Bishops of Ely, Bath and Wells, Peterborough, and Chichester. The conversation turned on the state of public affairs. Some persons, it was said, wished the Princess of Orange to be made Queen: others advocated a Regency: while another party recommended the recall of King James on certain conditions. Evelyn assures us that the Romanists were busy among all these parties, in order
- ↑ Echard's Revolution, 219. Ralph remarks from Reresby, that the Prince at first favoured the Presbyterians, which startled the Clergy. He adds, on this act of receiving the Sacrament, "The Prince was as much a politician as his intractable temper would allow him to be, and suited his behaviour, as far as he could, to his interest. He was of opinion, that the champions for a divine hereditary right would never be champions for him; and therefore he thought it worth his while to be well with the Dissenters, who had no such difficulty to surmount. And this open professing himself of the Church of England was no more than an occasional conformity."—Ralph, vol. ii. 7.
