ſend back all his foreign Forces as ſoon as this was done.
When the News of his Landing was ſpread through England, he was welcomed by the univerſal Acclamations of the People. He had the Hands, the Hearts, and the Prayers of all honeſt Men in the Nation: Every one thought the long wiſhed for time of their Deliverance was come.[1] King James was deſerted by his own Family,[2] his Court, and his Army.[3] The Ground he ſtood upon mouldred under him; ſo that he ſent his Queen and Foundling to France before him, and himſelf followed ſoon after. When the Prince came to London, he diſbanded moſt of thoſe Regiment that were raiſed from the time he landed; and King James's Army that were diſbanded by Feverſham, were ordered to repair all again to their Colours: Which was thought by ſome a falſe ſtep, believing it would have been more our Intereſt to have kept thoſe Regiments which came in upon the Principle on which this Revolution is founded, that Forces that were raiſed in violation of the Laws, and to ſupport a tyrannical Government: Beſides, the miſerable Condition of Ireland required our ſpeedy Aſſiſtance, and theſe Men might have been truſted to do that work.
Within a few days after he came to Town, he ſummoned the Lords, and not long after the Members of the three laſt Parliaments of King Charles the Second, and was addreſſed to by both Houſes to take upon him the Adminiſtration of the Government, to take into his particular care the then preſent Condition of Ireland, and to iſſue forth Circulatory Letters for the chooſing a Convention of Eſtates. All this time Ireland lay bleeding, and Tyrconnel was raiſing an Army, diſarming the Protestants, and diſpoſſeſſing them of all the Places they held in Lanſter, Munſter and Connaught,[4] which occaſioned frequent Applications here for Relief, though it was to ſend them but one or two Regiments; and it that could not be done, to ſend them Arms and Commiſſion, which in all probability would have made the Reduction of that Kingdom very eaſy. Yet though the Prince's and King James's Army were both in England, no relief was ſent, by which means the Iriſh got poſſeſſion of the whole Kingdom, but Londonderry and Inniſkilling, the former
- ↑ cf. Glorious Revolution
- ↑ James's two daughters did not support him—Mary, the wife of William, supported her husband's invasion of England, and Anne showed her father no sympathy.
- ↑ cf. List of James II deserters to William of Orange
- ↑ cf. Williamite War in Ireland
