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34
History of the Nonjurors.

was the next Protestant heir: but as the Prince had been so instrumental in the deliverance, it was deemed necessary to associate both together in the government.[1] The settlement was made in a very brief space. The period from the arrival of King William on the coast of Devon, to the final departure of King James, comprehended forty-three days: and only one hundred days elapsed from the fifth of November, 1688, to the day on which William and Mary were declared to be King and Queen of England. The Convention waited on the Prince and Princess on the seventh day of February, 1688-9, with an act of resolution, by which they were recognized as sovereigns of this country. The order of Council, for altering the Prayers for the Royal Family, was issued on the 16th of February: but an entry in Evelyn, on the 30th of January, shews that the ruling powers began very early to accommodate the services of the Church to the new state of things: "the anniversary of King Charles the First's martyrdom: but in all the public offices and Pulpit Prayers, the Collects and Litany for the King and Queene were curtailed and mutilated."[2]

The consideration of the Prince's own views has been partly anticipated in the preceding observations: but, as the question is one of some interest, and since


  1. Particulars connected with the settlement of the Crown may be seen in the following works. The Desertion Discussed. Life of James, 232—36. Macpherson, i, 503—506. 508—512. Kennet, 507—14. Tindal's Introduction, xxiv—vii. Sherlock's Letter in State Tracts. D'Oyley's Sancroft, i, 415—30. Somerville, 179—89. 199. Echard's History of the Revolution, 222—30.
  2. Vol. iii, 269. The King quitted the country on the 24th of December, and on the 30th, Evelyn records the following entry in his Diary: "This day Prayers for the Prince of Wales were first left off in our Church." Vol. iii, 262.